🎄 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

@MidnightMeltdownI think the items included cost the brands and guess they are scaling back and why we are seeing smaller sizes, lip oils and hair stuff. Probably also why we are seeing products across various ones, Rodial seems to be everywhere this year.
I noticed in a Caroline Hirons Instagram someone asked why Skin Rocks isn’t in any advents this year and she mentioned cost too much money.

Not an Advent but just seen this on Beauty Detective. Boots K Beauty box. I didnt get it last time but i did regret it in the end as it look good. Not sure on this one though, to be realised 28th.

I am not overly tempted by the JL calendar as I have the Harrods fragrance so don’t need a perfume heavy advent, and one eye cream is more than enough.

I am happy with my decision to go for the Harrods beauty calendar as I like the skincare but am hoping nothing is missing. On the unboxing video, she has 2 cleansers instead of a mascara. That wouldn’t bother me too much, but one of the people commenting said that she didn’t have the AB face oil and had 2 of the toners instead, and I wouldn’t be best happy with that. 😐

Me neither. I loved the AB face oil. Went rancid though before I finished a 10ml sadly. After Vit C booster Paula's choice oxidised very quickly I bought some little bottles to decant into.

I just made my OH go through my calendar to make sure all the right items were there. Happy to report all is well.

Yeah, I'd be OK with getting 2 cleansers too, not 2 toners though. Although it would probably depend on what it was instead of.

Has anyone here sold their empty advent boxes? I have quite a collection now as can never bring myself to throw them out and really need to do something! I’m just not sure if it’s worth selling them or should I just recycle?

I like Rodial products so not sad about that. I’ve wondered before how sustainable the whole advent/beauty box thing is (if brands constantly give stuff away cut price, then who actually buys stuff at full price?). On the other hand however, most beauty products are extremely cheap to make. The mark up is enormous. Often what you’re paying for is the packaging.

Years ago you used to be able to sell them for a decent price. I sold luxury ones for £20-£30 in the past. Not sure about now though. I tend not to bother these days as I feel like the market is saturated, and I can’t be bothered with the faff for a fiver.

I mentioned earlier in the thread that I saw someone post the Liberty drawstring bag for £45 and it sold straight away. I think you have to A. Be quick off the mark, and B. It absolutely has to be the high end stuff (for example I've kept my White Company and M&S boxes for years as it's just not collectable enough to raise enough funds to be worth the bother)

Last year was my first Liberty BAC & I've repurposed it as storage for Christmas tree decorations (the fragile ones) & use the 'straw' it in to protect them. Previously those decorations were stored in various boxes & they're now in one place.

That’s a good idea- I have quite a few nice decorations. Some already have their own boxes but not all of them.

I have several lovely advent boxes currently in the loft. I might put a couple on Vinted and see what happens.

I watched the Miss Boux Harrods unboxing & in one of the drawers (on its own) was an 8ml Cle de Peau UV Protective cream)
Karen (that's Miss Boux's real name said that on the back of the Cle de Peau box it stated that it was a sample not for resale.
She wasn't impressed & I think that's pretty poor for a luxury calendar.

Edited to add: though most of the other products looked good but was surprised that the lipstick wasn't in an earlier drawer.

I sell mine on eBay. Liberty goes for the most – I sold it for £20 one year. I leave all the shredded tissue in as well.

CB, JL, Next have sold for about £5 plus postage obvs. I think it’s worth it for that (the ££ builds up on little eBay sales of £3-10) but a friend disagrees haha.

I have kept the Fortnum one from about four years ago as it is so beautiful (red and gold and green) and I fill it from my stash in about September (so I have forgotten by Dec! then I am supposed to use up the calendar items. Well it sometimes works).

ETA: the box selling really needs you to keep the box it was delivered in, otherwise you have to source something to pack the Ac box in and that would be a pain.

@clary luckily I’m a bit OCD with things like that so I have the postage boxes. I have Liberty x2 , Harrods x2 and F&M that I could sell for maybe decent amounts - but the F&M one is divine so I don’t know if I can part with it! I never even considered selling the likes of JL, LiB, Selfridges etc as they’re just not that attractive. Maybe I’ll rethink. If I sold them all, I could finance a new advent ‘free’. Is eBay as easy as Vinted with the postage now? I haven’t sold on there in years and it used to be such a pain.

Yes it's OK – I have mine set up only to use Evri as that's very convenient for me, unlike Royal Mail which involves driving to a post office. For an AC you would have to specify the size I guess – postage is typically about £5-6 IIRC but people seem Ok to pay that.

You buy a postage label, they send you a QR code and you bob into the local Tesco (well I do) and scan, print and send.

@Addictedtobeauty I have sold my last 3 Liberty boxes for £20 on Fb marketplace in the couple of weeks after Christmas.
I have 2 left from last year, Harrods fragrance and JL home that I will list in November for anyone that makes their own.

I’ve kept the last 2 Harrods fragrance boxes and keep all my scent edits in.
I refilled the liberty one with lots of bits and pieces I’d guarded over the year and gave it to my mum for Xmas.
She then repurposed it for a window display in the charity shop she volunteers for.

Mine is Tonie figures storage …

@Isabelle70Im interested to hear how your mum used one of the calendars. I’ve got two Liberty calendars and a Penhaligons that are too nice to throw away and wondered if a charity shop might be able to use them. I made the mistake of getting rid of the packing boxes they came in, so have never had anything big enough to post them in, although I’m not sure I can be bothered with the effort of selling them on EBay for £15. Does anyone know why advent calendars are on Vinted’s list of banned items? It’s always puzzled me!

It’s taken me a while to find this thread. Still no news on my Harrods Fragrance, I’ve emailed them so I’m hoping I get it this week.

I had the Carolina Herrera AC a couple of years back. It was a mix of women’s and men’s fragrance and a couple of those mini lipsticks with tassels. There were a few extras too as CH offer you freebies at checkout. I think it was around £100

Last winter I sold a liberty one for £15

I agree that it was pretty poor putting that tiny SPF in a box on its own - it should have been in with something else or they should have added a bigger size. The rest of the contents looked pretty good but I also agree that the lipstick should have been in an earlier box. I will probably swap mine around with the Valmont moisturiser.

That's what I'm planning to do if I get the Harrods BAC, I think the valmont is the exciting product and should be day 25, and the lipstick should probably be day 1 or before the first weekend. I plan to swap a few days around 🤣

My Liberty calendar has arrived! 😍

I’m now conflicted. I want Space NK too, but having looked through my ridiculous stash, I really shouldn’t buy another one 😬. I’m worried that if I die suddenly, someone’s going to discover my stash and think that I was mentally ill! 😂