Hi! I am a long time poster who loves a thread in this section, because it is so simple and pleasing in a complicated world. Threads on this board make me smile and feel nicer.

I was reflecting this morning on how much I have learnt about what beauty routines work for me and what suits me, and am curious about what you've learned?

• I struggled to find a light foundation / powder combination to just dust over. I tried Trinny, Mac and Terry. All made me oily / too made up. I now use Laura Geller and it is great. Can hardly see it, never shiny.

• Eye makeup - black doesn't work for me now, the Maybelline dark grey eyeliner is the only one that doesn't smudge (tried loads of others) and it looks best on me as a side wing with a touch underneath, corner only. Layering black inside and out makes my eyes look small and I always regret it. Wing tips make them look wide. Mascara top only.

• No lipsticks really work for me now. I wish to find a nice one but they just don't work for me.

• Hair has also been a big change. I've got long, thick curly hair which will be dry and frizzy if I let it. I have gone full Curly Girl and it has done wonders for my curls, which are now like coils on wash day. I use Faith In Nature shampoo and condition, their aloe vera conditioner which is the lightest and which works beautifully on my low porosity hair. I grew out the lowlights, stopped using a hairdryer and started doing deep conditioning hair packs in a heated hair cap from Amazon.

• Hair longer than bra strap no longer works for me and I need layers. I will never try to grow it longer again as it is boring.

What have you tried and learned?

Bonnie Blue’s latest stunt is to post a video holding her newborn, surrounded by masked men while talking about getting back to making sexual content after having a c-section. Her baby’s onesie matches the colour of the mask worn by the men.

How this is not using a baby to promote sexual content, I do not know. It’s sickening.

I know all she wants is publicity but I sincerely hope this time she gets all the attention she deserves and her baby is taken away from her and placed with a family that can give the child the love, care and protection a child needs. The Tories have reported her to the NSPCC but why has she not been reported to the police??

Morning,

After some constructive advice really.

For the last 10 years approx I have gone back to my widowed mum's for Xmas.

I buy all food and drink and cook for her friends and neighbours Xmas day and boxing day and other days just her and me or maybe the odd one of her friends joins.

Mum has plenty of money , it's just one of those family patterns which we keep repeating.

I'm looking at retirement in the not too distant future ( work restructuring and I think getting a new role in late 50s will be a challenge ) and want to see if we can share the costs a bit more equitably , and ask the neighbours and friends to contribute by bringing something maybe a desert or cheese etc

Am I being being tight ? And how would I go about it if not ?!

Its prob 500 odd of food and drink and I would feel better if cost shared , I'm happy to do all cooking and also recognise that mum is hosting in her home so paying for utilities etc

I have received several meetings that clash with the time that I need to collect my kids. Where possible I have tried to make it work and have my husband collect but there is a couple that I can’t make work due to him being away. I will tell work I can’t make it and will need to leave early but I feel so anxious that it will reflect badly on me and hate that I have been put in this position.

feels that however hard I work, sometimes it just can’t be enough.

dont know what I am looking for really, just want to rant and get my frustrations out. I hate that this needs to be an issue.

To think that Burnham’s words are going to haunt his premiership?

‘…national security can’t come at the expense of social security…’

Apologies if this reads like a piss take I’m not the best at wording things.

This Isn’t a reception parent September post dd1 has been at school for a few years now, the thread on friendships just got me thinking. I have no friends at all, my only friend is my husband and we met when we were in secondary school.

It would appear at my child’s school there are two distinct groups of parents one group has a superior lifestyle to me, they’re older (I had dd1 at 16) have better careers, better cars (I cannot even drive) and they are always going on holiday to places where the flight ticket alone would cost too much for me. I’ll exchange pleasantries with them and they are easier to talk to than the second group but I get the feeling beneath that they probably don’t really want to know me.

The other group have more in common with me lifestyle wise but talking to them is a minefield, always drama, always gossip, get irrationally angry over little things, every little thing is a massive fucking deal etc.

Im aware that I may be slightly autistic (undiagnosed) which is making navigating this more difficult but dd2 starts school next year and I’d like to make some meaningful connections next time. If anyone can relate to this how did you navigate this was there a particular group you focused on and managed to break through to?

So I can’t help but feel really angry about the above. So I work from home full time 8-4:30pm most days, husband usually leaves at 8am and takes our son to pre school and goes to work and doesn’t get home until after the kids are already in bed, so I generally do everything while working at the same time and I use my lunch break to pick my son up from school, this includes the kids breakfasts in the morning and my sons lunch for school as my husband gets himself ready for work in the morning. His only responsibility is feeding the dogs and taking our son, the rest is mine.

He is working from home today so it is both of us home, our 14 month old has had her morning bottle already, but we have not had breakfast yet and my husband has just made himself jam on toast while on a teams call and not thought to do any for our daughter, or myself but I can deal with him not doing me any, but my blood is boiling that he has just fed himself and not thought to do any for my daughter.

I have kept quiet for now, he is still on his meeting but how would you react/ feel about this?

I already do so much and the fact he has just fed himself has made me want to blow but not sure if I am being unreasonable. and to top it off he is eating a bag of crisps now and my little one has heard and is now winging because she wants some and now I’m left to rush to do her breakfast while I am also working.

My partner and I were together for 10 years. I loved her dearly and believe we had a strong relationship. About 5 years in she came into a sum of money after her father sadly died and she decided to buy a house with the money so we could set up home together. She decided to put my name on the deeds effectively giving me half the house. I cautioned her at the time that it was a big step and a generous gift but she said she loved me and it was our home. A year or so ago, after 6 months of lying and deceiving me, she left me for a local man. I now live in the house on my own but she is indicating that the house belongs to her because she ‘paid for it with my dad’s money’. Where do I stand legally please?

Now it is a drama about how the Israeli security services deal with the conflict but it is apparently pretty accurate and is amazingly well produced and acted.

Season 5, which covers Oct 7th has just come out after a long delay.

I've had to take a break after episode 7 because it's so distressing but it still doesn't even come close to what happened that day.

I think it's gives a clearer idea as to the truth of what has been going on and it does try to give a perspective from both sides.

I think every pro-Palestinian should watch it.

AIBU?

Been trying to get a thread going to no avail 😄😄

I'm so happy - this is the most wonderful time of the year, between now and December!

I've name changed but i'm a christmas regular

I did a large sporting event which was a very big deal to me last year.
My now ex offered to have my bib, swim cap etc framed for me using someone he'd had some military medals framed by previously.

I didn't want a standard sports event layout so he was going to do a custom design which he was happy with, however I've been chasing him by April. To start with he would say yes I'll do it tomorrow, but now he's just not replying.
I'm the other end of the country and tbh, I just want the items back now, they're hugely valuable to me on a personal level.

Is anyone local to Salisbury and do you know if Welbourne Medals and Framing is still open at all?
Bit of a long shot I appreciate, but texts, phone calls and Insta messages are being ignored. I've been polite and only chased every couple of weeks and don't know what to do now. It would be really helpful to even know if the store is open/looks closed up etc if anyone is likely to pass it any time soon.

I’m at my wits end and really need some external perspective from people outside my local school/council area. (I moved to another part of the UK to raise my children, so this is not the school system I went through myself and isn't an area where there's much school choice - if you're not happy, you pay to go private it seems).

Since starting school at five, DD has routinely used a school-issued iPad (no one told me this would happen). I gradually discovered, mainly through what she told me rather than information from the school, that she had been signed up to all sorts of platforms and apps without me knowing/us being asked to approve.

It seems she has watched YouTube during lessons (I've regularly heard they've done PE on YouTube/"music" I've learned is often a sing along Disney song with the words at the bottom? etc) and come home talking about things seen in adverts. Some of the apps have coins, rewards and "friend" features which was a lovely (!!) sudden introduction to class bullying to deal with. and she's been using AI tools on the thing, but school haven't ever told me what it is/why/and I still don’t know what that tool was.

This week, another mum has just confirmed that the school ipads DO also all have email addresses through which they could message one another (although kids like mine age 5 aren't told the passwords for a couple of years yet - thankfully apaprently).

and tonight she's just come home talking about reading a book at school, only for a few questions later for it to bcome clear that it's not a BOOK book, it's another bloody ebook they scroll through on the ipad.

Stepping back a bit: I feel as though the school and council have taken away my ability to manage how much screen time my DD gets, while telling me I have "no legal right to opt out" of so much screentime at school when I asked about toning it down last year (I didn't ask for specifics, I just asked about the messaging stuff, and how much time they were on the iPad for typically).

We game a lot as a family (consoles/etc so i'm not anti-screens generally), but i just feel like there's a constant barrage of poorly done apps, videos and AI without clear limits or safeguards in her classrom. I don't know if it's like this in all schools.

In the UK, would you consider this "normal" or acceptable? Have other parents successfully asked for reduced digital screen learning/alternatives? AIBU to keep challenging it (the council are quite adament that their policy has zero flex)?

I don't know where to go from here and i don't want to be "that parent" but there are so many red flags here but i don't know if to keep pushing on it?

WWYD?

I’ve been left approx £16k collectively after both my DPs died (a few years apart). It’s been sitting in my bank account untouched since then. I don’t want to waste it on bits and pieces - I either want to give it to my DCs or use a part of it at least for something for me.

I am married, main breadwinner, work my butt off. We put all our earnings into one pot otherwise. AIBU if I keep this £16k separate to the family money and for me to decide what to do with it, spend it myself and/or give some to the DCs?

Thanks

Recently my 8 year old has started licking her dinner plate when she's finished. Whilst I appreciate it when she says it's because it was delicious, I've told her not to do it as it's yucky and bad manners.
Dh thinks I'm being harsh on her for getting cross with her

Aibu to not want my child to think it's ok to lick plates after finishing their food?!

There are intermittent threads asking for lists of where people shop - I’m not sure how compelling these are for readers. (And where the OP takes no active role in the thread it’s hard to believe they’re not just some sort of AI generated thing.)

Surely the crucial thing is what shapes a person’s tastes and preferences - all the more so for mature women who have more hinterland. Whether that’s your parents’ interests when you were a child, or shopping with friends as a teen, or a revelation at university or in early jobs. As much as life stages, health, environment, finances.

My ‘reading Vogue from 13’ history is all over S&B.

What influenced you, before ‘influencers’? And how does that affect how you shop now?

Is there an expectation that people's toilets should have an air freshener in? Like a spray air freshener?

We always have air freshener in both our toilets in case friends or family get caught short when visiting us or even to freshen the bathroom after having a wee if necessary, so I hate it if I go to a friend/family members house and they have none.

I get some people may be affected by asthma but surely if you had asthma you wouldn't use it?

We have a glade air freshener at work that sprays into the space where the wash handbasins are for example.

9 months in and I’m completely broken.
I am reaching out in pure desperation - might anyone have any advice at all? I do feel like I’ve tried EVERYTHING (even paid for a sleep consultant) but I am at a total loss now.
Since she was a newborn, my 9 month old just hasn’t slept. I’d spend so many nights until 5am rocking her, singing to her, gently shushing her for hours and hours until she’d crash out in the early hours. Only to wake again soon after. Since she started to develop some sort of circadian rhythm she has consistently woken every 2 hours to feed (ebf). That was hard in itself, but for the last week and a bit, she’s been waking every 30 mins (interestingly she no longer wants to feed on each wake up now) and I am utterly broken.
I honestly do think at this stage, if you can think of it, I’ve tried it, but I’m reaching out in desperation because I just can’t go on like this. I’m going to get seriously ill and, more importantly, I’m just not able to be present in the way I want to be for my baby.
Thank you so much in advance

Continuing the discussion, still interested, still not bored!

Welcome to Thread 7 🥳
A huge thank you to @ilovepond @OvaHere, @JoRaRaRa and @Thelifeofawife
for the previous threads, and to everyone who had been sharing spoilers, information. links, bargains, discount codes and enabling each other over the first 6 threads. ❤️
As agreed, we're taking it in turns to start each new thread this year. If this thread starts getting close to the reply limit, please post to let everyone know you're happy to start the next one so we can avoid duplicate threads.
🎅 A few festive housekeeping notes;
🎁 This thread contains spoilers.
🎄 Please be kind and respectful to one another.
💸 No judging anyone for their purchasing choices (or how many calendars they buy... we're all enablers here! 😂).
🎀 Feel free to share spoilers, offers, discount codes, GWPs, delivery updates and stock alerts.

🎁 Available Now:
Boots launch 01/09 for waitlist then 2/09 for general sale
www.boots.com/christmas/advent-calendars/advent-calendar-waiting-list
Luxe £150
beauty-detective.com/boots-beauty-advent-calendar-2026/
Scent £90
beauty-detective.com/boots-12-days-of-scent-advent-calendar-2026/
Skin £70
beauty-detective.com/boots-24-days-of-skin-advent-calendar-2026/
Liberty – £285 (Beauty Drop members receive £25 off). Full contents revealed. Beauty Drop member pre order has closed and those advents are being dispatched. The advent will go on general sale soon (BD members still qualify for the discount during the general sale)
www.libertylondon.com/uk/features/beauty/beauty-advent-calendar#
Unboxing
P. Louise – £250. Available to pre-order with payment instalments available.
^https://plouise.co.uk/collections/wonderful-world-of-p-louise-advent-calendar/products/what-glows-around-2026-advent-calendar^
John Lewis – £250. Available on pre-sale via the app for MyJL members.
^https://beauty-detective.com/john-lewis-beauty-advent-calendar-2026/^
Harrods Beauty Advent Calendar – £270. Now on sale online and in-store
^https://www.harrods.com/en-gb/p/harrods-of-london-the-harrods-beauty-advent-calendar-2026-000000000000284475^
Harrods 12 Days of Hair & Body – £99. Now on sale online and in-store
^https://www.harrods.com/en-gb/p/harrods-of-london-the-harrods-12-days-of-hair-and-body-advent-calendar-2026-000000000000284465^
Harrods Fragrance Advent Calendar – £225. Pre-sale sold out. Went on sale in-store 1/9.
^https://beauty-detective.com/harrods-fragrance-advent-calendar-2026/^
Vogue Festive Calendar – £355. Available to pre-order
^https://shop.vogue.co.uk/products/vogue-festive-calendar-2026^
Fortnum & Mason Beauty Advent Calendar - £275. Available now
^https://www.fortnumandmason.com/fortnums-beauty-advent-calendar-2026^
Fenwick 25 day beauty advent calendar - £250. Available now
https://fenwick.co.uk/products/fenwick-fenwick-beauty-25-day-advent-calendar-2026
Anthropologie 24 Day Beauty Advent Calendar – £98. Available now
^https://www.anthropologie.com/en-gb/shop/24-days-of-beauty-advent-calendar5^
The Fragrance Shop - Available for pre-order £120 members, £150 non-members
Women's Advent Calendar
^https://www.thefragranceshop.co.uk/the-fragrance-shop/the-fragrance-shop/gift-box-advent/p/76306^
Men's Advent Calendar ^https://www.thefragranceshop.co.uk/the-fragrance-shop/the-fragrance-shop/gift-box-advent/p/76307^
Selfridges
Beauty & Fragrance £250. Went on sale 1/9, but appears to be ‘sold out’ at present.
^https://beauty-detective.com/selfridges-beauty-advent-calendar-2026/^
Elle £197 or £187 if you joined the waitlist
^https://beauty-detective.com/elle-advent-calendar-2026/^
LookFantastic Beauty. Available for pre-order:
https://www.lookfantastic.com/p/beauty-box/the-beauty-advent-calendar-worth-over-665/17691363/
LookFantastic Fragrance. Available for pre-order:
https://www.lookfantastic.com/p/beauty-box/the-fragrance-advent-calendar-worth-over-530/17691405/
Glossybox. £90 or £75 for subscribers. Code: KAREN5 may give £5 off the £90. Available now:
https://www.glossybox.co.uk/p/beauty-box/glossybox-2026-advent-calendar-worth-over-645/17691528/
OK Beauty Box advent/Hannah Martin. Available now £109:
https://www.okbeautybox.co.uk/products/the-ok-beauty-box-advent-calendar?srsltid=AfmBOoppTH5x1vrf3PT8oCWpKiUj111T5PdA8IBPKCjA9SYOpugUFCBJ

Cult Beauty £245 - £20 gift voucher back when buying at launch 03/09 early access.
^https://www.cultbeauty.co.uk/c/advent-calendar/^
Harvey Nichols
Due to the recent takeover, it’s unclear if these a/cs are still going ahead for 2026. Details TBC.
Beauty:
^https://www.harveynichols.com/harvey-nichols/harvey-nichols-beauty-advent-calendar-2026-75896-258491/^
Fragrance:
^https://www.harveynichols.com/harvey-nichols/harvey-nichols-12-days-of-fragrance-advent-calendar-2026-75906-258490/^
John Lewis Fragrance £99 - appeared briefly for sale 1/9 online but this seems to have been a glitch.
^https://beauty-detective.com/john-lewis-fragrance-advent-calendar-2026/^
Space NK £275
^https://www.spacenk.com/uk/gifts/beauty-advent-calendars/beauty-advent-calendar-MUK200063764.html^
Unboxing video
Sephora UK
Spoilers:
^https://beauty-detective.com/sephora-uk-advent-calendar-2026/^
Waitlist: ^https://www.sephora.co.uk/c/beauty-advent-calendar-waitlist^
Fragrance - current thinking is that this will cost £225 and launch around 30/9-1/10
^https://beauty-detective.com/selfridges-fragrance-advent-calendar-2026/^
Next £150 launching 3/9:
^https://beauty-detective.com/next-beauty-advent-calendar-2026^/
Debenhams £120
^https://www.debenhams.com/pages/beauty-advent-calendar^
PURESEOUL £140 (first year they are doing an advent)
beauty-detective.com/pureseoul-advent-calendar-2026/
Jo Malone Waitlist:
www.jomalone.co.uk/advent-calendar-signup?
Jo Loves Waitlist:
https://www.joloves.com/pages/a-jo-loves-advent-calendar?
💄 More Calendars & Spoilers
Rather than making the opening post a mile long, here's a brilliant roundup of lots more advent calendars and the latest spoilers, including Charlotte Tilbury, Elemis, Lancôme, Tatcha, NEOM, Neal's Yard Remedies, Holland & Barrett, YesStyle and many more as they're announced.
👉 ^https://beauty-detective.com/category/beauty-advent-calendars^/ 👈

My DD is meant to wear a lanyard at college with her student pass in it - she needs it to get in/out of buildings, buy lunch etc. She has ADHD and lost/forgot it most days last year until she started keeping her pass in her phone case and all was well from then on.

Fast forward to yr13 and shes Head Girl and been told she has to physically wear the lanyard to lead by example. Day 3 and she’s lost it already and is distraught.

Anyone got any tried and tested tips or solutions to help?

My DD is 5 and has recently started travelling to/from school on a council-provided school bus. There is a driver, but apparently no passenger assistant/chaperone on the bus. Yesterday she told me that an older boy on the bus tried to spill his juice over her. She said he was deliberately trying to do it, rather than it being an accident.
I know children messing around on buses isn’t exactly unusual, and I’m not suggesting this particular incident is some huge safeguarding crisis. But it has made me think about the fact that she’s only 5, travelling with considerably older children, and there doesn’t appear to be anyone supervising them other than the driver.
The driver obviously needs to concentrate on driving, so realistically they can’t be watching what’s happening further back on the bus.
I’m wondering whether I’m being unreasonable to think that a bus carrying 5-year-olds alongside older children should have some form of adult supervision? She’s my first so fully prepared to be told I’m being precious or over the top.

I remember every single bit of that day like it was yesterday. I had only visited the WTC 3 months earlier too. Thinking about the families and survivors and emergency workers today.

On holiday in the Lakes at the moment. DH and I reminisced about the B&Bs we have stayed in during 25 yr marriage. At least half were run by people who seemed to resent their guests, one I stayed in recently was a little run down and you could feel the owners counting down to retirement ( decor was 1980s, outdated electrics, carpets seen better days etc). It got me wondering if fewer and fewer people want to take on the work of running B&Bs, and maybe with air BnB, holiday lets etc it’s getting harder to make a living from it. Anyone else got that feeling?

I've been unhappily married for years. My dh is abrasive in his interactions to the point where we don't have any friends at all. I have my own lovely friends who i see when time allows.
We have two dcs, teenagers. Y13 and Y10.
Dc1 can't stand dh, he is intolerant of her.
Dc2 gets on with him now after years of him not tolersting her.
He scores points and keeps score.
He is never in the wrong or responsible for his behaviour.
I try not to react to keep the peace but when i do he is always the wronged party and i am accused of misremembering/being dispraxic/just wrong.
There are hundreds of things that have led me to check out...death by a thousand cuts.
I don't want to disrupt dcs important educational years so haven't done anything about it and am treading water really.
I am planning to leave when dc2 goes to university but still think that will impact horribly on her, despite feeling like another four years of wasted time is too long.
Any words of wisdom/experience welcome.

Having a wardrobe clear out and deciding what to get rid of. I have these boots that I wore for a funeral years ago. Would you keep them or are they very dated ?