Finding the perfect gift for a Friend

I don’t know about you but Christmas Shopping can sometimes be a little bit tiring and blah and I give up and buy something for myself. Sorry, not sorry. I get fed up of hearing the family say ‘I don’t need anything’ or ‘Can I have Money?’ FYI I never give money as a gift! When it comes to buying for your Friend it’s a whole other ball game, it’s another version of yourself as you like the same things. So you’re a basically shopping for yourself…although you don’t keep ALL the gifts, just a few ;-).

When tasked with buying Christmas gifts for a friend, I brought the beautiful Ellie from The Elle Next Door with me. As it’s a friend I wanted to be quite creative with my gifts, no cliché gift cards today, you want to buy your bestie something they will love and that means something – BEST FRIEND OVER HERE!

So Ellie and I headed to a store that literally has everything, Debenhams flagship on Oxford Street. It resembled Santa’s Grotto with all the Christmas decorations and with the #foundit signs, which can always be seen from the corner of your eye, I knew I was in the perfect place. Now although shopping for a friend is more fun, I never said anything about it being easy and Ellie is as indecisive as me, even after roaming through 5 floors of lust worthy products I couldn’t quite decide, on a more positive note our legs got a good workout. Whilst perusing around the store I really wanted to ensure that I stuck with buying creative gifts so I decided that I would split the gifts into categories as there was so many to choose from: Fashion (have you checked out Ellie’s blog she has incredible style so knew whatever I brought she would make look fabulous) Beauty, Accessories and then to explore Home Décor, pass me something rose gold quick!

Tips to buying your friend the perfect gift:

1.    Put their personality into the gift: make a list of everything that reminds you of them e.g. sweet tooth and then match a gift with each trait you have written down. 

2.    Bring back the memory: Take a look through your Facebook friendship feed and see if you can get the gift that relates to ‘life moment’. Did they recently get a degree? If so I see a fab coffee table book in their future. 

3.    Check their Instagram / Pinterest feed: stalk to your hearts content.

4.    What is missing from their wardrobe: Does your bestie have lots of woolly hats but no fedoras? The answer is simple!

So what did I get Ellie? Ellie and I have pretty similar tastes so some of our gifts actually ended up being the same but I think I found the perfect gifts for her with a two tone fedora hat from J by Jasper Conran, an oversized plaid scarf and an aztec print cardigan by Ben de Lisi from Principles and a few beauty bits but I got them as well so I will go into more detail now about what I received as gifts that I am still swooning over.

The first gift I opened was me down to a tee, the phrase ‘nailed it’ comes to mind. I have a huge sweet tooth so a selection of milk bottle sweets in milk bottles was perfect and after they are all gone (in a few hours) I can fill the milk bottles with flowers or use them as drinking glasses. Do check out the Sweet Shop range at Debenhams as they have lots of retro sweets which do make the perfect gift for any age.

Next, remember how in Tip 4 I mentioned that someone may have lots of woolly hats, well I may have been talking about myself, totally comfort over style ATM. So when I opened a black fedora hat it automatically became a classic wardrobe staple. Planning on going really chic and wearing it to the airport in a few weeks, I might get mistaken for a celebrity ;-).

As my gifts move into fashion, I fell in love with this patterned wrap from Red Herring which has a retro feel. I wouldn’t normally choose a wrap for myself but I am so glad I got it as a gift as it’s really versatile and keep you looking chic and warm at the same time. I am not going to lie I do wear this at home snuggled on the sofa. Blogger cliché over here now, I love a good statement quote and from recently coming back from my trip Paris this ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’ tee reminded me of the trip. If you want to pick up one for yourself it’s from the NINE collection by Savannah Miller the whole range is just lush and I am glad I also got a maroon roll neck jumper the detail of a star print on the elbows is just too cute and its made of Alpaca wool which is luxurious and looks great with jeans and heels.

The next two items are from the beauty department in Debenhams, Flowerbomb by Victor and Rolf, this fragrance takes me back as I used to use it when I was at university and to this day I think it’s my fave. The floral scent lingers for ages and strangers always comment and ask what I am wearing also at Debenhams its discounted to £45 for 50ml – I know this because I brought one for Ellie, great minds think alike. 

I have been complaining about needing a new mascara for a while as I have a really bad habit of playing with my eyelashes so sometime they fall out (enter crying emoji) so I wanted something to make them look really full and thick and not the fact that some of them are missing and TA DA the Dior Diorshow Black Out mascara provides amazing volume and adds loads to the length. Make sure your try it next time you are in store, you won’t leave the store without it.

X
This post is in collaboration with Debenhams but love of buying gifts for my besties is all mine.