I bought two tops and a pair of trousers on-line for wearing to work from Marks & Spencers, and as I had spent £35 I was able to buy their beauty advent calendar worth £250 for £35. Now my regular readers will know that I've already bought the Boots No7 advent calendar so I didn't need one at all but as this looked like a good deal £ wise I was unable resist.
I received it yesterday and could not resist having a beauty feast and opening it up all in one go. The packaging is brilliant. Individually numbered boxes that slide onto shelves in a Christmas Tree shape. All quite substantially made and not flimsy at all. Once I had taken out all the contents I packaged it up, popped it back into the delivery box and will use this next year. I'll fill it with some other items - not sure what yet - and give it as a gift to someone in the family.
So what was inside the boxes?
Two fabulous full sized nail polishes in the kind of shades I love. One is a nailsinc gel one coat in Piccadilly Court and an Autograph one in Cranberry which has a iridescent sheen to it. Fabulous for the festive period although I do still love a Santa red.
Two decent sized tubes of Neal's Yard Bee Lovely handcream and Rituals magic touch body cream. This is in Ritual of Sakura scent which reminds me slightly of baby powder. Quite a comforting scent.
Eyeko Skinny liquid eyeliner in black. I use a pencil usually and favour a brown or dark purple so I think this will be going into my niece's Christmas stocking. A very wearable shade of Rosie for Autograph lip glossy. The shade is called Super Model Smile and I think will be a great day time shade for any time of year.
A lovely soft mini powder brush. The only thing mini about the brush is the handle as the head of the brush is full size. Great for bronzer, a powder foundation such as bare minerals or even for a blusher.
A couple of hair products. Percy & Reed wonder balm for using on both wet and dry hair. Josh Wood Radiant Shine hair oil for dry ends, smoothing a straight hair style or using as a pre-wash treatment. I think just a few drops of this will be enough as any more and my hair might just look greasy.
Three tubes of facial creams and treatments. Ultrasun factor 30 suntan cream. A must for me after my skin cancer on my nose last year. I don't face the day now without a high SPF cream. Filorga Time-Filler absolute wrinkle correction cream. I've not heard of this before and there are no directions on the tube. I assume - see a wrinkle, use this cream on it! That great brand Rodial, super acids x-treme acid rush peel. To be used as you would a face mask.
Three smallish tubes of more face creams and potions. Studio 10 priming serum. I love a face serum and use one every day under moisturiser. REN day cream - nothing to write home about. Pur correcting primer for use over moisturiser and under make-up. I've not really used these before but think I'll give this a try straight away and see if I'm converted.
Leighton Denny mini glass nail file. This really is mini but a good size to pop into a travel bag and take away on holiday or for a weekend away. A full sized Burts Bees lip balm in original flavour/scent. I have a love/hate relationship with Burts Bees and luckily their lip balms fall into the love category.
A spray bottle of the most gorgeous smelling Shay & Blue perfume called Atropa Belladonna. The first hit is Parma violet sweeties but it softens to vanilla marzipan. A reasonable sized 10ml bottle. Great for taking away on a two week holiday.
A M&S night cream and a bottle of Alphah night treatment. This is used like a toner alternate nights under night cream to firm and revitalise. Again not something I have used before but I'll give this a try.
Philip Kingsley hair Elasticizer. Now this is not my thing at all as I have had this product before in beauty boxes and I have sold them on eBay. That is where this one will be going too. Nuxe multi-purpose dry oil. I've had this product in other beauty boxes too although much smaller bottles than this one. I've never used it so don't know whether I like it or not so I think it might be put away for taking on a sunny holiday and using as an after sun or to restore dry hair.
Finally three products that I don't know anything about at all. Emma Hardie Moringa Cleansing Balm. Skin Icelandic Relief Eyecream (in a tiny pot) and Pixi by Petra brow tamer. I've never had to tame my brows as they have always been well behaved. I think the balm and eyecream may be used but the brow tamer is destined for eBay.
So, overall I am very happy with my purchase. I would say there are around 75% hits - perfume, nail polishes and make-up brush in particular - with 25% misses or items that I have never hear of or didn't realise I needed - brow tamer and hair elasticizer in particular.
Have any of you bought yourself a beauty advent calendar?
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