18 perfect gifts she'll love this Valentine's Day

Benjamen Judd.

What do women really want? More importantly, what do they want for Valentine's Day?

According to some female friends who were only too happy to school me in the reality of what is an appropriate Valentine's Day gift: lingerie is "tacky" and more for him than it is for her; books are okay; a surprise picnic would be a dream and a year's subscription to weekly deliveries of organic veggies is the perfect gift.

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Sensible, practical and entirely achievable. Why were we ever worried?

Something for everyone

To be fair, this feedback is obviously a small cross section and no doubt there are women out there who would love lingerie, would hate a book and think picnics are gross. (I don't blame them, I'm not fond of them myself.)

But it does go to show that finding the perfect gift for someone you love can be surprisingly easy.

Whether or not you believe in the admittedly somewhat OTT celebration of Valentine's Day, a showing of generosity to your partner is never a bad thing. Some might argue against the contrived nature of it all but is it really that bad to splurge a little on someone once a year?

It's as much for you as it is for her

Gift giving is an essential part of human nature - we've been doing it a lot longer than Valentine's Day, that's for sure. And psychologists have definitively confirmed that the act of gift giving benefits both parties, helping forge stronger bonds and simply makes us feel good with the endorphin rush of seeing someone else happy.

But to help those of you who may still be struggling a little with finding the perfect gift, here's a list made up of genuine Valentine's Day requests and a few extravagant extras.

Because a little extravagance is a good for the soul.

Check out the gallery above to see utterly perfect gift ideas for Valentine's Day.

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