General beauty advent calendar opening thread - all welcome

[AprilLady]

As in previous years, this is a thread for all those opening beauty advent calendars not covered by specific threads, though happy for any to be posted here too. We’d also love to hear about other non-beauty calendars.

Only one ask please, do not disclose contents of calendars before 7am on the relevant day.

I’ll be opening the Liberty and Fortnum and Mason calendars. Possibly also Latest in Beauty, assuming it arrives on time.

Only two sleeps to go - looking forward to it!

@AprilLady - just got DH to check the rest of the calendar and the whole top row is empty, numbers 5,17 & 24!

@CeeCeeDeeBee that is a great day.

Agree the Murad cream is good.

@Nearlyadoctor that’s really poor. And very unusual for F&M. Hope CS are helpful.

@AprilLady lets hope so - it’s the first time I’ve ever bought anything from them.

Next year I'm going to treat myself to a nice advent calendar after reading this!

Definite ball theme going on with Degusta.
Tube of Lanolips in my homemade one, will find a use for that. LiB I don't really use oil but will give it a try.

Kate Somerville Exfoliant in JL today.

@familyissues12345 - they are a really lovely treat.

@Nearlyadoctor - wow. That’s not good. I hope they manage to sort if for you. Such a shame.

@AprilLady that Biossance oil is supposed to be lovely. I bought a starter set of Biossance on Black Friday but haven’t tried yet. I think it’s a light enough oil you could use as a serum? Especially in winter. That’s what I’m hoping anyway. My skin gets really dry in winter so I add in a light layer of an oil before my moisturiser.

I’ve rung F&M and the gentleman I spoke to said send he’ll send out replacements but I need to send a photo of the empty drawers?????? He was also a bit surprised that I didn’t know what the items were that were missing - I told him I knew todays was a candle from a mumsnet thread but without spoiling everything and going through all the drawers and ticking items off didn’t know what the other 2 were.
He was relatively helpful but quite dismissive as if he didn’t really believe me 😡

What's the point of taking photos of empty drawers? You could have just taken the products out yourself, if you were trying to scam them. Really not good customer service from F&M!

That’s not good @Nearlyadoctor. He obviously doesn’t ‘get’ the whole idea.

@Roundaboot - exactly my 💭 thoughts!

This is my favourite skincare product of all time! It's slightly weird to use in terms of texture but it has worked wonders on my very dry skin.

I'm opening F&M and John Lewis. Very pleased with the dinky candle which is beautifully packaged and thus regiftable

I have quite sensitive skin so not sure about the Kate Somerville exfolikate. On the back it says if you have sensitive skin you could "use ExfoliKate Gentle instead". Lol! Ok then I'll just use a completely different product! Haha

@inthedeepshade I have pretty robust skin and can generally put on almost anything without ill effect. But the KS ExfoliKate really, really hurt when I put it on, and left my skin quite red. I actually tried it a few times thinking my skin would get used to it, but eventually gave up. I know it works wonders for others though.

Yeah this is why I get annoyed that Exfolikate pops up so much in advents/beauty boxes, as it's quite a strong product and not for everyone. My skin tolerates it - but not so much in this weather - and also, you can't really use it more than once a week without your skin freaking out, so I'm still going on a tube from an advent two years ago (hence not wanting any more of the stuff!). Would love to see them put the KS Goat Milk cleanser in advents etc instead - as it's a more universal (and useful) product

JL here too, I've used ExfoliKate before but tend to only use it once a week. Also read somewhere that exfoliating skincare is not great for aging skin, so maybe I'll pass it on to my teen instead.

Fenwick's was Higher Education Night Owl caffeinated eye cream. I've never heard of this brand before so it's nice to try something new. So far I'd say Fenwick's slightly edging JL for me.

H&B were microfibre make up remover pads ( magnitone brand) Will definitely be using those.

F&M update - don’t buy their advent calendar would be my advice!!!!

I sent the email with the photos and followed it up with a phone call to check they’d received it an hour later.

Their solution is they’ll send a replacement and they need mine back for quality control purposes. There’s 3 empty drawers fgs. They’ll collect the original at the same time via DPD but this can’t be done until Friday - in the meantime I shouldn’t open the drawers between now and then.

I’ve told them I just want the 3 missing items, which apparently they can’t just do.
Ive asked to speak someone more senior but they’re not available and will call me back 🤷‍♀️.
Absolutely appalling customer service imo.

That's shocking from F&M! Why on earth do they need yours back? The minimum they should be doing is replacing the missing products, and really good customer service would just be to send you a new calendar to make up for the disappointment.

How awful from F&M @Nearlyadoctor . Maybe try their Twitter feed, just say how disappointed you are. I tend to find companies react quickly on social media.

Do you think the contents could have fallen into other drawers? Don't see how a candle could have slipped out though.

@Stokey - my husbands checked all the other drawers but thank you for the suggestion.
I don’t have Twitter but will perhaps look into it.

All I’m asking for is the 3 missing gifts - it’s just so disappointing, I’ve never bought a high end advent calendar before.

Gosh that’s not great @Nearlyadoctor. What a pain.

Useful about the Exfolikate - I have sensitive skin too which is why I’ve always been wary of it. Might use in my feet instead of my face!

@Nearlyadoctor that’s really disappointing. I posted about my issues with the Selfridges calendar on the other thread (used and missing items). I emailed them with photos (of the used items, not empty drawers) on Saturday and they refunded the calendar on Sunday.

It’s not great CS from F&M in comparison but a full replacement might be best as you really don’t know what could have gone on with the other products. If someone has pinched items (as opposed to them falling out), they could easily have used products or replaced them.

Good to know, thank you! I think I'll save it for my feet.

@Pinenu and @Nearlyadoctor so sorry about your calendars 😔

@CeeCeeDeeBee HN sounds amazing - I wish I'd bought it!

Degusta is surely joking with us - 3 days of choc balls! Tbf I've already eaten the chocolate bounce with my morning coffee 😂