Do people really think their friends don’t notice re-gifted toiletries?

We did this with the ugliest glass vase you have ever seen.

But rather than regifting, when you were visiting a close family member, you would hide it somewhere in the house for them to find after you had left. As soon as they found it, they then had to do the same to the next relative they visited. It was like a game of tag, but with an ornament.

It became a bit of a huge family joke to both hide and find it.

That glass vase travelled all over the world for years and years, taken on family visits and left behind. It was always first on any suitcase packing list!

It was last seen in South Africa, where I think my brother hid it too well at an aunt's house, and it was not found before they moved. (or that's what they let everyone believe)

My mum last year gave my father in law a tin of biscuits which had some light up musical box thing in. I think someone had regifted it to her and she’d dine the same. She didn’t wrap it just gave him the tin, and when he couldn’t quite understand what it was (why an 88 year old man wants a light up biscuit tin who knows) it was patently obvious she’d no idea what it was.

she only stops at Tesco and it was from Ocado /marks (I checked) so I know she hadn’t bought it.

Yeah I do this too- I just offer it out to people saying I got it as a gift but it doesnt suit my skin/hair etc and usually people are really chuffed to receive a random free gift on a usual monday morning.

I would never give it out as an actual gift because I think thats rude, dishonest and weird. Dishonest- because you are pretending you chose it especially for that person when you didnt make a jot of effort at all. Its lazy and thoughtless.

Is it really such a bad things?

I’ve been gifted rituals and Elemis and even olaplex and have regifted with other gifts added. I didn’t think it was bad as otherwise gift sets that are £50+ sometimes would lay unused

I received a couple of nice gifts of my DS and Dil for my 50th. I also got a bracelet with some charms on it (not Pandora). It was nice but not really my thing, some of the charms had a bottle of wine and a glass of wine, a 50 charm and a couple of others that were weird and had no connection to me. I dont drink wine and I just felt it was a weird gift.

A few weeks later i was looking at it again and got it out of the box and that when it dawned on me it was re gifted. It was DIL's mums 50th a couple of months before mine as in the box i found a lovely meaningful note addressed to Rachel (DILs mum) so it was obviously a re gift. I felt bad for the sender that Rachel obviously never read the note (it was very heartfelt about what a good friend she was) and casually discarded the gift.

I regift as raffle prizes. It’s the only way to get rid of it without insulting someone. I make sure the event is not being attended by the gifter or they don’t know who the donors are!

💯

I don’t have much but I do put thought into a what I know a friend will likely enjoy based on what I know about them. So the most recent example, a friend said she liked a Himalayan lamp so I got her one and she really loved it. Also bought her expensive stationery/journals in the past as she’d starting diarising.

But all I’ve ever got from her was a large box of malteresers (house warming gift 2 years after being here) and for Christmas a mini bottle of sparkly pink nail polish and little pointy ring holder. Both in faded/crumpled but unopened packaging. She’s never known me to wear any makeup let alone nail polish and it’s actually one of the things we joke about that o enjoy being bare faced and ‘plain’ and also I don’t own any jewellery at all.

Makes me sad becaus she has two teenage daughters and I think she just regifts any of their unwanted leftovers as opposed to putting any real thought into me like I do her. And she isn’t in debt or struggling. I drink chai tea, like biscuits, enjoy history - she knows these things but would rather just gift things her own teens reject 🤦🏻‍♀️.

Send them to me! 😻

Every year one of my friends makes up a Christmas bag with very random regifted items. He or his partner obviously get gifted a hamper each year from a company and divide up the contents to pass on, and he gets free beauty samples from his suppliers. Last year I received a jar of lobster sauce, a jar of Christmas confit, and a jar of preserved lemons. Apparently because I love cooking. And a random bottle of conditioner. 🤣🤣🤣

Usually I shell out for a bottle of champagne and a box of Shortbread that they love but can't get as we don't live in the UK.

After the fifth year of random jars I don't use, I'm telling them let's just not bother with gifts this year. 😅

Another layer to this - I have a friend - very comfortably off so its to due to money issues - who either sells or regifts everything she's given. She's returned gifts I've given her, repackaged, and said "I thought you could really use this!" - as if she's been to a shop and got it for me specially. So now, I only buy her stuff she can't sell or pass on - last birthday I got her flowers (really nice ones though not a supermarket bunch) and her face was a picture.

Ive got countless toiletry sets from secret fucking santa. Last year took the biscuit i recieved a scaff complete with body odor.
I do give away these unwanted cheap toiletry sets to the charity shop or to a friend (not as a gift). Don't know how to get rid of the bad juju.

I re-gift items that I won't / can't use, but not as Christmas / birthday presents. I just hand them over to someone who I know / think can use them and I'm very blunt about it- "I received this as a gift but it doesn't fit - would you like it?" Or, "This cream makes my skin itch - do you know anyone who likes this brand?" I don't wrap it up or anything - just hand it over to someone who would like/use it so it isn't wasted.

I’d never give someone a toiletry set, let alone regift one. Unless I knew someone loved a specific brand and wanted that. I don’t get it either. I do like to receive toiletries if they are as I said, specific brands that feel like a treat. Otherwise I feel receiving a generic toiletry set is the ultimate ‘I don’t really know you or care about what you like’. Harsh but true!

DH once got me a hideous lavender toiletry hamper off Amazon and never did it again. He thought it was really nice because it had like 26 items. That looked and smelled like grannies. Not my most edifying post but cathartic!!

Don't do birthdays just load of hassle n don't really do Xmas either but will meet friends for dinner/drinks in place of presents that way you don't end up with loads of tat you never gonna use Xmas is for kids really so I don't get the adults throwing toys out of pram over birthday/Xmas gifts they get

Send it back. It'll become that Christmas tradition you'll look back on fondly

I do object to receiving gifts that have not only been regifted but clearly opened. I have a friend who does this and I now feel like doing the same back. I would really like to stop exchanging gifts with her altogether but just don't know how to approach it.

I wouldn’t regift for the reasons people describe

I only regift to people I don't really know - like if I'm at a relative's at Christmas and gifting is happening but they have an in-law there, I might look in my regifting box for them. Never toiletries or food though.

I currently have some cat patterned socks in mine. Not quite sure who those might be useful for!

Indeed. As a (now 55 year old) ‘kid’ that buys my father expensive gifts that he could never afford (but will appreciate), I would be pretty pissed off if I found out he was passing my gifts on to his various friends.

Luckily (for the sake of our relationship), he doesn’t regift them. Instead they get “kept for best” 🙄so I assume I’ll inherit them all back one day, grrr.

Hmmmm………don’t really mind a gift that’s been re-gifted…….but a do draw the line at receiving something that’s obviously been opened and partly used 🤔🙄

I believe the idea of buying gifts is to actually put some thought into giving something the recipient would appreciate.
My MIL buys loads of stuff throughout the year when its cheap, hat and gloves sets, make up bags, travel cups and gifts sets, she then allocates each item to a relative at Christmas. We all get some random item, nothing is bought with the person in mind which I think is pointless. Everything I get is sent to the charity shop as I don't need a travel mug or insulated bag. I wouldn't dream of regifting as no one else has a burning desire for those items either.

I do regift but am always upfront about the fact that it is a regift, and only to certain people (mum, best friend , daughters) and when it clearly is more suited to them than me (eg I don’t use soap, mum loves nice ones, ditto dd and candles) We also have a set of truly hideous glass flowers given to me years ago by an aunt that we regift every Xmas to someone else in the close family, always beautifully wrapped and aim is to get them to open it without realising what it is, then they are stuck with them until next Xmas.

I got a wonderful free clutch bag from No7 boots many moons ago as part of a Xmas free gift thing where you spend a certain amount & receive a free ‘gift’. Anyway I wore it to a wedding & another guest had the same bag & we both said how lovely it was & I mentioned I couldn’t believe it was free… well obviously hers had ben re-gifted and her face was crestfallen. I felt so bad for her..

I think regifting is weird and rude. I use most of my gifts or, if I can't, donate them. I wouldn't dream of regifting something. After all, what are the chances that it would suit the recipient? Not much.

I find that very odd. Why would you regift something your kids bought you if you couldn’t afford it. Why not enjoy it. Why leave expensive gifts on the way out, why not give it to the host normally?