General “Waifs and Strays” Beauty Advent Calendar opening thread.

[AprilLady]

As in previous years, this a thread for those opening Beauty Advent Calendars not covered by specific calendar opening threads - though happy for those to be shared here too. Also looking forward to hearing about the “Frankenstein” curations.

Carrying on the tradition from previous years, it will also be fun to hear about other calendar openings - Degusta, jam, cheese anyone?

I know there are mixed feelings on this, but many of us would really appreciate it if spoilers are not posted before 7am on the relevant day, though if the consensus is this is too late we could
make it from midnight on the day? Please also avoid dropping hints or spoilers about future contents if you have opened the calendar in advance.

Posting pictures of contents is also always much appreciated.

I’ll be opening the Selfrdiges and Jo Loves calendars this year. Really looking forward to tomorrow.

With your encouragement and Ovahere I am going to put this one on the keep pile.
I was undecided on the Thameen and have put that to one side for now. I am off to London in January so thought I could go round with a list and have a good sniff.
I need to go and get my nose sorted as I can only smell the scents if I take a big sniff of where I have sprayed it. But I will continue to use perfume as I like my initial sniff :)

@MrsBnow12
Thank you for heads up on that. I will have another look when I'm home x

Hi. Today’s Rituals candle I will burn later. Cheese today - I will eat that in a minute! DIY calendar was a perfume mini and a travel size and a GWP mascara.

I am also including my swapped Liberty drawer contents today: two SR minis. I have never used any of SR products so I am looking forward to using them.

@DailyMaui my DD has the brown nail polish from Sephora on this evening....it looks lovely, honestly! Might be worth a try....

No7 beauty was a small (very small!) Future Renew night serum. I use Tret and can't have anything else with retinol alongside so will pass this one on.

I have the ASOS calendar and I’m sharing it with my daughter.
ive been away for a few days this week so have been catching up with my asos boxes and reading up on this thread.
Really enjoying the asos calendar so far, less keen on hair stuff but it will get used. Two little pots of sol de Janeiro and the Laura Mercer setting powder were great for my daughter and Philip Kingsley deep conditioning treatment and the niceceramide products for me.

There's definitely some overlap but some differences too. I think single brand tend to have more similarities year on year generally though. I thought it was good value last year, particularly as they gave me a full refund because it didn't arrive until 5th December despite me ordering it ages in advance. I thought that was brilliant CS.

I’ve ordered a chuckling cheese advent !!! I’m ok with a later delivery because I will nail it 😂 these threads will be the death of me 💃

Korres was an eye serum, and Paxton & Whitfield was a giant lump of Shropshire Blue. No idea why the sizes differ so much in this calendar but it’s good, and will make a pasta sauce or something, so I’m not about to complain.

Lip serum in Anthologie. Meh.

Vogue was the Therabody eye mask. 7th.

Lip treatment today in JL. Will try it out later!

Day 8 of Sephora contains an eye mask and a facial spray. It says to use in place of a toner so I'm assuming has a similar function? This eye mask is supposed to be self heating so will give it a whirl tonight.

Just catching up after a busy weekend!

The Harvey Nicks calendar has been kind to me,

yesterday was sisley black rose face mask and a skin infusion cream from the same range. I love that scent. AND… a la prairie spf 50 facial sunscreen which looks very luxurious.

Today is a NARS light reflecting setting powder which I’ll use as thanks to peri menopause my face tends towards oily as the night goes on

Oh I love space masks! Not seen this version before

OK today is a lash and brow serum from Brow Aid (and it's prostaglandin free). My brows don't need any help, but I'll try this on my lashes.

Glamour is 50g cleansing balm from Muihood. Again a brand that's new to me, but one of the products that attracted me to the calendar as I'd like to try it.

That spray is supposed to be good for acne prone skin. I bought some for DS a while back.

Anthropologie is an espa mini shower gel. Nice for holidays

And we get to the second week.

Day 8:

Selfridges is a perfume. Ormonde Jayne Levant. Not tried it yet, but according to Fragrantica reviews it is similar to Valaya. I generally rate OJ as a brand, so look forward to trying it.

Jo Loves is a small Jo by Jo loves hand cream. An okay day, though I’m not a big user of hand creams.

I sold on the item from today's SNK so in my drawer is 3 perfumes bought from other AC's.

My calendars ( I also have Space NK) offer a glimmer of light on a dark morning! Today in Diptyque drawer 8 is a mini candle in Narguilé. A lovely honey scent I haven't come across before.

Day 8 LIB Stylist is Spotlight Oral tooth whitening powder. Not sure I will use this, but quite a different offering I guess

Vogue is the Votary Facial Oil today, I generally don’t use an oil so will read up on how to incorporate into my routine.
Degusta was a microwave packet if Sticky Rice

Zero points to Boots for curation today as another mini retinol serum in No7 beauty - two days in a row.....bit crap.

I was expecting more makeup tbh which I had thought was the point of the beauty calendar as opposed to their skincare one but this has mostly been skincare 🤔

LF Fragrance Calendar

Day 8 - Alia Main Character perfume

The blurb says it promises to reflect every facet of my identity & I will be effortlessly cool, calm, self assured & confident 😁

Just what I need on this wet miserable Monday morning 😂

My Frankenstein 🧌 calendar was the True Botanicals sleep serum from Cult Beauty's day 8 calendar 😍 I got an absolute bargain on this on vinted and I'm so excited to try it. It retails at £75 for 30ml so I have high hopes for this. I do have quite a lot of night serums in my stash so it's probably going to take a while to work my way through it and get to this one 🙈

Also my day 4 Harrods fragrance calendar (opening on alternating days). I've put this on today and it's gorgeous 😍 I'm thinking though that's it's a bit summery, so I'll put it away for spring 🩷 marked as sensitive so I don't ruin the surprise for people opening later in the month.