Advent Calendar 2018 Update

Katy Haziran 30, 2021

Over the past 5 years there has been an astronomical rise in the amount of beauty advent calendars that are available. To the point that every year I feel overwhelmed by the amount that you can buy and the variety you can get. As I know from August onwards there is going to be a bombardment of beauty advent calendars on new in pages, I make sure to set aside time to sit and compare different advent calendars within my price range so that I can get the best possible advent calendar for the money I am prepared to pay.

The amount I am willing to pay is a massive factor as I am am only willing to treat myself to a calendar under £100 because I think anything more is actually ridiculous, especially just before Christmas. There are some absolutely stunning advent calendars but do people actually spend over £150 on an advent calendar? I am still perplexed by this. Don't get me wrong, some of them are absolutely stunning and contain products I could only dream of owning but wouldn't you rather spend that money on the people you love? I know I would.

In the end my decision came down to two options: it was either going to be the Marks and Spencer Calendar which I had bought in 2017 or the ASOS Advent Calendar. I know you are probably thinking that an ASOS advent calendar seems like quite an odd choice but they do stock some incredible brands and they had quite a few products I wanted to try in the Advent Calendar. After sitting down and comparing the two, I went for the ASOS one. I've raved about their Beauty Boxes all year so I thought I would continue the theme, plus there were more products I wanted to try in this calendar. I felt the Marks and Spencer one was a bit of a let down in comparison to what it contained the year before.

I've already spoken about this calendar during Blogmas but today I wanted to go back and look at the calendar post Christmas, after I have opened it all, so that I could fully consider if it was worth it. I always think it is really easy to look at an advent calendar and think you will use everything which was exactly what I did when buying the ASOS calendar but quite often that isn't the case. As I found out when I revisited my calendar from 2017 in this years Blogmas - Update on Last Years Advent Calendar.

In today's post I want to look at all of the products in the ASOS Advent Calendar that I think I will actually use and that I am excited to try but also point of the couple of products which I'm not as excited to try and why. Every year it annoys me how much people talk about Advent Calendars and which one you should buy but then you never hear anything else about them; is it because in general advent calendars are actually quite disappointing? Because people don't actually buy them? or just because people get so much for Christmas that the mini products in an advent calendar don't seem as exciting? Well for me, I am really excited about some of the products I received so I'm going to talk about those first.

Products I Can't Wait to Try

There are quite a few products which I was excited to have in my collection that I hadn't tried before. These were all of the products that prompted me to buy the ASOS Advent Calendar. Luckily for me this is the largest section, it would have been far more discouraging if the biggest section was the one that I wasn't really that bothered by. I have slowly been trying each of these products and I have to say so far it has been pretty positive.

I don't know if you see the same thing that I do when I look at the picture above but when I look at it, I see a skincare routine. This calendar definitely catered more towards skincare which is my dream as I love trying different skincare to see the difference that products can make when you find a good product. In particular the Sand & Sky Mask caught my eye as so many people have spoken about it. I haven't got round to trying it yet as I am trying to get through some of my other masks that I currently have open but I will be doing a skincare routine using a lot of these products which I will be writing a thorough review on. In that post I will be using the Caudalie Micellar Water, the Skyn Iceland Eye Pads, The 111 Skin Rose Gold Mask, the Alpha H Cleanser and the Sand & Sky Mask so look out for that as it will be coming soon.

For now, there are 4 products which I have tried: the Caudalie Micellar Water, the Iconic London Iluminating Drops, the Coco & Eve Hair Masque and the Luxie Contour Brush. I literally could not wait to try the Iconic Drops, as soon as they were unveiled behind door 20, I had opened the bottle. It is in the shade Blush which is a soft rose shade with a warm golden tone underneath all the rose. I had seen so much about these drops so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I can certainly say a little goes a long way with these drops. Too much of this highlight and you do look like a rose tin man but with the right amount this creates a stunning highlight which is anything but subtle. I would definitely say it is too much for my everyday look which makes this travel size perfect as I can't even imagine I will get through this one let alone one of the fill size bottles. This gave me the perfect opportunity to try it and now I understand why so many people rave about this. Even though I think this is a great product, I would not buy the full size as I simply do not think I would get the use out of it but if you love a liquid highlight, you have to try this.

Another product which made its way instantly into my makeup bag was the Luxie Contour Brush. I feel like brushes are really easy to try, once you've cleaned it. Luxie seem to have come from no where and I've seen their brushes a lot on Instagram. This brush is super soft and the quality is nice but the shape of this brush is not my favourite for contour, I prefer an angled brush. I will definitely keep this brush as it is quite nice but I can't imagine I will use it every day. I think I will get more use out of this after I find a good use for it.

Micellar Waters are an odd product for me, everyone raves about them but personally I do not like them. I recommend Micellar Water to people too lazy to take their makeup off as it is easy to use. If you are already in bed, as long as you have a bottle next to your bed, you can remove your makeup from the comfort of your bed. However they do not work for me. I've tried various products from the Garnier Micellar range but they seem to irritate my skin. I've always wanted to like them which is why I have tried multiple products but I can't get on board with them. I feel like they are an easy cleanser for the morning and because of this I wanted to try the Caudalie one. For once, I actually really like it. It is really refreshing and your skin does feel clean after you've used it. The smell isn't my favourite but I have been using this quite regularly which I did not expect. Finally a Micellar Water which works for me!

The final product I have actually used is the Coco & Eve Hair Masque, probably a bit of surprise for anyone has read my blog as I am not a hair care sort of person but my beauty goal for this year is to learn more about hair care and I started with this masque. I have wanted to try this masque for a long time as I have seen a lot of people say good things about it and I thought trying a popular hair care product would give me a way of getting into my beauty goal. I'm not going to talk about the results of this masque as I will be doing a full post on this but I just want to talk about the size of this product. I used practically half of the tube the first time I used this so really you will only get two washes out of this. I think there should have been a slightly bigger pot in this calendar. I'm not saying a massive pot, it wouldn't even need to be a quarter of the size of the full size tub but I just feel like it should have been a little bit more generous.

With the products I have tried, so far I have quite a positive outlook on the advent calendar. I think the higher priced products are in this category so I know I am going to get my monies worth. Obviously I am yet to try quite a lot of these products but I am waiting for a quiet weekend to be able to give myself a Sunday Facial using most of these products.

Products I have Already Tried and Love

The most exciting products are the ones which I had been waiting to try, like the Sand & Sky mask, which is why I spoke about them first but there were also some products which I had already tried and I was quite excited to have them back in my collection. Some of these products have seen their way to being featured in blog posts before and two of them actually featured in my Marks and Spencer Advent Calendar from 2017 and they are the Ameliorate Transforming Body Lotion and the Rodial Dragons Blood Sculpting Gel. The Rodial Gel has featured in a couple of my Sunday Facials. I will definitely be keeping this for Summer as this has a cooling effect and came in super handy for the Summer Heatwave we had. The Ameliorate Transforming Body Lotion was a shock to me as I wasn't sure about it because I hadn't heard of the brand before but it was amazing and became a key part of Prepping for my Summer Tan. It contains Lactic Acid so it uses a chemical exfoliation to help with texture and mild dry patches. I rate this and I am glad to have it back in life.

The other four products I actually already have in my collection but these will be a handy travel sizes for when I go away for a weekend. These products are actually some cult favourites like Benefit Hoola and Clinique Moisture Surge. In my time I have finished a full size Hoola and if that does not show love and dedication then I don't know what does. For a long time Benefit Hoola was the only bronzer I would use but I have since moved on to the Marc Jacobs Bronzer. However I do still like to use Hoola as a crease shade in my eye looks. It gives a warmth that a lot of brown eye shadows lack and it blends out well. I prefer Hoola for this task opposed to the Marc Jacobs Bronzer so I do like to keep a Hoola in my collection for this purpose.

Moisture Surge was the product that most wowed me last year and quickly rose to become my favourite moisturiser of the year. It is a cooling gel/cream formula that creates a barrier and retains moisture and it seems that barrier is impenetrable as when you wake up having used this the night before your skin looks hydrated and plump. This is such an incredible product and I will definitely be saving this for when I go away. Moisture Surge and Advanced Night Repair are my skincare dream duo and now I have travel sizes of both so I can have good skin even when I am away.

The final two are MAC Strobe Cream and the Glamglow Glowstarter in Nude Glow. I actually have quite a few samples of Strobe Cream as quite often you get them when you purchase from MAC online. I like Strobe Cream but I will be the first to admit, it isn't a product I often reach for. Much like the Glamglow Glowstarter. I have a full size pot of the Glowstarter in Nude Glow and I also have a more travel friendly pot which I received in one of the Christmas sets I picked up. I like Glomstarter and I do use it but it isn't my favourite moisturiser. However I do absolutely adore the scent of the Glamglow moisturiser. I think it smells like a chocolate orange but if you were to take out the chocolate aspect, it is that sweet artificial orange which I love. Sort of niche but it is something I appreciate.

With all of these products, they will be used. Even though products like Strobe Cream and Glowstarter aren't products I love, I will still used them as they aren't bad products and these sizes can be taken away with me. All six of these products encouraged me to buy this advent calendar and they complete the success story of the Advent Calendar.

Products I'm Not Sure About

Along with all of the products you long to try, there are always some filler days in advent calendars and unfortunately the ASOS calendar was not immune to this. When I wrote my original review of the Advent Calendar, the only filler days I could see were the Spectrum Sponge as I hate beauty sponges and the Carmex Lip Balm but it turns out after opening all of the doors, there were a couple more. I think when you look at an advent calendar it is easy just to see the products you want to try rather than taking in all of the products and considering the ones you won't use. There were certainly some products I hadn't noticed when purchasing this calendar when I opened day 15 to see the Jone Jelly Pack I didn't remember seeing it included in the list of products but I must have been blinded by all of the exciting products.

Day 15 wasn't the only day I felt disappointed, I also wasn't thrilled by:

the INCredible You Glow Girl - I tried it and have no idea when I would use it. This would be good for festivals but in my normal life I wouldn't use this.
Bod Mermaid Shimmer Sorbet - I had the same problem with this product as I have with the INCredible highlight
Bobbi Brown Smokey Lash Mascara - I have tried this before after getting this sample size in the ASOS x Bobbi Brown Beauty Box and I didn't really like it.
Holika Holika Aloe Gel - I'm not sure if this is for your face or body which has stopped me from using this. I think I need to look into it more.
Dr Jart Cicapair - I've left this until last as I felt really disappointed with this. I was really excited to try something from the brand (other than the sheet masks) and it is a colour correcting product which I wouldn't really use. Not only that but this is a tiny product.

I might be tempted to try the Dr Jart product just to get a feel for the product and I think the INCredible and Bod products would work for a festival, if I suddenly became the type of person to attend a festival. These products aren't bad (except the mascara) they just aren't products I could see myself using everyday which is why they have made it to this section. If you are looking for a shimmering body glitter then the Bod Shimmer Sorbet is perfect but it isn't something I would be looking for.

Overall looking at the contents of the Calendar broken down, I am still pleased with my decision to go for this one over the Marks and Spencer one. I feel like there is a lot to try and I'm not overly committed to them. That in fact is one of my biggest issues with this calendar, the product sizes are tiny with all of them being sample sizes. The only products which are full size are the beauty tools. This emphasises my biggest problem with beauty advent calendars in general, they contain samples that you get for free! Yes some of them might be samples that aren't widely available but still I question how companies can get away with charging so much money and claim they have an RRP of x amount when really they are not selling the products inside. I feel like you could save up any samples you received over the year, use an empty advent calendar and literally make your own. It would be way cheaper, plus slightly more customisable. Perhaps that is an option for my advent calendar next year. Really these shouldn't be called advent calendars, they are product samplers but idiots like me buy advent calendars every year so really I am part of the problem.

Not only was I not thrilled by some of the sizes in this advent calendar but also I wasn't in love with the packaging either. I did appreciate that this had doors rather than being in boxes but I felt the sort of shelf system did not work and it made the whole thing quite chunky. Some of the doors were hard to open as I couldn't pull the draw out far enough and on some of the doors I ended up breaking the cardboard around it as well as opening the doors, it just wasn't constructed overly well. In general I just wasn't thrilled by the packaging.

Despite there being a few negatives to the ASOS advent calendar, overall I am still pleased I purchased it when I sit and consider all of the new products I get to try. Even the ones which I'm not sure about I will probably still use, they just aren't ones I will reach for so not an epic fail.

Having bought advent calendars for the past two years I do have to say I think the excitement of picking one, buying it and the idea of opening it, is much more exciting than the actual process of doing it. I still like beauty advent calendars but I think next year I will be more considerate when choosing one. Beauty advent calendars have certainly found a market and don't seem to be going anywhere. I think writing this post has certainly made me consider how I feel about beauty advent calendars and whether or not they are worth the money and the time of finding one. What are your thoughts on advent calendars and do you actually buy one?