The great thing about departmental stores in the UK, is that they are able to leverage their position and get multiple brands to participate in their advent calendar. It’s a beautiful thing. Does it deliver value for money? Let’s find out.
(P.S., I’m an independent blogger (not affiliated or paid for by anyone/anything). Remember a time when people wrote about skincare, shopping and social issues because they cared? Unmitigated honesty? That’s me, in a nutshell)
But first, what is an advent calendar?
“Advent” means Coming in Latin and an advent calendar counts the days to Christmas. A beauty advent calendar will typically have 20+ individually numbered drawer and in the countdown to Christmas, you open a drawer/day and it will reveal a “present” such as a face mask or body lotion etc.
The John Lewis Advent calendar
Retail price is £150. Expected value per seller says is not given. I estimate £445. Calendar officially launches on 1 October 2020 and is available for purchase via the John Lewis app. This means you have to become a registered subscriber before 1st October 2020.
All prices are from John Lewis UK website or a comparable UK website. (UK retail prices so VAT inclusive). “A” is the quantity of the full sized product. “B” is the price (£) for the full sized product. “C” is the quantity of the product in the Advent Calendar. “D” is calculated as (C/A)*B. “E” is calculated as D/F expresses as a percentage. P.S. As Alexander Pope wrote, “To err is human, to forgive divine” so my calculations may have errors. Don’t shoot me, tell me.
Allocation of products between categories
| Advent calendar price | % of value | |
| Bodycare | £52 | 12% |
| Fragrance | £22 | 5% |
| Haircare | £15 | 3% |
| Make-up | £84 | 19% |
| Skincare | £272 | 61% |
What do I think?
The retail price is £175 and the products are worth £445.
I am pleasantly surprised by some of the products in the calendar, such as the eye concentrates (Dermalogica and Shiseido) and the facial oil (Sunday Rieley). The combined retail price of both is about £160. Also, I am pleasantly surprised by the fragrances (Hermès and Acqua di Parma) which are not present in other advent calendars.
As with all such calendars, be sure you are going to use the most expensive products, which are in the previous paragraph.
Other 2020 advent calendar product reviews you may be interested in:
- cultbeauty
- Diptqyue
- Elemis
- feelunique
- Fortnum & Mason
- Glossybox
- Harrods
- Jo Loves
- Jo Malone
- John Lewis
- Liberty
- lookfantastic
- Molton Brown
- Net-a-porter
- Selfridges
- Space NK
- The White Company
List of products in advent calendar
- Acqua di Parma Mini Hatbox (1x20ml) Body lotion
- Acqua di Parma Mini Hatbox (1x20ml) shower gel
- Acqua di Parma Mini Hatbox (1x5ml) EDT
- Lumene Nordic-C Glow Boost Essence 15ml
- Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish™ Hot Cloth Cleanser 30ml
- bareMinerals Prime Time™ Original Foundation Primer 7ml
- NARS Lipstick, Tolede 1.6ml
- Evolve Beauty Bio-Retinol Gold Mask 30ml
- By Terry Baume de Rose Lip Balm 3ml
- Christophe Robin Cleansing Purifying Scrub with Sea Salt 55ml
- Clarins Relax Body Treatment Oil 30ml
- Bobbi Brown Mini Smokey Eye Mascara, Black 3ml
- Slip Pure Silk Skinny Black Scrunchie
- Disciple Discovery Kit Skincare Gift Set 2x10ml
- Neom Organics London Perfect Night’s Sleep Pillow Mist 30ml
- Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream 15ml
- Rodial Snake Oxygenating & Cleansing Bubble Sheet Mask Individual Sachet 22g
- Hermès Twilly d’Hermès Eau Poivrée Eau de Parfum Replica 7.5ml
- Dermalogica BioLumin-C Eye Serum 15ml
- Charlotte Tilbury Colour Chameleon Dark Pearl 1.6g
- ESPA The Grounding Crystals 55g
- Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner 1.8ml
- GIVENCHY IRRESISTIBLE Eau de Parfum 8ml
- Estee Lauder Revitalizing Supreme+ Global anti-ageing cell power crème 15ml
- Laura Mercier Blush Colour Infusion, Pomegranate 6ml
- Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Night Oil 15ml
- Shiseido Ultimune Eye Power Infusing Eye Concentrate 15ml.
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