We love curating gift guides because it allows us to find some unique picks every year that we typically don’t find in other guides. Here are our top picks for this year’s Valentine’s Day Gift Guide. From food, tea, pampering lotions and jewelry to perfume, phone cases, spirituality, music and more, we’ve got you covered.
Blissful Art Jewelry
This beautiful piece (35.5 inches with 108 beads) comes in Brass and Bronze with lava beads and tourmaline. There’s also Quartz, which is known to harmonize the chakras and align the bodies, and one of our favorites: Labradorite, which is known to be useful companion through change, imparting strength and perseverance. We use the stone a lot in our circles and have plenty of it throughout the house — it’s great for balancing and grounding as well. energies and sacred meaning to infuse your practice. The nice thing about this option is that you can select other stones as well – we opted for Labradorite but you can also go for Lapis (such a rich and beautiful blue) or Amethyst, which is an all around great stone that anyone would love.
Another gem which includes Labradorite is this Mala, which is accompanied by Fluorite crystals, both meant to be a great all over mind-body-spirit detox.
Each and every necklace has some aspect of personalization which is such a nice feature – most of the options on Etsy for jewelry do not offer this level of customization. This beautiful piece comes in 3 sizes: 30 inches, 40 inches or 108 mala beads. It is handcrafted using high quality Amethyst, Jasper and Druzy Sediment Stone and you can choose gold or silver.
We love Amethyst because it is such a neutral stone and makes a great gift. Known to help cleanse one’s energy field of outside influences, its also just a lovely color that resonates light and love. Jasper is meant to be a stone of physical strange and is ‘said to’ increase one’s chi in one’s aura. We just love the color and the combo with Amethyst – stunning right?
For more jewelry from the Blissful Art collection, check out their Etsy store for more choices and to order.
Skylar Perfumes
We came across a perfume brand we hadn’t heard of before: Skylar. They offer a variety of perfumes and you can opt for a spray bottle or a rollerball. They also have sampler packages as well which make great gifts. We love the Skylar Duo option, which allows you to customize a gift pack — you simply choose two 1.7 oz perfumes of your choice.
The six scents included in either the Sample Palette or any of their other products, including rollerballs and sprays include Arrow, which is spicy, warm, and seductive, Capri which is zesty and sweet, Coral which is fruity, floral, and flirty, Isle, which is clean, dewy, and fresh (meant to be one of their best sellers), Meadow, which is floral and elegant and Willow, which is woodsy, lush, and cool (our personal favorite). Below is a two spray bottle duo — you can of course purchase them individually as well as the entire set of all six.
Also in the same fun scents, they have body washes and lotions — or kits that include a combination. The Skylar Body Wash, Lotion and Hand Cream are both hydrating and rich in antioxidants, and include Hyaluronic Acid which is known for locking in moisture really well.
They also offer something called a Scent Club, which allows you to receive a new, limited-edition scent every month. Check out their website for more information including how to order.
Capresso H2O Steel PLUS Water Kettle
There’s an automatic reheat function when cold water is added to the kettle. We LOVE that there’s a pause and pour a cup while heating and a removable micro filter spout. Two out of three of the last tea kettles we have tried out all dripped when we poured after the first month. We’re still into the first month of testing out this Capresso tea kettle, but so far so good thanks to its drip free pouring design.
For lighter teas, such as white or green varieties, a lower temperature is recommended, while darker teas will extract better flavor using higher temperatures. The automatic keep warm setting keeps the remaining water at the selected temperature until you are ready for your next cup.
In addition to heating water for tea, the H2O Steel PLUS is handy for brewing French press coffee or heating water for reconstituting dried vegetables and fruits, or with instant oatmeal, and soup mixes. Included are four temperature selections: 212°F which is recommended for black tea, 195°F which is recommended for oolong tea or coffee, 175°F for white tea and 160°F, which is optimal for green tea.
The Capresso H2O Steel PLUS kettle is stainless steel, weighs in at around three pounds and is about 8.5 inches long, 6 and a quarter in width and around 9.5 inches high. For more information including how to purchase Capresso products, visit their website.
Orbs by Play Clarity
We came across these fun mystical orbs by Play Clarity. You simply ask a yes and no, then roll around while concentrating, then pull your answer out of the Mystical Orb by using your instincts. This beautifully designed snow globe is a great addition to an altar or any spiritual area in your home or office.
This mystical orb dice roller is based on Chakras and will give insight to questions or dilemmas that might come up in your life. They tout that the benefits of this orb include a creative way to get inner guidance, or insights as well as increasing your overall awareness. It is meant to be thought provoking and makes a fun gift. You can also use it in combination with any of their Clarity game to answer a specific yes and no question.
Clarity believes that everything happens for a reason, so your roll is exactly what you need to hear. The color coded answers are designed to give you more than just a yes and no and is based on the Clarity Chakra colors. The clarity colors in the globe include purple for mental, red for emotional, orange for spiritual, yellow for physical, blue for the past and green for the future.
They make an effort to note that the insert of this product is hand painted so there will always be slight variations and personality in each orb. Check out their website for more insights into their orbs as well as details on other products.
Burkley Phone Cases
We’ve always loved the Burkley brand so much so that we’ve put them in earlier gift guides as well. They continue to come out with rich leather options in a myriad of fun colors and very few other vendors do this — and we’ve looked at quite a few. Many of them are on the ‘cheap’ side and don’t last for long. This is one of the things we really love about Burkley cases — the quality is top notch.
We got in a vibrant fun red case recently as well as a rich pebble black case — sophisticated and elegant, they make a great gift option for both men and women. Perfect for the Valentine’s Day holiday, you can personalize them (initials) and/or add a wristlet to go along with the case as well. (there are tons of colors to choose from as well, which is another thing that sets Burkley apart)
Below, the Burkley Carson Magnetic Detachable Leather case in Pebble Black
Burkley also has products for Google, AppleWatch, Samsung Galaxy, tablets and more. Their Carson Magnetic Detachable Leather cases (above) are our favorites — we love that the iPhone is removable but securely stays in place when its inside the case. There’s a magnetic closure as well as card slots inside for money, credit cards and business cards.It also comes in an Antique brown, a Burnished Tan, Red and an Antique Golden Brown — beautiful right?
If you do happen to have an iPhone 11, there are a ton more options for colors, textures and styles. Burkley also offers leather sleeves as well as wallets so there are plenty of gift options for anyone you need to buy for this holiday season.
Just a few of the case options for the iPhone 11
For more information, visit their website for their latest collections for all phones.
Raw Spirit Perfumes
We are huge fans of Raw Spirit perfumes and if you have read us long enough, you know that we don’t boast about brands very often. The ingredients are ‘healthy’ and non-toxic and are sustainably sourced from sacred and natural land around the world. They offer their fragrances in sprays, creams, rollerballs and as sets, including travel sets. Their fragrance offerings also come in different aromas, broken down into floral, fresh and warm. We’re not a fan of sweet perfumes, so we opted to test out the warmer fragrance offerings. That said, the Summer Rain in the “fresh” category is also refreshing and lovely.
They also offer larger 3.4 ounce sprays as well as rollerballs although we think the one ounce sprays are the best for travelers — easy to pack, are in the size restriction for carry on bags and tend to last longer than rollerballs.
From left to right: Rollerballs to
Our favorites are the warm ‘fire’ scents, which include Winter Oak and Wild Fire. Winter Oak is a standout for us because it’s so velvet-y — think smooth, creamy notes of aged American oak and layers of suede, saffron, premium Haitian vetiver and musk. Apparently their Winter Oak fragrance is inspired by walking the oak-lined trails of the Chumash Lands of California on cool winter mornings, when crushed oak leaves and twigs release their rich scent. No wonder we love this scent so much? We are huge fans of the Redwoods and long walks in any California forest.
What originally drew us to the Raw Spirit brand is their focus on sustainability. In the Winter Oak scent for example, there’s Haitian Vetiver, which is sourced sustainably through a long-standing collaboration between that our fragrance house Firmenich has in established in Debouchette, South West Haiti. Part proceeds of this scent also support Native American cultural preservation projects. Bravo Bravo! Women will love the Clary Sage, Italian Bergamot Oil, Pepper, Floridian Lemon Oil and Geranium as a top layer.
The middle ranges for our favorite scent include Saffron, Mate Absolute, Clove Bud Oil and Olibanum (such healing and inspiring ingredients right?). The base in this one is Leather Suede, Oakwood Accord & Oakmoss, Florida & Atlas Cedarwood Oil, Haitian Vetiver, Patchouli and Sleek Musks, whereas the Wild Fire’s top layer is Jasmine Petals, the middle layer is Ylang Ylang, which I’ve always been a fan with when mixing essential oils and its base is Cedarwood, Australian Sandalwood and Musk.
In fact, for the Wild Fire perfume, they use wild harvested Australian Sandalwood, an ingredient that is indigenous to Western Australia and sustainably sourced. Raw Spirit perfumes use natural ingredients from all over the world, which is one of the reasons we were so drawn to it for travelers — one of their tag lines is “meaningful luxury.” We also love that a woman co-founded it and was moved by seeing the incredible injustice and imbalance between indigenous and non-indigenous communities, which drove her to change career paths and jump into building a socially conscious business. For more information and how to order, visit their website.
Crosley Vintage Music “Cabinets”
We’ve always been a fan of vintage ‘anything’ and what better way to experience this time in history than through music. Crosley has been known for years to produce vintage record players, as well as combination music ‘cabinets’ and juke boxes.
Similar in style are Crosley’s Musician and Lancaster although the Lancaster model has a couple more bells and whistles. The nostalgic Crosley Lancaster is an antique-styled cabinet with grillwork details on the front meant to represent the style of the time. Included is an aviator dial house to navigate the offerings included in the cabinet. You can play CD’s, tune into an AM/FM radio, and play your old fashioned records on a three-speed record player for those classic vinyls.
The coloring of the wood (not real wood) paneling is a cherry/oak color. Unlike the older units, the edges are sharp and square rather than smooth and round – FYI for those who are familiar with Crosley’s older units. It measures around 17.6 inches wide, 12.8 inches deep and around 9.6 inches high. The turntable plays 33 1/3, 45 and 78 RMP. There are built in stereo speakers, as well as a cassette player (in addition to the CD player and AM/FM radio mentioned above), as cueing lever, an AUX input and a headphone jack.
There’s also a built-in Bluetooth receiver as well which is useful for those who spend a lot of time in the ‘all-digital’ world.
For more information on these nostalgic units, visit the Crosley website for more including how to order.
Oracle Decks
The Goddess Power Oracle by Colette Baron-Reid
Who doesn’t love Goddesses? We have them everywhere including our meditation room. We love how Goddesses depict their archetypal essence, which exists in everyone regardless of culture or belief systems. This deck is all about the feminine aspect of the Universe which is rising to restore balance in the world. She asks: who could we become if we knew how to reclaim our true power? The deck includes interpretations of 52 Goddesses from cultures all over the world. Find it on Amazon.
The Crystal Spirits Oracle by Colette Baron–Reid
Also by Baron-Reid is this beautifully displayed (art by Jena Della Grottaglia) Crystal Spirits Oracle, which includes 58 crystals, each selected for their healing powers and ability to help you channel divine guidance from the Universe. Every crystal can assist in your daily life from clearing and relaxation to stabilizing energy. The deck has ‘messages’ if you like from the crystals in order to better connect and live a life filled with purpose, wellness and joy. Find it on Amazon.
The Healing Mantra Deck by Matt Kahn
Mantras are really great to help you go within and to feel empowered — think of them as doses of vibrational medicine delivered into your energy field through the power of your voice. Says Matt, mantras are the language of unity consciousness; where the one speaking its wisdom and the one receiving its power are seen to be the same. Included in the deck are 52 channeled mantras that have been encoded with healing energy, to realign your mind, body, heart, and soul. Find it on Amazon.
He also has a new book out that cover the 10 Golden Rules for emotional freedom: The Universe Always Has a Plan. Matt’s energetically encoded mantras and exercises are designed to help you jumpstart your spiritual growth and access deeper levels of ease, freedom, and joy.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
