It’s graduation season once again and what to give the graduate may have you stumped. Whether it’s high school or college it seems like the safest gift would be to send a check but that seems so impersonal if it’s a close relation. Graduation brings with it such a range of feelings – happiness, fear, nervousness, confusion, sadness. It’s a smorgasbord of emotions for both the graduate and their families and friends.

As far as graduation announcements that might be arriving soon, sometimes for someone you’ve had almost no contact with and can barely even remember, I have some thoughts about that. I used to feel guilty for not sending a gift to each and every graduate who shared with me the news of their momentous occasion and a small check was promptly mailed out. Now I simply send back a note of congratulations. And by the way, I checked with the Emily Post Institute and found that this is A-OK.

But if the graduate is someone near and dear to you you it’s time to start coming up with ideas if you haven’t already.

Of course a scented gift is one that I think of right off the bat but you have to be really careful here. You need to make sure that the recipient isn’t one of the fragrance-phobic types out there. There seem to be a growing number of these and you don’t want to commit the grave sin of offending their senses or upsetting the parents. If in doubt, I’d just play it safe with a Herschel backpack or better yet an Uber gift card. Since Uber’s practically everywhere pretty much every graduate can get some mileage out of it.

But, if the graduate happens to enjoy fragrance you can always do some sleuthing and buy them a bottle of their favorite scent. Chances are we’re not talking about Creed or Clive Christian prices.

If you don’t know and don’t want to go out on a limb with something you think they’ll enjoy that could either be a hit or miss, here are some fun gift ideas that seem to be getting the thumbs up with the millennials:

Glossier You – This is the first and only fragrance from the brand founded by Emily Weiss, who leveraged the popularity of her blog “Into the Gloss” to create a beauty products line. The perfume, which also comes in a solid perfume, is a skin scent which “smells like you”.  The spray version is $60 and the solid perfume is just $22. Learn more here.

Waft Personalized Perfume – The idea here is scent personalization and it can be gifted in two ways; either you send them a gift card and they can design their own scent or you can design the scent and give it as a gift. The total cost for either process is $79. Learn more here.

ScentBird Subscription – Every month, they’ll get to choose a 30-day supply of a new fragrance that is shipped right to their door. With over 450 designer perfumes and 100+ colognes to choose from, there is no shortage of options. They offer 3-month, 6-month and 12-month options starting at $44. Learn more about it here. 

BirchboxMan – Another gift box subscription, Birchbox offers sample size gift box deliveries both for the gals and the guys, but I like this for the guys especially.  They can personalize it by telling Birchbox their grooming preferences and needs and Birchbox sends the relevant samples. If they find something they like they can order a full size and accumulate points to be used for subsequent purchases. Gift subscriptions are for 3-month, 6-month or 12-month and start at $30. There’s more about it here.

Urban Outfitters Hyper Naturals Fragrances – These natural fragrances are grounded in the idea of modern wellness and contain all-natural fragrance oils that are formulated without synthetic oils, parabens, phthalates, colorants, dyes, preservatives and sulfates. The collection of scents include: Mystic Retreat, Neon Jungle and Electric Paradise and are $18 each. Exclusive to UO, they can be purchased in store or online here.

If none of these strike a chord, you really can’t go wrong with an Amazon gift card.

Care to add to the list? What would be on your wish list if you were graduating? If you have any perfect gift ideas please speak up!

Happy gifting and congrats to all of the graduates out there ?

GIVE THE GIFT OF SCENT!
A Scentbird subscription is the gift that keeps on giving!