🎄 2025 Style and Beauty Advent Calendar Discussion ***SPOILERS*** THREAD 2

[BakeOffRewatch]

Link to thread 3 added by MNHQ - www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5396898-2025-style-and-beauty-advent-calendar-discussion-spoilers-thread-3

Annual Style and Beauty Advent Calendar discussion thread. First AC reveal this year was 23rd June. First luxury reveal was 2nd July. Thread 1 here: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5360770-2025-style-and-beauty-advent-calendar-discussion

The regulars on the thread mainly discuss luxury BAC and this dies down by September when everyone has purchased and forgotten the contents. Then it goes into discussion on what’s selling out, what hasn’t and what deals and discounts to be had on ACs in the lead up to December. Then in December we move onto AC opening threads!

There’s a separate thread for GWP, discounts and other deals here: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5338957-beauty-chat-freebiesgifts-with-purchaseoffers-thread-three

A thread for the Liberty Beauty Drop here: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5253698-liberty-beauty-drop-spoiler-from-the-despatch-date-part-9

MN has a great Christmas board for deals and early gift buying here: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/christmas

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LUXURY MULTI-BRAND
Brown Thomas
Cult Beauty Classic Curation and UK-Only Limited Curation with more fragrances https://www.cultbeauty.co.uk/c/advent-calendar/ 3rd September
F&M £265 https://www.fortnumandmason.com/2025-fortnums-beauty-advent-calendar Pricing by category post here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5360770-2025-style-and-beauty-advent-calendar-discussion?reply=146293148
Fenwick £250 https://www.fenwick.co.uk/blogs/daily-muse/beauty-advent-calendar
Flannels
Harrods £250, £99 www.harrods.com/en-gb/c/beauty-advent-calendar pricing by category post here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5360770-2025-style-and-beauty-advent-calendar-discussion?reply=146296157
Harvey Nichols £250 https://www.harveynichols.com/stories/beauty/harvey-nichols-beauty-advent-calendar/ 4th September
John Lewis
Liberty £275 https://www.libertylondon.com/uk/pre-order-liberty-beauty-advent-calendar-2025-R641279006.html_ pricing by category post here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5360770-2025-style-and-beauty-advent-calendar-discussion?reply=145402406_
Selfridges £250 https://cloud.mail.selfridges.com/beautyadventcalendar25
Space NK £260 https://www.spacenk.com/uk/gifts/beauty-advent-calendars/beauty-advent-calendar-MUK200055896.html
Vogue https://shop.vogue.co.uk/pages/british-vogue-festive-calendar-2025

HIGH STREET
Anthropologie
ASOS
Beauty Bay
The Body Shop https://www.thebodyshop.com/collections/beauty-advent-calendars
Boots
Elle
French Pharmacy
Glossybox
Holland & Barrett https://www.hollandandbarrett.com/info/beauty-advent
Jarrolds
LIB Latest In Beauty x Stylist
Lush £125, £179, £205, https://www.lush.com/uk/en/c/christmas-advent-calendars
L’Occitane
LookFantastic £105 https://www.lookfantastic.com/c/waitlist/advent
M&S
Next
Revolution Beauty £50 https://www.revolutionbeauty.com/uk/en/gifts/advent-calendars/revolution-beauty-makeup-advent-calendar-2025/1868648.html
Sephora https://www.sephora.co.uk/c/beauty-advent-calendar-waitlist
Ted Baker
The White Company

BUDGET
Aldi
Sainsbury’s

SINGLE BRAND BEAUTY
Arran £85 https://arran.com/products/advent-calendar
Charlotte Tilbury
Elemis https://uk.elemis.com/advent-calendar-2025-sign-up
e.l.f.
Gruum
Jo Malone
Liz Earle
Lumene
Neom https://neomwellbeing.com/pages/neom-wellbeing-advent-calendar-sign-up-page
Shisheido https://www.shiseido.co.uk/gb/en/newsletter-advent-calendar.html

BATH & BODY
Ciaté
Cowshed
Rituals

JEWELLERY
Oliver Bonas
Liberty
Accessorize

FOOD
Bonne Maman jam
Degusta
Paxton and Whitfield cheese
Fortnum & Mason Tea and Biscuits

MEN’S
Liberty

FRAGRANCE
Acqua Di Parma
Diptyque
Fragrance Shop
Harrods fragrance
Harvey Nichols fragrance
L’Artisan Parfumier
Jo Loves https://www.joloves.com/pages/advent-calendar
Jo Malone
Penhaligons
Perfume Shop
Sniph
Space NK fragrance

K-BEAUTY
Stylevana
Yesstyle
Stylekorean

Fans of scent might want to look out for the January Joy Box from 4160 Tuesdays. You get 15 new scents and can talk about them on the Facebook group. I’ve done it a couple of times and enjoyed it!

I don’t know for certain if they’re doing it this year but if they do it’s great fun.

Be warned though, you have to be on the ball because it sells out quickly!

@IlovePond Am I correct in thinking you previously got one from the outlet? If so, what did you think of the fragrances?

What's the look fantastic price point please, can anyone remind me? I'm rather excited by a fragrance once, even if it isn't too fancy 🤣

We haven't talked about the Sephora Advent much in this thread. It has 41 products in it this year. What are everyones's experiences and/or expectations?

Liberty remains a no for me. I’m going to save my credit and see if there’s some jewellery I want in the sales. I’m going to try and get the HN Fragrance AC, that might be it for me unless Flannels is great. Harrods have taken my money now for the Fragrance AC but that’s my birthday gift to myself 😁

The beauty one was £100 last year, it's going up to £105 this year. I've not seen a price for the fragrance one yet.

I had Penhaligons from the outlet last year (so 2023) and I did like it but the main size was Halfeti, which did not work for me at all, and a few of the others were a bit overpowering. I’d go Diptyque over it if money were unlimited. I didn’t mind the candles as there were so many scents. Intrigued to see the LF fragrance calendar.

My next Liberty BD credit is 12 September and I’m weighing up whether it would be too risky to wait till then to buy it. I definitely want it so I’ll probably go for it on payday at the end of the month.

@Doubleraspberry I had the same Penhaligon’s as you last year, and loved almost everything, except for Halfeti, which is one of the very few perfumes thst I really hate. I would love to get Diptyque but there have always been so many candles, which really puts me off.

I'd forgotten about Sephora. I'm expecting it to be aimed towards teenagers / youngsters. When I was younger, I went to Vegas, won $200 in the casino and blew it all in sephora the next morning 🤣 But it's not really somewhere that I shop now. I'm not ruling it out though until they've revealed the contents 😊

This is last years
https://beauty-detective.com/sephora-advent-calendar-2024/

I thought it was quite good at the time but looking back it has a lot of minis. However it was a good mid luxury price point at £199. Not cheap but more affordable than the ones now pushing towards £300. I'm assuming it will be £210 or £220 this year though.

I had already purchased quite a few calendars last year so couldn't justify the Sephora calendar. It had a lot of brands I was interested in and at a price point that I could repurchase the items. I thought it was well curated for an advent calendar with a lot of thought going into the experience of opening the different days. Last year had a good number of full sizes, then travel and deluxe items, often multiple in drawers. I'm interested to see what this years contains. if memory serves me right it was £199 last year so I would be interested to see whether they hike up the price this year and by how much. I think it was one of the later ones to be revealed.

I am going to get the Lookfantastic beauty calendar again as I had it last year and really enjoyed it, I will pick up the men's one for dh and am on the fence re the fragrance one. I'm going to order the Cult beauty limited edition curation this year as I really enjoyed their fragrance edits released earlier this year. I'm still interested in Spack Nk and Liberty too. I also had John Lewis which I really enjoyed too.

I'm never going to be anyone's target market for a fragrance calender as I've worn Ralph by Ralph Lauren since it's introduction in 2001. I first bought it in the states before it even came out in the UK and I currently have 19 bottles stashed. Diptyque, on the other hand, I would pay for as I love candles. I was also lucky enough to win eight of the Diptique amenity bags full of products (the sort they give out in first class) for four quid on ebay recently. Folk usually sell them for about twenty pounds each.

My mother and my daughter have much more expensive tastes in fragrance, but are still fussy buggers and welded to YSL

Here's part of my Ralph stash.

@Growlybear83 @Doubleraspberry Thanks for the penhaligons review. I have always previously stuck to my old faithfuls but have enjoyed trying some new scents in the past year. I have tried Halfeti as my friend has it, I like it but think it’s a bit strong for me. I’ve not tried any of their other scents

Hi how do you know when it is released do you need to check everyday? Or can you sign up for a waitlist? X

Just remembered my free Phlur deodorant arrived today courtesy of the Anthropologie voucher. The scent is Father Figure which I love and have the 10ml perfume in. The deodorant is lovely and the packaging really nice. So if anyone is looking for an exact £20 spend for the voucher I can recommend. They also have at least one other scent too - Vanilla maybe?

@RainbowZebraWarrior I am very impressed at you having 19 bottles of the same fragrance stashed!

Let me know if you spot it please.

Also, HN had a good discount on the calendars last year towards the end muddle of November if you're willing to hold out. I think it was 15%.

You do need to check the fb group as they announce it there. My guess is it will be early September based on my previous times…

Hi @Thelifeofawife - I didn’t buy the Penhaligon’s calendar, but I have visited it a few times before remembering that I dislike most of their scents 🙈

My favourite scent from Penhaligon’s is Quercus and I quite like Luna. I heartily dislike Halfeti, (but I am clearly not alone in that).

I thought ALL their Xmas candles last year smelt vile.

You can see from my earlier post the sort of scents I like, (I also have a fondness for Rive Gauche), if that helps show the sort of smells that suit me.

I also really dislike Phlur perfume - it smells awful on me.

I find it really fascinating how scent is so subjective and also how perfume reacts differently on different people.

I hope you ACers who were waiting for DC A level results are pleased with the outcome. Either way, you can justify a new AC order!

Thanks @IlovePond I agree, there are so many perfumes that I want to love, they smell so nice on other people but then when I try it, either it doesn’t suit me or it’s too strong and gives me a headache.

At the moment I flip between Hugo Boss The Scent and Givenchy L’interduit. I thought it may be time I ventured out. I really like the Parfums de Marly from last years JL calendar.

@RainbowZebraWarrior That stash of perfume is impressive!

Totally! DS got into his insurance and is happy enough with that. Back to the really important decision of advent calendars now. 😂

Hmm, I pre-ordered 2 of the Harrods beauty AC (on separate days, one for me then decided to order one for my sister a few days later), I’ve just checked my bank and one of the pending payments has disappeared.

I’ve looked on my Harrods account and they both say ‘processing order’ as before

Quercus and Luna are by far my favourites too. I like lighter scents. It saves me from most fragrance calendar temptation! But a lot of Diptyque works well on me.

I didn't get it last year as the fs products didn't wow me, but I loved it the year before. I used everything other than the generic red lipstick and nail polish.