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.

8am it is then! F&M is a Sol Janeiro lip butter. Smells not too dissimilar to the Bum Bum cream and feels lovely on.

N-a-P is a tiny Oribe shampoo. I like the brand and am currently using another of their products, but 15ml of shampoo is ridiculous. As you can see, it’s smaller than the lip butter!

Very pleased with the F&M lip butter, it smells gorgeous and has a lovely texture.

@Retailqueenie - I love Bareminerals. Sounds like a good start.

@AprilLady - you'd barely get one wash out out that! The lip butter sounds good. I've tried the bum bum and loved the smell.

I got a face mask (came from CEW), nordic C moisturiser from lumene and Chun Mee tea from my tea one. I haven't opened the seal on the lumene yet so don't know what it smells/feels like.

That's interesting Ochon, I got a different Lumene moisturiser today. Mine is a rich day cream and I'm wearing it already.

@Ponks - That's interesting Ochon, I got a different Lumene moisturiser today.

Odd. Must be a packing mistake in one of them. They're usually all identical.

Day 1 bit of a cheat as I opened Space NK October - birthday present, and cult beauty November but here we go

VOTARY Super Seed Facial Oil 50 ml - favourite! Smashing day 1, looking forward trying it

Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant 30ml - HG product for me, I have full size but travel size will be handy too

SKIN Sub-Zero De-Puffing Energy Facial Mask - Single Mask from Skinstore 12 day holiday box

AVEDABOTANICAL REPAIR LEAVE IN TREATMENT 25ML - disappointed I have to say. This is from Liberty. M&S had full size damage repair last year, and at this price point not great day 1. I didn't like the damage remedy but I hope I get on better with this

I will keep the mask for days I need depuffing, maybe next time I travel abroad and the mini bha but will the votary oil tonight and the leave in this morning. Votary oil is full size and such expensive product, fragrance free and cult beauty just killed it today!

I had a quick look at some of the other threads. They're all allowing discussion from 7am. So will we do the same for those who want to get their fix before work?

yes, that's good as people who can't wait to chat can chat about the products and if you want later surprise it's only fair you know not to open the discussion

Oh I’m so glad there is a generic thread as I have two of the less popular advent calendars- Rituals & White Company. I hope it’s ok to join!

Weirdly today, both windows were candles! I love a candle & have refrained from buying any news ones on account of my advents!

I got Midnight from White Company which smells lovely & rich. The Rituals one - savage garden - smells very fresh!

Really interested in the rituals one @happytobemrsg I was too late to get one.
Agree liberty needs to up its game.

I’m opening Lumene in January but I’m happy to read what people get this month because I’ll have forgotten a month later!

Pleased with my LF item which was a total surprise despite me checking contents before buying - told you I have a bad memory!

I got the Votary oil from Liberty last year and still haven’t used it! So now I have two. Unless I gave the last one away. I’m a bit scared of oils as bath oil irritates my skin, but presumably facial oils are gentler?

Diptyque started me off with Baies. I’m currently self-isolating and my bedroom is quite close, so a good day to be burning a lovely candle.

Space NK’s exfoliator I also already have an unused sample of already. I need to step up my game in 2021 or there must be NO advent calendars for me.

Oh that’s so beautiful Babyshark. I have the cheaper Rituals calendar this year

Not impressed with the size of your shampoo April!

I have the smaller of the two Pomegranatespompom but it still looks lovely. I initially wanted the white company one, DH said it’s very expensive so I opted for the cheaper Rituals one. When I told him he said I should have got the White Company one as I deserved a treat 🙄 which is how I ended up with both

@happytobemrsg - what was the popcorn in? Is it a popcorn calendar or a general food one?

Lovelies @happytobemrsg we definitely deserve treats this year. I’ll be really interested in the products and fragrances.

Most oils are naturally fragrant, votary have used only fragrance free oils and much better chance of tolerating it without irritation

H&B this morning was the Sukin day cream- looks nice but may be too rich for my skin. Although I'm nearly 50 I'm still prone to spots!

Today's advent.
Love the White Company candle.

Glad it wasn't just me that was a bit underwhelmed with the Net A Porter day one offering. I'm consoling myself that they must be going for a slow build throughout the month, so the 24th one will be amazing!!

I’ve got Cult Beauty this year and I was very impressed with today’s offering. I bought a different Votary oil recently and I really like it so I’m looking forward to trying this one.

I also have some non-beauty calendars this year:

Yankee Candle which I got it free with my Boots points. I like having a candle burning whilst I work so a festive tea light each day seemed like a nice idea. It doesn’t tell you what you’ve got each day but whatever it is smells lovely.

Nespresso. I drink at least one coffee a day so I went for this. Though I thought there would be more of the festive and limited edition flavours - this morning I had Melozio which is one of the boring ones I already had in my cupboard.

Waterdrop. A recent discovery. They sell flavoured drops to add to water but they also have amazing water bottles and other accessories. I bought their large calendar after watching a You Tube reveal and actually got a small one free with it. Today I got a full box of the Relax flavour in my big calendar and a single serve of the Boost flavour in my freebie calendar

@MiaN

Is there enough LIberty to justify separate discussion on it?

Is there a Liberty thread? I'd like to join it if so. Hoping that Day 2 is a little more exciting!

No 7 here but doubly disappointed (I usually have M&S)
Spot the error- I opened what I thought was the number 1 window (it's the first one) to find voucher to collect a blusher! How disappointing and utterly useless in lockdown.
Then I realised I had in fact opened number 7...... is it just me I don't think it's very clear?
Number 1 was a tiny primer I had as a freebie earlier in the year.
Not impressed so far
Number 7 a big disappointment in lots of ways!!!

A voucher would really annoy me. I wouldn’t be able to redeem it easily at the best of times.

Fenwicks calendar here. Day one was MAC mascara - Extended Play Gigablack Lash - to give it its full name! Not tried it before but my current mascara is on its last legs so good timing.

@CushionsandCandles - definitely looks like a 1!

Why on earth would they put a voucher in for a blusher? It's not like a blusher is a massively large item. The whole point of an advent calendar is to have the item on the day.