Christmas advent calendars, was yours a good one?

[WildFlowerBees]

I love the idea but in reality whenever I've had one years ago I only like a few products and so wasn't worth the purchase.

Seems things have got better, if you had a good advent calendar last year which one did you have?

I'm thinking I'd maybe prefer candles or body stuff rather than the usual skincare.

I got the net a Porter once heavily reduced and really enjoyed it

Trigger warning? What for?

Sorry was meant to be light hearted, so many people take exception to Christmas being mentioned in August.

Did you find you used everything or most things?

I had Fortnum and Mason. Some beautiful things in there like wildly expensive face creams that I’ll never repurchase due to cost, but also a few things I felt were ‘duds’ such as room sprays that I personally didn’t like the smell of (though obviously others others did). I’ve actually gone for the same calendar this year. It’s much more focused on general body care; bath and shower; fragrances and candles rather than skin care and makeup, so it’s right up my street

Yes, definitely used over 90% of it

This was it

https://reallyree.com/net-a-porter-beauty-advent-calendar/

Shame I missed that one looks great! Let's hope this years is just as good.

I had Elemis last year, John Lewis the year before

The Elemis one was great in many ways, lovely reusable packaging (a storage tin), great products in generous sizes with no duds and I've re-bought a few things. The only downside was that there was much less of a surprise element, you knew it would be skincare!

John Lewis one was really nice, wide variety of items, but inevitably a few duds (wrong colour for makeup for example), but also one of the best nude lipsticks I've come across (Nars Tolede), really suits my colouring.

Just seen this. Not sure where would be best to display it amongst the crimbo decorations

On the window ledge surely?

I've had liberty a few times. It is nice but there's a lot of duds from my point of view. Came to the conclusion conclusion it's better just to spend the money on two or three full size items that I really want.

That said, I'm hankering after Dyptique- although it's totally marketing over substance. Lots of mini sample size things!

I like the look of the Diptique but £370 and not full sizes!

I had Liberty a few years ago, then got none 2 years ago and last year we did our own advent 'calendars' following the Hanging fabric bags part from here- www.simplifycreateinspire.com/diy-advent-calendar-ideas/ and making and using a Christmas collage app to make a background for it.
I've also decided that buying 2-3 full sized items is better than having a ton of smaller ones half of which you won't likely use, so that's what I'm probably doing this year as well.