Boots rivals LookFantastic and Sephora with beauty advent calendar worth over £600

Once reserved for a select few luxury brands, beauty advent calendars have become one of the most hotly-anticipated launches of the festive season, with retailers battling to deliver the best value for money and most covetable contents. And throwing their hat into the ring with not one, but two offerings this year is health and beauty retailer, Boots.

The high street favourite has released two premium yet relatively purse-friendly offerings for 2025, including a skincare countdown and beauty calendar. While some calendars cost between £200 and £250, Boots’ come in at £70 and £150 respectively, combining affordability with an impressive line-up of much-loved and trending products.

For fans of luxury makeup products, the Boots 24 Day Premium Beauty Advent Calendar is an enviable pick. Costing £150, it contains 25 products spread across 24 days with a total value of £612.50, which saves £462.50 overall.

READ MORE:

• 'I'm a fashion writer and New Look's £45 faux suede trench elevates any outfit'

• Superdrug's new £8 Rimmel makeup leaving shoppers 'really impressed'

Of the 25 items, 17 are full-sized, with a carefully crafted mix of skincare, makeup, fragrance and haircare from some of the biggest names in the industry. Think cult-classics from Elemis, Estee Lauder and MAC, alongside trending powerhouses like Sol de Janeiro and Milk Makeup

One of the products inside, the Drunk Elephant Protini Moisturiser 50ml, is worth £62 alone, which makes up a hefty portion of the price you pay for the entire calendar. Throw in brands like Nars, Too Faced and Laneige and it’s easy to see how quickly the value racks up.

Housed in a gorgeous circus-luxe themed reusable box, the calendar looks the part, too. However, not every product will appeal to every shopper, so it’s always worth checking out the contents to be sure:

• Drunk Elephant - Protini Moisturiser 50ml – full size

• NARS - Light Reflecting Hydrating Primer 30ml – full size

• Too Faced - Kissing Jelly Lip Oil Gloss - Pina Colada 4.5ml – full size

• Caudalie - Vinohydra Moisturising Mask 75ml – full size

• Laneige - Lip Glowy Balm in the shade Berry 10g – full size

• Sol De Janeiro - Cheirosa 76 Perfume Mist 90ml – full size

• M·A·C - Lip Pencil in the shade Whirl 1.45g – full size - Worth £20 / €24

• Estee Lauder - Advanced Night Cleansing Gelée with 15 Amino Acids 100ml – full size

• MILK MAKEUP - Multi-Use Dewy Cream Highlighter Mini Stick in the shade Lit 6g

• Iconic London - Get Cheeky Face Powder Palette 4 X 4g – full size

• Fenty Beauty - Icon Velvet Liquid Lipstick in the shade C-suite Heart 5.5g – full size

• Aveda - Botanical Repair Strengthening Leave-In Treatment 100ml – full size

• Fresh - Soy Face Cleanser 150ml – full size

• Fenty Skin - Blemish Defeat'r BHA Spot Targeting Gel 15ml – full size

• Philip Kingsley - Elasticizer Extreme Rich Deep-Conditioning Treatment 75ml – full size

• First Aid Beauty - Facial Radiance Pads 28 pads – full size

• Origins - GinZing Brightening Eye Cream with Caffeine and Ginseng 15ml – full size

• Elemis - Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm 20g

• Benefit Cosmetics - Mini Hoola Bronzer 2.5g

• Laura Mercier - Translucent Loose Setting Powder Mini 9.3g

• Floral Street - Arizona Bloom 10ml

• M·A·C - Mini M·A·C Macximal Silky Matte Lipstick in the shade Velvet Teddy 1.7g

• Lancome - Génifique Ultimate Serum 7mL

• Rituals - The Ritual of Mehr Body Scrub 125G

• Shiseido - Vital Perfection Uplifting and Firming Express Eye Mask

Elsewhere, LookFantastic's The Beauty Advent Calendar boasts a similarly impressive value of over £655, but comes in at £105 - £45 cheaper than Boots’ mixed brand haul. It’s said to be their ‘best ever’ with 25 products inside, 15 of which are full sized, including brands like Medik8, ESPA and Peter Thomas Roth.

Another popular multi-brand countdown comes from Sephora, with their Sephora Favourites Advent Calendar, priced at £225. Their edit has sold out three years running and this will be no exception, containing 41 products (24 being full sized) with 31 of them being exclusive to the retailer, including the likes of Glow Recipe, Merit, Tarte and Tower 28.

Some shoppers may prefer a skincare-only option, and in which case, Boots has brought back the 24 Days Of Skincare Advent Calendar for a second year. At £70, it’s an ideal option for those not wanting to spend over £100 on a calendar, but still achieve that same sense of luxury and indulgence. Worth £289, it saves £219 on a complete skincare ritual of 24 products, of which a whopping 20 are full sized.

Inside its practical and stylish reusable box, shoppers will find fan favourite brands such as Bubble, PIXI, BYOMA and Inkey List, timeless classics like Soap & Glory and Garnier plus must try K Beauty treasures from Anua, Haruharu, Tocobo and Round Lab.

It’s worth noting though that in the excitement of getting them launched, some of the details are the packaging are incorrect. Instead of containing the Cetaphil Moisturising Cream 85g, it actually features the Cetaphil Rich Night Cream 50g. Here’s everything inside:

Contains:

• Full size: Anua - Rice 70 Glow Milky Toner 250ml
• Full size: Anua - PDRN Hyaluronic Acid Capsule 100 Serum 30ml
• Full size: Haruharu - Wonder Black Rice Moisture Oil 150ml
• Full size: Round Lab - Birch Juice Sunscreen SPF 50+ PA+ 50ml
• Full size: Tocobo - Vita Glazed Lip Mask 20ml
• Full size: Bubble - Slam Dunk Hydrating Cream Moisturiser 50ml
• Full size: BYOMA - Melting Balm Cleanser 60g• FULL SIZE: PIXI - Hydrating Milky Mist 80ml
• Full size: Lumene - Nordic-C Glow Boost Essence Serum with Vitamin C & Hyaluronic Acid 30ml
• Full size: Lanolips - 101 Ointment 17.5ml
• Full size: Garnier - Moisture Bomb Sakura Hydrating Sheet Mask 28g
• Full size: Burts Bees - Salted Caramel Lip Balm 4.25g
• Full size: The Inkey List - Caffeine Eye Cream 15ml
• Full size: Q+A - AHA Body Exfoliator 250ml
• Full size: Boots Ingredients - Salicylic Acid Cleanser 150ml
• Full size: Boots - Aqua Hydrating Water Gel Moisturiser 50ml
• Full size: Boots Modern Chemistry - Restore Hydrogel Sheet Mask 1 mask
• Full size: Cetaphil - Rich Night Cream, Face Moisturiser for Dry to Very Dry Sensitive Skin 50g
• Full size: Simple - Mattifying UV Fluid with SPF 50 40ml
• Soap & Glory - Soap & Clarity Vitamin C Face Wash 50ml
• Super Facialist - Vitamin C+ Skin Renew Cleansing Oil 100ml
• Aveeno - Skin Renewal Smoothing Cream 50ml
• Starface - Black Star Pimple Patches 4pcs
• Full size: St Moriz - Illuminating Gradual Tanning Lotion 150ml or FULL SIZE: St Moriz Tinted Gradual Tan 150ml

While some brands have released fragrance-only calendars this year, Boots seems to be the only retailer offering a multi-brand, skincare-only option. That said, brands like Elemis and Liz Earle have released countdowns filled with their skincare bestsellers, ideal for fans devoted to one brand in particular.

Boots is set to stock more than 40 advent calendars this year. Alongside their premium offerings outlined above, there’s also their highly sought-after No7 calendars, with a more affordable and higher end offering available, as well as their beloved Macmillan charity advent calendar starring brands like Soap & Glory and Liz Earle. The calendar has raised more than £149,000 since 2021, and is currently available at a reduced price for £44, down from £90.

But if it’s the Boots beauty and skincare advent calendars shoppers want to count down to Christmas with this December, they can explore them on the Boots website.