Beauty & Fragrance Advent Calendars- Info/Chat 2026 SPOILERS

[OvaHere]

Hi everyone who is joining from the Beauty GWP chat threads and welcome to anyone else.

Last year our lovely @BakeOffRewatch did an amazing job running all the threads through to December. This year due to the time commitment it takes, we're going to try and run them as a community effort.

Guidelines
I'm starting this first one but hoping that when a thread looks close to ending another thread member can set the next one up.

To avoid duplicate threads please try to post in the thread that's ending to alert everyone you're setting up a new one.

Other members check who was first to offer and whether a new one is live.

It might be an idea to keep a list of advents that are live in the OP and later on which are sold out. This can be copy/pasted/edited when a new thread is started.

It probably goes without saying but please be courteous and patient with each other. This thread will have spoilers and please no judging of others for their purchasing choices. Participation in the threads is optional.

I don't know how well this will work out but thanks in advance to everyone who helps out.

Current BACs revealed or on pre order

Liberty £285 (BD member discount £25) now available to pre order. Est. delivery 21st Aug - 1st Sep. Full contents revealed.

https://www.libertylondon.com/uk/beauty-advent-calendar

PLouise 2026 advent £250 now available to pre order. Payment instalments available and GWP for existing advent customers. Delivery 2nd November onwards.

https://plouise.co.uk/collections/wonderful-world-of-p-louise-advent-calendar/products/what-glows-around-2026-advent-calendar

Neal's Yard £195. No contents yet. Pre-order for October.
https://www.nealsyardremedies.com/products/natural-organic-advent-calendar

There's a number of others with waitlists open and it's been announced that the 3 Harrods calendars are coming soon.

My beauty cupboard is definitely more full than it needs to be right now. I was trying to not buy stuff this year and have stayed off the threads all year but I still seem to have bought stuff. Boots £10 Tuesday has had a lot of Lumene this year and I like Lumene products so have bought those, then repurchased some other stuff when cult beauty had 20% off, then bought an edit that had the Bioeffect in…
I do seem to go through accumulate and purge cycles so hopefully I’m approaching a purge but I also get scared of missing a bargain if products I love are discounted.

I like Lumene too and have stockpiled with Boots reductions. It makes excellent economic sense.

@Clarissaclaire question what is going on? The thread is for discussing advent calendars. The clue is in the name and that is what we do. You are welcome to join in, or not. I honestly do not understand what you are hoping to gain by judging others.

@Clarissaclaire we clearly all enjoy discussing the contents. And after my £50 let down mystery bag from Harrods, I definitely do not want anymore nasty surprises. I actually feel sad when all the reveals are done as I enjoy it so much. If it's not your bag, then fine, but if you think you'll enjoy discussing them too, feel free to join us ✌🏻

It looks like Selfridges is £250 again this year- no reveals as yet.

I agree with what others have said, but I have to say that the advent calendar threads, and a couple of the other beauty threads, are the only places on Mumsnet where I have never seen any unpleasantness or bitchiness by anyone, which makes them so nice to follow. Im sure there are a few other similarly nice pockets of Mumsnet but Ive not found them 🤣

I’m really not sure why anyone feels the need to come on to this thread being negative. If you don’t agree with the approach that we take, it’s not the place for you.

How lovely to have no qualms about dropping a few hundred pounds blind buying an advent calendar. Not everyone has that luxury though and they shouldn’t have to deal with people judging them for it.

The purpose of an advent calendar is a countdown to Christmas. Traditionally it was a chocolate one so there was no surprise, it was chocolate every day!

This thread is very clear what the discussions are about. Saying that you don’t want to know what’s in your BAC but being on a thread that talks about them knowing that you’ll get spoilers is simply ridiculous.

I spent a huge amount of money on skincare products between around August last year to Jan this year. Have tried to stop since then but it's hard! Am looking for a beauty advent calendar to reward myself 😂

Did you find any holy grails along your travels?

That definitely deserves a treat 🤩 I really struggle not to buy stuff too, I did put a no buy January, and well and truly scuffed that up within the first few days, daft doing it January anyway as that's my birthday month. So I picked February, but as my birthday is so close to the end of Jan, I was still spending my bday money and putting towards. Tried again in march but that wasn't happening, so then I just gave up 🤣 I haven't been buying as much recently though. I've been selling to make space for AC stuff 💃🏻

Btw:

If anyone is after a traditional advent calendar with reusable doors, I can recommend these ones:

https://angelaharding.co.uk/collections/calendars

I got one last year and it’s lovely.

The gardening threads are pretty nice too. But be warned if you get into gardening you will be back here looking for recommendations for products to repair your damaged nails.

I love the idea of being a person who enjoys gardening. Not sure it will ever happen. 😄

First look at Rituals
https://www.rituals.com/en-gb/lp/advent-calendar

Edit - sorry that link still shows last years. BD had a pic of the new one.
https://beauty-detective.com/rituals-advent-calendar-2026/

I agree with the others. If you are spending £250-£300 on a luxury calendar then you want to make sure the contents are right for you. If I had gone for the Liberty calendar without checking out the contents then I would have been very disappointed as most of it isn’t for me or are repeats of items I got in last year’s Harrods. I can see that the Harrods one has far more items that excites me but am
also keen to see what is inside Space NK before making a final decision.

I love the advent threads as much as I love opening the calendar itself.

Cheering pockets of Mumsnet are sometimes hard to find as PP have said. Many are depressing, negative and some posters seem desperate to validate themselves by undermining others.

These product discussion threads are lovely - I really like the one about empties and it's encouraged me to really get through my stash and recycle the containers via Boots.

There are some style ones that are lovely - the Dark Academia ones, there is a great one about expectations versus realities (worth it for the ref to Suzy Quattro's Fat Nan!) and the boho chic one that ebbs and flows.

I've lost a lot of weight, hit my mid-50s and the people on these threads are a great help in helping me find my way again in terms of how I see myself and how I present myself.

To yank this back on the subject, I like comparing ACs, not least to hear other's opinions and experiences with the products therein, and whilst I have a razor sharp memory for a lot of things, what's in my advent calendar will definitely be a surprise come December. Also hoping for a last minute sale purchase so that I have one to see me through the dreary darkness of January!

Oh that’s very pretty @OvaHere . I had a rituals one before so won’t be buying. But I do love an advent that looks Christmassy.

Same! I'll probably wait for Harvey nicks, Spacenk, cult beauty, Sephora and Selfridge's, maybe John Lewis and vogue too before making my final decision 😊 but it depends when they all reveal. I don't really want to leave it too late before ordering, so if they've not revealed by late August / early sept, it'll be Harrods as of now that I go with. I might swap out some of the makeup though. I keep saying stuff like this and realising that I'm going to end up with another Frankenstein 🤣🤣

@CinderellaParker I have a good memory too, so even though I try to push it to the back of my head, if I'm asked what drawer something is in, I can usually dig it out of the filing cabinet in my head within a few seconds 🤣

I'll have to have a look at them. I'm not really interested in the actual garden part, just the planting of more and more flowers 🤣 that's my other obsession. Oh and clothes. And the theatre. No wonder I'm skint 🙈

I’ll have a look at the gardening threads too. I love making my garden look pretty and like JoRaRaRa I’m forever planting flowers - although I’m having such trouble keeping things alive during the heatwave. And I do have a bit of a clothes obsession too 🤣. But we have been trying to move for many months now and have finally found the house of our dreams which is more than we had hoped to spend, so I’m about TK start a real economy drive, which isn’t good when all the BACs will be coming out soon. But I’m sure my husband cant begrudge me a couple of fragrance calendars 🤣

These early threads are also useful for people watching for waitlists and release dates, not just contents.

I have just joined the boots advent calendar email list :-)

So far Liberty is my favourite, excited to see the others. I dream of Diptyque, one day I might take the plunge!
I’m a keen gardener and all the handcreams that come our way through advents and beauty boxes are very welcome.

I've long said that these threads are my safe space. I know my response to that poster was sarky, but it was early hours and I was awake and annoyed at someone entering my safe space and bringing the vibe down.

Personally, I wouldn't be able to compile a diy calendar as I know it would contain everything I wanted and wouldn't have the element of surprise that an unknown product in an off the shelf calendar might have, if that makes sense? That doesn't mean that I'm entitled to judge anyone who curates a DIY calendar, I'm actually envious of those of you who do that, it's probably more cost effective in the long run.