🎄 2025 Style and Beauty Advent Calendar Discussion ***SPOILERS*** THREAD 5

[BakeOffRewatch]

IF YOU ARE NEW TO BEAUTY ADVENT CALENDARS AND WOULD LIKE IDEAS PLEASE READ THE THREAD FIRST

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

Thread 4: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/5403558-2025-style-and-beauty-advent-calendar-discussion-spoilers-thread-4

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

@tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz yes I do that too with dummy carts. Candle websites are good for it, too. I've had some nice little surprises and I've also managed to get around things supposedly being 'limited to 2 per customer' etc by taking things out and putting them back in the cart in a different order. I do it with Whistlefish, too.

@RainbowZebraWarrior
It was funny when she got it in the post! We had expected a regular sized calendar but that one was massive!

It will def be worth checking out this years version .
I’m still undecided so I’m impatiently waiting for it and the Brown Thomas reveal

I am another doing a DIY/Frankestein advent that I will unbox on waifs and strays.
This is my current list of items and things I would atill like to get.

Harrods - Valaya
Harrods - Sand and skin
Dermstore - Obagi Medical Nu-Derm Toner
Dermstore - Medik8 Adcanced night ceramide
Dermstore - Allies firming eye cream
Dermstore - Paula’s Choice Azeliac booster
Dermstore - EltaMD SPF 46
Elemis fig balm; Sephora - Kiehls ultra cream ; BK beauty brushes ; New Dior blush ; La Mer lip balm; Glossybox - ND palette ;Glossybox - morphe setting spray; Hourglass palette and brush ; Hourglass mascara and lash serum ; Glossybox - candle and LF fragrance candlePossiblesHourglass lipstick - SNKLisa Eldridge mascara - SNKPerfumes from advents Need lipstick and liplinerBody creamBody washCleanser

Can I assume Spacenk doesn’t normally have an offer associated with the BAC?

@BakeOffRewatch OK Beauty Box Genevieve Someone's, I can't remember the named, edit has the Medik8 C Tetra serum
Box is £59.99 and apparently this code brings it down to £49.99:
10FromGen

Yes. All I really truly want is some Frankincense intense cream and a Diptyque Feu De Bois candle so I might buy both and get DD to stick them in the AC she's making up for me. I also have a crafty plan for trialing my own Frankincense cream (we are beekeepers and make all manner of Balms and creams) The addition of some Frankincense oil to something I already make myself may be all it takes to satisfy me.

@RainbowZebraWarrior - your bee enterprise sounds fantastic! I wish I could make balms,etc.

Hi just wondering if anyone has had a jewellery advent calendar before and if they are good value/worth it? And who might be considered to do the ‘best’ jewellery advent? I have no Jewellery at all used to wear rings but they are too big now - so wondered if getting an advent would help give me a good selection to get me started?

I completely agree. Fine if there's one or two 'hero' products swaying you towards a specific calendar but IMO if you don't want to at least try 70ish percent of a calendar there's no point buying it. It's clever psychology from the stores to make you think 'oh I would have bought this for £60 anyway so for another £140 I can get alllll these other things' but if you don't really want the other things you just end up with clutter or trying to offload things on Vinted.

I also think the AC industry has got too big. You'd think more competition would mean better contents but I don't think that's the case. I look back at my Space NK 2020 and I'd buy that again, but this year's just don't compare for me. They're all trying to be bigger and better and more viral. I'd prefer they just offered 24 decent sizes than getting 40 products.

@Millymollymine - I have sent a response but it's hidden for some reason - I linked to an article on jewellery AC's in Glamour magazine

I know what you mean. When I first saw BAC for sale I was like wtf, who would buy those? Who wants 24 days of shit they might not like? And I just bought the products I actually wanted instead.
But then I bought the H&B one because it was so bargainous and really liked getting a little treat everyday. And then last year I bought H&B and my mum bought me the rituals one. And this year I’ve bought two (my mum is no longer with us 😢).

I have to actively want at least half the products, and want to try the rest. More than 3 DOD and I’m not buying it and I would never buy it blind. I’m sharing the Elle one with dd as it was a fairly even spread of the things we each liked, I’m ending up with most of the higher value stuff but I paid for it so 🤷🏻‍♀️.

At the moment I’m enjoying trying different products so sample sizes is fine but once I find things I like I’ll probably go back to just treating myself to a couple of nice products instead of the calendar. I tend to go through cycles of wanting to try new stuff and wanting to use the stuff I know I like.

I sell off the stuff I don't want to keep, last year when I was off work so bored out of my mind I got into a sort of game of selling enough to make enough money to buy the next calendar, rinse and repeat, keeping a few chosen things from each one.
This year I've been trying to do similar but it seems harder to sell, ebay is dead and vinted you don't get as much for things plus loads of really annoying lowball offers you can't switch off which makes me wonder if it's worth it. I do think there's been a golden age with these things - the calendars of last year and the year before seemed better. Or has the novelty just worn off?

I know what you mean about Vinted. I have 2 sealed boxes of the Eliz Arden ceramide capsules on there for less than one at full price. Not a sniff! Not even low-balling!!

I don’t want them, at this rate I’ll be donating them to a raffle or something.

@Keffert
I like your rule of any more than 3 DODs and out.
Having chosen John Lewis, I’d say the only DODs for me are the Elizabeth Arden handcream, Charlotte Tilbury lipstick (bright red! 😱) and the Eve Lom cleanser ( not so keen on the fragrance).

Stacking offer on Sephora for the Benefit BAC. Code BEAUTYDETECTIVESPH reduces the calendar to £114.75 and adds both the current Sephora gwp and a Benefit gwp.

Oh dear @OvaHere that code works on the Rituals calendar too!

It’s in my basket…

Now you didn't need to tell me that!!! 😂

I've been trying to ignore Rituals.

It brings Rituals down to £76, (it’s £103 on the Rituals site).

I have been spoilt the last couple of years by being able to get Rituals very cheap post-Xmas at the outlets, but I am still tempted.

I had the premium Rituals last year and the year before - this base one has some ridiculous DOD - wooden spoon - yet another exfoliating glove! But I love Rituals and would use everything apart from those items.

However, if I buy it today then I probably can’t have Shiseido whenever they get round to releasing it/telling us what’s in it!

A tip for Sephora - if you add two brands to your loyalty card, you can get 10% off on top of other offers.

I added Clinique and Rituals.

The loyalty discount has not worked on the a/c, but has on the Clinique eye cream I added to basket to see if I could get the Sephora gift too.

I went to have a look but they don't stock the middle Rituals BAC I've been eyeing so I'm safe.

The code does work on random things. I was trying out some of the new Xmas sets. It works on some Elemis sets I tried and the YSL Xmas set. It doesn't work on the Merit Xmas sets.

I'm not going to buy anything but if anyone is putting together a basket to get the gwp anyway it's work playing around.

Debenhams advent calendar is now available

https://www.debenhams.com/product/debenhams-debenhams-beauty-advent-calendar-2025-worth-over-700_ydd18587

https://parfums-de-marly.com/products/countdown-calendar

This is a bit more reasonable than the Byredo one.

Oh that looks a lovely calendar, OvaHere. DelinA and Valaya are probably my two favourite fragrances.

I know. I kind of want it. Especially as I have Valaya from Harrods and this has the matching body lotion.