Prepare all of your Christmas mood guys, ‘cause it’s affordable beauty advent calendars time!
Yes, it’s that time of the year again where shops dress up their windows in sparkly lights and fluffy scarves, Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer adorns every sweater and loop playing “The Holiday”, “Love Actually” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” is finally legit. My kitchen has turned into a factory of pumpkin muffins and spiced hot chocolate (gingerbread cookies are just next on the list) and I’ve already pinned loads of Christmas photos on my Pinterest – lifestyle, decor, trees, recipes, DIY, bullet journal, you name one and I have it. But you guys know me, I am a beauty junkie and this means I can’t really think of Christmas without looking forward to skincare and make up presents under the tree and, even before that, beauty advent calendars.
Each year, around September, brands present their Christmas collections and their beautiful advent calendars wrapped in glittery packagings and filled with the crème de la crème of their products. They are basically designed to blown you away at first sight – and so they do -, and before you know, you find yourself craving for one (or all of them). But if you have a limited budget AND you usually don’t make your mind up ‘til the very last minute, finding an option that brings all of the sparkle, is still available for you to purchase and is yet affordable enough can be somehow tricky. So today I want to share with you my top last-minute affordable beauty advent calendars for 2018!
First of all let’s talk numbers and facts:
- Price: I’ve specifically looked for calendars that are under €70
- Availability: as you can imagine, at this point of the year many of the most well-known beauty advent calendars have already sold out everywhere, but I’ve still managed to find some interesting doozies for you here.
- Quality: while I haven’t tried any of these yet, I’m gonna talk about brands I am familiar with all-year-round and I trust in terms of quality, thus I expect no nasty surprises from any of the following, I promise!
So now, from the bottom to the top, let’s start with my favourite affordable beauty advent calendars for 2018!
Number 6: Amazon Beauty Calendar
Via Amazon.uk
This is the first year Amazon designs a whole beauty calendar filled with 24 skincare / bodycare / make up products and this comes at the price of €65.00 and a total value of €250.00. The brands they have partnered with are Acqua alle Rose, Kokostar, Foreo, Alama, Isdin, Balanceme, Labello, Olaz, Invisibobble, Regenerate, Altruist, Bellapierre Cosmetics, Elizabeth Arden, Biopoint, Rimmel and Neutro Roberts.
Although the packaging isn’t heavily Christmassy, I love the idea of a “dispenser calendar” where boxes come down while you take them out day after day and I feel I could happily reuse each box even for a DIY advent calendar next year. It only makes it to the end of the list though, because I feel that quite a few of the products included can actually be easily found in supermarkets (e.g. Acqua alle Rose make up remover, all of the Nivea products, Labellino, Neutro Roberts shower oil, just to name a few) and the overall selection isn’t that diverse. So for me, spending €65 means I’m getting products that I can’t access every day and this isn’t entirely the case. There are some really good picks too though, such as the Foreo Luna face brush, so it’s still worth having a close look at it.
Number 5: NYX Sugar Trip – Advent Calendar
Via Lookfantastic.it
While I admit I am not a huge fan of the packaging, which is little to no Christmassy at all, a good make up selection can’t be a miss over December. For €49.99 NYX have brought together 24 of their bestsellers divided into 14 lip products, 1 blush, 3 highlighters and 5 eye shadows, so if you were looking forward to Christmas to reward yourself with some good make up shopping, this might be an interesting occasion.
Personally, I haven’t pulled this up in the list because, although I love the shades chosen for the eyes and face (you know I’m all about nudes and warm tones), I’m not a big lipstick consumer (I know..!) so I wouldn’t probably purchase this on my own unless I decided I want to shock everyone and rock my lips. However if you are a big fan of lipsticks, this is totally what you need to go for. Also, it has to be mentioned that, unlike many other mono-brand calendars, this one doesn’t include a single low-budget “filler” which is a great blow for NYX. Anyone who’s up for a 100% make up Christmas this year should take a close look at it.
Number 4: Rituals XL Advent Calendar
Via Rituals
As a fan of anything SPA-related, I obviously couldn’t miss Rituals 2018 Advent Calendar. First and foremost, let’s talk about the packaging ‘cause this red and golden Christmas tree is beeeeautiful and it comes as in size XL which can only be a plus.
The selection includes 20 of the brand’s most famous products + (and here comes the doozy) 4 candles to be lit during the four Advent Sundays leading to Christmas, as the tradition requires.
The team at Rituals has done its best to keep all the products they have chosen a surprise, which is why I’m not listing any of them here, however I have known the brand since quite a few years now and I can safely say I would definitely purchase this calendar.
Price: €59.90 / Value: €120
Number 3: L’Occitane Beauty Advent Calendar
Via Hello Subscription
Turning up the heat, L’Occitane en Provence is one of my favourite brands when it comes to skincare, so finding out their beauty calendar comes for only €49.00 (and a value of €83.00) really made me put out feelers.
Inside you’ll find a whole range of body lotions, soaps, hand lotions, hair products, and face products for a total of 24 gifts all about verveine, karité, almond and cherry blossom essences. The packaging is worth a mention too, as L’Occitane has partnered with the French maison Castelbajac Paris and they’ve come up with a colourful design that is halfway between pop art and a painting by Miró. Gotta love it!
Number 2: Nuxe Advent Calendar
Via Nuxe
Once again, design lowers follow me as the super refined and glittery packaging rules the roost in this glossy calendar dominated by golden and silver. If you, like me, find yourself longing for Nuxe’s Huile Prodigieuse in all of its shapes, this is a too good opportunity to miss. In fact, to me Nuxe is still kind of a niche brand with a number of products many people haven’t tried yet and yet they seem all damn good, so this calendar could be a hit this December.
At the price of €67.97, Nuxe have included 14 of their skincare best sellers plus 10 tea bags from Løv Organic. If I’m 100% honest, I actually find Nuxe got somehow carried away with fillers as 10 out of 24 sounds to me as high ratio when it comes to tea bags vs skincare in a beauty calendar, reason why this isn’t the top low-priced beauty calendar for 2018. Nevertheless, I think advent calendars are a perfect compromise for trying a brand’s top picks at a relatively affordable price, so I’m still keeping Nuxe in the loop this year.
Number 1: Kiehl’s Advent Calendar
Via Kiehls
And here we are with number one! This year, I have chosen Kielh’s Advent Calendar as my little Christmas wish for quite a number of reasons.
First of all, Kiehl’s is one of the brands I have been longing for more during the last years and an advent calendar is just what I need to basically try a whole lot of stuff and see what I like the most and what I really need to repurchase full size. They have included 24 of their skincare bestsellers and the overall selection is so interesting I can’t even tell what I’m looking forward to the most (maybe the Turmeric & Cranberry Seed Mask as I’ve hear magic about it).
Secondly, the packaging the have chosen is just wow.. Designed by the artist Andrew Bannacker, it comes as a little hand suitcase with some vintage touch mixed to colours, cacti and 3D banners – I’m not even gonna pretend I’m not buying into the packaging here guys, but what can I say? I love it.
Finally, I do really think that the price they’ve placed it at is great as €69.00 isn’t cheap at all, but knowing the overall value of more than €150.00 and Kiehl’s quality and reliability, I’m more than willing to spend this money to enjoy a well deserved treat this December!
It includes:
Now, unfortunately this advent calendar is sold out online, however it’s still available in-store, so wish me good luck, I’m on a mission to find my last-minute affordable beauty advent calendar for 2018!
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