SkinCity Beauty Advent Calendar Review 2020

I loved the SkinCity beauty advent calendar back in 2019, so it was a no brainer – I knew I had to get this year’s edition as well. Let’s see how things turned out..

SkinCity Beauty Advent Calendar Review

Delivery & Packaging

Unlike last year, I placed the order on the international website rather than the UK one so the delivery experience was slightly different. I chose express deliver rather the other (standard?) option. Express delivery was like 9 EUR while the other option was 8 EUR, however express meant receiving the parcel in 1-2 working days unlike the other options which would have meant waiting for 3-5 working days. It was an easy choice to make!

The parcel arrived super fast and was delivered by DHL Express. The parcel did arrive at the local delivery centre the day after placing the order so I could have received the parcel in 1 working day, however it spend 7 hours at the penultimate sorting centre (*never happened before – it is usually 2 hours as this is not the first parcel that ended up going through that point) which led to the parcel making it to the final sorting point at 10 PM which is outside woking hours. I got he parcel the next morning. I received the parcel in 1.5 days since shipping or 2 days after placing the order. Very good! The delay was definitely not SkinCity’s fault.

The calendar was in a simple brown box with a it of paper inside to protect it. There was a minimal amount of protection wrapping included, but the outside box was perfect so the contents did not get injured either.

I am happy with the process.

Price

I normally would not mention this as pricing is well know by this point. however I had a very strange experience. Since I got the calendar from Sweden, I paid a total of 121 EUR which included the 9 EUR shipping fee. This was the equivalent of approximately 110 GBP on the day of purchase. This price is significantly better than one advertised on the UK website.

Calendar box

The calendar comes in a huge, pink cosmetics bag. My mom keeps telling to stuff it and use it as a pillow… yeah, I know! However, in all honestly, it does look like a floor pillow. Let’s start from the beginning though.

So the calendar comes in a pink cosmetics bag. The bag is bigger than I imagined. This is the first thing I noticed. The material the bag is made of is faux leather. It feels okay to the touch, but nothing special. I kinda liked last year’s fabric more. Okay, I get why they used this fabric instead – the cosmetics bag should maintain its form and look pretty. It does not! The cosmetics bag is too big and too soft for it to keep its round shape. For this reason, a few lines have already formed from where it got squished.

In addition, the pink is not as pretty as I expected. The pink is more like salmon pink; not as pink as I shown in the ads. Now, that’s disappointing. I was actually looking forward to keeping the bag.

The products are included in individual pouches – some bigger than others unlike last year when they were all the same. That is fine. However, the first 6 products are on the top of the cosmetics bag in small pockets. One, this means you cannot reuse the punches to create a calendar of your own to gift (as you would be missing 6 pouches). Two, the numbers for the 6 products on the cosmetics bag are not stickers or anything as far as I can tell, so that means you cannot remove them. That just sucks. The only way you can gift the calendar (* if you decide to reuse the packaging) is by gifting it all – pouches and bag. That is not fair! Last year, I could have easily kept the pouches or the bag if I wanted. I did end up reusing it all as I had no use for the bag, but that is another story. The idea is that you should be able to. This year’s bag seemed very pretty and I was looking forward to saving it.

However, the smell… The calendar just sticks. Not sure whether it is moisture or some sanitising products they used, but honestly, I would say moisture. I am currently airing it out until I decide whether I am keeping the bag or not. If I am keeping it, it will go straight into the washer. Fingers crossed it does to get damaged! However, as it is, it stinks.

Skin City Beauty Advent Calendar Contents

• Babor Refine Cellular
• By Wishtrend Natural Vitamin 21.5 Enhancing Sheet Mask
• Clarins Instant Eye Makeup Remover
• Codage The Oil
• Decléor Comforting Body Milk
• Dermaceutic Night Cream
• Dermalogica Intensive Moisture Cleanser
• Dr Barbara Sturm Glow Drops
• Dr Ceuracle Cleansing Foam and Toner duo
• Filorga Oxygen Glow and Biodroga MD Skin Refining Peeling Duo
• Hyggee Relief Blue Flower Mask
• Instytutum X-Strength Retinol Serum
• Joanna Vargas Cleansing Bar
• Klairs Toner
• Make p:rem Cleansing Oil and Ampoule
• MakeTheMake Volume Mascara Primer, Peptide Power Play Mascara Duo and Power Play Mascara Curved Brush
• Maria Akerberg Hand Cream
• Medik8 Retinol Intense
• Oskia Cleanser
• Paula’s Choice 10% Azelaic Acid Booster
• Sensai Extra Intensive Mask
• SkinCity Essentials Coffee Scrub Stick
• SkinCity Skincare Mist & Toner Duo
• Tata Harper Regenerating Cleanser
• Verso Skincare Super Facial Serum

Comments

While the outside is not as expected which was a bit disappointing, the inside was better. I love when I get to keep the calendar box and properly reuse it. Sad this is not the case. However, the contents are not bad. I was expecting to see smaller products included and ending up a bit disappointed, but no. The sizes are pretty neat actually. The contents themselves are also quite nice from what I have seen so far. Of course, I have yet to try them.

I have not found any products that I would not use which is great. Also, some pouches, as the ones pictured, contain two products which is an even better surprise. The only other mention I have is that two of the products were also included in last year’s calendar – a byWishtrend sheet mask and a Klairs toner. That is fine, I do not mind even thought these are two products I did not yet use.

Overall, the comets of the SkinCity 2020 calendar are pretty great and I do not regret my decision to purchase this calendar. The fact that I got it for less than I was expecting does not hurt it either. I only wish the bag was nicer and more my style.

What do you think of the SkinCity Advent Calendar? Did you grab one?

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