The Mania of Highly Profitable Beauty Advent Calendars

Retailers make millions each season on the calendars. Resellers are hording them — and making thousands themselves.

British department store Liberty launched its first beauty advent calendar in 2014. The store had previously sold a chocolate truffle-filled advent calendar in a pretty box bearing an illustration of the London store. In the beauty version, each of 25 tiny boxes contained products from brands like Malin + Goetz, Kiehl’s, and Diptyque. With a combined retail value of £400 (around $624), Liberty sold it for £149 ($233).

The calendars were so popular that lines formed outside its Soho store. Liberty became ground zero for advent calendar mania. “We had no idea it would be so huge,” said Liberty's head of beauty Natalie Guselli. The calendars sold out almost immediately. Ten years later, they still sell out well before Christmas, hyped by social media “unboxing” videos.

Though advent calendars became a mainstream internet fixation around the time Chanel’s went viral for being a rip-off in 2021 (Dior’s $3,500 “Trunk of Dreams” didn’t fare much better in 2022), they drive huge business for companies that make them and resellers who bulk buy them.

Liberty's beauty advent calendar has become so crucial that the profitability of their website for the year hinges on its success or failure, according to a company insider. To ensure the calendar sells out, Liberty spends seven figures on digital marketing and selectively gifts it to influencers. “Every year we worry, is this going to be the year that we hit our peak?” Guselli admitted.

Perhaps the clearest sign of demand for the calendars is the hefty premium charged by resellers in the run up to Christmas. Over the last two months, resellers sold 4,000 beauty advent calendars on eBay in the US and the UK, for a combined $1 million.

Advent calendars have become so popular, the beauty industry only wonders, “Have we reached peak calendar?” said Lisa Payne, head of beauty at trend forecasting agency Stylus. “No, we haven’t. There’s no lessening of the hype.”

Since 2014, calendar competition has fiercely increased. Department stores like Harrods and high-street retailers like Space NK have released their own versions. There are now more Google searches for “beauty advent calendar” than for the chocolate-filled variant. This year, British Vogue reviewed 44 of them. (The magazine also has its own calendar.)

But the Liberty calendar remains one of the best-selling beauty ones. Sources tell me that it sells out of 50,000 to 60,000 calendars each year, up from 20,000 in 2014. But its dominance now faces threat from Sephora, Harrods, Space NK, and Cult Beauty.

The most popular brands for resale on eBay in the US and UK include Sephora (550 re-sold so far this holiday season), Liberty (376), and Harrods (372), all of which have sold out at retail. Two Harrods calendars with a £250 ($317) retail price have resold for around £900 ($1,143).

The 2024 Liberty advent calendar, designed by artist Clym Evernden, containing products from brands like Byredo, 18 of which are full size, crucial for attracting value-conscious customers. (Courtesy of Liberty)

The calendars' appeal is mostly that shoppers feel like they’re getting a bargain. Liberty’s 2024 calendar is “worth £1,205 [$1,530] but yours for £260 [$330],” the website claims, in an almost universal sales tactic. The daily “treat” factor from opening the box every day is also important, said Payne, as is: the faux-surprise of not knowing what’s inside (most retailers say what’s inside); the opportunity to try new brands; and sometimes the design of the box (or train, in the case of P Louise).

“The number one reason to purchase is quite often the value,” said Rhea Cartwright, a consultant who previously worked at Liberty as head of beauty. She said in-house retail buyers strive to include products with a high retail price, boosting the calendar’s perceived value and therefore driving sales.

For retailers, profit margins can be enormous.