🎄 2025 Style and Beauty Advent Calendar Discussion ***SPOILERS*** THREAD 4

[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

Thread 3: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5396898-2025-style-and-beauty-advent-calendar-discussion-spoilers-thread-3

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/5389635-beauty-chat-freebiesgifts-with-purchaseoffers-thread-four

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

The only time it bugs when people ask where something’s from is on the Facebook selling sites where some people are obsessed with the “fair price” and insist that an item must be sold for £4.22 or less because that’s the FAIR PRICE according to a spreadsheet someone made up. Not taking into account that the person selling it had to package it, take it to the post office, and bought the bloody thing in the first place 😂

What have you bought so far? Out of interest 😊 I think I've spent enough now for a £100 calendar, but none of those interested me. I just want the other calendars to be sent out now so I can grab the other stuff I want and make my super calendar 😁

Any recommendations for present for daughter - early 20s. Boots last year was good & I can buy that again but would be nice to surprise her with something different. Make-up/skincare/haircare mix, mid range can pay upto £150.

Re: the Boots AC's, are people talking about the 2 calendars that only feature Boots No.7 products?

If you’re excluding calendars, I’m sure I saw the Harper’s Bazaar award winners box is reduced a fair chunk currently, and they tend to have lots of good sizes and a mix of product types & popular brands, but different items than appear in lots of the calendars.

Next also do lots of beauty boxes on the cheaper end and they do have ones where they’re split I.e a haircare box, skincare box, make-up box, brand-specific boxes. You could get several to provide a mix of product types and still be well within your budget?

Other than that there’s lots of smaller and less expensive beauty boxes on the usual beauty sites at the moment but lots of very small sizes and the same items you tend to see every month, but I’d like to think (pray/hope/beg) more exciting ones start getting released soon.

Next do also love a ‘mystery box’ but if you click the description & view the ingredients list you can see what’s in them too

@HolaLolla i got the same email asking me to confirm my address. I’m gutted I really want the Harrods. So they post down south but just not NI? I wonder why and how come.

I’ve just gone through GB to extract the Milk and a couple of other products I’ve substituted with stuff from the Elle box that suit DD better. I was a bit disappointed that they haven’t closed any of the boxes (I have now) so when you pick them up the product just falls out. Feels cheap.

Does she like K beauty? The Yepoda one mentioned earlier today is nice but it is mostly minis and a few items like wash cloth etc. Alternatively there will be good ones coming from the K Beauty sites - Yesstyle/Stylekorean/Stylevana but they do sell out quickly.

Although for her age, value and cross section of products the Boots 24 Beauty Stars one is probably one of the better ones for the top of your budget. There's also a Next one for £95 that has a decent selection of products, that one is already on sale.

Just got an email re the St Eval calendar. £50 for 25 tealights. I like their candles - even the tea lights give off a good scent. And the box is beautiful.

www.st-eval.com/products/tealight-advent-calendar-1?utm_source=ST.+EVAL+-+B2C&utm_campaign=0973a71bc2-SeptC03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-0973a71bc2-72167176&goal=0_281309aff0-0973a71bc2-72167176&mc_cid=0973a71bc2&mc_eid=c88b3016a9

I really don’t know, it literally is the same island. And the fact that I had one small parcel containing perfume and one big parcel containing multiple perfumes delivered already, tells me it is possible to deliver 🤦🏻‍♀️ There was no such issue last August so it only really changed since then.
I mainly really wanted MZ stuff and few other bits, so suppose will just have to get them on vinted and it will save me the hassle having to offload the rest, however the thought that I might not be able to get my hands on the perfume calendar next year is very unpleasant 😭

That was only £40 last year! As much as I like St Eval, I think it's a shocking price for tealights. If they had a few votives among it, maybe.

I'd rather just spend the money on my favourite full sized St Eval candles.

@JoRaRaRa For my DIY a/c from this year’s a/cs I have bought:

From eBay:

MZ eye cream (sadly then got a better offer, but too late!)
Bobbi Brown taupe eye pencil - because I really like BB eyeshadow sticks
The Vanilla Powder perfume - although I am sure I will loathe it. (I regretted putting in the offer as soon as I had done it 😿)

From Harrods for the princely sum of £4.40: The Gisou lip oil, (not quite the same red sparkly colour as the one in whichever a/c I saw it - but close enough)

I have bought lots of other things for my calendar, but the above are items that I wanted from the ‘real’ ones.

There’s tons of other stuff I fancy - AB eye cream and serum, etc. but I am restraining myself. I had a good offer from someone to buy the Shiseido 15ml, but I reminded myself I haven’t used most of the stuff in last year’s Shiseido calendar and saw sense!

Hi all,

’tis the season for me to become overwhelmed by indecision on which calendar to buy. Past 2 years I’ve had LookFantastic which has been great but I’m not too blown away this year. I’m very tempted by Glossybox as I think it’s got a great variety and value for money seems good.

So my question to you is based on what you’ve seen so far, if you only have a budget of around £100 which would you buy? Am I missing something else mega that could tempt me?

@Teaandbiscuits16 - I really like the GB, (despite too many DODs for me), and code 10OFF takes it down to £81.

I also like the Boots skincare calendar that’s not out yet, (not the no7 one).

I liked the YOUBeauty a/c that someone linked yesterday. I can’t remember the price but I remember considering it, so it must have been quite reasonable!

The Elle also looks ok, (but quite a few DODs for me). Someone on here has a link that brings it down to £109.

What is a DOD please ?

ASOS unboxing. I'd not paid much attention to this one but seeing it unboxed I quite like it. If they do that discount thing again this year I may get it. It comes out on the 8th.

Drawer of Doom

When you open a day and are disappointed to find something like a hair scrunchie!

@StressedEric DoD is drawer of disappointment - e.g. something a bit pants/ generally uninspiring. Of course every person's DoD is totally subjective, but general culprits are black eyeliners and stuff from non-luxe brands like inkey list or The Ordinary showing up in the pricier calendars.

My Glossybox was delivered a couple of hours ago. I've just gotten round to unpacking it. Haven't looked in many drawers yet, but I do wonder if the influencers get sent a more 'premium' looking box. It felt heavy, but inside the individual boxes are flimsy.

I'm just here now for Fenwick and the possible JL Home Fragrance now. M&S is also definitely off my list. I don't think I will be swayed by anything else.

BAC’s are very subjective @Teaandbiscuits16 but think the Glossybox is great for the price. The things I like and will use are definitely worth more than the calendar costs and the range of products is good.

I agree, I don’t think you can beat it for value and range of products.

The inside boxes were very flimsy last year. I love that it's a great reusable box but I suppose they cut costs somewhere and most people will throw the small boxes out.

I'm still debating GB. No idea why I'm so indecisive over a £75 AC when I bought a £215 Harrods perfume one without blinking? 😂

Thank you for the heads up re the boxes not being closed properly. I’ve just run through, given each a shake to check it has something in it (no peeping!) and closed them up properly ready for 1st December.

agree the individual boxes are quite flimsy but the drawers themselves are very substantial.

At the moment, the only ones tempting me are Vogue ( understand why some people don't love it, but it works for me and I'm still mourning missing out on Vogue 2023) Fenwicks ( surprisingly good, reliant on liking Thameen Rivieré though) and Harrods - BUT I won't buy the Harrods BAC as I'm still pissed with them for the fragrance calendar release date bollocks that meant I missed out, so I absolutely refuse to give them my money now. Guess it's Vogue then...