Beauty advent calendar chat and spoilers thread 7 🌸⛄️🌸❄️🎀🎁🎄❄️🧣

[SoloCat]

Welcome to Thread 7 🥳
A huge thank you to @ilovepond @OvaHere, @JoRaRaRa and @Thelifeofawife
for the previous threads, and to everyone who had been sharing spoilers, information. links, bargains, discount codes and enabling each other over the first 6 threads. ❤️
As agreed, we're taking it in turns to start each new thread this year. If this thread starts getting close to the reply limit, please post to let everyone know you're happy to start the next one so we can avoid duplicate threads.
🎅 A few festive housekeeping notes;
🎁 This thread contains spoilers.
🎄 Please be kind and respectful to one another.
💸 No judging anyone for their purchasing choices (or how many calendars they buy... we're all enablers here! 😂).
🎀 Feel free to share spoilers, offers, discount codes, GWPs, delivery updates and stock alerts.

🎁 Available Now:
Boots launch 01/09 for waitlist then 2/09 for general sale
www.boots.com/christmas/advent-calendars/advent-calendar-waiting-list
Luxe £150
beauty-detective.com/boots-beauty-advent-calendar-2026/
Scent £90
beauty-detective.com/boots-12-days-of-scent-advent-calendar-2026/
Skin £70
beauty-detective.com/boots-24-days-of-skin-advent-calendar-2026/
Liberty – £285 (Beauty Drop members receive £25 off). Full contents revealed. Beauty Drop member pre order has closed and those advents are being dispatched. The advent will go on general sale soon (BD members still qualify for the discount during the general sale)
www.libertylondon.com/uk/features/beauty/beauty-advent-calendar#
Unboxing
P. Louise – £250. Available to pre-order with payment instalments available.
^https://plouise.co.uk/collections/wonderful-world-of-p-louise-advent-calendar/products/what-glows-around-2026-advent-calendar^
John Lewis – £250. Available on pre-sale via the app for MyJL members.
^https://beauty-detective.com/john-lewis-beauty-advent-calendar-2026/^
Harrods Beauty Advent Calendar – £270. Now on sale online and in-store
^https://www.harrods.com/en-gb/p/harrods-of-london-the-harrods-beauty-advent-calendar-2026-000000000000284475^
Harrods 12 Days of Hair & Body – £99. Now on sale online and in-store
^https://www.harrods.com/en-gb/p/harrods-of-london-the-harrods-12-days-of-hair-and-body-advent-calendar-2026-000000000000284465^
Harrods Fragrance Advent Calendar – £225. Pre-sale sold out. Went on sale in-store 1/9.
^https://beauty-detective.com/harrods-fragrance-advent-calendar-2026/^
Vogue Festive Calendar – £355. Available to pre-order
^https://shop.vogue.co.uk/products/vogue-festive-calendar-2026^
Fortnum & Mason Beauty Advent Calendar - £275. Available now
^https://www.fortnumandmason.com/fortnums-beauty-advent-calendar-2026^
Fenwick 25 day beauty advent calendar - £250. Available now
https://fenwick.co.uk/products/fenwick-fenwick-beauty-25-day-advent-calendar-2026
Anthropologie 24 Day Beauty Advent Calendar – £98. Available now
^https://www.anthropologie.com/en-gb/shop/24-days-of-beauty-advent-calendar5^
The Fragrance Shop - Available for pre-order £120 members, £150 non-members
Women's Advent Calendar
^https://www.thefragranceshop.co.uk/the-fragrance-shop/the-fragrance-shop/gift-box-advent/p/76306^
Men's Advent Calendar ^https://www.thefragranceshop.co.uk/the-fragrance-shop/the-fragrance-shop/gift-box-advent/p/76307^
Selfridges
Beauty & Fragrance £250. Went on sale 1/9, but appears to be ‘sold out’ at present.
^https://beauty-detective.com/selfridges-beauty-advent-calendar-2026/^
Elle £197 or £187 if you joined the waitlist
^https://beauty-detective.com/elle-advent-calendar-2026/^
LookFantastic Beauty. Available for pre-order:
https://www.lookfantastic.com/p/beauty-box/the-beauty-advent-calendar-worth-over-665/17691363/
LookFantastic Fragrance. Available for pre-order:
https://www.lookfantastic.com/p/beauty-box/the-fragrance-advent-calendar-worth-over-530/17691405/
Glossybox. £90 or £75 for subscribers. Code: KAREN5 may give £5 off the £90. Available now:
https://www.glossybox.co.uk/p/beauty-box/glossybox-2026-advent-calendar-worth-over-645/17691528/
OK Beauty Box advent/Hannah Martin. Available now £109:
https://www.okbeautybox.co.uk/products/the-ok-beauty-box-advent-calendar?srsltid=AfmBOoppTH5x1vrf3PT8oCWpKiUj111T5PdA8IBPKCjA9SYOpugUFCBJ

Cult Beauty £245 - £20 gift voucher back when buying at launch 03/09 early access.
^https://www.cultbeauty.co.uk/c/advent-calendar/^
Harvey Nichols
Due to the recent takeover, it’s unclear if these a/cs are still going ahead for 2026. Details TBC.
Beauty:
^https://www.harveynichols.com/harvey-nichols/harvey-nichols-beauty-advent-calendar-2026-75896-258491/^
Fragrance:
^https://www.harveynichols.com/harvey-nichols/harvey-nichols-12-days-of-fragrance-advent-calendar-2026-75906-258490/^
John Lewis Fragrance £99 - appeared briefly for sale 1/9 online but this seems to have been a glitch.
^https://beauty-detective.com/john-lewis-fragrance-advent-calendar-2026/^
Space NK £275
^https://www.spacenk.com/uk/gifts/beauty-advent-calendars/beauty-advent-calendar-MUK200063764.html^
Unboxing video
Sephora UK
Spoilers:
^https://beauty-detective.com/sephora-uk-advent-calendar-2026/^
Waitlist: ^https://www.sephora.co.uk/c/beauty-advent-calendar-waitlist^
Fragrance - current thinking is that this will cost £225 and launch around 30/9-1/10
^https://beauty-detective.com/selfridges-fragrance-advent-calendar-2026/^
Next £150 launching 3/9:
^https://beauty-detective.com/next-beauty-advent-calendar-2026^/
Debenhams £120
^https://www.debenhams.com/pages/beauty-advent-calendar^
PURESEOUL £140 (first year they are doing an advent)
beauty-detective.com/pureseoul-advent-calendar-2026/
Jo Malone Waitlist:
www.jomalone.co.uk/advent-calendar-signup?
Jo Loves Waitlist:
https://www.joloves.com/pages/a-jo-loves-advent-calendar?
💄 More Calendars & Spoilers
Rather than making the opening post a mile long, here's a brilliant roundup of lots more advent calendars and the latest spoilers, including Charlotte Tilbury, Elemis, Lancôme, Tatcha, NEOM, Neal's Yard Remedies, Holland & Barrett, YesStyle and many more as they're announced.
👉 ^https://beauty-detective.com/category/beauty-advent-calendars^/ 👈

Brilliant. I'm delighted for you and everyone else looking to buy.

Good for our economy too😁

I’m so sorry, I’m just catching up and read your post. I’m really sorry to hear about your terrible year. Glad this thread is at least bringing you small
amounts of comfort.

That's excellent. Thank you.

Also sorry about your missing cream. Do fight them on it because it's a really nice cream.

I also bought the PT new shadows but ordered from the PT site to get a free brush. I think they'll take a week at least to come.

I did check my Cult AC at the weekend but not closely. Clearly I need to look and compare to the booklet. I don't think any of the 'big' items like the cream or serums were missing but I'm going to take a closer look.

@NiceUnusualDifferent so sorry you’ve had such a rough time of it. Pleased this thread has helped you. I know it’s helped me too, as has buying MANY advent calendars.

L'occitane?

Just got my daughter to go through the CB advent and check each item! Luckily all there. She'd counted the items when it arrived to check the number of items was correct, but I hadn't thought maybe they could have been wrong!
Last year my HN FAC was missing one of the perfumes and they would only credit me £8!!

No, you'd expect them to have a bit longer on them then a month, maybe less depending on where they are in the calendar.

Hopefully you can build a beautiful, personalised calendar just for you, that brings some joy to your recovery. Maybe an audiobook calendar would be nice too?

I was hoping I'd get the 'sorry it's late' credit on my CB account and then I could've used the £20 voucher, credit from the AC and lateness credit to buy the PT palettes 🤣

I've just checked and mine is the same! IT's so cheeky!

No Way!! I don’t want to open the box yet (I have no self control - whilst it’s sealed, the contents are safe) but looks like I’m going to have to check. Do you remember which drawer it was in?

Do we really have to check use-by dates on every product?

I checked Cult again, properly this time, and everything is there. I guess I got lucky.

I was going to ask this at some point but didn't want to because I guessed I wouldn't like the answer.

Does a retailer have to abide by a law/rule that says products sold must be within a certain date of their use by, or within a certain timeframe from manufacture? Do the same rules apply to Vinted sellers, if the rules exist?

I noticed when the Cowshed advent calendar was released, there were quite a few Cowshed products popping up on TK Maxx. And I noticed from my own thought patterns that I assumed the products sold on TK Maxx would be old, discounted stock they'd got off the back of a van, whilst I regarded the Cowshed advent calendar as a luxurious collection of products that would be in date and fresh.

But is this actually true? Or could an advent calendar be a fine collection of wizened old shite from the back of the warehouse?

L’occitane?

Just catching up so someone may have beat me to it!

I managed to refrain from ordering SNK today. Although I really like it, it still feels too expensive and I have no account credit so I’m hoping for a bit of a discount to come along.
I’m not ordering Sephora either. I’ll check Vinted for the couple of bits I want.

@JoRaRaRa That’s great news about BT. I’m very tempted now. I do have a very Irish name though so I may be more at risk 🙈😅
Sorry to hear about your CB BAC, that’s so rubbish after waiting all this time.
I checked mine straight away and ticked off everything. I didn’t think to open items in boxes and check them for issues though - which I should have as my NARS eyeshadow stick in Harrods was damaged (I’ve emailed them).

I’m not sure which FAC I had a fragrance ‘missing’ from last year but I contacted them and they gave me £20 back which I was more than happy with as I was just going to sell it anyway. I was then mortified when I discovered that it wasn’t missing after all, it was just small and buried in tissue 🙈 I’d bought 2 of the FACS anyway, so they did get plenty of money out of me.

@JoRaRaRa
I also noticed that my Paula's choice from the bac was really dusty, I've checked the code, it's 1 year 7 months, which is ok but obviously not as fresh as what we expect when we buy these calendars.

My CB calendar is all present and correct. I checked the code on the Paula's Choice and it was manufactured in January 2025 so even older than yours. By the time I open the advent it will be almost two years old. Should I be worried?

I've ordered Boots Luxe. It comes tomorrow! 🤩

I was going to try holding out for a discount but thought better of it because it sold out last year and i knew i really wanted it and would kick myself if i missed it this year. Especially as its the only one I've had my eye on.

The only things I don't want are the Mac lip products (I don't suit neutral shades) and the iconic palette as I have a bronzer I have loads of already and the calendar has a NARS blusher I want so it just doesn't suit my current needs.

I loved last year's!

Tbh, between a workplace discount, new app user discount, extra points and going via a cashback site, i paid around £125 so I'm very happy with that). If it goes on sale, maybe I'll buy a second 🫢

It's usually fine for 3 years, but it's not great. I could do with checking my stash as I still have serums and creams from last year's BACs.

Wow that's v good ! I'm going to look for a code I'm giving older DD the lip stuff ,younger the hair stuff and I'll have the rest.

Im hoping boots is far better than these other calenders I'm reading about

It's in 25!

@ClutteredPalace - I suspect that some people in the CB distribution/packing chain have woken up to the fact that some of the products in these calendars are a) very expensive, b) most people don’t seem to check the drawers until Xmas, c) Cult Beauty may or may not even care if items go missing 🙀

Re: Old(er) products in a/cs

I have been suspecting for some time that some companies are using a/cs to offload old(er) stock - some of which they will have got dirt cheap from the brands concerned. I am disappointed but not surprised to hear that my suspicions are well-founded in some instances 😿

Similarly, we already know that many calendars contain ‘not for sale’ sample sizes that the companies have got for free. Plus companies often use calendars to offload unpopular products or terrible colours!

Despite this, we - myself included- keep giving these companies our money!

I still like beauty calendars but I do object to shoddy CS, and having missing and/or soon to expire products.

If I do go ahead with Harrods, I will be buying it in-store and will check the contents in front of an assistant, (if I can do this without causing chaos!)

The Burberry lipstick from Selfridges is lovely. I bought one from Vinted. A little hard to tell in evening light but I think it has a subtle sparkle. It is quite scented in smell and taste though. Doesn't bother me but I know some people dislike that.

Just seen a Tiktok of a lady having an empty bottle of Delina from the Harrods FAC😮

Oh good grief @Caggie09 - that’s a new low!

I suppose it’s possible that’s a genuine manufacturing error, rather than theft, but it’s appalling!