General beauty advent calendar discussion and swap thread

[AprilLady]

Like many others, I’m looking forward to starting my Beauty Advent Calendars on Tuesday. With no M&S calendar or thread this year, I thought it might be fun to have a general beauty advent calendar discussion and swap thread. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts about the calendar they are opening, whatever it is.

I suggest though we comment only on content from current or previous days, so as not to spoil the surprise for those opening one day at a time.

@ashmts I get you, but then that's why there's a specific LF discussion thread - so yes, people can have the fun of discussing but also if it's on the
LF thread, anyone saving theirs till Jan knows to avoid that thread.

@OchonAgusOchonOch I wonder what's more likely now, a Brexit deal or your promised calendar turning up?

@Butterymuffin

Dark chocolate and ginger flapjack in today's Degustabox. One for DH as I'm not mad about ginger.

Just a reminder to be cautious on here about what's mentioned given that people are opening
LF in January, I believe.

@GaryTheDemon pleased the highlighter is working for you! It does for me too.

Sorry I thought the general consensus had been that we could discuss on here, I'm pretty sure there's other calendars being discussed on here which people have said they aren't opening until January. Either way lots of us are getting different products on different days in LF so it's not too much of a spoiler!

@FlyingByTheSeatof

Yes try it under the powder and see how it looks *@OchonAgusOchonO* It's quite usual to wear a cream one under foundation or powder. You can still add the powder one over it if you feel you need to. I have a cream highlighter from M&S from either an AC or beauty box and they do give a different kind of glow to powder. Powder is easier somehow so it's my preference.

Thanks. I'll try that the next time I wear makeup. Probably christmas day .

Sorry I thought the general consensus had been that we could discuss on here

Yeah, I think that was what was agreed.

@FlyingByTheSeatof

Fingers crossed you get a free LF AC then. Better late than never I suppose. Frustrating experience. At least you got a refund but that actually doesnt help as its so disappointing it didn't arrive in time.

I also got "Please stop tweeting" credit so I haven't done too badly out of it. That said, I'm never buying from LF again.

@NorskSkogkatt

The CEW looks fantastic!

The Lumene micellar water looks good. I am slightly nervous that my advent calendar is listening to me in a sort of Alexa way though...when I opened the eyeliner I sent a photo of my eyelined eye to DH (yes I am bored ) and said how awful my dark circles were in the photo, I need a concealer - next day I got a concealer and then i said to DH if I'm going to wear eye make up again I'll need something to take it off and then I got micellar water.

It's listening to me. I'm convinced of it. I think the little doors may be ears.

Tell dh that you really need a winning lottery ticket. You'll be sorted then.

Tell dh that you really need a winning lottery ticket. You'll be sorted then

I have to say my skin is looking so noticeably plump and smooth this morning since I've added the No 7 serum and No 7 Hydrating mask to my routine. All this central heating and cold weather had been drying my skin out a bit and now it looks better than ever

Been having a busy week or so, so I haven't posted my L'Occitane items. From memory, there's been a few handcreams, a lip balm, a moisturiser and a handsoap. Today's item is a Verbena Shower Gel. They're all sample size items but that's fine - I opted for the the basic L'Occitane calendar as opposed to the luxury one. It means if I don't like something, there won't be too much waste. And if I do like something, I can buy a bigger bottle/tube of it. @MiaN my favourite item so far is the Cherry Blossom hand cream. I love the scent and my poor hands have been suffering from the constant hand washing and sanitising. I'm going to buy this in a bigger version. Least favourite item is probably the hand cooling gel. I live in Ireland - I'm not sure there's much call for hand cooling gel here .

Sorry not been posting my hauls. Still super happy with my White Company and Elemis calendars. Other ones are OK. Thinking of repurposing the WC one into a calendar for my son next year. It's too nice to just chuck out!

@Taytocrisps I knew you would be in Ireland from your username! And you of course you too @OchonAgusOchonO I love Tayto crisps, do they still do the bacon flavour? (I live in England but my family, and DH's too, is Irish. I am really missing going to our local Irish Centre shop for Galtee cheese and red lemonade and chocolate Tiffin etc etc. Sorry slight derail )

The winning lottery ticket would be lovely. Funnily enough I make DH a homemade advent calendar and I put a scratchcard in for Christmas Eve. Extremely tempted to swap it to tomorrow's bag now though...

I shall be opening my LF in January - there's not a hope in hell of me remembering what people write on this thread five minutes later, never mind one month!

Love reading it though.

@ashmts Yes, the Samurai shower gel is definitely a more masculine fragrance.

Today from Fenwicks I have Aerin Amber Musk eau de parfum - which according to the card, there will be an ‘inevitable flurry of strangers stopping you to ask what it is’. Doesn’t sound very safe in the middle of a pandemic so I may have to wait till next Christmas to try it out

@Talisin

Today from Fenwicks I have Aerin Amber Musk eau de parfum - which according to the card, there will be an ‘inevitable flurry of strangers stopping you to ask what it is’. Doesn’t sound very safe in the middle of a pandemic so I may have to wait till next Christmas to try it out

Ooh that perfume looks nice. Don't think there was any perfume on Amazon last year 🤔

@ajandjjmum

I shall be opening my LF in January - there's not a hope in hell of me remembering what people write on this thread five minutes later, never mind one month!

Love reading it though.

If generally people are cool with info being shared of course that's fine. I thought we'd said not on this thread, but fair enough, majority opinion. I am posting about LF just on that thread but have been coming here to post what's in my Degustabox as people were interested! It's helped that no one else here seems to be opening the one I have for January.

Got a lovely little air freshener from Rituals in Happy Buddha. So cute

@Butterymuffin I think I you're being very thoughtful not posting your LF items on this thread but I do agree if you or anyone else wanted to that being December then you have every right to

So my disappointment for today - I went to try the rosewater spray and the lid had obviously come loose at some point, so it's completely empty! The drawer doesn't even smell and the paper isn't stained, so I'm guessing it happened ages ago, possibly before it was put in the calendar. I've just spoken to a nice man at N-a-P who is passing my query on to someone so we'll see what happens.

On the one hand, it feels a bit petty given the calendar is supposedly worth about £1,000 and I reckon this one is £26 retail value. But then that doesn't mean that it's okay to not get all the products!

I've checked the website and they do stock that product in that size, so hopefully they can just send another one out.

the calendar having products worth 1000 is irrelevant. Maybe this was the key product you bought it for. I had issue with one item form Cult Beauty advent and they send me replacement without any issues.

@MiaN - I had issue with one item form Cult Beauty advent and they send me replacement without any issues.

And in contrast, one person on twitter who was missing one of the more expensive items from their LF calendar was offered £3 credit in compensation!

I completely agree with you about issues being dealt with properly. People bought an advent calendar in order to try out different products so obviously expect to be able to try them. Companies selling calendars worth significantly more than the cost, are doing so in the hope you will go on to buy some of the products from them again. To then make a big deal out of resolving issues such as broken or missing items would seem to be counter productive.

ASOS was This Works Love sleep spray - absolutely gorgeous ❤️

@BookShark, I do hope they do the right thing and replace the product. I would have been very disappointed if mine had been faulty, as it was one of the products I was particularly looking forward to trying.

It is nice, though if it makes you feel better, the smell isn’t quite what I was expecting. Sort of reminded me of trying to “make” perfume as a kid by soaking rose petals in water.

To be fair, I have no reason to think they won't. But the man I spoke to had to pass it on to someone else, so I'm just waiting for them to get back to me. I'll update when I get a reply - hopefully they'll be better than LF (sorry Ochon!)