🎄 2025 Style and Beauty Advent Calendar Discussion ***SPOILERS*** THREAD 3

[BakeOffRewatch]

Annual Style and Beauty Advent Calendar discussion thread. First AC reveal this year was 23rd June. First luxury reveal was 2nd July.

Thread 1: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5360770-2025-style-and-beauty-advent-calendar-discussion

Thread 2: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5388836-2025-style-and-beauty-advent-calendar-discussion-spoilers-thread-2

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

Cult Beauty - partial reveal so far beautyadventcalendar.net/cult-beauty-advent-calendar-2025/
£265 Fortnum & Mason - full reveal www.fortnumandmason.com/2025-fortnums-beauty-advent-calendar
£250 Fenwick - full reveal beautyadventcalendar.net/fenwick-advent-calendar-2025/
Flannels - only a cracker so far beautyadventcalendar.net/flannels-beauty-cracker-2025/
£250 Harrods - full reveal www.harrods.com/en-gb/p/harrods-of-london-the-harrods-beauty-advent-calendar-2025-000000000007826118
£250 Harvey Nichols - full reveal www.harveynichols.com/harvey-nichols/harvey-nichols-beauty-advent-calendar-2025-42956-232485/
John Lewis - later in the year probably October
£275 Liberty - full reveal https://www.libertylondon.com/uk/pre-order-liberty-beauty-advent-calendar-2025-000839831.html
£250 Selfridges - full reveal cloud.mail.selfridges.com/beautyadventcalendar25
£260 Space NK - full reveal beautyadventcalendar.net/space-nk-advent-calendar-2025/
Vogue - later in year probably September issue, £350 last year

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

I guess it depends on whether you can take a week day off, which I suppose most people can, (though not me!)

I wonder if they’ll give out freebies/reward points like last year. If I had known about that in advance, I might have bought one in-store!

I think the hair a/c is better this year than last. What do other people think?

@IlovePond I think the hair and body ones are really nice for £99. I bought one last year. Last year I didn't have such a giant stash though so I'm probably just going to pass this time. If I make significant progress in using up all the hair stuff I have I'll definitely be interested next year.

Thank you, I will add them to my list to keep an eye out for.

I didn’t get any freebies or extra reward points last year, despite almost being knocked over in the fighting! 😮

I remember this one from last year. A bit on the expensive side compared to Yesstyle etc

https://beauty-detective.com/korean-skincare-advent-calendar-2024/

That’s weird @Growlybear83 - I vaguely remember something about it only being at the H stores. Seems very unfair, (assuming H customers did get free stuff), especially as all/most of the aggro was in Harrods itself!

Cult beauty have updated their holding page with an image

You can also scroll through products in both versions

A bit more expensive but better value to me as there was no makeup in it whereas the yesstyle and stylevena ones had a fair bit I wouldn't use. Unfortunately, I didn't spot it last year or else by the time I had spotted it, I already had my 3 calendars (the joys of menopausal brain fog means I can't remember which 😁). Hopefully they will release details soon enough although the only calendar I like so far is the boots skincare so I'd be happy to get both. Not that I should get any given the size of my stash but fomo

They have different ND palettes in each one. The fragrance version called Limited edition has that pastel palette and the classic curation - no fragrance, has the black/grey palette.

There's a handful of other differences too.

I think I might buy CB when I get early access on the 3rd. I may also buy Fenwick in October if it stacks with the autumn gwp.

I think this is the committed plan. I don't feel like SNK is a good buy for me this year. I will probably still get FOMO when it's released though.

For any Irish advent addicts
Brown Thomas had a fab calendar last year
Haven’t seen anything yet
I got Boots and Look Fantastic last year but regretted not getting the Brown Thomas one .
Neither of those appealing to me this year .

I've just had the unfortunate experience of collecting a parcel that contained a smashed-to-smithereens expensive fragrance. Shouldn't be a problem to get refunded, but everything now absolutely reeks and I don't much care if I never smell this fragrance again!

Just got me thinking about the PP who said they opened their Anthropologie AC and it smelled gorgeous. Mine smells of absolutely nothing so I wonder if it's worth checking for a leaked fragrance?

Hmmm, not impressed that CB appear to have put the 3 creed across 3 days 🤔 I'd really like some of the fragrances though and the duo blush palette is really nice. I've got on my list that I want to buy the WA one from SNK from ebay, but I might buy the one from CB instead - I guess it depends on what people list them for.

I had planned to buy a premium one (approx £250) which I've now bought, a mid range one (approx £100) then the m&s one if it's any good. But none of the mid range ones interest me enough to commit. I think I'll just use the money to grab things I liked from the premium ones that I didn't buy.

I keep telling my husband that I can smell perfume so I must check my Harrods fragrance one again. In reality, I just want to sniff them all again 🤣 I wonder how long it'll take for him to cotton on!

The first harrods calendar I had, had the eyeshadow missing, so I always check it now. I'd be gutted to run up to my calendar to find nothing in the drawer. Or find that something has leaked everywhere.

Because I'm extremely nosey Just out of interest, what perfume was / is it?

It was Ink by Perfumer H. I'd been deliberating buying it for over a year and found what i thought was a good deal on Vinted. The seller just shoved it in a thinly padded jiffy bag. Thankfully Vinted are pretty good at refunding when you can clearly show the inadequate packaging and smashed to a thousand pieces bottle.

My Harrods frag is finally on the move 🙌 Probably won’t arrive until Monday though.

I always check drawers now. One year I had a random Bobbi Brown product in Liberty along with the correct item for that day, so it sometimes works the other way.

Has there been any news on Vogue? I might be tempted this year

Will be interested to find out what others think of the Harrods fragrance. I don’t keep it for Christmas so have already opened and tested them all. There are a few nice ones, some that are just ok, and 4 that I think are absolutely horrible. Interestingly, 3 of the ones that I think are horrible are popular on social media, so easy to sell at least!

Was one of the ones you didn’t like the Creed one? On the unboxing videos I have watched it didn’t seem popular

I've already bought some stuff from the Liberty/Harrods calendar. I just need to be careful it's not a silly way of doing it e.g spending more than buying 2 x premium calendars and selling stuff on myself. It's less hassle and less clutter but I've already spent just over 100 buying bits and pieces on Vinted.

I still haven't opened mine. Not had chance to visit my friend who bought one and opened it. She offered for me to smell hers first. I really need to get on with that.

Yes, it was! I didn’t like the Queen of Silk Creed one that they included last year either.

I’ve done this before. I usually sell my DoDs and replace with bits from other calendars before December, so that I don’t have to deal with the disappointment when opening 😆

Good idea. Ideally, you need to do it over a few days and spray them on your skin to get a good idea of whether or not you like them. I’ve been testing 2 per day. Sometimes I don’t like them on first spray, but they smell better once they’ve dried down a bit. The Jo Malone and Thameen I didn’t like on first spray, but they were ok once they’d settled.