There’s just enough time to snag one of this year’s best beauty calendars – here’s a round-up of options that make deciding on one really, really hard.

Nope, not jaded about beauty advent calendars yet. Sure, they’re often just samples stuffed into festive packaging, but some smart brands include full-sized surprises as well. Either way, I’m still as charmed and tempted as much as ever. So here’s a round-up of all the daily-gift options I’d have if the beauty-advent-calendar fairy were inclined to surprise me with them all. What? You think it’s so easy to pick one?

art deco

One of the few beauty advent calendars offered at Canadian drugstores, the annual ArtDeco Beauty Advent Calendar ($89 CAD at shoppersdrugmart.com) offers 24 days of discovery. A solid German brand, it’s available in 70 countries, including Canada and the United States, and known for good quality, reasonable prices and its customizable, refillable-palette approach to eye and face colour.

the body shop

The Body Shop gets credit for being one of the first in the beauty/bodycare space to offer this gift idea in the early 2000s, when a clever employee in Sweden thought to offer as a holiday special a bag containing 24 smaller bags that each contained a mini Body Shop product. The first formal advent calendar from The Body Shop debuted in Northern Europe in the late 2000s, then finally landed in the UK and Canada in 2013, and in the USA about a year or so after that. The brand has always offered three options at three price points, a wallet-considerate approach I’ve always appreciated. This year’s theme is Dream Big, and designed to encourage young girls to aspire to a life and career without limits.

The Body Shop 2024 Dream Big This Christmas beauty advent calendar ($69 CAD at The Body Shop stores and $70 USD at thebodyshop.com), featuring 24 bath and body items, is the most wallet friendly of the three. It’s available at The Body Shop stores in Canada but sold out online. In the US, it’s available online only.

The Body Shop 2019 Dream Big This Christmas beauty advent calendar ($69 CAD at The Body Shop stores and $70 USD at thebodyshop.com), featuring 24 bath and body items, is the most wallet friendly of the three. It’s available at The Body Shop stores in Canada but sold out online. In the US, it’s available online only.

The Body Shop 2024 Dream Big This Christmas Deluxe beauty advent calendar ($99 CAD and $110 USD at thebodyshop.com) features 25 joy-inducing items, some in full sizes, a mix of hair, bath-and-body and makeup treats. And it’s available online only.

Also an online exclusive, The Body Shop 2019 Dream Big This Christmas Ultimate beauty advent calendar ($169 CAD and $170 USD at thebodyshop.com) contains MORE, in a mix of mini and full sizes in fragrance, hair, bath-and-body and makeup.

bare minerals

The Bare Minerals 24 Days of Clean Beauty advent calendar ($99 USD at bareminerals.com) is a lovely, universally flattering collection designed to bestow a healthy, rosy glow. Sadly, it’s no longer available to Canadians via sephora.com now that the holiday bonus sale is over. Aaargh!

charlotte tilbury

The Charlotte Tilbury Glittering Galaxy of Makeup Magic advent calendar ($250 CAD and $200 USD at charlottetilbury.com) is sold out at Sephora as well, but it’s just-as-easily accessible via the official Charlotte Tilbury website. A mix of travel- and full-sized items, it includes a full-sized Pillow Talk Matte Revolution lipstick, full-sized Color Chameleon creamy eye shadow pencil in Champagne Diamonds, full-sized Superstar Lips Glossy Lipstick in Sexy Lips, and a full-sized Eyes to Mesmerise cream shadow in Gold, as well as minis of Charlotte’s skincare favourites.

Clarins

This 12-Day Clarins 2024 Advent Calendar ($92 CAD at thebay.com and $60 USD at clarinsusa.com) is one I’d appreciate most this year, actually. There’s something reassuring about a collection of skincare from this trusted and highly respected French brand. Most of the items are easy to fit into any existing regimen. Two are full-sized – a lip oil and a Hydra-Essentiel Moisturizing Eye Mask; six are sample-sized, such as the Toning Lotion with Chamomile and Hydra-Essentiel Silky Cream; and four are minis, such as the Wonder Perfect Mascara 4D and the popular Clarins Beauty Flash Balm.