🎄 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

Just finished watching the CB unboxing hoping it would give me the same feeling of meh like when I watched Liberty unboxing. Nope it didn’t. As well as the three products I would buy, I would have used everything else in it, fragrances feminine and gourmand, no candles. My daily routine is good skincare and blusher highlighter and lipstick or Lipbalm, it had fun shades I wouldn’t buy but would have liked to try.

I guess I could get the classic, but don’t want the B&W palette and won’t get £35 worth of vouchers so feel don’t want to get it on principle.

I might need to come off the AC threads otherwise you’ll read me bemoaning his until New Year 😂

@IlovePond I've been re-looking at JL and have decided I quite like this one. It has a lot of eye creams which I also like and the Chantecaille mascara is a big plus as it's supposed to be very nice. £235 isn't a bad price and the box design is pretty. Some nice fragrance too.

It's not out until 30th Sep for reward members. Not sure why I didn't pay more attention to it before.

@BakeOffRewatch there's a chance I suppose it may come back in stock? It's still early September. Did CB restock last year?

It's horrible having one that got away. If it doesn't come back I hope you find one you do love. Have you looked at JL closely? I've just been perusing it again and have decided I actually really like it.

Same for me! I love having a treat every day in December, and it's preferable for me to the 25th being THE BIG DAY when it's often also a packed and busy day for many of us. A little bit of joy throughout the month is great! I have also decided I just don't want to make my own. I work hard and have plenty to do and I want to open a surprise every day where someone else has got it all ready for me. No slight intended to anyone taking a different approach: this is just what I like for myself.

I think it’s all too much to take in, I had only looked at Liberty, CB and Space NK truly closely as those are the places I shop (most of my stuff is from Boots). Did the analysis on Harrods etc as I was bored and wanted to join in the chat in early August. I only looked at Sephora just now when PP asked about it. And looking at JL now on your recommendation, thank you. I really like it. No lash products. Feminine fragrances, think Kilian Love Don’t Be Shy is better for me based on fragrantica reviews than Good Girl Gone Bad. Not into Oud and Le Labo Noir 29 sounds masculine.

The box is beautiful which is one of the things that made me pause on CB. I’m a JL rewards member is there any other deal I should look out for? https://beautyadventcalendar.net/john-lewis-advent-calendar-2025/ Thanks @OvaHere ! Where do I send the finder’s fee

@OvaHere - JL is in the category for me of ‘it’s ok, but too expensive for what is!’ I do like eye creams, though.

If I knew what the Commodity Milk perfume smelt like, that would probably swing GB for me either way. I love perfume, so if it was nice, that would convince me to buy!

Sadly, I am still reeling from the horror that was the Creed sample from Harrods. I tried it on DH yesterday who said it made him ill, (a bit over dramatic and he’s still going on about it today!) and oldest adult DS who said it smelled of mould and damp wood. Bizarrely, he summed it up perfectly.

I should not have bought that Vanilla Powder stuff yesterday 🙀 so I don’t want to make a mistake with the Commodity in the GBox.

Does anyone know where I could get access to a tester?

Thanks

I’m the same @JustWhatIAlwaysWanted and wouldn’t enjoy DIY-ing my own edit, I would prefer DH to buy one for me blind but there’s no way he’d take on the responsibility of such an important task!

Just an idea, but if you don’t want to go to the effort of selling individual items and provided you don’t need the money of course, do you know anyone who could sell for charity?
For example, DM is a member of a self-help group for a health condition, and they have regular raffles and also tabletop sales. She takes my unwanted BAC items and sells them every January.

That’s such a lovely thing to do @ChannelLightVessel . The local charities to me are really strict about beauty and skincare things being sealed, which I understand as need to be in date and not open to bacteria for the people receiving and trusting, but I do give stuff away like candles, GWP bags etc.

Last year, I got DH to put some stuff into a DIY calendar for me, with instructions to fill up the remaining drawers with surprises of his own contriving.

Amazingly he did quite well, (considering this was the man who also wrapped up a t shirt that had fallen out of my handwashing bag as one of my Xmas presents, thinking he’d bought it somewhere along the line 🙀You can imagine my reaction!)

I did also have Shiseido - reduced- and bargainous Rituals too, though.

This year it’s looking like DIY, plus - possibly - GlossyBox if I can get a sniff of that perfume. I don’t need an eyeshadow palette, but, as it doesn’t contain talc, (although some of ND products do), I would use it.

I agree that donating unwanted items is a good thing to do, but yes, it can be hard to find somewhere to take them.

One year I also did an a/c for people at work from my over-purchased advent calendars, including some really nice stuff that I don’t think was really appreciated. If I thought it would go down well, I would do that again, but I am not sure if anyone would be interested.

I’ve got the perfume as extracted from DD’s GB yesterday. I haven’t opened it yet as I was toying with it being one of my DoD random replacements I’m asking DH to do (to preserve an element of surprise) but am willing to open it and have a spritz for you if no one else has the knowledge! Just worried I’d describe it badly and lead you into a bad purchase.

Fragrantica says not suitable for blind purchases! Sounds like quite a marmite fragrance. (Not literally.)

I followed your DH’s work on last years Waifs and Strays thread @IlovePond , really enjoyed it

All of my sealed DoDs from this year have just gone to the tombola for our local Scarecrow Festival next week and I've just had a message saying "Wow. Amazing!" so I think it's gone down well. Our local Barnardos charity shop also takes toiletries and beauty products as they have a permanent tombola shelf on the go so some of mine ends up there.

Tombola is another great idea @RainbowZebraWarrior
Foodbanks will take practical items like toothpaste. I know some people give stuff to women’s refuges as well, so that’s another possibility.

If you don't like Vanilla Powder then Commodity Milk probably won't be your thing. They both have that sweet lactonic vibe. I love that but it's not for everyone.

Ah, thanks @BakeOffRewatch - let’s see what he comes up with this year!

@Doubleraspberry - that’s so kind of you, but don’t do it specially for me. If you are doing it anyway, then I’d be interested to hear your thoughts!

@OvaHere - the trouble is, I don’t know if I will like the Vanilla Powder 😹I just bought it in a moment of madness yesterday !

You're welcome. I think I was also overwhelmed with all the releases and didn't look properly. I'm seriously considering JL now. I think I might like it more than Fenwick which was my previous alt to SNK.

I love VP. It's easily in my top 5. It's so subjective though.

My Lancome box arrived. I've put it away for xmas but had to have a peek. Love it. So happy with it for the price.

I shall be brave and give it a go @OvaHere

I’m off to have a look at things in SpaceNK this pm!

Ooo it all looks decent sizes. I thought the skincare products were going to be tiny. Mine is arriving this evening 😍

I thought so too. I'm very bad at judging sizes from PR photos and descriptions. No teeny tinies in this.

@BakeOffRewatch as a JL rewards member I've just been given my new rewards today and I've got £10 off a £100 spend. There's nowt in the T&Cs that says it can't be used off the ACs, so might be worth seeing if you get one too. An extra tenner off isn't to be sniffed at!

The Juicy Tubes reminds me of being a teen. I'm sure I must have been a teen when they first launched. They were very coveted and not at a price point for teen me. 😁