I Tried $10 to $800 Beauty Advent Calendars. My Favorite Surprised Me.

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I am 47, and until this experiment, I had never opened an advent calendar. Not one. So naturally, I decided my introduction to this very small, very reasonable holiday tradition should involve four boxes, a bathroom full of makeup, and an $800 star.

I wanted the little doors. I wanted the surprises. I also wanted to know exactly what was in there and whether it was worth the money. Apparently, even my Christmas surprises need an itemized receipt.

The plan was simple: start with UCANBE, work my way through e.l.f. and Charlotte Tilbury, and finish with Dior. Open everything. Try the products on my actual face. Give each calendar its own look. Then see whether spending more really made the experience better.

Four calendars. Four different Veronicas.

This was not going to be a row of boxes I opened and then forgot about. I wanted to get dressed, play with the makeup, and see who showed up in the mirror. Teenage Veronica borrowed from her daughter’s closet. Twenty-something Veronica was going out with friends. Saturday-morning Veronica wanted to look good without making a whole production of it. And cocktail-party Veronica finally had a reason to wear the dress.

A little price note before we open anything: we paid $9.99 for UCANBE. I rounded that to $10 while filming; the YouTube title uses $8. For this Story, I’m using the price we actually paid. The linked UCANBE listing identifies that box as the 2025 edition. The other three are the 2026 calendars shown in the episode.

My reactions here are first impressions from trying these products, with a small update on what we have kept reaching for since filming. I can tell you what I liked on my face. I cannot tell you that the same shade, scent, or texture will be your favorite.

UCANBE: teenage me had a very good time.

The first box was the UCANBE 12-day calendar. The little red packaging was adorable. There were eyeshadows, lip glosses, blush, an eyebrow pencil, and even the tools to help pull the whole thing together. Opening it felt like Christmas morning, except I was allowed to open all twelve days at once.

For the look, I borrowed a sweater from my teenage daughter’s closet. If I was going to try this, I was going to commit. I chose the pastel eyeshadows and started with the white. It took quite a bit of building before I could really see the color. The cream eyeshadow, though? That one made me happy. I liked the texture, the color, and the way the finished eye looked.

Then came the mascara comparison. The brown one disappointed me. I tried the black one on the other eye, and suddenly we were getting somewhere. You could see the difference. That is why I wanted to take the products into the bathroom: a tiny bottle can look perfectly cute on a table without telling you much about what it actually does.

The lip gloss felt greasy to me, even though it looked cute. The blush worked nicely for the look. By the end, I had put together something playful that did not feel like pretend makeup. For $9.99, I was pleased. Very pleased, actually.

It doesn’t feel super cheap. It’s real makeup.

This was the first surprise of the experiment. I had started with the least expensive calendar, and it had already given me a fun afternoon, a finished look, and a couple of products I liked. That was going to be a harder act to follow than I expected.

e.l.f.: ready for a night out. Less ready to buy it again.

Next came Express Your e.l.f. Twenty-four days, $95, and a much bigger mix of makeup, skincare, and tools. The packaging had that black-and-white drawing style, and the products looked like a step up as I opened them. There was a cleanser called Clean Freak. Obviously, that got my attention.

This Veronica was in her twenties, going out with girlfriends, and trying to look a little more grown-up and edgy. I began with the skincare. Some textures felt a little sticky to me. I also realized I had forgotten the toner and doubled back. You are watching a woman try things, not a perfectly choreographed beauty routine.

The primers were a first for me, too. I was excited to see what they would do. I added my own concealer and tinted moisturizer because those were not included in the calendar. Then I went into the eyeshadow palette, picked the darker shades, and started building a look that was much bolder than the pastel one.

There was one thing I kept wanting: an eyebrow pencil. The box did have a clear brow-and-lash mascara, but that was not the same thing. I improvised with dark brown eyeshadow to fill in my brows. Meanwhile, I had two eyeliners and two lip liners. Those were useful choices, just not the choice I kept asking the box to give me.

The eyelash curler and I had a difficult conversation. The lip color was outside my usual comfort zone. At one point I wondered aloud why my cheeks were burning; with several products involved, I could not identify the cause. I would not turn that moment into a claim about one particular product. What I can say is that the finished look was sassy, and I liked seeing that version of myself.

But liking the result did not mean I wanted to buy the whole calendar again. When I asked myself whether I would buy it for me, my answer was no. For my daughter? I did not think so either. For my own experience, I preferred the $9.99 box. That is a very different question from how many products fit behind the doors.

Charlotte Tilbury: this one felt like me.

Charlotte’s Hollywood Beauty Wonderland cost $220. By this point, the packaging alone was becoming an event. The red drawers, the little handles, the tiny pink bag. I was enjoying myself before I had even finished opening it.

My look for this one was mom on a Saturday morning, going shopping, comfortable but still wanting to feel put together. I was not feeling my best that day. Sitting down to try the makeup gave me something enjoyable to do, without having to become a completely different person.

I liked the facial oil. I liked how the serum felt. The cream felt soft and pleasant. As I worked through the products, I kept having the same reaction: oh, this is nice. There was less negotiating with the look and more enjoying the process.

It reminded me of my grandmother. After she had surgery, I called to ask what she wanted me to bring when I visited. Her answer was makeup. Of course it was. She has always been a diva. I understood the request a little differently while I was sitting there, wanting to feel good enough to get on with my Saturday.

“What do you want me to bring you?” “Bring me my makeup.”

The blush stick was especially my kind of thing. It is the Unreal Blush Healthy Glow Stick in Rosy Glow, the warm rosy-pink shade included in this box. I am a sucker for a stick I can blend in with my fingers. The lip products brought plenty of tingling, and I liked the Big Lip Plumpgasm during the try-on, too.

A small name correction from my unboxing: the face tool is a gua sha, and the day-twelve mist is AIRbrush Flawless Setting Spray. It is a makeup setting spray. There were a lot of little bottles and a lot of excitement happening at once.

This was the calendar I could picture continuing to use. I liked the products, I liked the look, and I could imagine giving it to a friend. The price was still a real consideration, but this one made the strongest connection between opening the doors and wanting what was inside.

Dior: the $800 star had a lot to live up to.

Then there was Dior. Le 30 Montaigne, in a giant star shape, with a little scene in the middle and twenty-four doors. It was the most expensive calendar in the experiment, and by a very large distance. I wanted to know what an $800 experience would feel like.

Some moments were exactly what you would imagine. The fragrances smelled beautiful. The makeup packaging made me feel fancy just holding it. I joked that this was the kind of lip product you were not embarrassed to pull out of your purse. The box itself was gorgeous.

Other moments were more confusing. I wanted some of the perfume bottles to be bigger. I opened things that looked similar and wondered whether I was getting repeats. And there were ornaments. Pretty ornaments, yes, but I had gone into this thinking about beauty products. Three of the twenty-four surprises are ornaments, so that is useful to know before buying.

For the bathroom test, I put on a dress I hardly ever get to wear and imagined a cocktail party with girlfriends. Finally, a reason for the dress. The cleanser impressed me. It felt creamy and gentle while I used it. I liked what the mascara did for my lashes, and playing with the lip colors was fun.

The skincare overall did not excite me as much as Charlotte Tilbury’s had. Some of the scents were strong for my taste. That was my reaction to this particular try-on, not a verdict on every Dior skincare product. The cleanser was a clear exception, and the fragrances and makeup were where I had more of the enjoyment I was looking for.

I finished ready for my imaginary cocktail party. I had enjoyed parts of the experience very much. I also still preferred Charlotte Tilbury. The biggest box and the biggest price had not changed my answer.

My Christmas surprises needed a receipt.

There are several ways to ask whether a calendar is worth it. You can count the products. You can compare the advertised value with the price. You can admire the box. Or you can ask which things you would actually choose again. Those questions gave me different answers.

The brand-stated values in this comparison come from the official calendar pages checked on November 3, 2026. They are not my own item-by-item valuation. Where I could not verify a total, I have said so rather than put a full-size price on a miniature or guess what an ornament is worth.

For me, UCANBE delivered a surprising amount of enjoyment for $9.99. e.l.f. gave me lots of choices and a finished look I liked, but I would spend differently next time. Charlotte Tilbury was the one I most wanted to keep using. Dior gave me beautiful packaging and some lovely discoveries, with a price that made every little door carry a lot of expectation.

If you are deciding for yourself, I would look at the shades, the sizes, and the products you already know you use. A box can contain more than its purchase price in advertised value and still include things you would never have bought. And a small, inexpensive box can be fun without needing to be your entire beauty routine.

After the cameras stopped.

Here is the part I could not tell you during the unboxing: I am still reaching for Miss Dior, and my husband is reaching for Sauvage. So the Dior calendar did leave a little fragrance trail through our house. Charlotte Tilbury is still getting used, too, especially the pink blush and the face spray.

The blush is Unreal Blush Healthy Glow Stick in Rosy Glow. The spray is AIRbrush Flawless Setting Spray, which I opened on day twelve. Those are the exact names from Charlotte Tilbury’s calendar list. Sometimes the useful discovery is not “I need another whole calendar.” Sometimes it is “I would like this one thing again.”

I like having that distinction. A favorite calendar and a favorite individual product do not have to come from the same brand. Charlotte Tilbury was my favorite experience overall, and the Dior fragrances are still being enjoyed. Both things can be true.

How did little doors become this much of an event?

The countdown has a much longer history than my first unboxing. Advent calendars grew from German traditions of marking the days before Christmas. Printed versions became popular in the early twentieth century; little doors and treats helped turn waiting into something you could enjoy one day at a time. The National Trust has a lovely short history of that tradition. I arrived late, apparently, but I can understand the appeal. A tiny surprise, just for you. I simply chose to remove the waiting part.

A little more about the tradition, from the National Trust

Dear Veronica,

You waited 47 years to open your first advent calendar, and apparently you needed four. You wanted to know what you were getting for your money. Of course you did. Even your Christmas surprises need an itemized receipt.

But you also got to try something you have always skipped. Maybe you will buy another one. Maybe next year you will just buy the lipstick. Either way, you finally got to have your own experience instead of wondering what everyone else was so excited about.

There are still first times waiting for you, even little ones.

Love, Veronica.

Your turn: would you rather open a surprise every day, or spend the money on one thing you already know you love? Tell me in the YouTube comments. And if you are trying something for the first time, even something small, I want to hear about that, too.

Keep opening little doors with me: another advent-calendar Short

One more unboxing, if you are not quite done

My earlier beauty experiment: the TikTok anti-aging products I tried