Best beauty advent calendars 2025, reviewed and ranked by an expert tester

Of all the calendars I tested in 2024, Sephora’s favourites calendar was my top pick and, after getting up close and personal with its 2025 offering, the 41-product Christmas countdown has earned my favour once more.

With one more product than last year and 24 full-sizes, this calendar is a must for modern beauty lovers, including plenty of young brands like Clomana, Tower 28 and Merit.

When I tested everything inside, I highlighted the Merit flush balm (£24, Sephora.co.uk) , telling readers how “I loved how creamy and smooth the pigment applied, with the colour giving my cheeks a flattering pop of colour without sticking to any dry patches.”

The price for this year’s Sephora advent calendar is £225, making it £26 more than last year’s – though it’s worth £25 more than 2024, which justifies the year-on-year price hike. It’s available to buy now, but I’m anticipating a stock decline imminently.

Read the full lowdown on the Sephora beauty advent calendar now

Harvey Nichols is up there with the best of the bunch, and 2025’s product roster is full to the brim with trending and timeless brands alike. After 25 days of unboxing, you’ll be set for healthy locks, glowing skin and glam to rival the runway.

While Patchology’s hydro-gel mask taps into social media’s obsession with overnight skincare, La Mer’s renewal oil is sure to bring a smile to the anti-ageing aficionado in your life – especially at £120 for the 15ml included (Harveynichols.com).

Make sure to grab yours soon if Harvey Nichols is top of your wishlist – it’s top of plenty of others’, too.

Read the full Harvey Nichols advent calendar review

If you missed out on the Harrods and Lookfantastic scent-filled advent calendars, then you’re in luck because Space NK’s perfume advent calendar launched a week ago. It boasts scents from the likes of Killian, Byredo and Glossier. Amazingly, it’s worth more than three times what you’ll pay. This is a must for those looking to discover new scents. Make sure you don’t miss out while it’s still in stock.

I’d recommend John Lewis’s beauty advent calendar for those with a mature complexion. Combining firming moisturisers, rejuvenating night creams and brightening eye formulas, the contents span brands both classic and of-the-moment – think, Elemis and Laneige.

It’s around £40 cheaper than the other high-end department store offerings (Selfridges, Liberty, Harrods), so the John Lewis beauty advent calendar is competitively priced with an estimated value of more than £1,000.

It’s no surprise that select inclusions feel particularly lavish, including Chantecaille’s faux cils mascara (£68, Johnlewis.com) and Killian’s love don’t be shy eau de parfum (£46 for 7.5ml, Spacenk.com). I’d argue that John Lewis’s beauty advent calendar for 2025 is its most indulgent yet and when mature skin expert Sabine Wiesel dove into its contents, she praised the skincare line-up and reported that “[it’s] made for targeting signs of ageing.”

So if you’ve overlooked it previously in a bid to secure more luxurious brands, this year’s haul demands your attention.

Read the full John Lewis beauty advent calendar review

Next’s Christmas countdowns are not to be overlooked. This year, its beauty advent calendar (£95, Next.com) and luxury advent calendar (£185, Next.com) are both sights to behold. While the former is worth more than four times its cost at £385, the latter is valued in excess of £750, so there’s plenty of savings to be had.

Competing with Boots and Asos, the cheaper iteration features a great selection of brands, many of which I’ve yet to see included in offerings from other retailers. Specifically, Hello Sunday, The Flat Lay Co. and Bondi Sands.

Meanwhile, the luxury collection is perhaps my top choice for buyers looking for high-end products without the excessively opulent inclusions. That means no La Mer, no Creed and no Chantecaille. But it also means full sizes from Murad, Laura Mercier, Clinique and Mac.

Read the full lowdown on the Next beauty advent calendars

As if one calendar wasn’t enough, Boots is heading into Christmas 2025 with two beauty advent calendars, the 24 beauty stars luxury advent calendar (£150, Boots.com) and the 24 days of skin advent calendar (£70, Boots.com).

If you’re sick of fragrances that aren’t to your taste or simply don’t wear make-up, the 24 days of skin offering will be more to your liking. With a glut of Korean skincare from Anua, Round Lab and Haruharu Wonder, the brand has leaned into gentle formulas, making this an even better pick for all skin types. Plus, it’s worth more than four times its price at £285+, which is no surprise with a full-size £18 mist from Pixi (Boots.com) and a £36.50 vitamin C serum – again full size – from Lumene (Boots.com).

Meanwhile, the main calendar – the beauty stars iteration – is set to balance value for money with luxurious treats. It includes Nars, Sol de Janeiro and Elemis (yes, the cleansing balm to end all cleansing balms), and this time you’re looking at a whopping worth of £600. For buyers not in the price bracket for the likes of Harrods and Harvey Nichs, Boots offers a competitive alternative for around £100 less.

Read the full Boots beauty advent calendar review

Whether you’re one to layer perfumes or you fancy heading into 2026 smelling the best in the room, Harvey Nichols’s 12 days of fragrance calendar is sure to impress.

Scent enthusiasts will be excited – to say the least – to see ultra luxe inclusions from the likes of Parfums de Marly, Killian and even Creed, while those after something a little more distinctive will flock for the vial of Ex Nihilo (it’s definitely a brand to watch). The whole calendar is worth more than £700, but you’ll pay just £175, all while enjoying the same pink and red aesthetics as Harvey Nichols’s main offering.

If scent is top of your agenda when buying beauty then L’Occitane, with its heavenly lavender and citrus aromas, needs to be on your radar. For 2025, the French brand has packaged up its hand, hair, face and body haul in a typical Provencal-style townhouse. Though it’s not the most Christmassy wrapping, it’s certainly true to the brand and, as it happens, the contents are where this advent shines.

With all L’Occitane’s hero products, from the almond shower oil (£8, Loccitane.com) to the verbena shower gel (£6, Loccitane.com), the 24 items included will leave your skin clean and nourished as you step into 2026. There’s plenty of travel sizes here for all your hand luggage holidays, plus a selection of full-size products, including the brand’s ultimate best-seller: the shea butter hand cream (£25, Loccitane.com).

Much like The Body Shop above, the price-to-worth ratio isn’t quite as dramatic as the multi-brand retailers (see Selfridges, Liberty and the like), but a saving of more than £125 isn’t one to turn your nose up at, either. It’s available to shop now with free delivery.

Sitting alongside Boots as one of the most popular mid-range beauty advent calendars, Asos’ face + body advent calendar is a top pick for entry-level beauty enthusiasts. Be it teens or those just dipping their toes into the world of skincare, haircare and make-up for the first time, this calendar features a healthy mix of affordable, moderately priced and high-end cosmetics – so it’s not entirely out of the question that you might repurchase its contents post-December.

While it was exciting to see certain TikTok-famous brands featured – Clomana and Biodance, specifically – I might have liked to see some more 2025 newness in the formulas, such as exosome serums (a la The Inkey List) and boba moisturisers.

Worth £406, you’ll be getting more than four times what you pay in product value. The products are distributed equally across the various beauty categories. It’s certainly a contender in the sub-£100 market.

Read the full Asos beauty advent calendar review

An extension of the Soho House brand, Cowshed is the embodiment of luxury country living and uses natural botanicals in all its products. This Christmas, the Cowshed 24 day advent calendar is wrapped up in a rustic wicker hamper and contains a selection of indulgent, relaxing and sleep-inducing products to help start and end your day right. It's worth a total £483, so you'll be saving 48 per cent, not to mention there's plenty of full size products here, too. After all, no one wants to display a miniature hand wash (ahem, The White Company) on their bathroom sink. A set of the refresh hand wash (£20, Cowshed.com) and hand cream (£22, Cowshed.com) bottles will do nicely.

After closing its famous Bond Street doors last year, it might come as a surprise that Fenwick is bringing glitz and glamour once more in its 2025 beauty advent calendar. While the retailer is considerably smaller than Harrods, Selfridges and even Harvey Nichols, Fenwick’s beauty advent calendar shouldn’t be overlooked.

Costing £250 but worth more than £1,000, it includes a selection of beauty favourites from big-name brands, including Nars, Dermalogica, Malin + Goetz and Neal’s Yard.

Compared to Sephora and Space NK, I’d argue Fenwick’s offering skews slightly more mature, with a focus on anti-ageing creams, fine-line-friendly primers, and complex fragrances from Miller Harris, Carolina Herrera and more.

While the launch date hasn’t yet been revealed, the waitlist is live now, so join it for exclusive updates.

As usual, Lush is bringing a whole suite of advent calendars, including an advent refill for those who’ve kept their colourful packaging from years past.

This year, the selection includes the classic Lush advent calendar (£205, Lush.com), the brand’s high street advent calendar (£125, Lush.com) (which mimics the design of the original Lush shop) and, as mentioned, the refill calendar (£179, Lush.com). Long-time Lush enthusiasts will be thrilled to see the return of seasonal ranges like snow fairy and yog nog, along with all the typical festive bath bombs, from Father Christmas to the good old brussels sprout.

Jo Malone is a British fragrance institution, and I grow increasingly excited to see the brand’s advent offering with each passing year. Although it maintains its £360 price point from 2024, the 2025 calendar has shifted from its usual boxy offering to a unique, colourful dartboard design.

The contents are impressive as always; without giving away all the magic of Christmas, buyers can expect to see old favourites from the brand’s most popular ranges. Jo Malone’s signature scents, like lime, basil and mandarin, and blackberry and bay, will appear as candles, colognes, body creams, alongside some seasonal aromas to keep things fresh.

The brand notoriously keeps its calendar worth close to its chest, but, for context, one of the included 30ml colognes will set you back £56 by itself. If the Christmas season leaves you lusting after candles and luxury body care, consider Jo Malone’s advent calendar – if you can get your hands on it, that is.

Fans of a nude lip, your time has come. That's right, the Charlotte Tilbury advent calendar is back and it's packed with bestsellers like the lip cheat pillow talk liners, the icon baby lipstick and more. When senior shopping writer Daisy Lester unboxed all the treats within, she was wowed at the "hall-of-fame formulas" included and praised the £80 total saving. Plus, if you use our exclusive code – INDY15 – readers of The Independent can save an extra 15 per cent, lowering the price to £148.75.

Read the full lowdown on the Charlotte Tilbury beauty advent calendar now

Whether you’re in your late twenties or fifties, Clarins is a brand that spans the ages – and its 2025 beauty advent calendars are no exception. With the ever-popular lip comfort oil (£21.60, Clarins.com) appeasing the TikTok generation, plus the beauty flash balm (£30.40, Clarins.com) with more than 40 years of radiance-boosting history under its belt, there’s something for everyone in these calendars (and up to £127 up for grabs).

While the 12-day iteration makes an indulgent gift for the beauty lover in your life, the 24-day countdown brings a healthy mix of full-size and mini heroes for a glowing festive build-up. Think: smooth skin, voluminous lashes and bright, youthful-looking under eyes. Sign me up.

A calendar that never fails to impress, Mac's '24 mystery must haves' advent is filled with high-quality make-up staples, plus enough skincare lotions and potions to ensure your complexion is moisturised, prepped and ready for the party season ahead. Naturally, as a brand whose name means 'make-up artist collection', the majority of full-size products (of which there are 19) fall under the make-up umbrella. Highlights include the Mac lip pencil in soar (£20, Maccosmetics.co.uk) and the best-selling Macstack mascara (£27, Maccosmetics.co.uk) – though, it might have been nice to see some of the brand's iconic brushes included here, too.

The calendar is worth more than twice what you'll pay at £439 – and the packaging is one of my favourites, with a rose gold and pastel wrap, plus a handy mirror for dressing table reuse beyond Christmas.

Fans of a snatched brow, your time has come – the Benefit beauty advent calendar for 2025 has been announced. Called ‘the glam cube’, to includes a selection of 24 items, spanning eyes, lips, brows, skin and even hair. While there are only five full-size products here (including material items, such as make-up remover pads), it’s still worth more than double the retail cost – so there’s plenty of savings to be had.

Long-time Benefit enthusiasts will be happy to see the OGs out in full force, with the porefessional primer (£12, Benefitcosmetics.com), the they’re real mascara (£11.25, Benefitcosmetics.com) and the gimme brow tint (£10.15, Benefitcosmetics.com), to name a few.

While Rubik's Cube-inspired packaging is undeniably funky, I did enjoy the reusable nature of 2024’s basket casing. In fact, mine is still in use as bathroom storage.

If anti-ageing is the game then Elemis is the name because the British skincare brand has come through with some gems in its wonder advent calendar this year. For years, the brand has had mature skin types on tenterhooks with its fine line-minimising formulas and, now, its treating us to a whopping 14 products from its ever popular, pro-collagen anti-ageing range. Anyone taking the calendar home this December will be delighting in 26 products, including two full sizes and a nourishing selection of the brand's skincare and body care. Smooth, supple skin for 2026? Yes, please.

If you like to kick off your morning feeling zingy and shower fresh, then Molton Brown’s advent calendar will definitely be worth a gander. Worth £100 more than you’ll pay, the calendar features 24 products across 12 fan-favourite scents, including black pepper and coastal cypress and sea salt.

This calendar extends beyond the bathroom, too, with perfume, lip balm and a candle to set the mood. And it’s live now, so why not shop your bath and body upgrade today?

Glossybox is one of the best beauty subscription boxes, and its annual beauty advent calendar is just as good. This year, the brand selection is on point – think Medik8, Morphe and Natasha Denona. And at less than £100 (but worth more than £600), it’s one of the most affordable offerings.

If you're in the market for a calendar under £200 and the more affordable options don't hit the mark, you might find a happy middle ground in Debenhams' beauty advent calendar for 2025. It's worth more than £700, so its value is more than four times what you'll pay, and it's jam packed with beauty big-hitters. From Urban Decay's all nighter setting spray in its vitamin C variety (15ml included isn't available to buy, but 30ml is £13.20, Debenhams.com) to a full size of Benefit's 24 hour brow setter (£20.80, Debenhams.com), this calendar offers an even mix of mainstream and niche brands, with indie inclusions from Typebea and Dizziak to keep things exciting. Plus, the packaging is a gorgeous ode to all things beauty with its neon mix of festive motifs and cult cosmetics.

If you've ever been tempted by Aesop's luxury hand soap, then you'll want to prepare for the brand's latest seasonal launch: a 13-day advent filled with indulgent body care, fragrance and more. Interestingly, this calendar follows neither the 12 or 24-day model – instead you'll receive gifts on every odd-numbered day in December. The gifts include hand balms from the best-selling resurrection range, geranium body cleansers and more. As it's the brand's debut calendar, you'll want to grab one quick before it sells out.