stowaway: a right-sized giveaway.

This post is sponsored by Stowaway, a right-sized makeup company.

‘Tis the season for needing to think of gifts for everyone on your list. It’s a pretty lucky problem to have. While I personally love the season of gift-giving, there’s an element of the exchange of gifts that, I concede, can also feel fraught. Will this be appreciated? Will it be put to good use? Will it get lost in a sea of too many gifts? No one wants to receive a gift that will be immediately relegated to a pile for re-gifting, and no one wants to give those gifts, either. 

In the spirit of waste-not, want-not, it makes sense to throw your support behind a company already invested in the same idea: that less is more and that a few good essentials are better than a whole lot of too much.As you probably remember from the other times I’ve worked with Stowaway, the company was founded to solve the very problem of too much. Founders and friends Chelsa Crowley and Julie Fredrickson realized that their struggle of lugging around makeup in sizes too large to ever finish wasn’t theirs alone. It was an industry problem, and one they could fix. With backgrounds in e-commerce and makeup, the two were poised to find a creative solultion—Julie spent her entire e-commerce and entrepreneurial career in digital marketing and Chelsa began her career as a makeup artist before moving in-house with Clinique to work on product education. Together they made right-sized makeup. Stowaway sells makeup that’s half the size of standard cosmetics and designed to be finished before it expires. Smaller-than-average sizes are not only convenient to carry, but they also allow Stowaway to create safe products. Since the products are designed to be finished before they expire, they don’t need harmful preservatives to prolong their shelf-life. All Stowaway products are paraben-, phthalate-, and cruelty-free. Their customizable six-piece essentials Stowaway Kit includes a BB cream, concealer, pot rouge, lipstick, eyeliner, and mascara. It’s everything you need for $75. (And maybe everything your mother, sister, cousin, friend, needs, too.)New this week, is a trio of limited-edition lipstick in colors fit for the season of merry: muted plum, cranberry, and raspberry. In my case that’s three colors perfect for giving to three sisters, though I admit I’m tempted to save them all for myself. (Sorry, sisters.)Lucky for you, Stowaway is giving away one of their Stowaway Kits along with a trio of lipstick, to two different Reading My Tea Leaves readers. If you’re feeling very generous, you might even decide to slip the lipsticks into, say, a stocking. To enter the giveaway, submit your email address into the form on the Stowaway site. Two winners will be selected to receive both a six-piece Stowaway Kit and a limited edition lipstick trio for gifting (or keeping for your very own.) The giveaway ends on Tuesday, December 9 at 11:59 pm. Apologies, international readers, this giveaway is open to US readers only.

In case you want to get a head start, Stowaway is offering all Reading My Tea Leaves readers the limited edition lipstick trio FREE with the purchase of a kit. HEAD HERE to build your kit and redeem. (Tip: add the lipstick trio and kit to your cart first and use the code DECEMBERTEA to have the cost of the lipstick deducted from your total purchase!)

For more ideas on how to include Stowaway in your holiday gifting plans, head to their gift guide.

This post was sponsored by Stowaway. Thanks so much for supporting the brands that support Reading My Tea Leaves.