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.

@FlyingByTheSeatof I can't wear red lippy either sadly 💋 it doesn't suit me at all!

@CupboardMonster - that doesn't sound too bad. Nothing wrong with a bit of sugar - much better than artificial sweeteners.

[quote BuffaloMozzerella]@FlyingByTheSeatof I can't wear red lippy either sadly 💋 it doesn't suit me at all! [/quote]
I thought the same but got a Mac Ruby Woo last year in an advent calendar and it actually looks good.

I assume you haven't received you LF calendar yet? The freebie stuff I ordered from them after they told me the calendar was in Ireland has arrived via An Post who as usual sent an email saying they had it. I recking there is no way An Post could have it as they would have emailed me.

@OchonAgusOchonO No I haven't received it. I also usually get a text off An post when they have a package for me and I haven't had one. I also haven't had one for my (final) beauty box which is also apparently on its way to me via Hermes!

That's great news your freebie stuff has arrived with An Post. I've been feeling reluctant to use the credit they gave me in case that order just disappears too!

That's great news your freebie stuff has arrived with An Post. I've been feeling reluctant to use the credit they gave me in case that order just disappears too

I used mine immediately seeing as it's looking like a no deal brexit and don't want get hit with charges if it doesn't arrive until January.

Oh god haven't event thought of that!

Start spending

Today's Amazon is a nice sized This Works product. Thankfully not a sleep spray; I have a number of those from previous ACs and beauty boxes. It's a 100ml Deep Sleep cream. HB has a lovely licorice lip oil today. V pleased with both.

Today's L'Occitane offering is another hand cream - an almond one this time. There's been a lot of hand creams (I'll use them all though). Hoping they have a few shower gels or body lotions soon.

Degustabox delivered these delicious little wonders.

I'm absolutely loving the By Terry lip balm from the JL calendar a few days ago. Have just checked and the full size is ££

Was also happy with the silk hair band yesterday which is a definite step up from current hair bands.

Today's offering is from a brand I've not heard of, a duo of skin oils (day & night) from Discovery. Just had a brief look at their website and it's all vegan & cruelty free and apparently helps the mind as well as the body. Decent size bottles and my dry skin loves an oil at night.

The main reason I bought the ASOS calender today! Aveda damage remedy, full size. Perfect!

My skinstore is on it's last day. 10 out of 12 products were hit for me and full size chantecaille jasmine and lily mask was the reason I bought it. It also came with lovely goodie bag with mini Dr Denis Gross eye cream and some things from brands that we don't get here. I will check the content again next year, I really enjoyed it.

F&M had this gel to dry texture eyeshadow. It's silvery pink and very pigmented, a foil type thing. I've tried it on my arm and don't think it's for me, the pigment clumps and it feels drying.

@Themarvellousmrsm I have been noticing a beautiful smell emanating from the John Lewis calendar every time I open the doors and it is the Disciple Oil Discovery Kit today. I'm almost a bit sad that the calendar won't smell that way any more now they're out! To make up for it though my bedroom should smell nice today/tonight. This product is right up my street and I can't wait to try it.

The lip balm is also one of my favourite things this year but as you say, very expensive to repurchase, although I think the standard pot you buy is bigger than this one so should last a long time.

@CupboardMonster The F&M calendar has seemed to be great so far but I don't think that eyeshadow would have been for me either. The Degustabox biscuits however are quite another story...!

As @CupboardMonster says, F&M is a full size Iconic Chrome flash eye pot in a pinky shade. It’s not the sort of thing I’d buy, but I’ll give it a go.

N-a-P is also make up today, a By Terry pressed powder. It gets very good reviews on Space NK, so will look forward to trying it.

@Retailqueenie, full size Aveda damage repair is a good day indeed!

Today is an eye serum from CEW, a brightening lotion from lumene ( I assume that's another name for toner?) and Earl grey tea.

So I now have enough eye cream to last me the rest of my life. There's this one, the Elizabeth Arden one, and the Elemis one I got from QVC. None from lumene yet but that is certainly a possibility.

Question about today's one: it's called a serum, rather than cream. I assume that's the same thing and that it's not like a face serum where you put moisturiser on top? So I should use it on its own rather than putting another eye cream on top?

Yes so today from Boots No 7 is a skin illuminator to use as a primer or highlighter or to mix in with your foundation.
As already mentioned is the duo of oils from John Lewis AC by Disciple. There's a day time oil called Good Skin and a night oil called Dreamy Skin which has retinyl Palmitate in it so it's like a gentler version of Sunday Riley Luna.

@bigdecisionstomake and @Themarvellousmrsm I've been trying out all my other lip balms (I seem to have quite the collection from various AC and boxes) and none are lovely as the By Terry Lip balm. I wore the silk scrunchie last night and it's very comfortable to sleep in so I'm actually loving it for that. I've got long straight hair so need to tie it up to sleep in otherwise it gets too hot and tangles up.

@OchonAgusOchonO just go by how it feels. I put on my eyecream then my moisturiser eventually goes over the top anyway after serums and essence and HA.

@AprilLady the By Terry powder looks good, be interested to hear how you get on with it.

@Retailqueenie I love the Aveda hair mask it works so well in my hair just love that stuff.

Lots of interesting items all round again.

@CupboardMonster

Degustabox delivered these delicious little wonders.

Absolutely delicious with my coffee this morning. The Degustabox calendar continues to impress.

It’s the start of the holidays for the DC, so we went out for a nice family breakfast and I wore the eyeshadow cream. It’s shiny but pretty, and got approval from DD(17) and DH so it will get used again.

Surprise hit so far is actually the sample Ilapothecary cream from a few days ago. I’ve been using it as a hand cream and it absorbs beautifully and makes my hands feel really soft. It’s quite strongly fragranced so I probably wouldn’t use it as a full body cream. It is also one of the more affordable items in the calendar, and I think may well be a repurchase.

@OchonAgusOchonO, you can definitely use an eye serum and then an eye cream on top, as you would other face creams and moisturisers.

A little bottle of Lancome Genifique serum for me today courtesy of Fenwicks. Apparently I can ‘eat Christmas dinner in the smug knowledge that I have the best skin at the table’ - who writes these things?

I think the eyeshadow might grow on me @AprilLady I'd only need a tiny bit. The sample stripe on my arm has had brilliant staying power over a 10k fast walk (to burn off the degustabox morning biscuits).

The Aveda damage repair in the ASOS calendar today was the whole reason I bought the calendar- in fact I opened it a couple of weeks ago because I ran out and thought there was no point buying it again when I had one sat in the calendar!

But that did mean ofc that I had nothing to open today

The Swaps thread seems very quiet - or is there a different one/ is everybody just so happy with their items there's no swapping going on this year 😁?

Also pleased with the full sized ‘this works’ body cream! Would like some face creams/cleanser now though!