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Rachel Eling rounds up the best of the beauty advent calendars

This week, I have been making like Gulliver and opening tiny doors, pulling out teeny drawers, unscrewing miniature jars and dabbing on perfume from wee bottles of scent to squirrel out the best of the season’s beauty advent calendars. Yes, I know it’s too early to think about Christmas, and yes, I know we haven’t even got as far as Halloween yet but the calendars are going online and into stores in the next week or two, and you know as well as I do that they will sell out way before the 1st of December. So you’re just to have to pull on some felt antlers, crank up the Michael Bublé and handle it, okay?

 

jo-malone-advent-calender-c2a3250-nrm_1412249302-jml_advent_calendar_open_1mb-e1413817856867Jo Malone, £260, available now at Harrods, and nationwide from November

This one is for the other me, the one who lounges on velvet couches in cashmere leisurewear. While she opens the doors of the Jo Malone Georgian town house to peek in the little drawers, she might wonder why her hedge-fund husband never gets home before 11pm, but then she’ll spray on some cologne and decide she doesn’t care.

lush-advent-calendar_700x1050Lush, The 12 Days Of Christmas, £49.95, available now

Lush is a really Marmite brand, but for those who love its handmade and quirkily named products, this is a delight. For my money, this is best used for daily bubble baths during the 12 days after Christmas, officially the least wonderful time of the year and one best spent hibernating under a quilt, loading up on Christmas movies and polishing off the stilton and port.

partypoppersBenefit Party Poppers, £34.50, available now at Debenhams and benefitcosmetics.co.uk, and nationwide from November.

I’m fairly sure my award for Aunt Of The Year is fairly safe, thanks to my regular wardrobe clearouts and outings to Topshop, but to make sure it’s 100% in the bag, my Benefit-junkie nieces will each be getting 12 days of Christmas treats, including best sellers like High Beam highlighter and BADgal lash mascara. Cool Aunt Rach, huh, girls?

liberty-beauty-advent-calendar-2015-review-639x426Liberty, £149, available from 29th October

Diptyque and Eve Lom and Nars, oh my! For me, Liberty is the Grande Dame of all the big London stores—just walking through those heavy wooden doors makes me feel all swishy—and nothing could give me greater joy in December than plundering one of these paisley-print drawers each morning, knowing hidden treasures from the creme-de-la-creme awaits in every one.

L'OccitaneL’Occitane Beauty Advent Calendar, £39, available now.

Isn’t there something gloriously no-nonsense about L’Occitane? I imagine a factory filled with identically coiffed Provencal woman in matching overalls, filling bottles and pots with lavender, lemon verbena and geranium rose delights. This charming, and brilliantly priced, calendar is filled with 17 beauty products, plus another seven presents the sensible French ladies though you might like. Magnifique!

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