General “Waifs and Strays” Beauty Advent Calendar opening thread 2024

[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).

Carrying on the traditional from previous years, it will also be fun to hear about other calendar openings - Degusta, jam, escape room anyone?

I know there are mixed feelings on this, but many of us would really appreciate it if spoilers are not posted before 7am on the relevant day. Please also avoid dropping hints or spoilers about future contents if you have opened the calendar in advance.

Posting pictures of contents is also always much appreciated.

I’ll be opening the Space NK and Harrods calendars this year. Really looking forward to Day 1 tomorrow.

😹😹😹@OchonAgusOchonOh

@IlovePond I should probably invest in some reading glasses...

@BakeOffRewatch Yes, I think they accidentally added it to the 40% off sale in error. I paid £350, and I think that was a fair price. I wanted the necklaces mostly, and to buy those alone covers the price of the calendar. I like most of the other bits but not enough to have bought them myself full price. At £30 an item it does seem quite good.

😹@OchonAgusOchonOh

Day 16 and 17 from TreatBox. 16 is a ceramic heart decoration. It's very pretty but I don't think I will keep it, I think I'll regift. 17 is a planner notepad with tear-off pages, to-do list and goals space, date, notes, affirmation and water goals - I absolutely love this! Filling the first page in now ready for tomorrow!

@paranoiaofpufflings I think Treatbox is the surprise star of the thread this year. It looks great.

I agree @OchonAgusOchonOh !

@OchonAgusOchonOh @IlovePond I am really pleased with it so far. I bought it on a whim after I kept seeing sponsored ads on social media. It was £120 so I thought average of £5 per day it's not going to be amazing. But actually everything has been lovely!

Bit late here today. Day 17:

Cult Beauty:

Sunday Riley C.E.O vitamin c brightening serum 15ml

Hooray! Really pleased with this! Love Sunday Riley products. Only wish it was full size, I'm sure we've been given full size in the Cult Beauty calendar before, whenever the last time I had CB was.

Bird and Blend Tea:

Jammy Dodgers - 'fruity, biscuity, cheeky'

Not sure about this at all. It smells horrible which has put me off. Love Jammy Dodger biscuits though! Bit disappointed with this calendar overall. Was pleased to find a caffeine free one and they seemed creative with their flavours. To be fair I've not had any repeats either, and two teabags in each box. But there haven't really been that many I've actually liked! Probably just a big fussbag 😄

@HollyGolightly4 the Bum Bum Cream has a sort of vanilla-ish smell, a little bit sweet but not sickly or overpowering. I don't normally really like vanilla scents, or anything food like (like those Yankee candles that smell of cookies or whatever), but I really like it

Apologies for my terribleness at describing fragrances!

@ConradKnightSocks If you're looking for a nice tea calendar, Pukka do a lovely one. There are some green/white/black teas so not caffeine free but a lot of them are caffeine free. And not full of rooibos.

https://amzn.eu/d/dL4tECn

I did a spreadsheet @AprilLady , you’d be proud. There were 4 items I really wanted and they come to £206, so for an extra £34 on top of what I would spend anyway I received another £552 worth of product that will get used up, another £214 worth of product that I was interested in trying but won’t use up (perfumes and the Dr Sebagh serum), and £51 of stuff I’m not interested in at all (candles and hair mask). Knowing I paid £34 extra for the whole experience makes me feel a lot better about disliking products worth £100s.

I think I am a day behind with my door reveals!

Yesterday’s Shiseido was a full size eye cream! Old Rituals was a mini conditioner to go with the previous day’s shampoo. DH’s refilled calendar door was some little silver earrings- I am wearing them today, but unfortunately the back of one seems to be catching and irritating my ear, so I will have to see if putting one of those rubber stoppers on instead helps.

Today’s Shiseido was a mini night anti-wrinkle cream and old Rituals was a very small tube of hair mask.

I must say, for a bunch of sample sizes, the Shiseido products are adorably packaged!

The gold is beautiful @IlovePond

Thanks @OchonAgusOchonOh - I guess they should be for the money I have paid🙈. At least I got a reduction on the RRP by buying at Bicester.

From what I can remember, there’s four full size items in the calendar in total. Using Cosmetopeia’s measure of only counting something if you can buy that size in the shop and accounting for reductions, the four full size could be bought for about £82. You can’t actually buy the 10ml perfume in the shop, but I guess I could be generous and allow another £18 for that, (the big bottles aren’t expensive).

Looked at that way, I have spent another £20 on a nice, reusable box and a lot of pretty samples.

Not too bad, I suppose, although I still have no use for that electric blue eye pencil😾

I do think Cosmetopia is a bit harsh. Even if something is a small size, if I like it, it has value. It's not like you could just walk in to a shop with a list of samples you'd like and expect them to give them all to you

I agree that Cosmetopia is a bit harsh. She only counts things as full sized if they are the largest size you can buy, so she didn’t count the 30ml Dermalogica vitamin C serum in the JL calendar which retails for about £95 because there is a 50ml size available.

@BakeOffRewatch well done, if there is only around £250 “worth” you won’t use then you definitely chose well in terms of calendar.

I also agree @OchonAgusOchonOh that Cosmetopia’s approach is not quite right. I will definitely use and enjoy the Hourglass blush I got today and it will last a while - it is definitely worth something to me, even if it is the travel size. Also, as @BakeOffRewatch has discovered, if you get a full size and you decide you don’t like it, you feel guilty throwing it away. It’s much easier to allow yourself to throw away travel sizes if you don’t like them. So for new things, sometimes getting a decent travel size in a calendar rather than a full size is actually a good thing.

I agree with all of you about Cosmetopeia and it’s true - I personally certainly don’t get many samples - certainly not good ones! But I agree with her about the ‘GWP’. Most of what I have had in my Shiseido so far is in sizes not available for sale in any shop except for the eye pencil and the yuzu eye cream. (I know there’s two make up items to come that are full size.) I would say that neatly everything is GWP size.

I think Cosmetopeia has just made me a bit more mindful of value but I am looking forward to trialling the Shiseido products, though.

Re: old Rituals - some of those products have been the minis that Rituals sell for a few pounds each - I am always happy to have those! Others have been much smaller - or weird - like the scrub glove!

@IlovePond I think a lot of what you have received in Shiseido is indeed sample size, not travel size. So, for example, I’m happy to “count” a 15ml moisturiser or serum in looking at the value of the calendar, even if full size is 30ml or more. But I’d probably discount 3ml or 5ml as the sort of samples you’d expect to get in GWPs, and place no value on them. And Cosmetopia is not wrong in saying you should place zero value on things you won’t use (I’d add: and can’t regift or sell) like a scrub glove!

I agree @AprilLady - I was happy enough with the 15ml of night cream I got the other day, but I have had quite a few very small things.

Tbf to Shiseido, their packaging is very compact, so sometimes things look even smaller 😹

Day 18 from Harrods is an Eve Lom foaming cleanser. Second cleanser we have had in this calendar so not the most exciting but sure it will get used

Rituals body scrub in ASOS today so another good day!

I'm just missing a face wash and a hand cream and then it will have been a pretty perfect calendar.

Harrods Day 18 -Eve Lom Foaming Cream Cleanser as mentioned above - 50ml (RRP for 120 ml is £50 so Harrods, but not Cosmetopia, would see value as c£20).

Good brand and this is a nice size for 1-2 week holiday. Not running round the house in giddy excitement but happy enough.

Penhaligons’ Endymion fragrance today. Very pleased as it’s one of my favourites and a decent sized tube one.☝️