27 of the best gifts for vegans in 2021, from cookbooks to cruelty-free skincare sets

When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.

Cropped hands holding gift box on table with holiday baking decorations — Uladzislau Salikhau/Getty Images

Most vegans love to cook, so food, cookbooks, and kitchen accessories make for great gifts.
Veganism is a lifestyle, so sustainable and animal-free products also make for great gifts.
Still looking for a gift? Check out our list of the All-Time Best products we've ever tested.

Whether for environmental, ethical, health, or animal rights reasons, more and more people are going vegan than ever before.

If you're not vegan, it may be intimidating to know what to gift someone living a plant-based lifestyle, but we've got you covered. I would know - not only did I used to be vegan myself, but my dad has been vegan for nearly 10 years, so I comb through the available options every year for birthdays and Christmas.

I've picked 27 vegan gifts across food, home, and beauty. You may have a vegan friend or know someone flirting with plant-based eating - or you may even be thinking about it yourself. Either way, each gift idea is extremely useful or nutritious, and we made sure to include items across various price points.

The 27 best gifts for vegans:

A cookbook for their favorite Impossible Burger

A page from "Impossible™: The Cookbook: How to Save Our Planet, One Delicious Meal at a Time" showing an Impossible Burger — Amazon

"Impossible: The Cookbook: How to Save Our Planet, One Delicious Meal at a Time," $14.99, available at Amazon

Impossible Foods is a godsend to those who gave up meat but not their taste for the stuff. The brand's cookbook, released in 2020, lays out tons of different recipes on how to use its ridiculously good vegan meat imitations for dishes beyond just burgers so you can swap beef, pork or chicken out for the Impossible variety and have a more sustainable meal, any night of the week.

A great vegan shower set

The Lush All the Best Gift Set scattered with a bag of packing peanuts — Lush

Lush All the Best Gift Set, $38, available at Lush

We love vegan beauty brand Lush for its high-quality ingredients and its gift sets even come in eco-friendly and recycled packaging. Its All the Best gift set includes top-selling citrusy Olive Branch shower gel, soothing Dream Cream body lotion, gently exfoliating Rub Rub Rub shower scrub, and calming Honey I Washed the Kids soap.

Delicious vegan "chicken" nuggets

Simulate NUGGS Vegan Chicken Nuggets, $35 for 2 lbs or $45 for 4 lbs

Each serving of NUGGS vegan "chicken" nuggets packs a powerful 13 grams of protein. Their crunch is unreal, and they go best with a good dipping sauce. Who said vegan food doesn't have flavor or protein?

A cruelty-free nail polish primers set

Assorted Pear Nova nail polishes above a branded box — Pear Nova

Pear Nova Classic Essentials Nail Set, $50, available at Pear Nova

This nail polish brand is high-quality, vegan, cruelty-free, and 10-free, which means created without the 10 most common chemicals found in nail polish. The Classic Essentials set makes for a great gift with an all-vegan base coat, top coat, green tea cutical oil, and one long-lasting color of your choice.

Artisan vegan ice cream

Assorted flavors of Van Leeuwen Vegan Ice cream — Van Leeuwen

Van Leeuwen Vegan Best Sellers, $55, available at Van Leeuwen

What started as a small artisan ice cream shop out of a Brooklyn food truck, Van Leeuwen's vegan ice cream is worlds ahead of the mass-produced pints you can pick up at the grocery store. The Vegan Best Seller variety pack comes with five mouth-watering flavors, including Oat Milk Brown Sugar Chunk and Cookie Crumble Strawberry Jam, all packed in dry ice for safe transport.

A gadget for preparing tofu faster and better

EZ Tofu Press, $22.50, available at Amazon

A tofu press helps remove excess water from tofu, giving it a meatier texture and letting it absorb more of what you're cooking. This dishwasher-safe tofu press works quickly to reduce waiting time between prep and cooking.

A fun poster of every fruit and vegetable

The Taxonomy of Fruits & Vegetables poster hanging on a living room hall in front of a dining table — Popchart

The Taxonomy of Fruits & Vegetables, $40, available at Popchart

This poster is for the serious produce nerd, who wants to know which root vegetables helm from the East and which from the West — or who might just like plant-based art on the wall. From tomatoes to nuts to bulbs, this poster classifies nearly every fruit and vegetable both botanically and geographically.

Ridiculously delicious vegan chocolate

A 10-pack of Honey Mama's chocolate bars — Honey Mama's

Honey Mama's Mini 10 Pack, $30, available at Honey Mama's

These melt-in-your-mouth chocolate bars from Honey Mama make for great stocking stuffers, but they're so ridiculously delicious they can definitely stand on their own as an entire gift. This gift set includes two of each of the brand's five best-selling bars including tahini tangerine and coffee nib crunch. Note that they will melt above 72 degrees, so keep them refrigerated until shortly before gifting.

A vegan grooming set for men

The Scotch Porter Face Care Collection next to a plant and stack of towels — Scotch Porter

Scotch Porter Face Care Collection, $35, available at Scotch Porter

This USA-based, black-owned, male-focused grooming company was started by a former barber and steers clear of chemicals, animal ingredients, and animal testing. We love its hair products and beard care kits, but the vegan face care collection — featuring face wash, scrub, and lotion derived from powerful ingredients like pomegranate enzymes and turmeric root — makes for a great gift any guy can use.

Read our full review of Scotch Porter products.

Protein-packed chocolate chip cookies

The Lenny & Larry Complete Cookie in Mint Chocolate on a baking pan — Lenny & Larry

Four-pack of Lenny & Larry's Protein Cookies, from $21.87

These cookies are the perfect stocking stuffer for a vegan with a sweet tooth, and they're packed with good stuff too; each cookie has 10 grams of fiber and 16 grams of protein. If the chocolate chip isn't the right flavor, there are 10 others to try, like birthday cake or snickerdoodle.

An award-winning makeup brush

B0617DA9 1B6D 48DC A77A 4395A9F186C2_fd85cced 5845 47b6 8979 63e5f5dd7733_2000x — Yubi

Yubi Miracle Brush, $24

Plenty of makeup brushes are made with animal hair, and oftentimes, they're not cruelty-free. Yubi's ergonomic, vegan makeup brush helps get full coverage when applying any liquid, cream, or powder makeup or skincare. This brush is so innovative that it was on Time Magazine's list of Best Inventions in 2018.

A charitable candle that smells like apple pie

A dog next to a Lulus Candle — Lulus Candles

Lulu "Furr a Cause" Candles, $15, available at Amazon

This apple cinnamon-scented, hand-poured candle includes a $3 donation to groups that rescue abandoned animals. Some candles are made with stearic acid, or animal fat, to maximize thickness and opacity. This one uses vegan soy wax instead.

A vegan soul food cookbook with more than 100 recipes

"Sweet Potato Soul" by Jenné Claiborne, $13.50

Jenné Claiborne grew up eating soul food in Georgia, went vegan, and then became a chef and blogger. Her cookbook includes more than 100 soul food recipes all the way from her "Sweet Jesus! Mac & Cheese" to her "Jackfruit Jambalaya."

A sparkly lip duo from an Indigenous-owned brand

The Cheekbone Beauty Sustain Lip Kit on top of a pile of pumpkins — Cheekbone Beauty

Cheekbone Beauty Sustain Lip Kit, $47.58, available at Cheekbone Beauty

This kit contains a highly pigmented matte lip pencil, creamy satin lipstick, and finisher lipgloss in five shades to choose from. Each is poured by hand, paraben-free, and packaged in biodegradable materials. Cheekbone Beauty is an Indigenous-founded and owned beauty brand out of Canada with a mission of sustainable beauty and giving back to Indigenous youth.

Artisan Asian seasoning for meat substitutes

Omsom The Vegan Set, $45, available at Omsom

Women-founded Omsom brings authentic, hard-to-source Asian flavorings to your table, and its vegan set comes with 12 seasoning pack starters ideal for ramping up the flavor on everything from eggplant to tofu. It's one of our top recommendations for vegans who love to grill, as well as gifts for home chefs, by professional chefs.

Reusable cotton produce bags for stocking up on essentials

Grove Co. Reusable Organic Cotton Mesh Produce bags with various produce in them — Grove Co.

Grove Co. Reusable Organic Cotton Mesh Produce bags, $12.95, available at Grove Co.

Plant-based diets are often rich with fruits and vegetables. This set of six reusable bags are great for produce, grains, and other bulk items. Especially good for the environmentalist, they help cut plastic consumption.

A do-it-all nonstick pan with a non-toxic coating

Our Place Always Pan, $145

This genius pan brings ease to the kitchen. The Always Pan has a non-toxic and nonstick ceramic coating, and it includes a lid, spatula, and steamer basket all perfectly sized to fit the pan. It's designed to replace eight traditional pieces of cookware and can be used to make everything from steamed vegan dumplings to tofu scrambles to Impossible burgers and more.

Read our full review of the Our Place Always Pan.

Nourishing and trendy lip balms

The GOOPGENES Clean Nourishing Lip Balm Trio — Sephora

GOOPGENES Clean Nourishing Lip Balm Trio, $42, available at Sephora

This clean beauty set from goop beauty took three years to formulate. The result: silky, nourishing lip balms free of parabens, dyes, fragrances, and animal testing. The trio features one clear, one translucent garnet, and a sheer rose balm.

A tropical-smelling vegan lotion

Love Beauty & Planet assorted lotions — Love Beauty & Planet

Love Beauty and Planet Shea Velvet Body Lotion, $9, available at Target

Winter and the pandemic's frequent handwashing take a serious toll on the skin. Most folks will appreciate having one of these paraben-free and vegan lotions on deck.

Read our review of Love Beauty and Planet here.

Cookie dough that you can eat raw

DŌ Build-Your-Own 4-Pack, $50

This NYC-based kitchen makes safe-to-eat cookie dough (and dreams come true) with shipping directly to your door. DŌ carries two vegan flavors: chocolate chip cookie dough and peanut butter snickerdoodle, which is also gluten-free.

An infused sea salt gift set for fancier dish finishes

Jacobsen Salt Co. Six Vial Infused Salt Set, $35, available at Jacobsen Salt Co.

Finishing salt can transform any dish, especially vegetables which brighten upon contact with the mineral. Add a flavor infusion like pinot noir, garlic, or rosemary to the salt and you score another layer of flavoring, too. We love the high-quality tasting salts that come out of Portland-based Jacobsen Salt Co. and this set with six vials and a wood stand makes for a lovely gift for any cook.

A versatile pellet smoker for tastier vegetables

Camp Chef Woodwind Wifi 24 on a deck outside with 4 people talking around it — Camp Chef

Camp Chef Woodwind Wifi 24, $900, available at Camp Chef

If you're looking for a big-ticket gift for the vegan who loves to cook, a wood-pellet smoker will add depth and flavor, and open a whole new world of fun, to cooking vegetables, tofu, and plant-based burgers. The Woodwind Wifi 24 is the most versatile smoker among those we've tested as it lets you smoke, grill, braise, bake, and boil, all extremely well, as well as being easy to operate with its digital, wifi-enabled display.

An all-in-one wallet

Three Pixie Mood Quinn Card Holders in various colors on a pink sheet — Pixie Mood

Pixie Mood Quinn Card Holder, $30, available at Amazon

This simple wallet, made from vegan leather, is sleek, slim enough to fit in a back pocket, and very affordable. It has room for 5 cards outside and a zippered compartment for cash, and the vegan leather softens over time just like the animal variety.

Read our full review of the Pixie Mood Quinn Card Holder.

A brew-your-own-Kombucha kit

A person using the The Kombucha Shop Deluxe Kombucha Brewing Kit to make kombucha — Amazon

The Kombucha Shop Deluxe Kombucha Brewing Kit, $80, available At Amazon

Save money and score a new hobby by brewing your own kombucha at home. We like this kit because it supplies everything you need for the process other than tea, sugar, and water, including the SCOBY starter, stainless steel strainer, pH test strips, and six 16 oz. bottles once its ready, among many other items.

Read our full review of The Kombucha Shop Deluxe Kombucha Brewing Kit.

A trendy, vegan magic shirt

A person wearing the Magical GadAbout Vegan Magic Shirt — Etsy

Magical GadAbout Vegan Magic Shirt, $25, available at Etsy

This cute tee is perfect for the Millennial or Gen Z vegan in your life. All the t-shirts from this Nashville-based Etsy shop are 100% cotton, comfortable, and pre-shrunk.

A soothing jade eye mask for meditating

Jade Gemstone Relaxation Mask, $48, available at Uncommon Goods

Slightly weighted and cool (especially if you store it in the freezer), this jade mask will help you find tranquility, soothe tired, puffy eyes, and help relax your facial muscles. It's a great chic addition to a regular meditation practice, too.

Greeting cards that can be planted to become flowers

Image of white plantable cards for best gardening gifts 2021 — Etsy

Marissa Kay Apothecary Plantable Seed Cards, $20 for six, available at Etsy

These cards are crafted from handmade lokta paper by locals in rural Nepal and feature wildflower seeds within the construction. Not only are they a beautiful card to write a thank you or a hello inside of, but the receiver can then plant the card and watch wildflowers grow.

Read the original article on Business Insider