Controversial take on beauty advent calendars...

[nanbread]

They're really shitty for the environment.

Tiny bottles = more plastic used

Stuff people don't want - wasteful

Excess packaging compared to buying normally, eg some come in individual cardboard boxes too

Excess in general - who needs a new beauty product every day for 25 days?

I loved it when I got one about 4 years ago but I decided not to again as it seemed a bit overindulgent.

Thoughts? Does anyone make a more ethical one? Do you care about that aspect of them? (Puts on hard hat )

I think it's best to assume people are generally doing the best the can when they can

I would really love this to be the case but I just don't think it is.

Not expecting us all to wear hair shirts (made from our own hair) and not own anything but mindless overconsumption is a thing and I think for a lot of people it just doesn't occur to them.

Just to add I don't blame or feel angry at those people, more at the way society / commerce has created the "need" for overconsumption

No idea why you couldn’t have just joined the other thread but anyway.

Because I didn't see it. I won't be insulted if you don't comment on this one though.

@chloechloe

Here we go again. I don’t think it’s possible to make such a generalised statement. I get one every year (Cult Beauty this time) and generally go for the high end ones which have full sized products. The calendars keep me stocked up for most of the year so I don’t need to buy anything else - surely one big delivery is better than lots of smaller purchases, whether online or traveling to the shops? The empty boxes were given to a friend who was delighted to use them as ACs for her kids.

Well this sounds fairly good then if you buy a lot of beauty products and you're using everything up. Imagine it's expensive though. I wouldn't usually buy 2 x products a month so it's a lot for me.

@nanbread

I think it's best to assume people are generally doing the best the can when they can

I would really love this to be the case but I just don't think it is.

Not expecting us all to wear hair shirts (made from our own hair) and not own anything but mindless overconsumption is a thing and I think for a lot of people it just doesn't occur to them.

I agree to some extent but I think the tide is turning gradually for many people now. And people are trying.

Completely agree. I was gifted one last year and the amount of packaging made me feel nauseous and I never used half of the (teeny tiny) products.
Total shite if you ask me.

Some of them look lovely, but I've not found one that I'd use everything from (or even nearly everything).

We need to get into the habit of buying what we need, rather than random stuff that looks pretty. That can still be luxury goods, but no one needs ten 'deluxe' samples of moisturiser.

@PegasusReturns How does ten 10ml plastic bottles utilise more plastic than one 100ml plastic bottle?

Think about the surface area of ten small bottles compared to one large bottle...

Any bits I don't use up are passed on to others who are pretty chuffed to receive them.

I agree with you, OP, but I hardly think it's a controversial opinion.

Some people like them, others don't.

I think they're a consumerist pile of shite, but if other people like them looking at you, DD- , that's fine too.

I am not a mindless consumer. I am very aware of what I choose to do environmentally and otherwise. I don’t buy advent calendars because I think they fulfil a “need”, are essential, or because I’ve been conned by marketers. I just genuinely enjoy everything about them - from spending hours researching which ones to get, to buying them, opening them and then using almost all the products they contain. They bring me real pleasure.

And I really object to the assumptions on this thread that by buying them I am some sort of brainless, mindless sheep being conned by clever marketing into buying a beauty calendar.

There are lots of things I am not particularly interested in and don’t do through choice, but I don’t start threads virtue signally my abstinence from those activities/purchases because I understand that others feel differently.

I agree that there are important conversations to be had about how we reduce consumption, and even more importantly and urgently, how we effectively eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels, but picking on people buying advent calendars is the wrong way to do this.

Agree. Although I have found some things I absolutely love through them.

Haven't used everything from last year though so didn't get one this year. i am kind of missing it though. I have a chocolate advent calendar and have barely bothered to open it whereas DD and I oohed and aahed over opening the liberty one i had last year.

@Rainbowshit If you look at @thetrowelbeauty on Instagram they're doing a (very funny) daily opening of Liberty and absolutely slating it. Might make you feel better about skipping it this year!

[quote Bavarois]**@Rainbowshit* If you look at @thetrowelbeauty* on Instagram they're doing a (very funny) daily opening of Liberty and absolutely slating it. Might make you feel better about skipping it this year![/quote]
Ah ha ha, brilliant! Thanks for that, yes it does look like this year's would have been a disappointment!

Agree. Although I have found some things I absolutely love through them.

I have too, I will admit.

The one I did buy led me to my perfume, and I also really loved a primer - but haven't been able to buy it again since I used up the sample annoyingly.

The other 23 were average or worse though!

Honestly, some of you simply don't know you're born. All we got in our advent calendars back in the day was a festive picture. Not even a chocolate, just an image of a robin or a Christmas candle. And do you know what? We were bloody well grateful for it!

Well mine arrived today... and looks like a massive fanny...

Or the Venus Fly Trap thing from Little Shop of Horrors

"Feeeeeed me Seymour!"

Isn't the whole beauty industry one big environmental shambles?

(Disclaimer, I am intolerant to most of the stuff so maybe a tiny weany bit bitter about eyeshadow, nailpolish & Co.)

Didn’t buy one this year for this reason!

I still have various bits and bobs to use up from previous years so I am focusing on using them.

I’m not saying I will never buy one again but I am trying to be more mindful of my consumption habits, and this is an easy thing to cut out.

I just bought a MAC one as a treat to myself after a rubbish few months. I don’t feel guilty at all, why should I? Most people drive and run a car and I don’t, so that more than offsets any environmental impact. Things like this give a little joy in an otherwise bleak and miserable time.

We probably get a takeaway once a year at most and they create a huge amount of waste. I reckon the average family's annual takeaway wastage is far more than my two beauty advent calendars a year.

Add into that equation the actual waste of food from over ordering etc. Not so much very recently for obvious reasons but we really enjoy food and love to eat out and virtually always clear our plates (after ordering reasonable sized portions) and the amount of food I see other families waste is staggering. It's as if people don't realise everything on their plate has a carbon footprint

I think its fine to not want one, its just not fine to think no one else should have one.

We need to move towards a world where people make more sustainable choices and where consumerism isn't so rife yes, but Christmas isn't the time to start judging people. Surely its the one time when people should allow themselves a treat?

I know people will say, well if not now then when DO we start, but I look back (through my rose tinted glasses) to when I was growing up and people went all out for Christmas and Birthdays, but the rest of the year there wasn't a lot of spending on extras. We got new clothes twice a year etc. I think there is a balance!