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30+ Cool Valentine’s Day Gifts They’ll Actually Use and Love
Ditch the generic flowers and chocolates for something that says, "I love you and I know how to make you happy too"
By
Tim Chan, Sage Anderson, Nishka Dhawan
January 31, 2024
Coway
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This Valentine’s Day, step up your gifting game with something besides a bouquet of flowers and candy (or a fusion of the two, the good ol’ edible arrangement). Nothing says “unoriginal” quite like another box of drugstore chocolates or a greeting card, either.
To really impress your partner, pick up one of the best Valentine’s Day gifts, which come from some of our favorite top-rated brands and companies making cool stuff right now. We chose Valentine’s picks that suit every budget, ranging from under $20 to under $400. These gift ideas promise to help them relax, learn a new hobby, or upgrade their style — and show you care.
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Kindle (2022 Edition)
Image Credit: Amazon
If your Valentine loves to read, but can’t take their entire library with them, you should get them the Kindle.
Amazon’s e-reader has a sharp screen, a battery can last weeks on a single charge, and a waterproof design. The Kindle’s backlights make it easy to read in the dark, and this latest model we recommend can hold thousands of digital books, or dozens of Audible audiobooks.
Whether they love the classics, or keep up with new releases, your significant other will appreciate this gift.
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Bearaby Hugget Pillow
Image Credit: Bearaby
This cult-favorite knot pillow from Bearaby will soothe your giftee’s senses, whether they prefer to squash away stress in the palm of their hand, or ease some tension from their bed or couch.
Like a giant ball of hugs, the joyfully stylish, plant-based sensory Huggets come in three sizes, from a palm-sized pillow, to the largest that they can use as a sleeper cushion. Skillfully hand-knotted from responsive “Melofoam”, give them the gift of a comforting cuddle even when you’re not around.
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Intersection of Love Photo Print
Image Credit: Uncommon Goods
This beautiful customizable photo print can signify the year of your anniversary and display you and your partner’s name.
It’s available in color and black and white and the frame can also be personalized. If you’re trying to find a Valentine’s Day gift they’ll remember, choose this photo print from Uncommon Goods.
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ARZOPA Portable Monitor
Image Credit: Amazon
Give the gift of productivity this season — with the ARZOPA Portable Monitor, they’ll add an extra screen and extra flexibility to help them get things done wherever they are. There’s plenty of ways to hook up the screen to your laptop, either via a USB-C cable, or with a USB-A or HDMI cable if your laptop doesn’t have a USB-C port.
Designed for easy travel at just 1.5 lb, this portable monitor boats an ulta-lightweight and slim profile that they can slip into their backpack or work bag. With a full HD 1080P resolution IPS screen and wide 178° viewing angle, they’ll still get the most immersive visuals possible, all in one compact package.
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Bulova Rat Pack Watch
Image Credit: Bulova
SPONSORED
There’s no school like the old school, and if your Valentine’s got a swinging soul, they can wear some of the magic of the greatest performers of all time with this new limited-edition Bulova men’s Rat Pack timepiece.
Inspired by the iconic styles of legendary crooners Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra, this all-new timepiece features a timeless silver-tone stainless steel case with sapphire crystal and a special caseback adorned with the artists’ signatures and the Rat Pack’s logo. Whether they swing like the King of Cool, or charm like Old Blue Eyes, they’ll have the world on a string with impeccable taste.
Limited to 5,000 pieces, you’ll also recieve a free Bold At Heart Bluetooth Speaker with purchase while supplies last. Now that’s a real win-win.
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Grateful Dead “Love Bear” Bobblehead
Image Credit: BobbleBoss/Etsy
Grateful Dead fans will love this “Love Bear” Valentine’s Day-themed dancing bear bobblehead.
It’s just 7-inches tall so your loved one can set it on their desk, nightstand or bookshelf. Plus, it’s handmade, which means each bear bobblehead will be unique.
Get your orders in soon though, especially if you want your special someone to receive this Grateful Dead bobblehead before V day arrives.
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Beautiful 2QT Cast Iron Heart Shaped Dutch Oven
Image Credit: Walmart
This limited-edition Beautiful 2Qt Cast Enamel Heart Dutch Oven will give the phrase “made with love” a whole new meaning for your giftee. From Drew Barrymore’s line of ultra-aesthetic kitchenware, it looks as good as it cooks, made with a durable cast iron design that retains heat and locks in moisture.
It’s oven-safe up to 500°F, so you can whip up everything from desserts, to pastas and meat dishes with ease. It’s not only the perfect gift for the tender-hearted home chef, but the heart-shaped side handles and stainless steel knob make it a bonafide collector’s item.
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Pickleball Paddle Earrings
Image Credit: Uncommon Goods
When they want to serve on and off the court, this shimmering pair of pickeball paddle earrings are a great way to show off their love for the sport’s exploded in popularity over the past year. Each stud earring is a tiny replica of a real pickleball paddle, and is available in 18-karat gold-plated sterling silver or sterling silver. Each piece is finished with a sparkly clear cubic zirconia crystal in a starburst center.
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Homesick Love Bundle Candles
Image Credit: Homesick
The scented candles in this Homesick Love Bundle will add some steamy ambiance to any room they’re in.
The Date Night natural soy wax candle has notes of fig, cashmere, and red currant, while the Love Letters candle is scented like rose Petals, jasmine, and sandalwood. Homesick says its candles have a burn time of between 60 and 80 houses — and that’s been true in our experience.
Our testing also revealed that Homesick’s candles have a smell that’s pleasant without being overpowering. We were able to burn it through an entire day without getting a headache.
While we’re recommending the Love Bundle candles for Valentine’s Day, Homesick has dozens of other options scents to choose from.
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Maker Wine Natural Wine Mixed Pack
Tired of gifting the same cheap bottle of wine from the liquor store? Picky wine connoisseurs and ‘boxed is best’ drinkers will enjoy Maker Wine’s large glasses of real wine — by the can.
Maker Wine’s innovative wine-by-the-can offerings are made with minimal intervention from small batches, sustainably-farmed by female and minority-led wineries with zero sugar or additives.
Gift any wine lover their Natural Wines Mixed Pack, which includes 6 to 24 chic, single-serve cans of Orange Vermentino, Carbonic Sangiovese, Albariño wines delivered straight to their door.
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VINYL POST Record Club Subscription
Image Credit: Cratejoy
A monthly subscription box that gets you postcards that play as vinyl records. That’s it. That’s the pitch.
The VINYL POST Record Club gets you one limited-edition 5 x 7-inch postcard every month that also plays a single on your turntable. Each postcard also includes a code for a digital download of the track, along with a note on the back from that month’s featured artist.
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Coway Airmega 150 Air Purifier
Image Credit: Coway
If you need a little something that will make your date’s living space more, well, livable, Coway’s aesthetic air purifier uses a three-stage filtration process to get rid of 99.97% of particulates in the air. The shoebox-sized unit contains a pre-filter, a deodorization filter, and a True HEPA filter to better reduce and eliminate airborne contaminants.
Though it’s small in size, Coway says the Airmega 150 can cover up to 214 square feet of space, making it great for a bedroom, or small living room. We like the “Peony Pink” colorway too, which helps this air purifier fit right in with the decor of any space.
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Cook a Restaurant-Worthy Meal With MasterClass
Image Credit: MasterClass
There is no shortage of online cooking classes these days (at-home cooking is on the rise), but if you’re missing going out for a fine dining experience this Valentine’s Day, MasterClass has some excellent options.
Start by choosing which cuisine you’d like to focus on (Mexican, Italian, etc.) then let award-winning chefs and restaurant owners walk you through the rest. These classes work as a hands-on date night activity you can do together, or if you just want to surprise your date with a meal that’s not takeout.
One of our favorites is Hell’s Kitchen chef Gordon Ramsey’s Restaurant Recipes at Home class. You’ll learn 13 restaurant-style dishes like Crispy Duck and Rack of Lamb, which have been adapted with everyday ingredients in mind for home cooks.
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lululemon Everywhere Belt Bag
Image Credit: lululemon
This ever-popular belt bag from lululemon is almost always out of stock, but right now you can pick up this gray colorway for your Valentine before it sells out.
It features water-repellent fabric, and zipped interior pockets and can be worn in a variety of ways, depending on your giftee’s preferences. Since it’s available in a bunch of neutral colors, it’s also versatile enough to take from the gym straight to dinner.
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Our Place Home Cook Duo
Image Credit: Our Place
From the brand that brought you the Instagram-famous Always Pan, comes the Home Cook Duo which features the Always Pan plus the best-selling Perfect Pot.
Together, these dishes can help you steam, sautee, bake, braise, strain, crisp and also roast — replacing 16 different types of cookware. You can pick between multiple color aesthetics too, including the limited edition Firecracker shade.
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Brooklinen Sheet Set
Image Credit: Brooklinen
The Luxe sheets from Brooklinen are made of long-staple, 480 thread count sateen cotton. This translates to sheets and pillow cases with a buttery-soft feel, lasting strength and a slight sheen.
They’re available in multiple sizes and colors, so you can add a couple sheet sets to your Valentine’s Day gift.
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LED Glowing Lightsaber Chopsticks
Image Credit: Amazon
No matter who has the higher ground, it’s time to impress your Valentine with these epic glowing saber chopsticks, which will take your dinnertime to another star galaxy, far, far away. They can wage colorful wars on their food with these light-up chopsticks, which feature bright red and blue LEDs.
When the battle is done, just use the handy button to turn the force on or off. Plus, they’ll get three LR41 camera batteries, so they can start using their lighted chopsticks right away.
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Scentbird
Image Credit: Scentbird
Ditch the fragrance kiosk at the mall — Scentbird will let your gift recipient pick a fragrance that they’ll actually use. They’ll send out samples of different options from top brands like Burberry, Marc Jacobs, and Gucci until you find your signature scent. Just pick a three-, six-, or twelve-month gift subscription, and then they get to pick out their travel-size fragrance bundle.
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Bartesian Premium Cocktail and Margarita Machine
Image Credit: Bartesian
Toast to a brand new (easier) way to make cocktails this Valentine’s Day with Bartesian’s premium Cocktail Machine. The same pod-based technology you use to make coffee can now be used to make mixed drinks, all at the touch of a button.
The pre-mixed pods all contain alcohol and natural flavoring and ingredients (caution: the drinks are strong!) Pop the pod into the machine to make everything from Mules to Mojitos. The set includes cleaning tablets and a water filter to make sure you’re getting the purest, cleanest-tasing drink possible.
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Canon IVY CLIQ 2
Image Credit: Canon
Preserve your favorite memories with Canon’s IVY CLIQ 2, an instant camera with a digital twist.
The handheld camera looks like a traditional point-and-shoot, but its built-in printer will produce a 2 x 3-inch print of your shots. It can save a digital copy to a MicroSD card, too.
Part throwback, part digital, Canon’s IVY CLIQ 2 is a modern instant camera that comes in pink, turquoise, and charcoal.
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Get a Meal Delivered by Hello Fresh
Image Credit: Hello Fresh
If you want to skip the energy of picking the perfect Valentine’s Day dinner recipe or grocery shopping in a packed supermarket, get straight to the fun part with a meal delivery kit.
Hello Fresh has plans that serve two or more people, and there are even gourmet meal selections, like Pan-Seared Scallops and Lemon Butter Sauce, that you can custom add to your kit. If you or your mom has dietary restrictions, there’s a lot of flexibilty in the plans too with Vegetarian and “Calorie Smart” meals.
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Artifact Uprising Hardcover Photo Book
Image Credit: Artifact Uprising
Artifact Uprising’s photo books are a great way to collect and share your favorite pictures with someone special in your life.
The hardcover books come in an array of sizes (6 x 8 inches to 8.25 x 11 inches) and pages (50-100).
The company’s online layout tools make it easy to upload pictures, arrange them in various configurations, and add text. The end result is a carefully constructed book filled with your precious moments.
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Edifier P17 Bookshelf Speakers
Image Credit: Amazon
For old-school jams, or any jams, really, one way to really set the mood is a good pair of bookshelf speakers. Edifier’s P17 has been some of our favorites, and for good reason.
The P17 is a mid-sized bookshelf speaker, which makes it best-suited for a living room or a larger bedroom (but you can also mount them to a wall). These speakers produce a fair balance of bass, midrange, and treble frequencies, and Edifier’s “bass reflex port” enhances low frequencies.
They’re also just super classy—look at those wooden frames!
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Keurig K-Mini Plus Coffee Maker
Image Credit: Amazon
Make waking up a little easier with Keurig’s K-Mini Plus Coffee Maker. The kitchen tool is compatible with six and 12 ounch coffee pods, which come in a variety of flavors.
Coffee is considered a natural aphrodisiac, which can add a little pep to your morning and evening routines (we recommend decaf after hours). You can get a French press if you want to up your game and really impress your date, but this is the coffee maker you can rely on every morning.
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Hypervolt 2
Image Credit: Amazon
Designed by rocket engineers (no really), the Hyperice Hypervolt 2 is a handheld percussive massage and recovery device used by everyone from tennis champ Naomi Osaka to your favorite bootcamp and spin instructors. The reason it’s so beloved: it’s lightweight and easy to use right out of the box, with an ergonomic, non-slip grip and a free-flowing design that targets more (sore) areas of your body.
What we like: it’s quiet, with no annoying buzzing sound. And you can customize the torque to be as strong or gentle as you want. A few minutes a day after a workout or tough day at work goes a long way towards relieving soreness and tension, promoting circulation and improving your range of motion. Also: it just feels pretty damn great.
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Harry & David Valentine’s Day Gift Box
Image Credit: Harry & David
If your Valentine is a fan of food gifts choose this sweet box from Harry & David.
Its got caramel popcorn, white chocolate cookie bars, gummy peach hearts, shortbread cookies and raspberry galettes. The box also comes with express shipping, making this a great last-minute Valentine’s Gift if you’re in a time crunch.
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GUNNAR Blue Light Blocking Glasses
Image Credit: GUNNAR
You’ve never seen a pair of blue light frames quite as chic as these.
This frame is at once retro and modern, putting a stylish element behind the usually clinical computer glasses. The acetate frames and custom lenses promise to help reduce headaches, dry eyes and blurry vision that can come from staring at a screen all day. There are five contemporary colorways to choose from.
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Ninja CREAMi Deluxe
Image Credit: Amazon
This Ninja Creami Deluxe is one of the coolest gifts to give this year, and not just because the ice cream maker churns out authentic frozen treats in less than 5 minutes.
To use: freeze your mixture overnight, attach the pint to the machine, and then set the machine to churn on any of the presets (including gelato, sorbet, and even Italian ice). You can even use a setting to add any mix-ins you’d like (chocolate chips, nuts or even fruit).
Many parts of the machine are also dishwasher safe, making this an easy-to-use and an easy-to-clean gadget.
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Cozee Blanket
Image Credit: Amazon
Heated blankets are a popular way to fight the cold and snuggle up close when during the winter months. Cozee’s blanket stands out because its portable, which means your Valentine can take it camping, or a chillier day by the beach.
We’ve tested the blanket out, and were surprised at how much heat it put out. There are three settings, so you can easily change the temperature any time you’d like. Using a higher temperature drains the battery more quickly (two hours on high, five hours on low).
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Great Jones Hot Dish
Image Credit: Great Jones
Nothing says “I love you,” like a good home cooked meal. Popular kitchen goods brand Great Jones have a best-selling bakeware collection, and it can help you turn out sweet and savory dishes.
You can get the entire line (dubbed the Fully Baked set) for $245 or buy each piece individually. The Breadwinner, a $65 loaf pan is great for banana bread, while the $35 Holy Sheet is the best-looking rimmed baking sheet you’ll find.
We’re partial to the Hot Dish, a $75 ceramic baking dish, which we’ve gotten to test ourselves. This kitchen tool is perfect for baking brownies, but it can be used for savory foods like lasagna or mac & cheese, too.
The entire bakeware line is worth checking out, and any of the pieces would make a wonderful gift for the baker in your life.
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Lego Icons Succulents
Image Credit: Amazon
A regular bouquet of flowers can be so passé (although we have our favorites), so if your Valentine would appreciate something a little more permanent (or they just don’t have a very green thumb), then this Lego Succulents building set is the gift for them.
Containing 771 pieces, your giftee can build nine Lego artificial decorative plants to make their own low-maintenance succulent display for their office desk or as home décor. They can also customise their display and zhuzh up any space by presenting the brick plants together, in small groups or individually.
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Atlas Coffee Club
Image Credit: AtlasCoffeeClub
Atlas Coffee Club will let you and your partner sample roasts from around the world. Each shipment contains something new, and you can choose your roast preference (light to medium, medium to dark, or all roast types), and whether to get whole or pre-ground beans.
This is a subscription service, with a new delivery arriving every two or four week, but you can cancel at any time with no penalty. If your date has been trying to shake up their morning routine, this is the Valentine’s Day gift to get.
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Eat What You Watch: A Cookbook for Movie Lovers
Image Credit: Amazon
From the orgasmic deli fare from When Harry Met Sally, to the redemptive birthday cake from Sixteen Candles, your Valentine can learn to make their favorite film food fare with this cookbook from the creator of the hit YouTube series “Binging With Babish”, Andrew Rea.
With recipes from more than 40 classic and cult films, this 132-page cookbook is perfect gift for movie buffs and home cooks alike who want to add some cinematic flair to their repertoire.
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