The most wonderful time of the year in the beauty world, Christmas advent calendars are now dropping daily. Following suit from Liberty, LOOKFANTASTIC and Harrods, Boots is the latest to unveil its line-up for 2024.

This year, the high street stalwart has launched not one, but three beauty advent calendars. If you’re a skincare buff, there’s a 24 day offering (£65, Boots.com) featuring brands like Byoma, The Inkey List, Bubble, Cetaphil and Weleda, treating you right up to Christmas Eve.

For make-up lovers, the 12 day premium calender (£99, Boots.com) includes both cult skincare buys (think Liz Earle’s hot cloth and cleanser) and cosmetics treats from Too Faced, Bobbi Brown and Huda Beauty. Packing in skincare and make-up, the flagship 24-day calendar (£99, Boots.com) is a crowd-pleasing mix of Drunk Elephant and Fenty, as well as No7 and Sol De Janeiro.

With some beauty advent calendars now costing upwards of £200 (we’re looking at you Selfridges and Harvey Nichols), the Boots line-up offers some of the best value for money – particularly the 24 day skincare countdown. Setting you back £65, it boasts an overall value of £224 and 16 full-size products.

Spanning moisturisers and serums, as well as fake tan and SPF, it will stock you up on skincare for the new year ahead while adding some excitement to your festive countdown.

How we tested

Some of the skincare in Boots’ £65 beauty advent calendar (Daisy Lester)

If you’re tempted, I got my hands on Boots’ brand-new skincare advent calendar for 2024. Opening each drawer ahead of December (sorry, not sorry), I considered the variety of formulas inside, the quality of the brands and its overall value for money. Here’s my full review of the Boots 24 day skincare advent calendar.

Boots skincare 24 days of skincare advent calendar

Price: £65

Worth: £224

Number of days: 24

Number of full size products: 16

Available: Now

Why we love it

Staple skincare products

Reliable brands

Good variety

There is a lot for skincare fans to get excited about with this drugstore line-up.

A-lister favourite Weleda has won a loyal following among makeup artists thanks to its skin food moisturisers that sit well beneath make-up (Hailey Bieber is a fan). In the Boots calendar, you’re treated to a full-size skin food ultra light dry oil (£11.96, Boots.com). Non-greasy and immediately moisturising, apply it at the end of your skincare routine for extra nourishment.

Chances are you use some kind of micellar water in your existing routine and the Boots calendar tops you up with two cult favourites: Garnier’s miscellar cleansing water (100ml) (£3.15, Boots.com) and Bioderma’s micellar water (100ml) (£6.50, Boots.com) for removing make-up.

Then there’s Cetaphil’s gentle skin cleanser (100ml) (£11.50 for 236ml, Boots.com). This budget formula is a hero buy for cleansing and soothing skin while tackling blemishes and clogged pores.

Sun protection is a year-round concern (something that many advent calendars can forget), but Boots’ skincare offering includes two hero SPF formulas. Garnier’s super UV vitamin C dark spot fluid (40ml) (£14, Boots.com) is a skin-blurring cream that boasts SPF 50 protection and hides the appearence of dark spots and blemishes, while the brand’s super UV SPF50 mist (75ml) (£8.67, Boots.com) can be sprayed over make-up to set your look and protect your skin.

Alongside skincare from household names like Simple and No7, there are some newer brands in the mix that already have a buzzy following on TikTok. Byoma’s hydrating recovery oil (30ml) (£13.99, Boots.com) locks in moisture and helps protect the skin’s barrier while Gen-Z favourite Bubble’s slam dunk moisturiser (30ml) (£14 for 50ml, Boots.com) combines user-friendly pump-up packaging with a silky smooth, hydrating formula.

You’ve probably walked past someone in the street recently wearing Starface’s viral hydro-stars (£11.99, Boots.com) and there’s a pack of 16 in Boots’ calendar for you to try out yourself. Powered by salicylic acid, the blemish-busting patches can clean up the appearence of spots in around six hours.

Fake tan fans will delight in a trio of crowdpleasing formulas. Helping you to achieve a golden glow in the depths of winter, Bondi Sands’ self tanning foam in dark (100ml) (£11.99, Boots.com) and St Mortiz’s tanning mousse in medium (50ml) are both easy-to-use formulas that even the most novice of tanners can get stellar results from. If you prefer gradual tan lotions, Dove’s summer revived (75ml) (£7.49 for 200ml, Boots.com) is one of the best on the market for a natural-looking finish.

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The verdict: Boots 24 days of skincare advent calendar

If you’re looking to try a range of skincare without committing to full-size formulas, then the Boots 24 days of skincare is for you. Owing to the focus on belmish-busting formulas and essential skincare products like micellar water and moisturiser, as well as fake tan, I think it’s a particularly stellar choice for younger skincare fans. Most of the formulas are entry level and viral products they’ve probably seen on TikTok (think Bubble and Weleda), so it’s great for building a skincare routine at a fraction of the cost. For £65, Boots’ skincare beauty advent calendar is one of the best affordable countdowns on the market.

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