General “waifs and strays” beauty advent calendar opening thread

[AprilLady]

As in previous years, this a thread for those opening Beauty Advent Calendars not covered by specific calendar opening threads (though also happy for contents of those to be shared here too).

As previously, it will also be fun to hear about other calendar openings - food, jam, socks anyone?

Please do not include spoilers before 7am on the relevant day. Please also avoid dropping hints or spoilers about future contents if you have opened the calendar in advance.

I’ll be opening the Vogue and Selfridges calendars this year. Really looking forward to Day 1.

I have a few of the specific thread calendars but can already tell this is going to be my favourite thread😂and@Dogsitterwoes is a queen!

@Pinenu badger is adorable and those 111 masks are amazing.

Confess to already being on drawer 8 of Selfridges mini mince pie advent. They are tiny. And I don't want the pastry to go stale, of course.

@clowniform It's your civic duty to prevent food waste obviously.

I’m indulging in all your calendars this year. Please put photos as love to see what you get!

Loving this thread!

@Dogsitterwoes - I’m disappointed in your tights this morning. I was hoping for the blue and yellow pair again but in reverse. I suppose that might still happen.

@Pinenu - loving the badger. In my house if DH said something like that to me about liking something I had no recollection of ever saying I like I would reply ‘no I think that must be your other wife.’ It seems to happen a lot here that he says he’s told me something and I know he hasn’t. His ‘other wife’ gets to listen to all of his rubbish.

I got jam again in my Bonne Maman calender. Surprise surprise. Not sure of flavour yet as need to look it up. Yesterday’s tea got poured down the sink as I didn’t like it. I had mint instead.

H&B has Sukin gel cleanser, the bottle has leaked which explains why my calendar box smells so strongly!

The tights are Fab.U.Lous., darling!

The badger threat is real. I find that owning a cat leads to a similar flurry of cat-related guff.

Anthropologie here. Yesterday a clay mask that looks great. Today an overnight eye cream but I’ve got two of them! Any other Anthropologie owners with the same? They are identical, I’ve checked.

So many great things to see in your calendars today - the Sarah Chapman cream is supposed to be very lovely indeed. I love the badger in your calendar @Pinenu

@bigdecisionstomake I got the Eve Lom cleanser on Day 1 of the Elle calendar and confirm it is v nice. It has a herbal smell and my skin feels great after using.

Today's Elle offering is a bit meh - brow fluffing wax. My brows are a problem tbh and I suspect no amount of fluffing will help. DD's stocking is looking good 👍

Snag tights look much more wearable today! Shame about the sizing.

What on earth is brow fluffing wax? And why would you want to fluff your brows? Surely smooth and sleek is the desired look?

This is what I'm visualising.

A video of sali Hughes using the benefit brow fluffer has just come up in my insta feed - I think it’s to tame wayward brows

LF is a Dr Pawpaw plumping lip oil. I am fairly obsessive about lip balm and generally use blistex so this will get used if I like it enough.

Day 3 of Ciate is a mini base coat/nail treatment.

Day 3 of Diptyque is a small (25g) Philosykos soap. Pleased with this as I wanted to try the scent but it probably won't be put into use for some time as I have a LOT of soap waiting to be used.

@OchonAgusOchonOh Yes, quite. No danger of me looking like that with the sparse wasteland that is my outer brow area. The beard on the other hand... <reaches for tweezers> @Costacoffeeplease Sali has great brows. I'll check out her tips, thanks.

@SwordBilledHummingbird that soap will be heavenly. Philosyko is a perfect fragrance for it.

I've had two fragrances in my Jo Malone calendar on the first two days, which are lovely, but got a candle today, which will go into the box of candles that I've accumulated over the last two years and never used.

Day 3 Boots No 7 Restore and renew

A lipstick which is the same colour as my Lisa Eldridge Fawn so I'm happy

Yesterdays hand polish was weird. It was a gritty sort of oily combo that I had to wash off after applying but it did make my hands feel extremely soft afterwards

I’ve had that hand polish before, I like it

Maybe the snag tights are intended to make your toes curl over @Dogsitterwoes? Y'know, for the full North Pole festive elf effect? 🧑‍🎄

I wasn't expecting the gritty texture at all so it came as a shock. I thought it would be like a hand cream

I rubbed it around quite ferociously then washed it all off

Next time, now I'm more prepared, I'll be more gentle and leave it on for longer and try and wipe the grittiness off but leaving the oil behind ?!?

The tights are definitely wearable pity they're a bit small

My home-made F&M today is a Drunk Elephant eye cream. I am always up for trying a new eye cream tho I never think they make much difference... will see with this one :)

@Mirrormeback - I think it’s designed to be washed off. It’s basically a hand scrub. I make my own sometimes with sugar and olive oil if my hands are feeling a bit rough and dry. Rub in for a couple of minutes, rinse off and follow with handcream.

Oh really? I thought it was a hand cream too and put it in the drawer. If it's a scrub I might use it more.

Thanks thats good to know at least I did the right thing then. I'll be more gentle next time though and leave it on for longer for the oils to sink in.

I like the toner actually I usually use an acid so a gentler toner is a welcome change

Today from Clarins is a mascara / lash serum product in the colour Caramel

Bit confused , who wants caramel coloured lashes ? It's a light warm ish brown . Might put it on my brows

Harrods calendar here. Eve Lom cleanser, which I’ll never use. Sigh…
man saving Space NK calendar for January, or at least will try