This week, the 61st Annual Grammy Awards will take place, honoring the achievements of the world’s leading music professionals. The evening, as expected, will be star-studded; artists including Camila Cabello, Cardi B, and vegan queen Miley Cyrus will be performing at the event.
Each year, presenters and performers go home with gift bags put together by entertainment marketing company Distinctive Assets. The official 2019 Grammy gift bag is valued at more than $30,000 and includes everything from spa getaways to jewelry to snacks, Business Insider reports.
If you’re looking to treat yourself like the star that you are, here’s how to make your very own vegan-friendly Grammy gift bag, without the hefty price tag.
How to Make Your Own Vegan Grammy Gift Bag
1. Week-Long Spa Getaway
Celebrity Grammy Awards attendees will receive a week-long stay at a spa in Southern California. It’s been a staple of the gift bag for a few years, Business Insider says. Whilst the celebrity-approved retreat is valued at nearly $9,000, you can enjoy your own relaxing getaway that won’t leave too harsh of a mark on your bank account. Vegan-friendly retreats, often including meditation, yoga, and nutritious plant-based food, can be found all around the world. Valued at around $1,000, with prices going higher or lower to suit your needs, these getaways will leave you feeling centered, revitalized, and like a Hollywood star. See here for a list of vegan-friendly getaways.
If you aren’t keen on a week-long trip, you could always bring the spa break to you. Vegan mud masks can help bring a “healthy rosy glow” to your skin whilst vegan tea tree face masks leave you refreshed. You could also buy some cruelty-free nail polish, or enjoy a luxurious bubble bath.
2. Vegan Caffeine Free Drinks
Grammy guests can quench their thirst with proactive hydration drinks from Vea, and so can you. Containing 5 percent juice, the vegan beverages offer vitamins like A, B3, B5, B6, B12, C, and E as well as antioxidants and electrolytes.
Find the drinks here.
3. Awe-Inspiring Art
This year, performers will be given a piece of abstract realism by artist Andrea Trantham. Her work is inspired by the Louisiana floods in 2016, which took her home. If you can’t get your hands on a Trantham piece, you could invest in some art by other talented artists who draw inspiration from emotional places.
Vegan artist Dana Ellyn creates animal-themed paintings that beg the question, “Why do we love some animals and eat others?” Another vegan creator, Andrew Tilsley, designs drawings and paintings that call out humankind’s skewed relationship with the animal kingdom, including the way in which we use animals for experimentation. Some of his lighter work embraces the way animals are “sentient, autonomous beings – something equal to me, but fascinatingly different.”
4. “The Beauty Book for Brain Cancer” Book
“The Beauty Book for Brain Cancer” is a hard cover coffee table book featuring more than 140 celebrities that came together to be photographed in support of brain cancer research. All sales of the book are donated to non-profits Sydney Neurology Oncology Group and HEADRUSH.
Find the product here.
5. Hoodie
A back-striped hoodie from Biblical Threads, worth $90, is also included in the gift bag. Keep cosy in a hoodie of your own that’s a little more cost-friendly and made with vegan materials. Simple, affordable jumpers can be purchased online, or you could opt for a vegan-themed hoodie instead. Looking for something else? You might like a vegan leather motorcycle jacket with hood, also available online.
6. Hairbrush
Grammy guests will also head home with a Diamond Bezel Blazon custom hairbrush. It’s costly, retailing at $59, and contains reinforced boar bristle, meaning that the item is not vegan. To look and feel your best with a product that hasn’t harmed animals, opt for a vegan-friendly hairbrush like Aveda’s Wooden Paddle Brush or EcoTools’ Detangler Paddle Brush.
7. City Threads Kids’ Clothing
Rock and roll-themed clothing from children’s clothing brand City Threads is also included in the Grammy gift bags. Using carefully sourced cotton and polyester, the company makes tees, dresses, and shorts that suit sensitive skin and keep kids rocking like superstars.
8. Egg Decorating Kit
This year, Grammy-goers will be gifted egg decorating kits called Eggmazing. Eggmazing requires you to place a chicken egg into a small brace while you hold a marker pen to the egg’s surface. The egg spins around in the brace, automatically creating patterns.
Never fear, animal lovers, there’s still a way for you to enjoy the product. You could purchase wooden Easter eggs online to use in the toy. Otherwise, you might enjoy the company’s Christmas tree ornament decorator, which works the same way but uses a Christmas bauble instead of an egg.
9. “Inspire Me” Bracelets
You might soon see a lot of celebrities wearing these bracelets. Made by company Inspire Me, the jewellery comes in four sizes and features one of 36 motivational sayings, including “the best is yet to come” and “be your own kind of beautiful.”
Find them online, or view similar designs here.
10. Skincare Products
Spending a lot of time in the spotlight, celebs often strive to look their best. That may be why event-goers are being given moisturizer and toner by beauty brand Instytutum. The company does not test on animals but some of its items contain animal products. You can still treat yourself to vegan-friendly skincare products though, like Poppy Austin’s facial toner or TruSkin Naturals’ moisturizer that is packed with vitamin C.
11. Travel Makeup Bag
Due to the nature of their work, musicians are often on the go. A travel makeup bag could help stars stay neat, tidy, and done up. The kind in the Grammy gift bag is made with calf leather, but there are countless cruelty-free versions available, like häbe’s vegan designer make up bag.
12. Amethyst Necklace
The striking purple amethyst gemstone is said to assist in meditation and help one break free from bad habits and negative energy. The stone is also said to help calm the mind and bring peace and tranquility. A-listers will be wearing amethyst necklaces from the Grammy gift bag, and you could be too.
Find amethyst necklaces online.
13. Vegan Hair Care Gift Box
Celebs can enjoy a gift box filled with shampoos, conditioners, and styling products from brand Organic Hair Care. Writing on its website, the brand reveals all of its formulas – which are free from toxins, parabens, and sulfates – help cleanse, strengthen, and protect the hair, and are completely cruelty-free and vegan.
14. TAPS for Hope Bracelet
The gift bag also features a bracelet handcrafted by Afghan military widows. The beads are mined, milled, and hand-strung with semi-precious Lapis Lazuli gemstones. Sold by TAPS, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, the bracelet initiative brings together “countries with broken hearts and lost loved ones by creating hope and stability to grieving women,” TAPS writes on its website. All of the proceeds raised goes toward educational programs that help small, women-owned micro businesses.
Learn more here.
15. Vegan Color-Changing Lipsticks
Stylish vegan lipsticks by Blush & Whimsy, free from gluten, parabens, and animal products, will also make an appearance this year. The makeup was included in the gift bags handed out at the Academy Awards ceremony in 2018.
According to Blush & Whimsy, its brand was launched to “celebrate each individual, empowering people to be who they are,” adding that the packages are “made with love by a team of people with Downs Syndrome, ALS, disabled veterans, and elderly.”
Learn more here, or look at other vegan lipsticks online.
16. Hair Cocktail
Shaking things up, the Grammy gift bags will include a vegan hair cocktail made from coconut oil, rose petal oil, and marula oil. The blend, made by Sutra that also sells hair straighteners, leaves hair “feeling fresh and revitalized.”
Find the product here.
17. Blue Diamond Almonds
The Grammy gift bags also feature a small nod to the plant-based movement with its inclusion of almonds by Blue Diamond Almonds. As more move away from food that harms animals and human health, almonds have been increasingly used in dairy-free milk as well as other vegan foods.
Check out Blue Diamond’s toasted coconut, cocoa dusted, and wasabi and soy sauce almond flavors.
