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By Samantha Schoech and Mari Uyehara Paper Bags
We’ve updated the sparkly, fun, delicious gifts in this guide to include a shiny shopping bag, the most luxurious cookies we know of, a colorful ring, and a meditative modern paint-by-numbers kit.
While the origins of Valentine’s Day are murky, and its celebrations are sometimes fraught, Galentine’s Day offers uncomplicated seasonal joys—and a cheekier backstory. In 2010, Amy Poehler’s Parks and Recreation character launched the unofficial February 13 holiday as an occasion for “ladies celebrating ladies.”
Whether you’re looking for something sophisticated, silly, or whimsical, we’ve rounded up our favorite affordable tokens of friendship, including an artsy ring, some terribly sophisticated cookies, bespoke earrings, and a winking goddess candle, many from women-owned companies. Girls just want to have fun—and candy, jewelry, socks, and sparkle.
Looking for more gift ideas for your best girlfriends? Check out our guides to gifts for girlfriends, self-care gifts, and the best gifts under $50.
Unlike bouquets that die in a week, these exquisitely realistic blooms are constructed by hand out of Italian crepe paper.
The perfectly realistic paper flowers from Unwilted are delicate, unique, and detailed enough to take your breath away. And they won’t fade or brown after a week. The petals are delicate and layered, and they come in the colors of the actual flowers. We love the bright, ruffly peonies and Icelandic poppies, and we adore the more subtly hued carnations and stately calla lilies in equal measure. To prevent the inevitable fading over the long run, your gift recipient can spray the blooms with a UV protectant made for paper; to remove dust, they can simply use a blow dryer set to its lightest and coolest setting. If you want to go bigger, Unwilted has full bouquets as well.
These super-soft polyester tube socks are topped with a novel metallic coating—silver or gold—for an everyday outfit pick-me-up.
Supervising editor Hannah Morrill and staff writer Samantha Schoech are Wirecutter’s resident magpies, always on the lookout for shiny objects, so these super-soft, midcalf metallic socks were an exciting find. The socks come in other (rather blah) colors too, but the gold Oro Metal and silver Argento Metallizzato are the real stars. They have a stiff metallic coating on the exterior that feels sort of like paint; when your giftee puts them on, it cracks to reveal the socks’ ribbing. Inside, the socks are as fuzzy and cozy as slippers. Hot tip: The metallic finish will last the longest if your bestie launders the socks inside out and air-dries them.
This colorful cloisonné and gold-toned ring is fully adjustable and comes gift-ready in a small glass test tube.
This adjustable 18K-gold-dipped ring with cloisonné wedges of color is an artsy girl’s version of a blingy cocktail ring. The metal on the Yellow Owl Workshop Color Wheel Ring is tarnish-proof (although your giftee should probably take it off while bathing) and adjustable from size 6 up. Like nearly all of Yellow Owl’s jewelry, it comes ready to gift in a sweet glass vial with a cork stopper.
Pay homage to actress and comedian Jennifer Coolidge with this pop-culture riff on a traditional saint candle. The unscented paraffin wax burns for about 120 hours.
This homage to the goddess of comedy will make your galentine feel like the Fourth of July. (For the uninitiated, that’s a signature Coolidge non sequitur.) The Modern Mystic Jennifer Coolidge Prayer Candle is made from unscented paraffin wax in a cylindrical glass jar (à la the traditional Mexican veladoras) and will burn for about 120 hours. True Coolidge fans will find that the lit flame exudes humor, beauty, sexiness, and, best of all, the ability to poke fun at one’s self. If Coolidge isn’t your friend’s jam, maker Angie Quintanilla Coates also offers tributes to a range of other icons like Bad Bunny and Prince.
Each of the 30 cards in this spare and enchanting deck from artist Marina Abramović contains a simple exercise to connect people with their creative selves.
Serbian conceptual and performing artist Marina Abramović tests the limits of body and mind, creating intense human connections in real time. The 30 instruction cards in the Marina Abramović Method deck contain exercises that she has employed throughout her life to focus and engage creativity. Each card is backed by a photograph from Abramović’s work; the cards’ prompts are evocative but simple, such as spending a blindfolded hour listening to nature or holding one’s breath 10 times in a row. The result is an inspiring and thoroughly grounding experience.
This custom lightweight mixed-metal earring offers more than 300 charm choices, many of which are gustatory delights, from animal cookies to soy sauce. Made to order in Brooklyn, they can take up to four weeks to arrive.
The luxe French bakery enrobes layers of sablé cookie and a sweet spread (such as passionfruit or strawberry) in a thin shell of pastel-hued chocolate.
The Eugénie is a proprietary cookie-and-confection hybrid from the world-famous French macaron bakery Ladurée. Each delicate sablé cookie is covered in a razor-thin layer of crisp chocolate, many of them flavored and tinted in pastel colors. Underneath, the shortbread cookie is topped with a dollop of soft spread. The box arrives quickly, and the cookies are fresh (there are now many Ladurée bakeries in the US), and the flavors—including yuzu, dark chocolate, passionfruit, pistachio, and salted caramel—are imaginative and well defined. Gabriella Gershenson, editor of Wirecutter’s kitchen coverage, says: “They look like confections out of Alice in Wonderland. Between the texture, the freshness, and the vivid flavors, they are transporting.” They come beautifully packaged in boxes of six, 12, or 18.
These lush, floral paint-by-numbers kits come with everything you need to create large, modern still-life paintings.
The paint-by-number kits from Pink Picasso aren’t the prosaic landscapes of the past. Not only are they more complicated to complete, but the end result is a botanical painting elegant and artful enough for your gift recipient to proudly display. All the kits are marked with a degree of difficulty, from 3 to 5. Supervising editor Hannah Morrill tried the Pick Me Up set, which is marked as a 5, and found that she needed to borrow her kids’ magnifying glass to identify the tiniest numbered sections. Even so, the process was addictive and meditative. (If she were to do it again, though, she might try Backyard Blooms or Bashful Botanical, which are labeled 3 and 4, respectively.) Each set comes with a 16-by-20 canvas, instructions, and paint and brushes to complete the masterpiece. If you run out of paint—we didn’t—ordering more is easy.
This reusable bag comes in dozens of cute patterns and colors, including two metallic hues. It folds into a compact pouch for easy storage and holds up to 50 pounds without being difficult to carry.
Everybody needs an extra bag to throw in their car or purse. We’ve been longtime fans of the reusable Baggu standard shopping bags because they’re pretty, sturdy, and designed to fold up into tiny squares of nothingness. The same goes for the Baby Baggu, a diminutive version that comes in an array of colors, including a blingy silver or metallic baby blue. It’s slightly smaller than the standard bag, but it still holds up to 50 pounds and easily accommodates a pair of shoes, a packed lunch, or a few goods from a small shopping trip.
Choose a mix of sweet, sour, chocolate, or black licorice candies from this purveyor of elevated Swedish treats. They come in a glossy little box, secured with a pretty ribbon.
You can send a package of these oversize, crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside cookies to a sweets aficionado anywhere in the country.
New York City’s Levain Bakery, established by former competitive swimmers Pam Weekes and Connie McDonald, is legendary for both long lines and delicious cookies. At 6 ounces, each cookie is gargantuan, gooey on the inside, and chock-full of high-quality mix-ins. Available in packs of four, eight, or 12, the Levain Bakery Signature Cookie Assortment—one of our picks for the best gift baskets—includes the shop’s beloved classic Chocolate Chip Walnut, Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip, and Oatmeal Raisin flavors. Whether your friend is an ex–New Yorker or just a baked-goods hound, this gift pack is a legit way to skip the shop’s infamous queue.
In its handsome container, this candle pairs a main course of cypress smoke with sides of warm amber, sweet vanilla, florals, and fresh moss. But the glossy vessel shows fingerprints, so handle with care.
Sure, it’s called Boy Smells, but the cool-kid brand is plenty popular with ladies too, and its dusty-rose-hued label is seasonably appropriate. After testing 53 candles, we gave the Boy Smells Hinoki Fantôme Candle a spot on our best scented candles list for its elegant aromatics consisting of earthy woodsmoke with hints of sweet vanilla and mossy freshness. If your friend’s tastes lean more earthy and minimalist rather than in-your-face floral, this candle might be the right one for her. The glossy-black glass vessel and luminous wax are equally lovely to behold.
The toffees, caramels, and truffles from Valerie Confections are deceptively simple, combining classic fillings with beautiful technique—and some unexpected flavor combinations.
For some women, chocolate means happiness every single time. And Los Angeles’s Valerie Confections—operated by Valerie Gordon and her husband, Stan Weightman Jr.—makes impressively fine chocolates with flawless, satin-like finishes and dialed-in flavors. The 18-piece Valerie Confections Baby Grand Assortment, one of our top picks for the best boxed chocolates, is an exercise in deftly executed classics, with flavors such as buttery caramel bonbon and smooth dark truffles with ganache fillings. It comes in a cream-hued box with gold letters and a gold satin ribbon—just as sophisticated as your favorite gal.
This set creates a darling duo of roses with adjustable stems and a smattering of little thorns. Assembly (thankfully) required.
Wirecutter staffers are big Lego heads, but your best girl needn’t be one to enjoy the Lego Roses set, part of the inspired Botanical Collection. Assembled, the 120-piece set creates two long-stem roses, complete with petals, thorns, green leaves, and adjustable-length stems. Most notable, though: The blooms are easy to assemble, with little time commitment, and they’re unobtrusive enough to display pleasingly at home. Will she accept this ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) rose? Undoubtedly.
This set of six 2 mL spray bottles of perfume from a world-renowned Swedish scent-maker includes samples of its iconic unisex scents inspired by geographic locations.
We love a perfume sampler—not only does it enable your gift recipient to try a bunch of new scents, but it also just might help her find her forever signature scent. Swedish fragrance company Byredo makes some of our favorite perfumes and allows buyers (or gift recipients) to put the price of the sampler toward a larger bottle of perfume within four weeks of purchase. The six 2 mL spritzers in the Byredo Discovery Set Nomade includes hallmark scents such as Bal D’Afrique with notes of African marigold, bergamot, violet, and cedar, as well as the earthy, floral Rose of No Man’s Land with Turkish rose, pink pepper, and amber.
This adaptable, multi-compartment bento box makes packing a lunch easy (and, weirdly, more fun). It’s microwave- and dishwasher-safe, and it comes in many adorable colors, but it’s not appropriate for liquids.
Great cooks or thrifty types might love the Takenaka Bento Bite Dual—one of our picks for the best lunch box—which offers various compartments for different storage options. Both microwave- and dishwasher-safe, this cleanly designed bento box comes in a range of lovely colors, including a deep blue and the two-tone pear and biscuit. If you’re going to present it in person, it would be cute filled with treats for the occasion, such as chocolate-dipped strawberries, Red Hots, and conversation hearts.
We love finding gifts that are unusual, thoughtful, and well vetted. See even more Valentine’s Day gift ideas we recommend.
This article was edited by Hannah Morrill and Jennifer Hunter.
I discover, vet, and write about gifts of all kinds from my office in San Francisco. I am particularly drawn to all things shiny or bookish, but I try not to impose my taste more than is strictly necessary.
I cover a wide range of gift giving, with a specialty in food and drink gifts; I also touch on beauty on occasion. I work to ensure that we consider a diverse range of socio-cultural backgrounds in our guides.
The rose toy is worth the hype, but we don’t think it’s the best vibrator of its kind.
by Samantha Schoech and Mari Uyehara
Whether he’s a hiker, a baker, or a decision maker, there’s a perfect gift to let Dad know he’s loved.
by Samantha Schoech and Mari Uyehara
If you haven’t gotten your dad a gift yet, don’t worry. The picks here arrive in two days or less—or in his email inbox right this minute.
Shopping Bag Quotes Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).