Last year, L’Occitane made a ‘house’ style advent – this year, they’ve done the same, but even prettier this time around. I love the attention to detail in the illustration and the contents are wonderful for L’Occitane fans. I just like that this has a Christmas feel, it’s not afraid to call itself an ‘advent’ calendar (coming up, an advent that’s just called a ‘beauty calendar’) because the concept has a historical and religious element (that you can ignore if you wish, obviously).
Inside, the calendar becomes a L’Occitane ‘workshop’ with illustrations of people preparing and wrapping Christmas gifts. It’s very sweet and pretty – sweeter still when you realise that you get £80 of product inside for £42. Last year these sold out in moments, so if you want a reminder notification for the moment it goes on sale, you can pop your name down HERE. Otherwise, it’s 1st October. Behind the windows is a selection of between 10 and 30ml products, including Eau Essential Water, Savon Gourmand Delicious Soap, Verveine Shower Gel and Ultra Rich Face Cream.
I love the chunky box style of the The Body Shop Advent Calendar 2016 – instead of windows when you open it up, it’s a series of carefully placed boxes (and no they don’t all fall out like Jenga when you remove one, but I wouldn’t remove several at a time otherwise you’ll have a jigsaw puzzle on your hands!
Similar to this
It’s very vibrant – doesn’t follow any particular theme other than a feel good (each box has a little motivational slogan on it) one called Happy Days and it’s absolutely beautifully made. No tat whatsoever. Inside, you’ll find the selection includes Nail Polish, Body Gel, Body Butters and Eyeliner, so there is a great cross-section of products ranging from (mainly) 15ml up to a full size 200ml. It’s surprisingly expensive at £80 but has a value of £127 and it’s the medium size of three advent offerings from The Body Shop this year. The one I have is the Deluxe, but there is the first tier at £60 (value £106) and an ‘Ultimate’ at £99 with a value of £187. I’m slightly astounded that the cheaper end of the Body Shop advents are more expensive than L’Occitane. They’re all available already HERE.
I see what ASOS has tried to do here – make a non-denominational beauty advent. And why not? We’re multi-cultural and there should be options for all. But in trying to please everyone by not going there with a Christmas tree or even a bauble, it’s ended up being rather bland looking with a kind of black on white swirl. They’ve achieved, certainly, a non-Christmassy slant but at the same time it does feel like it’s had the joy sucked out of it. If you’re looking for style over festive, and want to join in the beauty calendar fun, then here it is!
The interior is black with white swirls – 24 windows – and the products range from the mirror you see there from Lottie London and a handy bag sized Bastiste Volumiser to offerings from Dermalogica and Elemis. It’s £50 with a content value of £175 so in terms of value it’s one of the best (you could always add your own glitter to spice it up a bit). It’s already launched HERE. I think I might be tempted – because of the value – to buy the ASOS Beauty Calendar 2016 anyway and divvy it up into little gift parcels. Or is that terrible?
As per, I don’t list or show ALL of the products because I don’t want to spoil the surprises. However, on their respective sites, all products are listed.
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