Choosing jewellery for someone else can be tricky. Whether it’s for your girlfriend, your sister or your best friend, it’s worth thinking carefully and following these tips before you splurge on something. After all, you want to be sure they’ll love it as much as you do.
As a side note: buying more masculine jewellery can be a different story, but if you’re shopping for your brother, dad, or another loved one – you can certainly take some of these tips on board to help choose something they will love.
1. Think about their style
It’s easy to indulge your own tastes and forget that the jewellery you’re gifting is an expression of the recipient’s personality. You need to really try and understand their taste in order to choose something that they are going to love.
Take a good look at the style of their favourite pieces of jewellery, the ones they wear all the time. Are they delicate, bold, classic or quirky? Do they even have their ears pierced?
What kind of items of jewellery do they prefer: do they love to wear bangles, stud earrings, drop earrings, or pendants? If they never wear drop earrings, don’t buy drop earrings just because you think they’ll look great on them. Instead, try and find jewellery that echoes their taste.
2. Consider their features
Consider the colour of the jewellery they currently wear: is it mostly gold, rose gold and coppery tones or silver/white gold? What colour stones do they like? What does their skin/hair/eye colouring suit? Do they mostly wear earthy, warm colours, cool colours, or perhaps both?
People with warm colouring (peachy, yellow, brown and gold undertones to their skin, hair and eyes) tend to look better in gold jewellery, whereas people with cooler tones (ash blonde hair, pinkish blue undertones to their skin, cooler blue and green eyes) will look better in silver coloured jewellery. They may have a neutral colouring, in which case they will look good in both. Examples of this are warm brown hair with cool blue eyes, or cool blonde hair with warm hazel eyes.
For more tips on choosing jewellery to suit your colouring, check out our helpful guide.
3. Choose something that has a meaning
Choose something that’s personal to the recipient and will hold a special meaning. Perhaps a charm bracelet with carefully chosen charms that will remind them of all the places you’ve visited together. Or a necklace with your fingerprint on so they can keep you close at all times.
Birthstone jewellery is always great as a birthday gift, or for any special occasion. If you’re not sure about the recipient’s birthstone – check the chart below.
| Month | Birthstone |
|---|---|
| January | Garnet |
| February | Amethyst |
| March | Aquamarine |
| April | Diamond |
| May | Emerald |
| June | Pearl, Alexandrite and Moonstone |
| July | Ruby |
| August | Peridot |
| September | Sapphire |
| October | Opal and Tourmaline |
| November | Citrine |
| December | Turquoise, Tanzanite, and Zircon |
4. Or, keep it classic
If you’re buying jewellery for someone you don’t know very well, and it’s not possible to work out their taste, limit yourself to something classic: a pair of huggie hoop earrings, for example. Or you could go for a gold pendant with the first letter of their name.
5. Ask them!
Even if it’s supposed to be a surprise, sometimes it’s worth gauging whether or not you’re on the right track: ask if they prefer cluster rings or solitaire stones, and whether vintage or modern style appeals more. You don’t have to give the game away completely! If it’s a piece of jewellery that they will wear for the rest of their life, which is more important, that you chose it all by yourself, or that they really, really love it?
6. Make sure you’re getting what you pay for
If you’re looking at buying jewellery made from platinum, gold, palladium or silver, make sure to look out for a hallmark. A hallmark is a stamp that is applied to precious metals to certify the metal purity however, it will only be applied to items of a certain weight. The mark verifies that the item of jewellery has been independently tested by the assay office, to ensure that it meets all legal standards of purity. After all, you don’t want to gift something that isn’t what it says it is!
You can find out more about hallmarking here.
7. Get a Gift Voucher
If you know they like jewellery, but you still can’t decide, how about a Gift Voucher? Gift vouchers are extremely popular for those last-minute gifts, or for those who would rather let the recipient choose their own gift – you really cannot go wrong!
8. Think about returns
If you are tempted to go a bit off piste, and get something that hopefully they love but there’s a chance they might not adore, make sure you get it from somewhere with a great returns policy like us 😉