Liberty beauty Advent calendar 2023 review: Is it worth it?
The arrival of this year’s Liberty beauty Advent calendar — perhaps the most eagerly awaited Advent calendar of the year — to the British GQ office caused quite a stir. Even here in Vogue House, where samples pile up on editors desks and designer clothes roll hither and yon on rails, the anticipation for the box’s delivery was palpable. Is it the best Advent calendar? We haven’t tried every one, but we put a lot of weight on these contents satisfying the high expectations of the GQ staffers.
Even the box stands out as a thing of beauty, to be kept as decoration on a spare desk in the office for the remainder of the festive season. We recommend you keep yours, too: it’s constructed from solid cardboard with 25 drawers within, illustrated by a snow-topped Liberty at Christmas and primed to go again next year with a series of treats you’ve sourced yourself. And what is in these wonderfully-crafted drawers, you ask? Not 24 products, not even 25 products, but 29 separate bits and pieces, all of which were swiftly cleared out by the team upon its stately arrival.
One member of staff opted for the Dr Sebagh hyaluronic acid, using it and noticing a difference within 20 hours of removing it from its drawer. Another chose the Aromatherapy Associates pulse point oil (the process of making magazines can get chippy), while a third stocked up on two cult favourites: the remarkable 111Skin Celestial Black Diamond eye mask and a full-sized Le Labo liquid balm in Rose 31. Colleagues even picked up the non-ephemeral items in the box: a pair of faux tortoiseshell clips, a pocket mirror covered with a Liberty print, an Estella Bartlett bracelet. In short, everything on offer was gone within minutes.
Now imagine all of this excitement: the buzzing discussions over which products have been tried and rated, which are to be added most eagerly to the medicine cabinet, how pretty the box looks. Picture all of that in your mind, and now imagine it’s yours to open meditatively a day at a time. It’s a nice thought, isn’t it? Like getting to eat chocolate before school every morning, simply because it’s December. We’d be here a very long time if we were to test out every competitor on offer in the name of comparison, but if the question is more as to whether the Liberty beauty Advent calendar is worth £250, the answer is a big, fat “yes”.
Rose Inc Cream Blush in Daylily (Full Size)Augustinus Bader The Rich Cream (Full Size)Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant (Travel Size)Verden D’Orangerie Hand Cream (Full Size)Votary Night Star Serum (Full Size)Davines OI Shampoo (Full Size)Dr. Barbara Sturm Face Cream (Full Size)Liberty Stateley Bouquet Votive (Travel Size)Le Labo Rose 31 Liquid Balm (Full Size)MALIN+GOETZ Rum Bar Soap (Travel Size)Larry King Spoilt for Choice Hair Oil (Full Size)The Seated Queen Cassiopeia’s Serum Concentrate (Travel Size)Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Night Oil (Full Size)Surratt Relevée Mascara (Full Size)OTO Exfoliating Cleanser (Full Size)Dizziak Deep Conditioner (Travel Size)Byredo Lipstick in Solid Ground or Commuter (Full Size)Dr Sebagh Serum Repair Hyaluronic Acid (Full Size)Bibbi Ghost of Tom Eau de Parfum (Travel Size)111SKIN Celestial Black Diamond Eye Mask (Full Size)REN Clean Skincare Overnight Glow Dark Spot Sleeping Cream (Full Size)Liberty Pocket Mirror in Elegance PrintVilhelm Parfumerie Poets of Berlin Eau de Parfum (Travel Size)Estella Bartlett Stars So Bright Gold Plated BraceletThe Uniform Hair Clip DuoZelens Instant Recharge (Full Size)Aromatherapy Associates Deep Relax Roller Ball (Full Size)Charlotte Mensah Manketti Hair Oil (Travel Size)LBTY. Tudor Eau de Parfum (Full Size)
£250 at libertylondon.com