A Gift Guide for Your Best Gal Pal | 1st Day of Christmas

*some links used in this post are affiliate which means I receive a tiny amount of commission based on clicks*

*some links used in this post are affiliate which means I receive a tiny amount of commission based on clicks*

Welcome to Words By Alice’s 12 days of Christmas! If you haven’t heard over on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/some other form of social media, I’m going to be posting a new blog post every day for 12 days, from today (13th December) till Christmas Eve! I’m sure you’re going to be well and truly sick of me by the time Christmas Day comes around but for now, I hope you can enjoy the novelty of day one!

(DISCLAIMER: I’m very aware that this isn’t the *official* 12 Days of Christmas but I break up from Uni for Christmas today and starting today means I can finish on Christmas Eve, so I think it works pretty well- I hope you do too!)

Anyway, I thought I’d begin these 12 days with a gift guide, specifically one for your bestie! Because, let’s be honest, they’re the best people to buy for. Often you can just buy them something you love, knowing (hoping) they will love it too. There are so many different categories of gifts that you could buy for a best friend, from books, to beauty, to clothing and accessories, to novelty and personal items- I’m hoping I’ve covered most of these categories here!

Starting with books, something that is going to feature in all the gift guides I have coming up this year (yes, there are more) and my favourite things to give and receive. A book always feels personal, especially if you’re giving one you’ve read and love, and it really is the gift that keeps on giving, as you can talk about it with your friend as they’re reading it and bond over how much you (hopefully) both loved it. The books I’ve included in this photo are ones that I have read this year and think would make great gifts. Charly Cox’s debut poetry collection She Must Be Mad covers so many things that young women (from generation Z to millennial) deal with and it’s as fun of a read as it is emotional and relatable. The Anxiety Solution, as you may have guessed from the title, is a self-help book, one that helped me through some difficult patches this year and that I regularly return back to. If you know someone who has been struggling with anxiety this year, this could be a thoughtful and useful gift for them. Plus, the cover incorporates various shades of ‘millennial’ pastels, so what’s not to love?

Moving on to beauty and skincare, my go-to brand for myself and for gifting purposes is, of course, Glossier. It’s relatively affordable, the packaging is always adorable and the product is genuinely great in my experience. If you’re feeling a little spendy this year, Glossier ‘You’ is the perfume that smells different on everyone who wears it. I’ve never worn it without receiving a compliment and, although perfume can be a tricky one to gift sometimes, I think the adaptable nature of the scent means there’s no one who won’t like it. If you and your bestie have set a budget, go for the Balm Dot Com. My favourite one is the Birthday Balm Dot Com because it’s hydrating and sparkly, which is 100% the look I’m going for. If you’re still stuck on which Glossier product to go for, I have a blog post ranking the Glossier products I own from best to worst.

There are some other beauty/skincare brands that I love and are equally aesthetically pleasing as Glossier, such as Mario Badescu. My favourite product of theirs is the Rosewater Spray, it’s as bougie as it sounds and quite the indulgence, making it the perfect gift. Another brand that ticks all my product quality and aesthetically pleasing packaging boxes is Isle of Paradise, a tanning brand I have discovered this year who have actually made false tanning somewhat cool. The Light Tanning Drops included in this photo are subtle but putting a couple of drops into your moisturiser adds some serious glow.

It’s always a little risky to buy clothing for someone, no matter how well you know them. Accessories, on the other hand are a little easier. A scarf is something that most people will wear, in their hair, tied to their bag or just… you know, round their neck like they’re designed for. A silky scarf always feels really luxurious as well so it would be such a nice thing to receive. I was sent the one pictured here by the brand Style By Portobello, who handpick vintage scarves and deliver them to you! This totally takes away the time-consuming element of vintage shopping but still allows you to get something totally unique, purse-friendly and environmentally and ethically A-OK for a friend.

Finally, a notebook. It’s a classic gift but for good reason. Who doesn’t love them? I could probably create an edit of about 1000 notebooks I love but I picked this one up from & Other Stories recently as a gift from me to me recently. It’s not currently on the website but it’s still in stores.

The items discussed and photographed here are ones I already own. But here’s an edit of many other things that you could buy for your best friend this Christmas…

Books:

Beauty/Skincare:

Clothes & Accessories:

Other Random Bits (Homeware/Stationary):