Battle of the Beauty Advent Calendars

Remember the good old days when you used to go down Woolworths and get a cadburys advent calendar?? Well those days are long gone!

It appears something was started last year... you may remember me and everyone else going on about the Ciate advent calendar that was exclusive to selfridges. A couple of other brands scattered offerings across the market but come December they were nearly impossible to get hold of.
This year I was determined not to miss out. Part of my brain was telling me  that £42 was a lot to pay for an 'advent calendar' and the other half told it to shut up and that since I wanted one and couldnt get one last year that I should get one if I could this year. This debate all happened as the Ciate advent calendar fell into my basket at Selfridges when I went to Birmingham and since then there have been a few other brands offering up there own little 24 door beauties and so I thought I would share them with you!!!

Ciate 

Selfridges

Oh look at it!!! How could I leave that sitting on the shelf?? It has my name written allll over it! At £42 this isnt a cheap advent calendar isnt cheap but it is worth over £200. As I said these were all over the beauty-sphere last year and I really wanted one then so I decided to have one this year! I love the look of some of these polishes and can not wait to paint my nails with these - it also has some of the caviar beads which I am interested to try as Ciate were the leaders in this type of manicure - I tried the MUA version but I wasnt impressed so I am interested to see how these ones measure up.

Boots

Boots 

I am not surprised that Boots jumped on the band wagon of the beauty advent calendars. At £30 theirs is one of the cheaper beauty ones I have seen out there which is also readily available on practically every high street. This contains a mixture of brands including Soap and Glory, Nails Inc, Rimmel and Mavala. It has a mixture of high end brands and high street brands as well as offering a mixture of make up, hair care, skin care and nails. 

I am not going to lie. I picked this one up too. Me and mum went halves on this one (and then my dad gave me some towards it too - bless him) so we are going to share this between us! I am excited to see Boots doing this and cant wait to open this!!! 

It looks like this is sold out online but may still be available in your local boots store. 

Benefit

Benefit - Countdown to Love

Now if you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know how much I have developed a love for benefit! Ever since the first purchase I made around this time last year and sold my soul to them! So imagine my excitment when I saw they too were joining the advent calendar craze! However by this point I already had the 2 above and at £50 I could not justify a third! I do love the look of this though and to be honest, advent or not, it is a great way to get an introduction to some of Benefits best products! I think one thing which did put me off this is that all these are small versions - which is understandable because benefit is obviously a high end brand - like I say it is great if you want to try lots of new products. Included in this advent calendar are benefavourites such as the hoola bronzer, high and sun beam, stay dont stray eyeshadow primer and BADgal lash and liner. 

I have also seen offerings from the body shop knocking around on the blogsphere but I cant seem to find anything on the Body Shop website so I cant give you any more details on this one. Also I know that YOU beauty have an offering of an advent calendar available on their website here which retails are £49.95 but to be honest I havent really heard much about this one.

Have you picked up any beauty advent calendars this year??? Which is your favourite???