Are Beauty Advent Calendars Worth What They Claim?

Beauty advent calendars went on sale weeks ago, and searches for them climb all through October and peak in November. Every box comes with a big number on it, like an "$850 value". So I wanted to know what buyers say once the drawers are open. Do they believe that number? How much of what's inside do they actually use, and what happens to the rest?

The short answer: most of them ignore that number and do their own math instead, and it's a very personal kind of math.

About this study

Some things you should know about how this was collected. Most of these comments come from beauty box and deal-hunting communities, so people who buy several calendars a year are louder here than someone buying their first. UK calendars lead the conversation, and from 2025 on a lot of the US comments are about tariffs.

A couple of places I expected to be busy had nothing, and I dropped threads that only mentioned a calendar in passing, so what's left is mostly people buying them. One story also turned out bigger than I expected, so it gets its own short part in section 3.

If you read our Black Friday study, the "is the value real?" question will sound familiar. That one was about discounts, and this one is about the claimed value printed on a box, which buyers trust even less.

The research question

Why do people buy beauty advent calendars, do they believe the value printed on the box, and how much of what's inside do they use? The short version: they buy them as gifts and to try new brands, and they judge the value by the few items they'd buy anyway. A big share of every box goes to someone else, to a resale app or into a drawer.

1. Why people buy one

This section comes from a random sample of 200 comments about gifts, treats and trying new things. 45 of them said why they buy a calendar.

I expected "a treat for myself" to come first. It didn't, not even close. Gifts won, and often it isn't one calendar for one person. Some buyers order several and break them up, so one box becomes four or five presents.

Discovery comes second. These buyers want brands they can't easily find in their own country, or wouldn't pay full price to try.

Two other groups showed up that I didn't go looking for. 9 people in the sample would rather watch someone else open a calendar on video than buy one, so they get the fun without the clutter. And 8 said they'd rather have a food or tea calendar, because you finish it.

2. The verdict on value

This section is based on a random sample of 220 comments about price and value. 133 of them gave some kind of verdict.

So the good news first: one in five verdicts is a clear yes. And those buyers are specific about why, naming lots of full sizes, brands they love or a low price to begin with. Some did the math themselves, item by item.

But add up the no's (too expensive, filler, mostly samples, a plain "no" and the inflated claimed value) and they make up about half of all mentions. The complaints are rarely vague, either. People name the stickers, the size of the minis and the number on the box.

The verdict I find most useful for a brand sits at number 5, because these buyers ignore the claimed value completely. They ask a different question: of everything in this box, what would I actually buy, and what would that cost me? And different people describe that test in almost the same words.

Only 2 comments defended the calendars the way a brand might, as a gift where the fun of opening it is part of what you pay for. I think that's a fair point. Almost nobody else makes it.

3. What goes unused

This section is based on a random sample of 200 comments about products people don't use. 25 of them were about the Sephora points calendar, so I left those out and covered them at the end of this section. 66 of the rest said what went unused or why.

Filler comes first, and buyers have a clear idea of what counts: anything that isn't a product, like hair ties, stickers, keychains, cheap jewellery or a dust bag. One commenter had a word for it that I liked.

Then there's the share people expect not to use, and they're surprisingly exact about it, giving a quarter or 40% or half as if they'd sat down and counted, and some of them clearly had. A few of them say this happily, as the price of finding a couple of new favourites, and others say it's the reason they stopped buying.

Things people already own are tied for second, and this one is specific to heavy buyers. They get the same minis in gifts with purchase, subscription boxes and last year's calendar, so they notice when a calendar repeats them.

Perfume samples and shades fill out the list. Perfume is a "love it or it's useless" item. Shades are a quieter problem, and they hit some buyers much harder than others, because a nude lipstick only looks nude on some skin tones.

The calendar nobody could see inside

One calendar got 50 comments across 13 threads on its own. Sephora offered it to Beauty Insider members as a loyalty reward for 2,500 points, with no photos and a description that promised "makeup, skincare, bath, and accessory surprises". It held only accessories. Some people got their points back after pushing through customer service, and some say they were refused first.

I'm including it because it's an extreme version of everything above. People can forgive a weak calendar when they knew what was in it, but not one that promised products and shipped filler.

4. What happens to the leftovers

Across the samples, 61 comments said what happened to the products they didn't want. 21 gave them away as gifts, 11 sold them, and 10 had stopped buying store calendars and made their own from things they already owned. 9 said they used everything. 6 kept using the box or the drawers it came in, and 5 are still working through a calendar from years ago. 4 keep the minis for travel, and 2 donated them.

So for many buyers, a calendar is partly a stack of presents for other people. Fair enough. That fits section 1, where gifts were the top reason to buy in the first place.

The people making their own calendars were mostly cutting back on buying. They wrap up products they already own and forget about them until December, and a few kept the box itself long after the products were gone.

5. Getting one

This section is based on two random samples, 420 comments about buying, shipping and sales. 232 described what happened when they tried to buy a calendar, or how they time it.

The popular calendars sell out in minutes, and buyers describe the launch like a concert ticket drop. It also leaves them less time to compare, and that works against the careful checking in section 2.

Tariffs came next. They're a 2025 and 2026 story, and almost all of it comes from the US. Many UK calendars stopped shipping there, and the ones that still ship got noticeably more expensive. For some long-time buyers, that was the year they stopped.

Timing is the other problem. Late boxes hurt more than with most products, because an advent calendar has a hard deadline. A calendar that arrives on December 6 has already failed, and buyers who ordered in September remember the brand for it.

Then there's the waiting game. Cheaper calendars often go on sale around Black Friday, but the good ones are gone by then, so buyers end up choosing between the price and getting one at all.

What I'd do with this if I were making a calendar

If a small beauty brand asked me about a calendar this month, I'd start with the test from section 2. Pick two or three full sizes that your customers already buy, check that their normal prices add up to roughly the calendar's price, and build everything else around them. That way the buyer who does the math gets a clear yes, and everything else in the box is a bonus.

Then I'd cut the filler. No stickers, no hair ties, and probably fewer perfume samples than you'd think. I'd keep products in their own little boxes, because gifts were the top reason to buy and a lot of these boxes get split up. And I'd show the full contents with real sizes before launch, since checking is what this audience does anyway.

If you want to test a lineup with your own customers first, this piece on validating a product with customer research covers a cheap way to do it. For the price itself, our piece on pricing research for DTC brands may help.

What I can't answer from this data is whether the big claimed value actually sells calendars. Almost nobody here defends the number on the box, and the one person here who runs advent calendar sites calls it mostly marketing. But the calendars that sell out in a minute tend to be the ones with the biggest claimed values. So maybe the number works on buyers who never post about it. I'm not sure. I'd want a brand's own sales data before telling anyone to drop it.

A customer glossary

If you write product pages, emails or ads for a beauty advent calendar, these are the words your buyers use.

Frequently asked questions

Are beauty advent calendars worth it?

At full price, most buyers in these comments say no. About 21% of value verdicts called a calendar good value. About half were some kind of no: too expensive for what's inside, filler accessories, mostly tiny samples, or an inflated claimed value. The buyers who are happy usually check one thing first: whether the two or three items they would buy anyway cost about as much as the whole calendar.

Why do people buy beauty advent calendars?

Gifts come first, at about 31% of the reasons people gave, and many buyers split one calendar into several presents. Trying new products and brands came next (about 21%), then a treat for themselves (15%). The daily fun of opening one and the value of the full sizes inside each came up about 12% of the time.

What do people not use from beauty advent calendars?

Filler accessories top the list, at about 26% of mentions: stickers, hair ties, keychains and scrunchies. Next come products people already own or keep getting as samples (20%). Another 20% is a general share they say they won't use, often a third to half of the box. Perfume samples and shades that don't suit them came up about 11% each.

What do people do with advent calendar products they don't use?

Most give them away. Of 61 comments about leftovers, 21 said they turn unwanted items into gifts and 11 said they sell them on resale apps. 10 skip store calendars altogether and wrap up products they already own instead, and only 9 said they used everything.

Do beauty advent calendars go on sale?

The cheaper ones often do, around Black Friday or after December 1, but the popular ones usually sell out first. Selling out was the most common buying problem in these comments (about 28% of mentions), ahead of tariffs or calendars that won't ship (20%) and late or missing orders (19%). About 18% of mentions were about waiting for a discount or stacking codes.

This report looks at what people say in public online discussions. What they say about specific retailers, shipping, refunds, tariffs and the contents of specific calendars are personal accounts we have not checked. We report them as what customers said rather than as fact. Percentages only describe their own section and should not be compared across sections. They are rough guides from these comments rather than a count of all buyers, and people who buy several calendars a year are louder here than first-time buyers.