Our (Relatable) Gift Guide For This Holiday Season

Happy holidays! If you’re perusing Fulton & Roark for your early gift shopping and need some guidance or inspiration, we’ve carefully chosen ten scents for ten prospective recipients you may have in your life, from your favorite mail delivery person to your BBC mystery-obsessed mother, and paired each with a bonus gift suggestion from a brand we love. 

The Gift of Fragrance, Home and Away

If you’ve tried to schedule time with your loved ones during this hectic stage of the year, you’ve likely been reminded of how hard it is to pin them down. Maybe your retired grandparents are inexplicably embarking on a high-octane road trip to meet the family’s newest baby or your work friend has taken to weekend jaunts to New Orleans with her partner, as if they were spokespeople for the Double Income No Kids lifestyle. 

Whatever the case, if you’re looking to give the gift of a Fulton & Roark fragrance this holiday season, pairing a home-bound bottle with a more portable version of the scent adds an extra dash of thoughtfulness to the package—at no extra cost! From Friday, November 29 to Sunday, December 1, all purchases of a full-sized bottle of extrait de parfum will come with a free matching solid fragrance, perfect for travel and on the go touch-ups. If you want to keep the solid fragrance for yourself, we understand, but as a pair, the set is the perfect gift for homebodies and jetsetters alike. 

For your friend who finally dumped their awful long-term partner: Perpetua

A fragrance that’s way more than the sum of its parts, Perpetua feels like a discovery—honeyed notes of Neroli glide over Amber and Cedarwood, creating an ineffable scent that is equal parts stimulus and solace, perfect for nursing heartbreak but with a sensual side that’s ready when they are to “get back out there.” 

They may also like a Dusen Dusen duvet set—having a fresh new set of bedding to tuck into at the end of the night, especially in such bold, innovatively paired colors, ought to smooth out some of the wrinkles of this tough transition. Remind them, perhaps with a gorgeous canvas dog bed, that finding a canine companion might be a better next step than downloading dating apps. 

For your parents who retired this year: Palmetto

With a lively interplay of Grapefruit and Magnolia, Palmetto is a bright, easy-to-love scent, but it quickly reveals its cheeky side through bursts of Pink Pepper and a whisper of Incense. Both parents whose idea of travel involves traversing their well-kempt garden and those who often send postcards from places you didn’t know existed will be energized by the scent, appreciating that, like them, Palmetto’s mature sensibilities don’t dim its spark. 

They may also like a Piecework puzzle gift set—these are no old fogeys’ playthings, but two puzzles of epic proportion that produce frame-worthy pictures of sun-drenched cocktail hours and coastal dinner parties, packaged with a few embroidered linen napkins shaped like sardines to add a jolt of whimsy to their next dinner parties, whether seaside or snowbound. 

For the mail delivery person you saw more than most of your friends in the first year of the pandemic: Blue Ridge

To thank them for their essential presence in your life (not to mention the fact that they saved you from drawing a face on a volleyball back in April 2020), gift your mail delivery person Blue Ridge—with White Musk and Jasmine that intertwine like both a memory and a new adventure, plus the cleansing properties of Sage and Sandalwood, smelling Blue Ridge ushers a moment of peace into a long work day.

They may also like Aura Bora sparkling water—these unsweetened drinks come in light, fresh flavors that are unconventional but easy to love. Cactus Rose is floral with a piquant hint of prickly pear, Lavender Cucumber is like a spa day in a can, and the brand’s holiday flavors might sound bizarre, but they’re always executed flawlessly— Green Bean Casserole is a verdant, sage-laced fan favorite. If you live in a warmer climate, you could keep a case in the fridge and grab one if you catch your recipient on their daily mail route—a gift that keeps on giving!

For your kid who’s graduating from high school (and their mall kiosk body spray) soon: Narada

With the sweetness and spice favored in teen-friendly scents in a more mature composition of Bergamot and Ginger, Narada is cozy, not cloying—a surefire starter scent with which to induct your child into a lifelong love of fine fragrance. With a bottle to keep in their room at home (which you will promise never to sample) and a solid fragrance to tote from dorm room to dorm room with ease, they’ll be the best-smelling eighteen-year-old at orientation by a startlingly wide margin.  

They may also like Omsom noodles—another super-elevated take on a dorm room classic, each of these boxes cooks up into a bouncy, chewy bounty of wheat noodles coated in sauces like Soy Garlic and Chili Sesame. Every flavor is a masterclass in umami, cooks in under six minutes, and consistently delivers a restaurant-quality meal, with multiple vegan options to boot. 

For your roommate who needs to get out more: Hwy 190

The inclusion of a solid fragrance in a gift to your roommate is a subtle but potent hint that it’s not only fish and visitors who start to stink after too long tethered to the ostensibly-shared couch. Instead of passive-aggressive, though, Hwy 190 is a gift brimming with potential: sweet, creamy Freesia is buoyed by Vanilla Bean and Vetiver, made kinetic with wafts of Myrrh—this gift says “go see the world” more than just “give me some space.”  

They may also like a Torrain sling pack—the exterior of the colorful, hands-free pack  is upcycled from feed and cement bags, its lining is recycled from plastic bottles, and it’s the perfect medium size to function as an everyday pack. The one-of-a-kind, unisex designs are cool enough for city streets, while the repurposed materials are sufficiently hardy for jaunts into the wild, plus, for every bag sold, $1 is donated to a rotating list of environmentally-oriented orgs.

Still not sure what to get? Try browsing our complete collection for inspiration!