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!

Here is my haul from today:

LiB - Christophe robin hair mask
Selfridges - 111skin vit c brightening booster
Space NK - medik8 crystal retinal 3
CB - Dr Levy anti pollution serum

I actually opened most of the remaining days before I left for Australia but my boyfriend has repacked 2 of the cases so I have something to open in January.

In his words:

“And your advent calendars are ready. They are without doubt the most rightly packed and generous calendars ever created. I just wanted to get rid of all the 1000000s of little tubes and containers EEEEVERYWHERE”

😂😂😂

@Zoetrope1 😂 I fortunately have a very lovely, understanding and long suffering DH, who puts up admirably with the way my stash spills out of everything in our bedroom and bathroom.

Day 23: Nearly done now. Not as exciting today:

F&M: Kure cuticle oil. Something I should use but never manage to - I’ve still got a nearly full bottle of this from a previous calendar.

Liberty: 111Skin Rose Quartz mask. I’m glad it is not the sheet mask, and will give it a go. But I’ve never found 111Skin products worth their supposed £££ price tag.

LiB: Another useful and functional LiB product: First Aid beauty hydrating serum. This will definitely get used.

Loving your boyfriend’s work @Zoetrope1!

My DH despairs of my collection. It’s curtailed in my dressing table set up which has six drawers. Although one is hair dryer etc.

I feel the same about 111Skin @AprilLady. No idea why it’s got such a high price tag.

I keep cuticle oil in the drawer of the side table in the living room so I can use in the evening when watching tv. Had forgotten but actually started using it again this week after a bit of a gap.

JL this morning had a Votary Brightening Serum. I like Votary so happy with that.

Full size Sarah Chapman Skinesis intense hydrating booster in HN today. I'll definitely use it, love a hyaluronic acid serum.

I have missed a few days as I was at Legoland - always fun when you queue to see Santa and you 5 year old won’t go near him. Sephora had in from the 17th to the 20th a KVD beauty epic kiss lip butter in a lovely neutral shade, Nara orgasm x blusher, medik8 hydra b5 serum (full size and aromatherapy associates rose shower oil.

Sephora day 21 had a full size nursen hand cream, elasticised, fekkai multi-tasker & a 90ml living proof perfect hair day dry shampoo, day 22 was a 10ml floral street wild vanilla orchid and today is AB the cream - I thought I wouldn’t like the perfume but it’s lovely and not too floral.

Double hyaluronic serum for me today with the Votary brightening serum from JL and the Dr Sebagh one from Fenwick's. Two good products from two good brands so am happy with both of these.

Wow that’s really impressive from Sephora.

Degusta - gravy mayo. Not for me but I haven’t seen my H this excited in a long time, he thinks it’s genius 😂
body shop - full size vit e face wash
H&B - coconut oil 50ml
Selfridges - a really lovely rose candle by Nudesse

Can’t believe we’ve nearly finished. I’m going to miss seeing what you all get each day.

I was happy with the Votary serum too @Stokey.

Great selection from Sephora @loz12345.

Glad your DH is happy @Pinenu! And I’ll miss seeing what everyone gets too. The month has gone really quickly.

Looks like today was hydration day (LiB, JL, Fenwick’s) - better than more exfoliators.

@loz12345 Sephora stuff looks excellent

@Pinenu gravy Mayo just sounds odd - let us know whether your DH actually likes it!

It has gone really quickly this month, I’ll miss it too. But I never have the time or inclination for a Jadvent, sadly.

‘gravy mayo’: Jesus Christ and the wee donkey! 😱

Not sure I'm brave enough to try my gravy mayo.
What are people going to use the H&B coconut for? Assuming it's not the same as the ones you can eat? (I'll give it to my dogs if I can!)

@Pinenu I bet if we'd had a thousand guesses we'd never have thought of gravy flavoured Mayo 😂

Day 24: Good stuff for Christmas Eve

F&M: Acqua di Parma shower gel and body cream. These are bigger than I was expecting - pretty happy with this.

Liberty: Le Labo The Matcha 26. It looks small but it is 15ml. This was one of the reasons I bought this calendar and having now tested it, I’m not disappointed. Love this.

LiB: A huge full size Murad - you guessed it - exfoliating cleanser. But at least it’s a cleanser not a mask.

We got that cleanser in the JL calendar a couple of weeks ago but not full size @AprilLady. The rest of your products look good too.

An Aromatherapy Associates Bath/shower oil in JL this morning. Might try an Olaplex treatment this morning and a face mask and soak in the bath later. Might even Exfolikate my feet!

Oh that sounds like a nice plan @Peridot1

Happy with today's bath oil from JL, was just thinking I hadn't got any bath products. Fenwick's is Frederic Malle's Musc Ravageur perfume. I really wanted to try this - Portrait Of A Lady is my favourite perfume ever & probably signature scent. This isn't quite as good but is a nice wintery smell so will get worn.

Day 24 for Sephora and I am really pleased to get a full size Neom de-stress candle - I also opened 25 as wanted to get rid of the massive box and that is also great

Charlotte Tilsbury eyes to mesmerise in HN today. It's quite a dark bronzey brown, I like the colour. It's harder to apply than I thought, though, as it's so pigmented. Maybe I should be using it as a liner? I thought it was a cream shadow.

There's a box for tomorrow and I already know what's in it because it's one I've been waiting for. Overall, the calendar has been excellent, and I'm so happy to have lovely facials to look forward to in 2023z

Which Sephora calendar did you have @loz12345
my friend has this and got something completely different.

@PomRuns it was the large multi brand one. They had a couple of smaller ones that I think contained mainly Sephora own brand products. I think the one I had sold out really quickly as it was only £135 and then there was a discount you could apply to it too making it really good value.

@CeeCeeDeeBee I use the CT as a cream shadow - but you don’t need very much as it is really pigmented.

@Stokey I quite like FM Musc Ravageur, but it’s not my favourite FM scent - that is Une Rose (I think now renamed Rose Tonnerre ). I Love the AA bath oils too.

@loz12345 , @PomRuns the large Sephora multi-brand calendar was excellent value. I strongly suspect it was actually the last U.K. Feel Unique calendar - their 2021 one wasn’t a success, so they tried hard for 2022. Sadly, I’m anticipating only the standard Sephora fare next year.

Morning spent food prepping. More to do this afternoon, but good progress made so far.

@loz12345 I think her doors were muddled - the candle was a different day.
@AprilLady i hope there are lovely AC next year, there may not be a sad much choice I guess as sone didn’t shift. I wonder where the fortnums ones went - I’d would definitely have purchased if they’d discounted.

😂 @Giftwithpurchase we were NEVER going to guess the gravy mayo. It threw us again this morning as on the back of it we all had wild guesses like chilli butter but nope, a perfectly normal and delightful bag of chocolate buttons 😁

The gravy mayo has had mixed reviews. Most say it tastes like mayo but my H is sticking by it and thinks it’s only for sophisticated tastebuds like his 😂 so he’ll be getting a bottle every year from now on.

I’m sad to see the end of degusta, it’s been great fun.

Body shop was a vit C face mask, H&B a faith in nature body wash and Selfridges had le labo perfume but mine was empty (already knew) so my H filled it with sweets and a mini brandy.

Cheers everyone 🍹 Hope you have a peaceful evening and fantastic day tomorrow.

Merry Christmas x