The Best Beauty Advent Calendars for Christmas 2022
Published 27 October 2022
From wellness-focused offerings to festive 3D craft, beauty brands and retailers are creating indulgent and decadent advent calendars, with diverse product ranges and clever incentives for future launches. We round up this year’s standouts.
The Advent’s Biggest Year Yet: Iconic retailers like Liberty (UK) have dominated the market for many years with luxurious product line-ups and huge theatrical boxes. This year, other brands are raising their game with more diverse ranges and full-sized products.
Cult Beauty (also UK) offers 37 products in its advent calendar, 13 of which are full-sized, alongside three hidden golden tickets, each worth £1,000 ($1,110) in store credit. Space NK (UK) and Sephora (France) also feature a mix of full-sized deluxe and cult favourites.
Lifestyle publications are also getting involved. The UK’s Sunday Times Style has launched its first advent calendar, in collaboration with British ‘try before you buy’ subscription service Latest in Beauty. It contains a curated line-up of must-have hair, make-up, skincare and fragrance products, handpicked by the title’s beauty director, Sarah Jossel. Industry-leading brands like Shiseido, Fenty Beauty and Olaplex are featured, with all but four of the items being full-sized.
And French women’s lifestyle magazine Elle rounds up 28 cult favourites, including 12 full-sized versions, alongside a free annual digital subscription in its beauty advent calendar. The collection – worth £775 ($860) – comprises aspirational products like Swedish tech brand Foreo’s Luna Play Plus 2 facial cleansing device.
Wintery Wellness: Beauty brands are using the advent calendar format to offer daily self-care moments in the lead-up to Christmas.
British label Espa’s Wellness Advent Calendar is a “festive feast for the senses”. Its line-up of sensorial surprises features invigorating cleansers, lavish creams and rich essential oils to elevate day-to-night skincare and wellness rituals. Also in the UK, Lush prioritises rest and relaxation with its offering, which comprises a blend of retro and limited-edition products – like the Gingerbread House Bubble Bar and soothing Sleepy Body Lotion – for the ultimate self-care Christmas countdown.
Likewise, London-based Neal’s Yard Remedies and 111Skin’s calendars contain seasonal self-care favourites, like winter-specific nourishing skin products. Carefully curated to act as a 12-day intensive treatment, the latter features a range of surgically inspired skincare items, such as the Oxygen Express Mask.
Festive Nails: The celebratory spirit of the Christmas season offers commercial opportunities for nail brands that are marketing to party-ready consumers.
US company Opi’s advent calendar features a collection of opulent shades based on gems and jewels, with shimmering, metallic and pearlescent finishes for the holiday season. For example, Worth A Pretty Penne is a pearlised brown-pink colour leaning into the popular glazed doughnut nail trend. Meanwhile, fellow US label Olive & June’s Christmas Calendar creates an at-home salon experience with all the equipment consumers need to create the ultimate festive nail, from nail art stickers to serums and tools.
Community Spirit: While advent calendars are primarily designed to help with discovery and provide value to consumers, for British sustainable beauty brand UpCircle, they’re mutually beneficial. It’s using its first ever countdown calendar to trial 12 brand new products with its consumers. Buyers can scan the QR code on the box and share their thoughts, which UpCircle will use to decide which items to launch permanently in 2023.
Standout Packaging: From cosmic illustrations to joyful pop-up scenes, beauty brands are elevating their advent calendars with elements of craft and artistic expression.
Described as “a celestial object imbued with mystery”, Parisian brand Diptyque’s advent calendar combines the “shades of the night” with a shimmering constellation illustration. Vibrant stars and dancing letters are scattered across each day in December, which are matched with separate constellations. Meanwhile, fellow French label L’Occitane’s Christmas calendar features illustrations depicting the four seasons, representing the time it takes to seed, grow, blossom and harvest. With this alternative design, the retailer is steering away from classic motifs to acknowledge that Christmas means different things to different people.
Alternatively, 3D and pop-up advent calendars are leaning into joyful festive craft. French brand Rituals’ version is a 3D Christmas tree, and comes with lights that it can be decorated with. Each wrapped present hangs from the twinkling branches or sits underneath the tree. Likewise, British perfumery Penhaligons' Doors of Wonder resembles a giant bottle of the brand’s iconic fragrance. The theatrical, circus-themed calendar intends to create a “dazzling show” experience, with an exciting sensory build-up to the grand finale of Christmas day.
Taking the advent calendar to another new level, UK brand The Body Shop’s range acts as a vehicle to raise awareness about its Community Fair Trade partners. Pop-up illustrations aim to transport consumers to the world of its programme’s workers, from women making shea butter in Northern Ghana to waste-pickers in India. Users can find facts about the scheme, as well as suggested acts of kindness, encouraging them to share wonder and joy with their friends, family and community.
For more festive innovation straddling styling, product and packaging, Stylus members can see Christmas 2022: Beauty Inspiration.
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