29 beauty Advent calendars so good you’ll open all the doors on the first day

The only thing better than unwrapping a new beauty product is getting to do it every day. Beauty Advent calendars are a great way to turn the countdown to the holidays into an excuse to try skin care, makeup, fragrances and hair care from your favorite brands.

To give you some inspiration for the holidays, I gathered the best beauty Advent calendars to sample products from brands you already love or to discover new favorites. And these don’t skimp on the goodies either, offering a mix of full- and travel-size products for you to explore.

Want more from NBC Selected? Sign up for our newsletter, The Selection, and shop smarter.

Try out 24 of Dermstore’s bestselling skin care, makeup and hair care products, including some of my all-time favorites like the Elemis Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm, Moroccanoil Dry Texture Spray and Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant. The calendar includes 13 full-size and 11 travel-size products.

This treasure chest-shaped Advent calendar has 15 of Charlotte Tilbury’s makeup and skin care bestsellers, four of which are full-size. The calendar includes some of my personal favorites from the brand, including the Matte Revolution Lipstick in Pillow Talk, Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray and Magic Cream. For the first time this year, the brand added two accessories to the calendar: a gua sha tool and a velvet makeup bag.

This Ulta Advent calendar has some of the most viral products across skin, body and hair care, along with fragrances and accessories. Some standout products you’ll find inside include the Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel, OPI Nail Lacquer, Peach & Lily Glass Skin Ginseng Collagen Mask and Olehenriksen Pout Preserve Peptide Lip Treatment. Of the 25 products, nine of them are full-size.

L’Occitane is one of my favorite body care brands, and its body oils, lotions and hand creams are in my daily rotation. Everything smells incredible (specifically its signature almond fragrance) and leaves my skin feeling soft, smooth and hydrated. L’Occitane’s Advent calendar comes with 24 of the brand’s bestselling body and hair care products, including its popular shower oil, exfoliating shower gel, fragrance and more in a perfect sample size.

This is one of the best Advent calendars you can get for the makeup lover in your life (or as a treat for yourself). All 12 products are full-size, so you can discover viral favorites like the Telescopic Mascara, Infallible Blurfection Powder, Color Riche Lipstick and Infallible Setting Spray in one place.

If you never leave home without a lip balm and have one in every bag you own, you need this Burt’s Bees Advent calendar. It comes with 12 lip balms in flavors like sugar cookie, cinnamon apple crisp, vanilla bean and peppermint bark. Each lip balm has beeswax and vitamin E to soften and hydrate skin all day, according to the brand.

This Advent calendar comes with 24 Sephora-brand skin care, makeup, beauty tools and bath products. You’ll get 13 full-size and five travel-size blushes, face masks, mascaras, eye creams and more, plus six accessories like a makeup sponge and hair clips.

I love using Laneige’s popular K-beauty products every day, and if you’re looking to try bestsellers beyond the brand’s viral lip mask, this Advent calendar is filled with 12 full and mini sizes. You get face masks, moisturizer, cleanser, serums and lip balms, all of which have soothing and hydrating ingredients like peptides, hyaluronic acid and ceramides.

YSL Beauty’s Advent calendar is filled with 24 days’ worth of beloved makeup, skin care and fragrances. There’s travel sizes of the viral Libre and Black Opium eau de parfums, as well as a mini Lash Clash Mascara, a Loveshine Lip Oil Stick and much more. Everything is packaged in a gorgeous keepsake box, too.

Glow Recipe’s Advent calendar is filled with 12 skin care finds, including the brand’s popular Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops, Plum Plump Hyaluronic Acid Moisturizer and Glass Balm Lip Treatment. You’ll also get multiple toner pads, a cleanser, a liquid blush and other products to help brighten and hydrate the skin.

There are very few body care brands that have been a mainstay in my shower routine since high school, and Lush is one of them. This 25-day Advent calendar comes with exclusives and year-round favorites, including Sticky Dates Shower Gel and Dream Cream Body Lotion. The products all come packaged in a festive, reusable wicker basket. If you’re looking for something smaller, consider Lush’s 12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar.

If you’re a fan of Sunday Riley like me, you know how expensive it is to get refills of your favorite products. This Advent calendar, which comes in a mini suitcase design, includes 12 of the brand’s bestselling cleansers, facial oils, eye creams, serums and more. Each one comes in a travel size, so you can take them with you during your holiday travels.

If you’re looking to treat yourself or someone special in your life with luxury skin care, consider this Augustinus Bader Advent calendar. The limited-edition gift set comes with 12 of the brand’s most popular products, including The Rich Cream and The Cream Cleansing Gel, all neatly packaged in its signature royal blue tiered box.

I’m a huge fan of Kiehl’s, specifically its Creme de Corps Body Lotion, Creamy Eye Treatment and Ultra Facial Cream, all of which you’ll find in this Advent calendar. You get three full-size products, three travel-size and 18 minis of the brand’s popular cleansers, serums, moisturizers, hair care and body care products.

Our NBC Selected editors are huge fans of Clarins’ skin care and makeup products. “I grew up watching my mom use Clarins, and now that I have my own routines, I keep the brand’s products in constant rotation,” says NBC Selected associate SEO reporter Ashley Morris. My holy grails are definitely the brand’s moisturizers; the Extra-Firming line has some of my all-time favorite formulas for my oily skin.” This calendar comes with 24 fan-favorite minis, like the Lip Comfort Oil, Total Eye Lift and One-Step Gentle Exfoliating Cleanser.

Anua is one of our favorite K-beauty brands, and this Ulta-exclusive, seven-day Advent calendar is perfect if you want to try it yourself. It comes with the brand’s cleansing and hydrating favorites, including the Heartleaf Pore Control Cleansing Oil, Rice 70 Glow Milky Toner and PDRN Lip Serum.

If you’ve been wanting to try Foreo’s popular Luna 4 cleansing device, now’s your chance with this Advent calendar. The calendar comes with a mini Luna 4 to help you cleanse away dirt, makeup, oil and more, plus full sizes of the brand’s cleansing balm, firming serum, eye cream, face oil and more.

If you’re looking for several full-size products in your Advent calendar, consider this one from No7. It comes with 25 of the brand’s skin care and makeup bestsellers, including the Future Renew Serum, Radiance+ Vitamin C Daily Brightening Moisturizer and Pro Artist Lip Liner.

Get 24 days’ worth of E.l.f.’s makeup, skin care and beauty tools, many of which come in festive shades. You’ll find 18 full-size products and two Advent calendar-only exclusives. Plus, the box has a black and white line-art design that you can color in yourself, making it entirely customizable.

This 24-day Nyx Advent calendar is one of the few on this list that has all full-size products. You’ll get some of the brand’s most viral makeup offerings, including lip glosses, matte lipsticks, cheek tints and lip oils in multiple shades. You’ll also get eyeshadow pigments and a mini palette.

Tucked behind each door of this tween-inspired Advent calendar is a beauty favorite from Essence for your eyes, lips, face and nails, plus matching tools and accessories. Popular products you’ll find inside include cream-to-powder highlighter, duo eyeshadows, pearly nail polishes and heart-shaped eye patches, as well as brushes, puffs, hair clips and jelly nail stickers.

This Drybar Advent calendar gives you eight days of hair care essentials. It comes with travel-size hair care products like shampoo and conditioner, dry shampoo, hairspray, finishing spray and detangling spray, plus accessories like a scalp massager, a wide-tooth comb, hair clips and a puffy headband.

Teleties makes some of my favorite hair ties and clips for my long, fine hair. This 12-day Advent calendar comes with more than $100 worth of hair accessories, including claw clips, flat clips and different types of hair ties — including Advent calendar exclusives. Many come in festive prints and colors, too.

With this Kitsch 12-day Advent you’ll get the brand’s viral silk pillowcase, which I use every night to protect my sensitive skin and frizz-prone hair. It also includes a dermaplaning set for your face, hair clips, scrunches, a bonnet, hair perfume and shampoo and conditioner bars.

When it comes to luxury fragrances, the best thing you can do is snag a collection of sample sizes to try out all of the scents. This 25-day Jo Malone Advent calendar lets you do exactly that. It comes with a variety of fragrances and colognes, plus candles, body creams, soaps, hand creams and other body care products, in 18 scents. Plus, everything is individually wrapped inside a festive, multi-drawer box.

This is one of the most visually stunning Advent calendars on this list; it has a festive, illustrated townhouse design with 24 individual doors and windows, each of which reveal a bestseller across home fragrance, perfumes and body care. You’ll get candles, hand creams, body washes and more from some of the brand’s most popular scents, plus keepsakes like a 2026 Christmas ornament and a hand cream tube key. You can also try out the brand’s 12 Days of Luxury calendar for a smaller assortment.

I’m a huge fan of Dedcool’s fragrances; my collection includes more than a dozen of the brand’s perfumes, sprays and laundry detergents. If you’re looking to try out goodies from across the DedCool universe, this Advent calendar comes with 12 products from its fragrance, laundry, body and home collections.

Dazzle Dry’s Advent calendar comes with everything you need to prep, paint, finish and touch up your gel manicure without needing a UV or LED light. You get two exclusive full-size nail polish shades and two sparkly minis, which are quick-drying and last for up to two weeks, according to the brand.

NBC Selected senior editor Shalwah Evans loves how rich and long-lasting the colors are. “This was my first time using Dazzle Dry and, as an at-home manicure girlie, it was a fantastic intro to the brand,” she says. “I’m conflicted because I want to share this with my mother because I know she’ll love it — she also does her own nails — but I also want to keep all of it for myself.”

Level up your at-home manicures with this Advent calendar, which comes with 11 exclusive full-size Olive & June nail polishes in multiple shades. This calendar also includes two types of top coats: Sparkle Fairy Top Coat, which has a glowy, iridescent finish, and Long-Lasting Top Coat, which has a glossy finish.

To recommend the best beauty Advent calendars, I researched highly-rated options across major categories like skin care, hair care, fragrance and nail care. Every option on my final list comes from a brand we’ve previously covered or have personally tried. Some of the calendars were also sent to us as courtesy samples from brands for testing or ones we bought with our own money.

To evaluate each one, I assessed its contents, price and packaging. Our list includes options that countdown the 7, 12, 24 and 25 days before Christmas.

I’m a commerce editor at NBC Selected who has written about beauty for more than six years. I’ve also tested hundreds of beauty products, including from Advent calendars, so I know which ones are actually worth your money.

Catch up on NBC Selected’s in-depth coverage of tech and tools, wellness and more, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok to stay up to date.