Oh dear, a guilty admission: the Fenwick’s advent calendar isn’t the only one I bought this year. In my defence, the Birchbox one was a total bargain – retailing at about 75 quid, I got it for half that in the sale and with my subscriber discount applied, so it represented good value and had some things in I was dying to try – like a jade roller (the luxury!). It’s obviously not as fancy as Fenwick’s, and there are no double treats, but basically when you add the cost of the full size mascara and the jade roller that makes everything else a treat, and of the two this is the one I would probably buy again, since it gives you all the treat of the travel size at less than half the cost.

The worst part, though, is not that I have two beauty calendars, it’s that I have already started raiding both of them, so there’s no way they will last through December…