Beauty advent calendars 2024 #5

[virgocatlover]

Continued advent calendar discussions. Please share thoughts, purchases and if you see any discounts!

@diamondsandrose This really isn't the experience I've had with Bridal Beauty Box. I bought a mystery box in the summer which I really wasn't happy with - nothing to do with the value of the products, it was just full of makeup, jewellery, and hair items that I would never have used. I emailed just to say I was disappointed and received a lovely apologetic response to say how sorry they were that the items weren't suitable. They told me to return my box, and I got an immediate refund, another apology, and a £10 voucher. I really wasn't expecting to be able to return the box so was delighted.!

@Doubleraspberry sorry to be a downer but had to tell the truth .. I've been an avid advent thread person since the early days of M&S and no one's more a sucker for a beauty box than me. But they are totally suss.

I'm not sure how they are getting away with saying "charity " and as you say no refunds, without naming / sharing a link with the charity/charities ?

Does a charity donation usually mean no refunds allowed? As I said , all a bit suss.

Plus the horrific CS experience and the weird review thing using my name. I'll be sticking to proper companies like space nk Sephora etc , at least you know what you're getting

Yeah. This occurred to me too. I was half awake tbh. It looked like a decent deal for DD if nothing else, but it’s a lot of money. They can’t say no refunds according to law so I’ll see. I can’t really be arsed with a giant fight on this and it’ll probably do for a stash of endless 13 year old presents if the worst comes to the worst.

But actually I probably do have fight in me if it comes to it. £150 is money I don’t have spare!

@Doubleraspberry I remember years ago changing my mind about an expensive skincare purchase from Debenhams online, which I had done click and collect. I went to collect and immediately asked for a refund. They refused, although I had not even accepted the box, saying skincare was non-refundable. They backed down when I mentioned the distance selling regs, (not that I really knew what they were🙀).

If they haven’t even despatched the BB, a decent company should cancel your order if you ask. Can you contact them today? I also think it’s weird that the charities aren’t mentioned. In my ignorance, I thought they had to declare this.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

My main MO is to find a box I like about 1/3 of the contents of and sell the rest on ebay to recoup the cost = free beauty stuff for my never ending stash! So I wouldn't buy without being able to price up the contents on ebay first to ensure I won't lose money. I'll be giving the bride to be stuff a miss.
John Lewis on the other hand the skincare and makeup recent boxes are decent. Suprised they are still in stock as they usually sell out fast.

On ho @diamondsandrose that really is awful. I'd ask for your name to be removed. This is not on. You've had a really bad time with them overall. You're probably not the only one? I think it's good to share both types of experiences so we all form a better overall experience.

I ignore reviews when they are all positive, so haven't ever bothered with the ones on there because how can you tell if they are genuine?

I must say I only ever had positive experiences with them and do trust them and believe they are genuine but I never spend £150 as a first mystery purchase if I wasn't familiar with the company. And have liked all the boxes. Yes, some might be discontinued lines but I haven't noticed anything expired and I usually check. But equally quite a few products that I never heard of, would show up in a mainstream beauty box 6-10 months later as one of the trendy or must have product.
In last year's Christmas box I got a CellCosmet serum. This summer, the exact same serum was one of the products in a beauty awards make your own box from LiB (and I definitely trust LiB for quality and novelty and expiry dates l). So I can't imagine it would all be overstock. There are filler products too, which I would never bother buying but of decent quality and a few repeats too.
I never had problems with customer service, they've been very good. Once I didn't receive a free gift with purchase (an expensive serum) from a promo and they sent it to me separately with another freebie as an apology although, it turns out the promo ended when I placed my order. Another time a box never arrived and they sent me a replacement after asking if I wanted a refund and said I could keep the original if it ever turns up.

I must confess I don't buy from various offerings in order to help them help a charity. I might be naive, but I can't imagine they, or anyone else, would make this up? They named the charity, Choose Love for these boxes, so anyone can look into it if there was any question.

They do sound dodgy, I know there is a loophole on refunding returned beauty products as Harrods don't allow this but they say it's due to hygeine not charity. I reckon Bridal beauty are probably doing a bit of a 'bait and switch' - selling some good boxes to begin with to get good feedback (or the feedback could be shills ie employees) and then the quality will go down. They can probably just about say it's worth £XXX but they'll be buying overpriced stuff from the likes of Avant to justify this.

I’ve emailed them already quoting the distance selling regs but the out of office says Mon-Fri working hours. I’ll see what happens on Monday - it’ll be annoying if it’s been despatched by then of course. I can always raise a dispute with the bank.

Missed Space NK cracker again, it’s been sat in my basket for days.
I was about to go ahead get the JL cracker, justifying that I have £5 credit but just noticed it’s nearly as much for the postage, so feels a bit of a sting

If the reviews are real of course.

I always distrust 100% positive reviews - they are either fake, or the company is suppressing bad ones - no way can every purchaser be that happy!

Re: Bridal Beauty

On Instagram last year, they did name their November 2023 charities so that seems genuine:

Shelter
Choose Love

Good luck @Doubleraspberry

Re: SpaceNK crackers - some are in stock in store.

In years gone by I have loved the beauty advent calendars, 2 years ago I bought 3 (Cult Beauty, Sephora and Elle Magazine) but I find they have gotten so expensive and as my skincare routine has improved I have less room for new products. Last year I didn't buy any but this year I couldn't resist the Sainsburys one, £30 and a new tangle teezer hair brush, why not hey. Looking forward to opening it in December.

We’ll see.

@Branster you must have better eyes than me I looked all over their site for the name of the charity , just looked again and still can't see it.
Choose Love seems to be a legit charity .. I wonder what percentage they give after costs ?

My name is still on the review for the Christmas mystery edit which is misleading in itself as it is dated June so even if there is another customer with my name they are reviewing a different edit !

And yes my final moan on BBC is that I felt as if there was a bit of as MAFS would say "toxic positivity" on this thread regarding the box ... seemed a bit iffy.. think other posters have a good point not to trust everything you read on here !

If a company are willing to use my name to write fake reviews I'd say they are not above doing a bit of mumsnet marketing ... ( am thinking ..how can I prove it as they'll just say it's someone else with the same name as me but I've literally never seen my name elsewhere so would be an unbelievable coincidence)

FWIW, I’ve had positive experiences with Bridal Beauty and have only ever bought the mystery charity bags. I’ve gone for this one too- will post pics when it arrives. IMO, they are always worth more than I paid. If I’d seen the VIP bag yesterday, I might have gone for it as I love a device. But I’ll live without it.

Is the Sainsbury advent available in store or just online? I didn’t see it yesterday.

My resolve to buy no more faded fast. I’ve now declared to OH I’m done until next advent season, with a caveat if Vogue reduces significantly I will bite.. He’s sceptical and reminded me I’ve said this at least three times already this advent season.,Oh dear. I am a beauty addict and love that you all exist too!

I bought the BBC mystery box yesterday and the description yesterday mentioned Choose Love in the name as the charity they are supporting. They appear to have just updated the description and price etc for todays box and wonder if that is what they do hence some of the reviews are not in line with Christmas edits.
I am happy to post the contents when my one arrives.
I am another who has purchased from them before and not has any issues with anything, although that also means I have not tried to contact them to sort anything out either.
I first heard about them through this site and not an influencer or Instagram etc.

I feel like everything was just a bit too early this year. Waitlists in the summer, unboxing videos in August, sold out by October etc. By the time I thought about Christmas, I’d missed the boat on most ACs and we were on the 4th or so thread here.

I don’t think it’ll be the worst thing if I miss out this year though as I have plenty to get through. I hope it’s all a bit later in the year for 2025.

I’ve been reading all the posts re BBC and now I’m in a quandary as to whether or not to try to cancel. My credit card payment is still pending, so they can’t claim that the box has been despatched right now. Alternatively should I take a gamble? I’m sort of intrigued to see what’s in it. @Addictedtobeauty , if I go ahead and get a Foreo, other than the Bear, you are welcome to have it because it will be sat forever in a drawer with my one from Vogue last year 😊

@Sunnydaysarehereonceagain sounds like a plan - let’s see what arrives!

It doesn’t look like you can do anything till Monday as the office is shut till then! So for now you can’t do much.

Some more reassuring comments. I do think though that if they are fiddling the reviews it won’t end well. It’s already got them some bad publicity on here.

I think if you can afford to potentially write off the £150 or at least some of it , it's no biggie.
You could resell anything you didn't want online to recoup costs , and keep the best bits.

I just got an email saying ok /Hannah Martin got a 5 star mumsnet review! So the £85 plus extra box wasn't enough to sell out then. I think I'd be tempted if it went lower.

Like a pp said , I like to google contents / work out what I'd use vs sell to see the value. The AA oil is apparently worth £58

Just to clarify, the device was only for yesterday's box at £220, not today's box at £150. Also we don't know for sure what device that is and what qualifies as a device and how it works for value. Hopefully not a gua-sha!

Not sure if it has already been mentioned but ASOS has also sold out - clearly all the additional discount codes worked and they can now put the sold out sign up as well.