TODAY's Wellness Summit Spotlights Self-Care Gifts, Samples, and Top Brands

More than 200 guests traveled to City Winery Hudson Valley in Montgomery, New York, on March 26 for Shop TODAY Stages' Health & Wellness Summit, and every one of them left with a gift bag loaded with over $500 worth of editor-approved products. Actress and Commence founder and CEO Brooke Shields anchored the day as keynote speaker, turning a wine country venue into a full-scale wellness showcase spanning scalp massages, live panels on sleep science and menopause, and personalized tumblers engraved on the spot by Eddie Bauer.

The Brand Bazaar floor was where the best gifting ideas surfaced. Commence, the hair care line Shields leads as CEO, ran a dedicated scalp massage station that drew a steady crowd throughout the day. The brand also seeded its leave-in conditioner, formulated with heat protection for frizz and shine, and a root-thickening serum built around alfalfa extract, quinoa peptides, and acai stem cells into attendees' gift bags as sachets. Think of both as gateway products: the kind you try in sample form once and immediately want at full size. John Frieda's styling bar offered complimentary blowouts, NatureMade blended juice concoctions, and Leesa installed its mattresses as both a photo opportunity and a soft pitch. The brand extended 35% off its Sapira Hybrid and original Leesa mattress post-event. Eddie Bauer added a $75 gift card inside VIP bags alongside the personalized tumblers.

The general admission bags covered a serious range of self-care territory. Solawave's LED skin care device, The Outset's blue clay mask, Bala Booty Bands, Moleskine notebooks, and products from Merit, Necessaire, Kitsch, Tangle Teezer, Lancer, and Homecourt all made the haul, skewing heavily toward skin care tools and wellness basics that hold up well as standalone gifts.

The panel programming matched the product ambition. Dr. Shelby Harris, Dr. Taz Bhatia, and Dr. Natalie E. Azar joined a "The Docs Are In" session moderated by board-certified dermatologist and TODAY contributor Dr. Michelle Henry, covering sleep optimization (the research-backed window remains seven to nine hours), gut health's connection to menopause, and GLP-1 medications. Shields and TODAY Lifestyle and Commerce Contributor Jill Martin also took the stage, giving the afternoon a candid tone that wellness panels rarely manage.

For anyone who missed the Hudson Valley drive, Shop TODAY lifestyle and fashion contributor Melissa Garcia recapped the event's standout brands on Studio 1A with exclusive post-event deals still active. Replicating the summit's most-requested moment at home is straightforward: a scalp massager paired with Commence's root serum delivers the signature activation from Shields' booth without a ticket or a commute. Shop TODAY Stages' next stop is The Leap, a campus takeover at the University of Miami on April 7.