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Manchester Evening News

Entertainment

Harriet Morphy-Morris

I unboxed the £300 M&S advent calendar that's flying off the shelves and I've never felt more pampered

Philip Kingsley Clinique

M&S have launched its luxurious advent calendar for 2022 filled with top of the range beauty brands to pamper shoppers in the lead up to Christmas, and that's exactly how I felt when unboxing it.

Over the last few years the scale of advent calendars has grown with brands now offering a whole lot more than a few mini sample-sized lipsticks and blushers, instead of a Christmas 'treat' calendars are becoming whole gifts themselves. M&S' latest calendar is just that, worth a staggering £300 it's filled with a bundle of high end skincare, hair products, fragrances and popular makeup brands.

Having been launched at the end of last month, it is now only available to buy in store as online stock quickly sold out. You can get it for just £40 when you spend a minimum of £30 on clothing or homeware products, making it one of the most affordable unboxing sets of its kind. Similar beauty advent calendars go for as much as £510.

Before being treated to this calendar to review the only 'festive style' products I've had is as a present from my boyfriend's mum, where it's almost become a tradition each Christmas to get the L'Occitane star hanging gift set, which is lovely in it's own right but an entirely different product.

If advent calendars are normally something you'd treat yourself to each year then we've tried and tested this years M&S one, so you can decide if the products inside are well worth your money in the 25 days leading up to Christmas.

Packaging fit for your dressing table

One of the first impressions I got when unboxing the calendar was how presentable the packaging is, not too 'in-your-face' as some calendars can be but the right amount of colour and sparkle. The advent calendar box resembles a jewellery box, with an opening at the drop and a neat pull-out draw at the bottom with more boxes in.

It's worth saying, that as far as Christmas packaging goes, its definitely not something to put straight in the recycling, or bin in that matter, and I don't think it was designed that way either. Now that I've opened all 25 individual boxes I will definitely be keeping the main jewellery style box for storage on my dressing table.

There's also a good element of surprise kept within the calendar, as the way the individual boxes are laid out there's no way of hinting as to what's inside. This was one of the things I loved most about it as the square compact sized box held just the opposite of what I though it would (I'll let you find out what's inside that one).

Essential beauty products and more

Filled with 25 products the calendar includes seven full-sized items and a selection of minis, from M&S picked favourites to top-selling brands. As a plus some of the full-sized products are the pricier items from REN skincare to Clinique mascara, which alone retails for £23.

Whilst unboxing it's easy to see how this calendar has something for everyone, the products itself are staples and what everyone could need in their beauty routine - from shampoo and conditioner, facewash, body wash, moisturiser, make-up, nail polish, perfume and hand cream.

From reading this you may think 'well why would I buy it if it's just staples?' but it's the quality of the products and the high-end brands that I think make it well worth the money. I've never really spent a lot of time or money on skincare, as I've been lucky not to have problematic skin I can get away with switching up supermarket cleansers and exfoliators, but it's safe to say this box has opened up my eyes to some of the more luxurious products out there, and I now may be well and truly swayed.

Clinique, REN, Nuxe, This Works and Lumene are some of the skincare brands included, each fitting a different purpose from overnight cream, revitalising cream, uplift serum and under eye brightening cream. One of my favourites so far, and not a brand I've tried before, is the This Works 'In Transit Camera Close-up' primer, it's light on the skin and gives enough blurring to prep before a full-face.

A focus on high-end haircare

Even though advertised as including haircare I wasn't expecting quite so many products to be included, and as far as beauty advent calendars go there's a lot to leave your hair feeling like you've just stepped out of the salon.

Including the three Phillip Kingsley products, the Body Building Shampoo and Conditioner and Elasticizer to give your hair more of a healthy bounce. Haircare is something I love, and probably do spend too much of my money on day to day, so having a few p-roducts I know and love is an added bonus, and a money saving one at that too.

The Phillip Kingsley products are definitely worthwhile on their own, the same three products, would cost around £40 if bought separately. If this is something you know you'd love M&S also stock a range of bundles, from its £25 haircare package to £26 Bond Builder Shield Oil, which I believe is another rival product to the popular Olaplex Bonding Oil.

What it's missing

Overall I think the calendar is well and truly worth the £40 mark and it's range of quality products have certainly left me spoilt for choice. However, out of the 25 products eight of them are skincare moisturisers or creams which I feel is a bit off balance considering there are only three makeup products included.

It would have been nice to unbox another make-up item, whether eyeshadow, bronzer or a blush I feel there's definitely something missing that side of things. The three make-up products included the Clinique High Impact Mascara, Autograph Lipshine and an Eyeko Limitless Eyeliner.

The one product I'll definitely buy again

I've harped on about the luxurious skincare and hair products, that I love, but the one product that I'd definitely go out and buy again is one of the two included fragrances.

To be honest I've never heard of it before but it may have just become my favourite perfume yet, the Warm Neroli Eau de Toilette. The 30ml bottle is included in the advent, but all in all it's a very reasonably priced product at £9.50 for 100ml. It's a mixture of sweet and musky, I'd probably describe it as a 'deep sweet' if that makes any sense at all but one things for sure as soon as I've finished the bottle I'll be going back to M&S to buy another.

Adding a perfume to an advent calendar is always going to be a risky decision, shoppers will either love the scent or not which is why M&S have also included the Shay and Blue Black Tulip.