Luxury beauty advent calendars can cost up to £285 ahead of Christmas 2026, prompting beauty experts to question whether advertised savings reflect genuine consumer value.
Space NK’s 2026 Beauty Advent Calendar costs £275 and contains 35 products. These include 26 full-sized items, with a stated value exceeding £1,200 from brands such as Augustinus Bader, REFY, and Hourglass.
Liberty’s £285 calendar offers 29 products, including 21 full-sized items. It has a stated combined value exceeding £1,300, featuring Sunday Riley, Augustinus Bader, and Trinny London.
Retailers including Liberty, Space NK, and Marks & Spencer stock festive collections filled with beauty products from popular and premium brands. Prices range from under £100 to over £250. Retailers’ advertised values represent their stated combined product worth, offering shoppers a way to discover new products while enjoying the excitement of opening a different surprise throughout December.
Marks & Spencer provides a more affordable alternative priced at £75. It contains 26 products with ten full-sized items and an advertised value over £450. These figures suggest substantial savings when compared with the retailers’ stated product values.
“Beauty calendars may offer you lots of products for a really good price. They can also be a bit of fun and feel sensuous,” Heather Widdows told BBC News. Widdows is a philosophy professor and beauty expert.
Julia spent £99 on a John Lewis fragrance calendar. She participates in online groups to trade unwanted items from her holiday box.
“The ones I keep are already a lot cheaper per mililitre than if you bought them at retail,” she said.
For others, spending the same amount on a few carefully selected beauty essentials may offer better value.
Kara McGrath said in Cosmopolitan that the vast majority of beauty products aren’t recyclable. McGrath is a writer and editor with over 17 years of experience covering the beauty industry, women’s health, and other lifestyle topics who previously served as content director at Allure and executive editor at Bustle.
They are too small, contain too many different materials, or are made from a type of material municipal recycling facilities do not accept.