Self care gifts you should buy for me or someone else.
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Every year around this time, with Christmas and my birthday looming and present buying on my mind, I like to sit down and come up with an annual gift guide full of things I totally expect you to lavish upon me. Or, at least, full of things maybe someone you would actually buy presents for would want. Whatever.
I’ve had a year of ups and downs, a year of working hard on both work projects and personal projects, and, sometimes, I forget to step back and take a little time for myself. With a to-do list ever a mile long and my constant state of crippling stress and anxiety, I’m always looking for things to help me actually relax for once in my life. So, this year, I’m all about the self care gifts.
This self-care gift guide is full of things that inspire relaxation, like cozy robes and soft slippers, bath bombs and lavender lotions, fuzzy animal-shaped everythings, and all the candles and lip balms a stocking could hold.
If you too have so much tension you’re considering moving to Denmark to live the hygge life or Hollywood to check into a stress management rehab center, these gifts would be perfect for you. But really, they’re for me…
Self care gifts you should buy for me or someone else:
1. Furry cat slippers.
My feet are pretty much always cold so I am pretty much always wearing something fuzzy on my feet (except when I’m sleeping because who can sleep with something on their feet?). I normally just wear fuzzy socks but furry cat slippers are also good and double as something my cat would definitely mistake for a toy and try to attack, so they would be comfortable while providing hours of entertainment.
2. Don’t Keep Your Day Job book
I’m not going to lie: my book shelf is full of self help books and motivational non-fiction. I’m of the firm mind that self-help books = self care. From books on anxiety to career goals to finding purpose to intuitive eating, I have them all. Don’t Keep Your Day Job is a new book so I don’t have it yet, but I kept seeing it all over Instagram and it’s about how to turn your passion into a career and I’m here for that.
3. Pink weighted blanket.
Weighted blankets are supposed to be good for anxiety and for getting a better night’s sleep. And a pink weighted blanket like the Bearaby Velvet Weighted Blanket from West Elm would fit with my new duvet.
4. All the fruity scented bath care.
Remember when you were a pre-teen and all you ever wanted someone to gift you was a Bath & Body Works gift set? And whether you were into Freesia, Sweet Pea, or Cucumber Melon, every birthday or Christmas or graduation all you hoped for was a big ole box of body washes and lotions? I don’t think the need for a gift basket full of intensely-scented fruity bath care has ever gone out of style. (Though I kind of prefer the Body Shop to Bath & Body works these days…)
5. Ceramic Cat Yarn Bowl
I would like to say knitting relaxes me but really I am such a perfectionist that I often end up ripping everything out halfway through because I missed a stitch three rows back. So I’m not sure you can call that “self care” but knitting with an adorable cat-shaped knitting bowl would make it less stressful, I’m sure.
6. Mini Stone Gift Box
I recently went on a crystal-buying binge. I have several big goals I want to accomplish in the next year so instead of sitting down and focusing on them I sat down and ordered a bunch of crystals that are supposed to be good for inspiring focus. I mean, it makes sense to me. I bought some more hippy dippy crystals off of Etsy but these cute little GeoCentral mini stone gift boxes probably make better stocking stuffers.
7. Fancy match striker.
I’m pretty sure that lighting candles is the ultimate self-care activity (see below) but in order to reap the full benefits of candles, you need to light them on fire. And in order to light candles on fire, you need matches. I mean, you could use a lighter I guess but why would you use a lighter when pretty striker jars filled with long matches (like these Poetry Match Strikers) exist?
8. Shea-infused socks.
I’ve been obsessed with the fuzzy shea-infused socks from Bath & Body Works for as long as I can remember. Of course, all of my pairs are now so old that the shea and fuzziness are long gone. But, when they are new, they are the softest, coziest socks you can ever imagine wrapping your toes in.
9. Lush Dreaming Of Christmas gift set.
Lush brand everything always has my heart and a gift set that includes soothing shower treats, like lotions and shower bombs, with relaxing sleep-inducing lavender scents sounds absolutely dreamy. Literally.
10. Huggable Llama Cooling + Heating Pad.
Heating pads and cooling pads can be a girls best friend. In the winter my joints always feel stiff and a heating pad can do a world of difference. And in the summer when I can’t sleep because it is a million degrees in my bedroom, I love a good cooler pack on my forehead of forearm to cool down my body. This heating/cooling pad gets bonus points because it is shaped like my fourth favorite animal, a llama.
11. Pastel lunar mug.
Mugs are always essential self care gifts because they can be used for tea or coffee or hot chocolate or whiskey. Whatever it is you like to drink while curled up in a blanket. This pastel lunar mug is gold. Literally. It’s made of gold. And what is more self-carey than drinking out of gold?
12. Wood bath caddy.
I always imagine taking long steamy baths with bath bombs and candles and a bathtub shelf to rest my book (OK phone playing true crime on Netflix) on. Of course my bathtub is questionable and my water lukewarm. And it butts up against the wall so there is no ledge on which I could rest a shelf without my book (OK phone) falling into the lukewarm water. But someday maybe I will have a bathtub that doesn’t look to be growing wildlife that has steaming hot water and juts out from the wall. And then I will get a wood bath caddy like this one and have one hell of a bath.
13. Eyemask.
I live on a busy(ish) street and with that comes light. My bedroom is consistently flooded with lights from street lamps, ambulance emergency lights, neon bar signs, and the warm glow of the Starbucks siren. So sometimes I like to put on a little sleep mask because they are way cheaper than blackout curtains. (Plus this one is shaped like an owl AND comes with fuzzy socks so it’s a two for one self care gift set).
14. Turkish Bath Robe
I’ve had the same pink, fuzzy, warm bathrobe for years and it’s always been the coziest thing to slip on at the end of the day. And then I got a cat who thinks my bathrobe is his mother and will lie on my chest and suckle the thing to death. So it’s getting kind of gross. And I kind of probably should get a new robe for him to declare his maternal love for sometime soon.
15. CANDLES.
I’m pretty sure that lighting candles is the ultimate self-care activity. I have a huge collection of them taking over my coffee table and my bookcase and my bedside table and anywhere else I can cram them and I love them in any scent and any form. But I especially love sweet scents in pretty vessels. Target always has a good selection of candles and I almost always end up leaving the store with one. Or five.
16. Merry & Bright tea tin.
My self care drink is hot chocolate just as my self care dessert is anything chocolate. But I try not to drink it all the time so I’ve been trying to drink more tea lately as a substitute. This tea gift set from Davids Tea has hot chocolate flavored tea, which sounds like pretty much the best tea the world has to offer.
17. Lips en pointe lip scrub.
My lips always get super dry during the winter and lip scrubs are fun and make your lips feel less dry and I wanted an excuse to add more Lush to this list.
18. All the lip glosses.
Apparently this is the lip section of this list and I’m OK with that because I have an unnatural obsession with lip glosses that probably stems from owning every flavor of Lip Smackers growing up. Of course, I’m an adult now and instead of Lip Smackers I just hoard flavors of Body Shop Born Lippy lip balm. (But I also wouldn’t turn down this Lip Smackers advent calendar…)
So… what are you going to buy for me?
