Disappointing 2024 advent calendars

[wondabar]

This year my DD had the Benefit advent calendar, I had the OK Hannah Martin one and we shared the M & S one. The Benefit one mainly contained sample sizes with a lot of the items being similar. The M&S calendar had so many repeats of products given in previous calendars. The OK calendar was the best of the three but included some fairly obscure products which I will have no use for. I can't justify buying the likes of Liberty, Harrods etc calendars and am considering not purchasing any calendars next year due to the poor quality of the lower-priced ones. Did anyone else feel that the quality of calendars was fairly mediocre this year?

My daughter and I shared the Perfume Shop advent calendar. It was fabulous. We have different preferences when it comes to perfume so I think all the scents will be used. I’ve got two new favourites. The only downside was three male scents but we are going to add them as a little extra to a birthday present in January.

I got the Stylist/LiB one and I thought for under £100 it was brilliant. Loads of good full size products and new brands.

We had the Molten Brown one (got it in the sale) and loved it.

I had Holland and Barrett which got a lot of rave reviews on the opening thread.

Gruum was also good. Skincare mainly. (Bars of soap would have been a nice addition though.)

I avoided m&s as like you I thought it was too samey and half the makeup bits are things I don't use in the end.

I know liberty is expensive but it was very good value, surely not much more than 3 other calendars too?

Me too, I agree.

I have found the lower price range ones not as good in general - I mean obvs, smaller sizes etc; but last year I got Next for Januar for about £80 and found it very poor.

whereas JLP for £195 I have rated v highly, hardly any DoD and lots of good sized items, nice fragrance, 3-4 really good skincare items etc.

I did get M&S and divvied it up for gifts but I agree, there were some tiny sizes and a good deal of dull items tbh. Just about worth it for me with about 4-5 gifts and then a couple of items I liked (mascara, fragrance).

Good to know about the Stylist and JLB ones

I enjoyed my no 7 one and I had Devon Wicks wax burner one which was good too

Really disappointed in the M&S one although the eyeliner pencil is a game changer - really wakes up my eyes. And I guess it was pretty cheap compared to the other calendars.

DD2 loved the Sephora. DD1 liked the White Company. DNiece1 said the LookFantastic was better than the Benefit one she also received. DNiece 2 liked NEOM but she's very polite and wouldn't say if she was unhappy with it.

I thought the Stylist one looked good but unfortunately had already placed orders for the others when I saw it.

Following this thread for intel on next year's purchases.

I had H&B and Grüum. Both.were excellent. Mainly full sizes and a good variety of products. Both fantastic value for money. H&B was really well curated with a full skincare regime, unlike some of the more expensive calendars which had multiples of particular product types.

That said, Grüum felt a bit samey as the packaging looked very similar on everything, even though pretty much everything was different, other than there being two wax melts.

I think all single brand calendars tend to feel a bit samey though so Grüum wasn't unique in that.

Yes I had the M&S one (I think my 3rd or 4th Christmas one?) and I thought it was very disappointing and quite boring. Same old same old brands. Same old same old product categories. I'm fed up with eye creams and hand cream. The sleep products I just don't think I'll get into the habit of using.

I'd have liked more fun and glam stuff.

Having said that small sizes of moisturiser/shower gels etc are useful for holidays but they'd suit a summer gift bag more for me. So not much stuff I've used this Christmas season.