An advent calendar is one of the most practical ways to turn the pre-holiday season into a daily ritual: instead of one large gift, a person receives 12–25 small surprises by opening a compartment for each new day. For the Christmas season, brands traditionally release such sets, filling them with miniatures and full-sized products — ranging from perfumes and makeup to skincare and scented candles. Below is a selection of ten beauty advent calendars from world-renowned brands, originally compiled by the publication WAVE (RBC-Ukraine).
Luxury Flagships: Dior and Dolce&Gabbana
The Dior advent calendar is designed in the shape of a "lucky star" with a Christmas composition in the center, stylized as a gingerbread house. Inside are 24 compartments containing brand products: J'adore and Miss Dior perfumes, lip gloss, skincare, and a scented candle. Dolce&Gabbana Beauty took a different visual approach: the calendar's exterior is inspired by the façade of the Dolce&Gabbana Metropol building in Milan and is fashioned as a golden box with compartments. The set also contains 24 items, including cosmetics, fragrance, and skincare.
Makeup Sets: MAC and Charlotte Tilbury
The MAC calendar is built around the brand's top items: lipsticks, lip glosses, eyeshadows, eyeliners, and other products — spread across 24 compartments where miniatures sit alongside full-sized formats. Charlotte Tilbury offers a more compact but dense selection: a red-and-gold box containing 15 decorative and skincare products, including four full-sized items and a mini-makeup bag that can be used as a bag charm.
Fragrance Stories: Jo Malone, Byredo, and Diptyque
Jo Malone designs its calendar as a chest with boxes, stockings, and pouches, each hiding a fragrance, bath or body product, or a scented candle; the brand also prepared a reduced 12-day version priced at $250. Byredo extends the season to 25 days of daily gifts — perfumes, makeup, body care, and candles, in full-sized and mini formats, housed in a bright blue-and-pink box. Diptyque focuses on visuals: the calendar looks like a forest story created by artist Jean-Simon Roch and contains 25 compartments with candles, perfumes, and body care.
Design and Collaborations: Sisley, Sephora, and the "Hotel" Calendar
Sisley released an advent calendar in collaboration with French designer Marie-Victoire de Bascher, turning Paris into a magical garden with fairy-tale flowers; each compartment is hand-painted with vivid illustrations. Sephora has compiled a collection of best-sellers in makeup and skincare from Anastasia Beverly Hills, Fenty Beauty, Kiehl's, Kérastase, and other brands, featuring a mix of miniatures and full-sized products. A special mention goes to the calendar based on the imaginary Grand Hotel Sprezzatura in the Dolomites: a two-part box that resembles a hotel where "windows open" both outward and inward, containing 24 fragrance and body care products inside.
Why It Works and How to Choose
The overall logic of all these sets is the same: the brand packages a seasonal purchase into the format of daily anticipation, which increases engagement and makes the gift "everyday" rather than a one-time event. When choosing, one should consider three parameters: the number of compartments (12, 15, 24, or 25), the ratio of miniatures to full-sized products, and how well the format fits the cosmetics already in use. Fragrance sets (Jo Malone, Byredo, Diptyque) are best for scent lovers, makeup sets (MAC, Charlotte Tilbury, Sephora) for those wanting to test decorative cosmetics, and luxury designs (Dior, Dolce&Gabbana, Sisley) for those who value collectible and gift-worthy packaging.
