Beauty Advent Calendars Thread 12 - reeling in the aftermath of SFAC, we soldier on... 💄💋

[LightandBreezy]

Welcome to the 12th thread, we still have 50 days till the daily unboxing officially starts, although I very much doubt any of our calendars will remain untouched until then 😂
Still time for lots more friendly chat, tips and discount codes - to cut down on links as a poster requested, here's link to some very comprehensive run-downs of the calendars https://beauty-detective.com/category/beauty-advent-calendars/
When enjoying those breakdowns please remember that some are OOS already - Harrod's Fragrance, Harrod's Beauty and Selfridges Beauty to name a few.

My ebay SFAC arrived and thankfully all is in order apart from broken boxes, but not too bothered as the perfumes were out of it as soon as it arrived. I promised to sell my Le Labo to someone from here, but my perimeno neurodivergent brain refuses to remember who it was 🙈🙈 so whoever it was can you please message me if still interested :)

So you can buy it at the moment for £64 with code FALL20. For me it's worth it because the allies of skin serum is worth £99.
Then there's the Ilia mascara £26 and the Iconic setting spray £31 which I wouldn't mind trying.
There's also a Kai perfume oil £42 which I might keep and the Sunday Riley Good Genes worth £36, although I'm 50/50 over this. I might end up selling it.

I'm not too fussed about the other products but it does also have;
Kosas Lip Pulse £24
Sacheu Eyeshadow STAY-N in Shu-gga £16 which does actually look quite nice so I might keep that.
SWEED Lipstick £25
Arrae Bloat 30 capsules £26
MUTHA Detox Body Bar
Sol de Janeiro Brazilian Bum Bum Cream mini
Summer Fridays Cloud Dew Gel Cream Moisturizer 10ml

Links are on BD's blog https://beauty-detective.com/revolve-12-days-of-revolve-beauty-2026/

So how is that going to be resolved? Are you getting a discount?

Fantastic. I had discounted all the calendars that don't ship directly to Ireland.

Did you have to pay taxes/tariffs and what forwarding company did you use?

My Glossybox TikTok calendar still isn't here!
I had an email saying that they fill them by hand, so they'd try their best to get it to me by 1 December(!)

Then I had an email from TikTok saying if I didn't update my order within 7 days, they would cancel it.

Am very confused, but hope everyone else is having more luck with it. Am happy to wait for it, as it was a bargain for £64, and I've ordered the Fenwicks advent and the Latest in Beauty box to fill the gap 🤣

I paid £70 for the Latest in Beauty box, so jealous of those who got it lots cheaper! I think I'm too old for TikTok really!

Aaagh, you lot!!! I’ve only gone and succumbed to the Fenwick calendar together with GWP , having told myself last week that I was completely, totally and utterly finished with calendars this year. In my defence, I did want the Thameen fragrance and the Elemis. The fragrance is also in the Harvey Nicks FAC, so I had to weigh up whether to give my money to Mike Ashley or a family-run, independent business with a physical store very near me. No contest really and despite the price difference, the GWP and additional two fragrance samples sealed the deal.

Now I am completely, totally and utterly finished with buying beauty calendars 😉. Might be interested in the CEW edit when it’s released, but that’s an edit and not a calendar, right? 🤣

Oh blimey. Now I'm really tempted by this as well🙈 There's no haircare, which is a big plus for me as well as the general bargainous nature of it all

I really think it's a good deal 🥰

I’m wavering on Fenwick, my Amex offer is only £25 (so I’d still need to sell a few things to justify the spend)

Is gruum worth it for £50?

Just bought a card on moonpig and they're pushing it 🤣

I wouldnt want it as a free GWP, I really dislike Gruum products. But lots of people really like them, so it depends on your personal preferences really.

Didnt get a notification on any emailadresses. Also checked the website yesterday throughout the day and didnt see a queue either. Couldnt even get on the fragrance advent page. The third drop was a surprise to read. Glad someone on here managed to get one.

On another note, have noticed some of the advent calender scalpers I reported have now gone to devide the boxes up. I hope they sit on some fragrances for a looooong time

Hmmm ive never tried them. I have just got a free fragrance set, with postage covered and an spf cream for £8, so maybe I will just try those first. It's only £50 on the website so can always order if i love!

Thank you

Definitely not! In my experience, Gruum products are at fine at best and unusable at worst. They used to do freebies via Vodafone all the time where you pay postage and get a box of stuff, and I did succumb a few times but for the £3.95 postage I'd end up with a small bar of soap that was OK, a face mist that just felt and smelt like water and something completely shit like a lip balm that left an opaque white film on my lips or a body wash bar that felt like I was trying to wash my body with a bar of wax!
For £10 more than that you can get the H&B calender which is full of much nicer products.

I’m going to London this afternoon, would I be wasting my time visiting Selfridges on the off chance they may have one?!

I brought the SFAC on eBay last night for £288 all in which I was happy with. However the seller thinks they can get more for it and now we’re in a stand off over who’s cancelling it. Spinning me a line that he’d have to create a case and it could take some time…. I want to be able to leave bad feedback 🤣

Id offer to create a new thread but don't have the faintest idea how to do it.

You can very frequently get big gruum bundles for free (just pay P&P). Don't pay £50 for it!! I'm always seeing offers come up on various sites, just have a google if you really want some.

Ive only ever tried one bar which came in some sort of edit/Vinted bundle and I liked it, but wouldn't pay much for it.

Oooh appreciated! I've ignored for now.

I did grab a 10% qvc discount which i intend to use for the elemis gift 🤞

The revolve looks great, but I had to talk myself out of it as the doubles things in stash which I care not about. I’d be getting it for AoS and actually have lots of serums I want to try but I still feel ☹️.

in the meantime I’m getting very excited about OMC calendar opening and want to start NOW. Or at least November. It’s nice when you find one that is 90% great for you (bar the hokum supplements). I might add some recent buys to make it stretch into December.

I sell half of the stuff as I wont use it. That way I get the stuff I do want for free or almost for free. I also give some stuff away to friends during Xmass.

Lots of the big advents seem to still be available. I want them to sell out so that I’m not tempted to purchase anymore!

Liberty says high demand - order now. Not sure whether that’s just a marketing ploy to create fomo.

I've bought the home fragrance bundle a couple of times, which was fine, but not amazing. DD1 likes the little roll on perfumes - one of them I've actually taken to using myself as I really like it Oh and the wax melts were nice.

But by and large I agree with this... the bars are rubbish imo (I tried a few times as I got sucked in by 'deals' and freebies. I keep getting the BAC ads, but I think the reason they're not actually disclosing what's in it (other than the candle and fragrance) is that it's 85% filled with those hopeless little bars!

I really wouldn't recommend, unfortunately.

My fenwick is out for delivery - exciting! I do think I have become addicted to the postman's knock bringing all these advent calendar goodies and deals. I do sell a lot on, but I can't deny the domaine rush of buying the new stuff.

I second this. I didn't like any of them.

Edit - 3rd after @Botanique 😂

There was someone on one of these threads from Australia. Can’t remember the username.

If there is anyone in Australia who could recommend an Australian advent to send to my dd, I would be grateful. She’s 26 and would prefer less heavy on the makeup side so face, body and hair are all good.

If you sell on Vinted would you be willing to send me a pm of your username?

I am building a personalised advent calendar for my sister and have been buying things on Vinted but have been struggling with bad sellers selling fake, opened, or damaged products.