Ahhh Valentine’s Day. The trickiest of holidays for a man to buy a woman a gift.
Him: Flowers and chocolate. Me: Be less original.
Him: Just flowers. Me: Dude, where’s the chocolate?
Him: Just chocolate. Me. You’re not getting it. They come as a duo, like peanut butter and jelly.
Him: Lingerie. Me: Hmm…a little presumptuous, no? Also, that’s not my definition of lingerie, that’s a slutty Halloween costume you’re holding.
Him: A homespun unique gift that required him to interview my entire family, including my great Aunt Betty who I thought was dead. Me: Wow, I’m dating a psycho.
It’s because of this — and the fact that we’ve been dating for seven years — that Tyler and I have given up on gift giving. We surprise each other from time to time with something we saw and knew the other would love, but no more gift exchanges in the traditional sense (i.e. birthdays / holidays / V-day etc).
90% of the time it’s super satisfying to know this weird gift-giving pressure is off the table.
But then sometimes I see things like this perfume set from Byredo and I’m like, “oh c’mon it’s not that hard to find a perfect gift. LOOK AT THIS MAJESTIC SET OF SCENTS JUST WAITING TO BE INHALED!”
Truth is, I’ve had the leather travel case by Byredo for the past year and every time I see it in my bag, it makes me smile. Not only because it’s a little luxurious thing that is just for me, but it’s also saved my ass countless times, when at the end of the day I’m just not the freshest person in the room but need to go to drinks where I’ll have to hug someone, and I know they’d much rather smell Byredo’s Gypsy Water rather than well… me.
Anyway, if you don’t want a slutty Halloween costume for V-day, send your person a hint with this. Perfume always wins best gift.
