General “Waifs and Strays” Beauty Advent Calendar opening thread 2024 - Part 2.

[AprilLady]

New thread as we enter the final week before Christmas.

Previous thread is here:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5220847-general-waifs-and-strays-beauty-advent-calendar-opening-thread-2024?page=1

This is a continuation of the 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 usual, 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.

Day 24 Jo Malone - Wood Sage & Sea Salt small candle.

Happy with this! I also opened tomorrow's as we're not at home and very pleased with that one (but I won't share what it is yet).

Day 24 of the Lookfantastic calendar was a pair of Shiseido eye patches. These will definitely get used. ASOS today was a full sized oat cleansing balm by The Inkey list. I'm happy with this one.

@OchonAgusOchonOh I used the shave bar on my legs this morn so I'm not all hairy for Santa and it was great! BTW I also really liked the room fragrance from one of the days, smells so lovely

@Ilikeyoursleeves I've too much stuff in the shower as it is but I might give that a go before I pass it on.

Yes, the room spray was fab. It's in the downstairs toilet😁.

A nice finish to the NY AC with a lavender bubble bath, perfect for my Christmas Eve bath.

Penultimate H&B is a face oil with retinol by Disciple.

Degusta final day is chocolate Horlicks.

Last day of Rituals and finally one of their shower gels full size. I was hoping for more shower products even travel sizes so just the one is slightly disappointing.

It's their new scent range. It's okay but a bit masculine scented, not one I think I would buy for me. The ombre packaging is lovely though.

Hap Xmas Eve! Shiseido today was a 15ml anti wrinkle eye cream - full size! Old Rituals was a perfume. Both are 24 days,

Saving the last door of DH’s refilled calendar for tomorrow!

@AprilLady how do you use the Harrods bath oil? It says to rub on torso before getting in the shower. That seems wasteful! Smells lovely though

As promised, here are all 24 of Shiseido’s offerings. I couldn’t find a ruler, but I have included a pencil for scale!

On the plus side:

There are only two DoD: The eyelash serum and the electric blue eye pencil. Everything else I will use.

It’s all beautifully packaged.

I will reuse the pretty box.

On the downside:

Nothing has a security seal, (which is unimpressive). I also found dried product on the outside of the full size eye serum, so not sure if I fancy using that, (although it probably happened in the factory as the tube doesn’t look squeezed).

There are only 5/24 products in sizes available to buy in a shop.

Adding up the current cost of these five items, all available to buy from sellers such as Boots, Debenhams, Allbeauty.com and Shiseido.com gives a total of £118.

As I am feeling generous, I’m allowing another £12 for the Ginza perfume, (it’s not for sale in the 10ml and cheapest for 90ml is £55).

Total value for these six products: £130.

The way I am looking at is that I have got £130 worth of product in the six reasonably sized items, plus 18 sample/travel sizes as GWP.

However, as I paid £120 for this calendar, I would usually hope to get a bit more value for money. I am looking forward to trying the products, but don’t think I would repurchase this calendar.

Old Rituals wasn’t terribly exciting, but, as I only paid about £40 at Bicester Village, I can’t complain it wasn’t good value!

Wow the pencil really conveys how teeny it was!

Indeed @BakeOffRewatch 😹

@IlovePond full size eye cream isn't too bad for the last day - I like to try eye creams.

It really is all teeny tiny though. 😁Probably not a repeat purchase for either of us but fun to try once.

I don't think I will buy Rituals again. There's been some nice things but not enough of the products I would prefer. It was nearly £200 and whilst the value might be there really I would have been better spending that on products of my choosing. The advent design is lovely though and I will probably save it to reuse.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Last day of Penhaligons was 30mls Halfeti, which I was expecting as the assistant cheerfully told me when I bought it! It sells for £110 and as the calendar was £160 that seems like a win.

Halfeti is NOT my favourite scent but my daughter tells me she loves it and wants me to wear it, and she has been my co-tester every day. So we’re happy.

Merry Christmas, calendar friends!

Merry Christmas all!

Final day of fake Vogue was the penhaligon's discovery set! Very excited to try it

Christmas Day, drawer 25 from F & M a fluffy sleep mask. Will give it a go tonight and hope it helps with the menopausal insomnia. It been a pleasure ladies and see you next year. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎄🎄🎄

@OvaHere - I agree with you about Shiseido - the last day was a very good one, and it’s a beautiful, weighty pot. However, I don’t think I would buy it again. Lovely products, though, (except for that beeping blue pencil, which still rankles a bit 😹).

I also agree with you about Rituals - I like my cardboard tree, it’s very pretty, but none of the products, (except for the diffuser), really excited me. I would buy it again, but only with another hefty discount.

I wouldn’t want buy two same brand calendars again in one year as it gets a bit monotonous.

On an unrelated note:

I miss the days when my two would be desperate to go downstairs to the front room in the morning to see if ‘he’d been’! Nowadays my two adult DS won’t leave their pits until goodness knows what time, but I do like to open presents together, (we still have sacks and stockings here at Pond Towers), so I will be chomping at the bit until they surface.

In the meantime, I will keep myself going by opening the last door of DH’s refilled calendar. I will also open a door of my last year’s White Stuff bargain sock calendar, just so I can say I am wearing something new for Christmas!

I hope everyone has a lovely day xxx

🇨🇽🤶 🎄🎅🇨🇽

Asos today was a Charlotte Tilbury highlighter wand - very happy with that! I wasn't expecting it either - I only scanned the contents when I was choosing which calendar to get as I like the surprises, and must have missed that one.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone.

For the final day:

SpaceNK: Full size Ultra Violette SPF50 sunscreen. A useful and not cheap product, but a slightly odd choice for Christmas Day.

Harrods: A Tom Ford lipstick in shade 100 actually quite excited by this. I haven’t tried a Tom Ford lipstick before and the shade looks very much the sort of thing I wear. So a good drawer to end on.

@IlovePond same here with the dc. We still do sacks and stockings. Dd ventured down briefly but no sign of the boys. I am impatient!

Happy Christmas everyone and thanks for sharing.

@PrincessWatermelon I use it in the bath. Pour about a capful into the bath water and sometimes also rub a little on my chest and upper arms so the scent lingers while I’m in the bath.

Similarly a bit quiet here still with older DC. But, turkey is in the oven - first time I’ve had frozen rather than fresh and completely underestimated required thawing time, so no idea when it will be ready. Everything else is as prepped as it can be for now.

I’ve really enjoyed the thread. It has confirmed my view that single brand calendars can be tricky, and are seldom great value. That said, I think the Jo Malone calendar looked fabulous with lots of real treats. And Neals Yard looked not bad too. I agree the Sheseido was too full of too small bits.

For my own calendars, I think SpaceNK this year was really good. Very nicely balanced - good range of stuff, total value not reliant on one or two ridiculously priced items (I think only the AB serum had a value over £100) but also no days that felt like cheap filler items. For me, it ranks up there with some of the best ever I’ve had: Look Fantastic 2017 (the Alice in Wonderland box one), F&M 2018 my first luxury calendar and I loved everything about it, the Harrods 2021 calendar which was a game changer and forced all the rest to up their game, and last year’s Vogue.

Mixed feelings about Harrods: some brilliant days with interesting high value skincare, an interesting perfume, but other days that did just feel like they were making up the numbers to get to a full 25, once the 11 or 12 big ticket items were covered. I’m definitely not sorry I got it, but overall was a little underwhelmed.

@AprilLady I feel very much like that with my Liberty calendar and have wished many days that I'd bought Harrods instead. I've been very happy with Jo Malone and today's 30ml orange bitters. I enjoyed the 2023 Penhaligon's calendar which was good value at half price. There are very few fragrances that I really dislike, but unfortunately Halfeti is one of them and the final drawer yesterday contained a 30ml bottle. I will try it again and try to get used to it 😆. I got a full sized Kate Somerville cleanser in the free Birchbox calendar, so that has been amazing. I'll use everything in the L'occitane calendar but it was very poor value for money.

I've really enjoyed hearing what everyone has got in their calendars, and am starting on the 12 day boxes today 😆

Happy Christmas everyone.

Lovely Tom Ford lipstick in Harrods today. Looks a really nice shade.
Overall I have been pretty impressed with Harrods but agree that there have been a few disappointing days. I feel that days where they gave a small item like that little shower gel, they could have added another small item like a body wash. Other days were fantastic though.

Final day of H&B is a 5ml rosehip oil.

Merry Christmas everyone. See you all in the summer for the previews/waitlists/what nots x