Present Ideas For Your Best Friend To Put A Smile On Their Face

When someone is your best friend you want them to know just how much they mean to you. You can thank them everyday for being there for you, but if you want to show them your appreciation with a gift then here are a great choice of gift ideas. Whether you are looking for a present for your other half, your mother, a friend from work or a school mum, who ever is your BFF give them something to make them smile. 

And if you have left it late to buy something then check out these last minute edible gift ideas.

***AD Disclosure: this post contains a combination of items I have bought, items which were gifted and it contains some affiliate links. They have all been included because I think they are fab.***


Gifts To Give To Your Best Friend text over image of all the ideas in the guide
Check out this great list of present ideas for your best friend


Ideas For Presents To Give To Your Best Friend


Gifts to Motivate

Guide To Adulting

Times can get tough so how about a book which will help motivate your friend, give them something to smile about and even includes adult reward stickers like "I survived today" and "I made a scary phonecall"? The Guide To Adulting (affiliate link) is a great book by Milly Smith, illustrated by Katie Abey (I often share Katie's quirky motivational messages with bright fun illustrations on my Instagram stories because I love her). The book contains exercises, advice and upbeat messages. From body acceptance and coping with a crisis to mindfulness this book includes serious topics in a sensitive and light hearted way. Warning: contains quite a lot of swearing. 

The front cover of the Adulting Manual self help book by Milly Smith with great illustrations by Katie Abey
The Adulting Manual by Milly Smith and Katie Abey


Meee In A Minute - 60 Ways to Improve Your Life In 60 Secs

Meee In A Minute is one of a series of books by Sid Madge all with the same concept: quick ideas of how you can make your life better. Each idea will take less than a minute to read, but they will start making you think. You can make the change right away; they aren't complicated, mostly changing how you think about something, but they will take some practice before they become habits. The original book (also available in Welsh) is great for everybody and there are also versions for people who want to improve their family or work life. There is crossover between the books with similar ideas, but they are written in a way to make them relevant to the subject area.

Meee In A Minute Book - 60 Ways To Improve Your Life In 60 Secs ready to wrap as a gift and inspire
Meee In A Minute Book - 60 Ways To Improve Your Life In 60 Secs

Gifts to Recharge

Letterbox Pamper Hamper 

This Pamper Box Letterbox Hamper comes with a range of treats to encourage your friend to have some time out and it all fits through the letter box. Contents may vary, but the product I received contained: a You’re My Favourite Chocolate Bar, English Tea Shop Chamomile Tea Sachets, a Clipper Tea Clippers Hot Chocolate, Buttermilk Salted Camera Chocolate Cups, Read My lips lip balm, Yes Studio "Ooops" 12 Mini Emery Boards and Patterns & Petals Mini Hand Cream 30ml. 

A thin cardbox with treats inside including: hot chocolate, chocolate bar, caramel cups, lip balm, nail files, tea bags and handcream.
Pamper Hamper Letterbox Hamper from Prezzybox

Bracelets

A gemstone bracelet makes a great present because they are both beautiful and they can harness less visible energies too. These one of a kind handmade gemstone bracelets have the benefits of the specific crystals included in the design and they are infused with high frequency healing energy. 


A selection of different gemstone handmade bracelets
Handmade gemstone bracelets from Cuddle Fairy


Scented Candle

At times life feels a bit crazy so giving your friend a way to get away from it all for a few minutes might be just what they need. Les Lumieres du Temps perfumed candles smell amazing and will help take you away to another place, a much happier, calmer place. The candles are hand poured in France from vegetable wax and scented with perfume sourced from Grasse (known as the world's perfume capital). They are distributed in the UK by The Little Dove Company. The 180g candle in the image is scented with Bergamot and has a 55 hour burn time. Larger candles, diffusers and a range of scents also available.

cream candle made from vegetable wax in a clear glass pot saying Bergamot on it
Les Lumieres du Temps perfumed soya wax candle

Up Circle Face Serum and Eye Cream

Up Circle started as a beauty company which wanted to help repurpose the huge number of coffee grounds thrown away each day. They extract coffee oil from the used coffee grounds and combine with other products to make eco friendly and effective beauty products like the eye cream made with repurposed coffee extract and anti-inflammatory maple bark extract, a by-product of the wood industry. The hydrating Face Serum is made with coffee, jojoba, sea buckthorn and rosehip oils. Rich in Vitamin C and antioxidants it claims to help fade dark spots and brighten complexion. The products smell mildly of coffee and feel great on the skin. There are plenty more products in the range made with a variety of repurposed ingredients. The UK made, cruelty free products come in low plastic packaging. When ordering a replacement you can order without the plastic and reuse the plastic from your original bottle/ tube.

Up Circle Face Serum and eye cream in orange glass bottle with black plastic.
Up Circle make beauty products from used coffee grounds and other repurposed ingredients

ChillCore 3 in 1 Wine Cooler

This wine cooler is a great idea because you can use it to either cool a bottle of wine (or any drink in a similar shape bottle) in around 15 minutes or keep the wine cold for up to 2 hours. This makes it handy if you have no space in the fridge or if you want to keep the bottle on the table during a meal. The ChillCore 3 in 1 from CellarDine works thanks to a cooling gel sealed inside the stainless steel rod which can stay cool for long periods after being “charged” in the freezer for at least 4 hours. It has a pouring spout and stopper to help preserve the wine too so you don’t have to finish it in one sitting. Similar version available for less on Amazon.

the chillcore wine cooler from cellardine box next to the product which is a long metal tube with a clear plastic pouring top
A wine cooler which chills from inside the bottle

Beautiful Earrings


Harfi work with talented artisans in developing countries to provide ethically sourced jewellery like these handmade Anika earrings. Made in Jaipur (India) using traditional jewellery making techniques the contemporary teardrop gemstones are hand set in a textured gold-plated setting. There are lots of other beautiful gemstone items on the Harfi website so it’s worth a browse. Another jewellery idea is a friendship knot, these make the perfect best friend rings.


Gold plated drop earrings with green cut gemstone or glass in a tear drop shape at the ear.
Anika Earrings from Harfi

A Jigsaw Puzzle

If you haven't done a jigsaw recently then do. I always forget how great they are until I pick one up and get absorbed. I really recommend them as a gift to help people unwind. Wentworth Puzzles are the most beautiful jigsaws I have ever completed. Not only are the wooden pieces derived from sustainable wood, but they have amazing pictures and some of the pieces are special shapes like animals or objects to match the image. In the Northern Lights design pictured, for instance, there are whimsy pieces of a snowflake and gloves. There are a number of new designs available for 2020, most of them come in a range of sizes depending on how challenging you want them to be, although keep in mind the 250 piece puzzles are roughly the same difficulty as a 1000 piece cardboard puzzle from other brands. These are an excellent form of escapism to give your best friend a chance to relax and destress. You can order your purchase to be gift wrapped and sent directly to your friend for convenience.

A 250 piece Wentworth Puzzles jigsaw of the Northern Lights pouring out of a fabric bag with some of the whimsy shapes visible
Wentworth Puzzles Wooden Jigsaw

Letterbox Wine

Wine through your letterbox, how perfect a gift is that if you can't see your friend in person?  This bottle of red wine comes in a flat plastic bottle inside a cardboard box which should fit through most letterboxes ensuring your friend doesn’t need to be home to receive their gift. It’s a full size bottle but with a screw cap there is no need to drink it all in one go. There is also a white wine option. The bottle is made from recycled plastic and can be fully recycled after use.

A dark green plastic wine bottle which is bottle shaped but flat on top of a protective cardboard box for posting.
A (plastic) bottle of wine that is flat and can fit through the door

A Bouquet for Men

If you are looking for something totally different then check out the edible gifts from Manly Man Company. If you like the sound of a beef jerky flower bouquet in a pint glass "vase" in a hamper with the ingredients for Bloody Mary then you can get it here or one of their other gift sets for me.

Gifts For Animal Lovers

Illustrated Dog Coasters

Jo Clark Design has a selection of beautifully illustrated cards for every occasion as well as a small range of gifts including totes, mugs, tea towels and these coasters. The cute dogs in costumes coasters would make an adorable gift for dog lovers (there are cat and guinea pig versions as well) with the quirky and original drawings. The coasters are made from hardboard with applied printed and laminated vinyl design on the front and cork on the reverse. The front surfaces are stain resistant and wipe clean. For every coaster sold a tree will be planted as part of the Eden Reforestation project.

9 coasters with different dog illustrations on including a pug in a bee suit, husky in a suit, a sausage doll in a roll and springer spaniel in a dragon costume.
Fun dog illustrations on coasters by Jo Clark Design

Super Leopard Print

I think Ink & Drop are currently my favourite online print store because they have a huge range of really cool designs, including many that you can add your own message to. It was a challenge to choose my favourites, but I really love their Little Heroes series of animals with superhero masks. Some of them are cute, some look a little bit scary, but there is something about this snow leopard that particularly appeals to me. I think it’s a subtle reminder that we can all be a little bit bedraggled, but still fierce and have the ability to change the world. Other styles include street art and botanicals. 

Designs are available in a variety of size prints (with optional frames) or you can choose a canvas design with easy to use magnetic hanging rails like in the image below. I love this because the material is a bit thicker, but the overall picture is quite light and you don't need to worry about glass smashing to the floor if your friend is rubbish with DIY.

A painted print canvas of a leopard with a superhero mask with a black magnetic bar frame
Super leopard print from Ink & Drop

Fun Bottle Opener

Another one for dog lovers: this fun Fetch bottle opener is cute and practical. Made from beechwood and stainless steel you can easily open bottles of beer and then leave them in the dogs mouth to look like it has caught a frisbee. The bottle opener is a good weight making it a practical paper weight too. 

Fetch Dog Shaped Bottle Opener in box showing that it holds the bottle lid like a frisbee.  A great gift for dog lovers
Fetch dog shaped bottle opener

Yoga Cat Magnets

If your friend loves yoga, cats or both then I’m sure they’ll be amused by these fun yoga cat magnets. The set of 5 magnets show the cats in a variety of poses, but not downward dog for some reason. They are a fun and slightly practical present which will make your friend smile. 

5 small cartoon style model cats in a variety of yoga poses next to a box which says cat yoga magnets
Cat Yoga Magnets


Personalised Gifts

A Photobook of Memories. 

Anyone unfortunate enough to be close to me will know that even if I’m not grabbing them to pose with me in a selfie I’ll be regularly snapping away with a camera. My excuse is that I have a rubbish memory and I absolutely love to look back on old photographs and remember good times. I might send friends an occasional snap saying “remember this?”, but it’s even better to print the memories out. 

It can take a bit of effort to create a photo book. You need to decide all the photos you want to include (and I have over 100,000) and then how to lay them out. I created this book with ASDA photo which gives you the choice of auto populating the book. I wanted to choose the layout of each page so I added the snaps myself and it was straight forward to do. When it arrived the lay flat design impressed me with the quality; each page is 200gsm paper (basically thin card) and the cover is a glossy hardback meaning it should keep looking great even after many sessions reliving the memories. This is the most expensive style of photobook in the ASDA photo collection and it's great quality, but they have a range of photobooks. 

A lay flat photobook open to images of a toddler on a stony beach
Hardback quality photobook


Botanical Wreath Necklace

A ring a day make and design a range of handmade jewellery, some of which can be personalised with an initial charm. I love their botanical designs best like this flower wreath necklace which is like giving a bunch of flowers that will last forever (NB no guarantee is provided that it will last forever, so if it breaks in 164 years please don’t sue my descendants). 


A Writing Set

Emails, texts, phonecalls, they are all great ways to keep in touch, but nothing compares to receiving a letter through the door. When you write the letter with beautiful stationery it’s almost as much fun to write as it is to receive, and how beautiful is this Coles Kipling Chrome Trim Ballpoint & Fountain Pen Set and Kartos writing paper? Many items and pens on the Pen Haven website can be engraved and gift wrapped adding an extra special element.

A writing set which can be engraved from Coles with ballpen and fountain pen set and writing paper with a blue tile like pattern
Pen Set and Writing Paper from Pen Haven 

I hope you love this selection of gift ideas as much as I do, thank you for reading. If you are looking for more gift inspiration check out my other gift guides

Present ideas you friends will absolutely love for christmas and birthdays
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2 comments

  1. oh, I'm definitely inspired now, thank you...laughing out loud at the Cat Yoga magnets, I want them myself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, they are fun aren't they. They would be on my fridge right now, but I suspect my children would steal them to play with

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