Beauty advents 2022 part 3 (so many SPOILERS)

[Zeeza]

Continued from:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/4639718-beauty-advent-22-part-2-massive-spoilers?page=40&reply=121083464

All your general beauty advent chat, reviews and discount codes.

I read on another thread that the JL calendar had items missing so I did a quick check. All there - it was actually useful checking as I’ve run out of pillow spray so I’ve taken that out I am proof that it works as I didn’t sleep too well the past couple of nights. Either it works or it’s a marvellous placebo effect.

I will now not touch it again until 1st December. I will, however, sleep well

Was reading on the Boots website that after buying a No 7 gift set a customer got it home and found three items missing

It’s quite disheartening all of these, broken and missing products, it really makes what should be a lovely experience a stressful one.
They really need to address each part of the chain where things are going wrong, and sort it out.
Nobody needs the hassle of correcting their mistakes!

Do we have a winners and losers consensus this year?

For me the clear winner was Harrod’s perfume for value for money.

Losers are probably everything else, most are heavily discounting now, be interesting to see what happens on Black Friday. I think anything with gua sha or eyelash curlers, lots of sample sizes or repeats / job lots needs to have a word with itself for next year. Harvey Nicks deserves a special mention for including in house treatment vouchers that are useless to about 95% of the population.

Harrods scent calendar was terrible for me. I bought it and hated most because they were spicy ouds, i didn't mind a couple and i loved a couple. Wasted my money.

Clear winner for me was cult. Lovely skincare and some interesting products I'd not used before.

Honourable mention for John Lewis which wasn't terribly exciting, but was very useable for me.

I think the nicest presentation was penhaligan, followed by fenwick and fortnums.

Ah see I love a oud.

oh yes Penhaligons beautiful but £££.

I think many of us haven’t actually opened the calendars yet and have largely forgotten what is in them!

Maybe a question for a month’s time?

I think we are spoilt.
Over £1000 worth of stuff for £250 for example is good value. As long as the contents you like are of that value.
But we've seen some good calendars the last few years and expectations are high. Too high.
I think we need to readjust. Companies are closing left right and Center. They need to make a profit too

Exactly, I really can’t remember what’s in my Space NK.
Cult Beauty emailed with €40 off their calendar. I really wish I’d waited for the discounts. Interesting to see how much further they’ll go

I have the JL one but am deliberately not looking again at the details of what’s in it as I want some surprises in December.

But I would agree the HN one was badly thought out. The vouchers put me right off that.

I think I would have really liked the CB one but having said I wasn’t getting one this year that was way too expensive for me. I only got the JL one as I got the deal with the beauty Radiance box.

I would agree with you @supadupapupascupa that we are spoilt. I think with things like beauty advent calendars there will always be ‘filler’ items. Companies do need to make a profit. It’s definitely an issue if there are too many and I think the HN vouchers were obviously fillers and it will be interesting to see if they do them again next year and even if the calendar sells out.

I suspect companies possibly don’t realise how much some of us study each calendar and research costs etc. And given that calendars are not selling out as quickly this year and there are lots of discounts and potentially companies stuck with stock I think the market will be quite different next year.

Does anyone have the Anthropologie calendar? It's down to £54.60 today, from £78, and has a number of products I like or would be happy to try, but annoyingly doesn't list sizes (which makes me suspicious they're all tiny!)

Has anyone seen a good discount on the MAC advent calendar please? It's the only one where I think I'd use most of the products but it's quite pricey to me (I've had M&S the past couple of years but I'm bored with it now).

They normally price much lower than the advertised £1000 if you remove the items that they hand over for free at the beauty counters, ie the 5-10 ml stuff.

Replying to my own post!

Also, a lot of the stuff in there are items the manufacturers made too much of / are now out of fashion and are not shifting- all the Bum Bum creams, Olaplex no 3 (concerns about safety), Molecule, red lipsticks when people don’t go to parties much anymore, etc etc. The calendars were probably never great value really but there are so many now people spot the patterns and are more picky. Plus the prices have gone up massively.

Too many this year have similar products like Bum Bum cream or the Rich cream. F&M looked lovely but also looked like a clone of last years.

How odd. I got an email from H&B that advent calendar is not available and they are trying to get it. It is still on sale o their web page. Maybe the reason is the weird discount code I used.

I was bought it as a birthday present so haven’t seen it yet. I remember liking the stuff in it - but also thinking they were probably tiny! For the price I thought it OK, so presumably the reduced price makes it better value for money too.

@polmnlj That is strange. I ordered it roughly at the same time as you and it arrived on Tuesday. If you really want it I'd be tempted to place another order without a code.

@KimmySchmitt Not sure if I really want it but I will contact customer services if they cancel.

Coming out of lurkdom to announce I’ve caved and purchased the H&B one for myself at £35. I was going to opt out this year, but got M&S for my mum and H&B at £40 for my sister. I’m now eyeing up the Cult Beauty …

I expect there won’t be as many next year. Which will be probably make our choices easier.

Agree. Cosmetopia or someone like that does a good job in YouTube, analysing what they're worth more realistically.

@polmnlj , i ordered the H&B advent calendar having seen the discount code on another thread. I got an email saying it was dalayed. I fully expected that I'd be refunded, but yesterday I got another email saying it was on its way, and a few minutes ago it was delivered.
The parcel is reassuringly big and heavy.
a bit miffed now that I paid £40

There is no concerns about the safety of the olaplex in the calendars. It's been reformulated removing the scent that is now banned in the EU. I've checked the bottles I received in thr ACs.

@FayCarew Good to hear! I don't really mind if it doesn't come because it was just something for January.