A Record Season of Self-Gifting Still Skips the Hands
November 1, 2026 · 3 min read · Aradhna Juneja
KPMG released its Consumer Pulse Holiday 2026 survey on October 21, and the headline wasn't about what people are buying for everyone else this season. It was about what they're buying for themselves. Fifty-seven percent of consumers plan to shop for themselves this holiday season, the fourth year running that figure has topped half. Self-spending is expected to average $354, up eighteen percent from what people reported spending on themselves last year. Among those self-gifters, two in three say the purchase comes down to one thing: treating or rewarding themselves. Self-gifting isn't a guilty exception to holiday spending anymore. It's its own category, and a growing one.
What rarely makes that list
Most of that spending, we'd guess, goes toward what's seen rather than what's used: a new fragrance, a face serum, something that photographs well once it's unwrapped. Hands rarely make the list. They're the part of the body doing the most work all year, and the part winter is hardest on, yet they're still the thing people forget to include even in a season built around finally spending on themselves. It's a strange gap inside an otherwise generous instinct.
Why we built around that gap
Palma de Salus exists because of that exact oversight, not because of a survey that came along to confirm it. "It's all in your hands" has been the belief behind this brand since its first batch, long before anyone was measuring self-gifting at a four-year high. We'd rather a candle or a wash earn a place in someone's holiday spending on its own terms than because a headline said the timing was right. The KPMG numbers just happen to describe the mood this season arrives in, generous toward ourselves, finally, but still skipping past the hands doing the giving.
A gift made the way it asks to be used
Our candles are the clearest version of that belief. Each one is hand-poured, in small batches, in Dubai, in a cocosoy wax blend, and set into a ceramic vessel made by hand by local artisans, designed to be kept and reused long after the candle itself is gone. A gift someone chooses for themselves should hold up to that kind of attention. The Hand & Body Wash and Hand Sanitizing Serum that sit beside the candles on a sink or a nightstand come from the same standard, formulated by Dr. Aradhna Juneja with the same restraint, real, plant-based ingredients, nothing added just to round out a label.
A record year of self-gifting is a good thing. We just think the hands lighting the candle, washing up after, pouring the next round of cider for everyone else, deserve a place on that list too.
Made by hand in small batches. Explore the full collection.
