Bean's mum's blog

It is the second of December and after some lovely goodies yesterday I am looking forward to getting more goodies today. The first advent calendar that I will reveal today is by busy bee candles. Today is a melt in the scent 'Christmas Cookie'. It is a sweet scent that is rather like the cookie scents from the larger companies and these scents are a mainstay of the christmas lines for many customers and for me this will be a great year round melt scent. The next advent calendar today is by Youbeauty and this has a small aperture today. Inside the number two door is this Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm in the shade Rose.  It has a lovely red tint and looking at the ingredients I am quite happy as the four largest ingredients in this lip balm are coconut oil, vegetable oil, beeswax and olive oil.  On trying it I found that it was very soft on the lips and was very moisturising but looking at the ingredients it's not really surprising.  ...

I'm back (although that is hardly a surprise if you are reading this) and it is to this blog that I have returned to restart my yearly ritual of showing you advent calendars. It has been almost a year since I posted with regularity and hopefully these posts will be better timed than last year. But, enough of that. Here are my first items from this years advent calendars.  Welcome to December 2016 and my day one items. The first advent calendar today is tinc and the item was a luggage tag. It is really cute (as I expect from tinc) and I will probably use it on bean's luggage when we go on holiday this year. Although this is a useful item it is not something that I was desperate for. The next advent calendar item tonight is from busy bee candles and is a melt in the scent 'elf crazy'. To me this has a scent of mint and it is reminiscient to candy cane lane and candy cane forest from Yankee Candle to me. This is very sweet and would be a great s...

Here are the pictures of my advent calendars in the order of my preference of the contents for this year and here is the order. 1. Youbeauty has been the advent calendar that I recommended to everyone the last two years and this year didn't disappoint. I got this for just under £50 as I had a £10 off code and it was well worth the price and I will use it all apart from the tweezers. 2. Marks and spencer was fabulous for 2015 and I will definitely repurchase this year. It was £25 with a £25 purchase and it was fabulous value and I loved opening the little boxes every day. A really great value and with more 'classic' products it will be great for all. 3. In third place was lookfantastic and this one is here as it was £70.70 which makes it £20 more than youbeauty and £45 more than M and S and I can't see the value. I do prefer it to the others as I prefer the beauty calendars but not sure I will get it next year unless I get it on an...

It is the final day for two of the three advent calendars. Look fantastic does have a day 25 so I will be on the box saying that in the contents post for all the advent calendars as well as the Smiggle advent calendar which also has a day 25. But back to day 24 of my multibrand advent calendar.

Here are my non beauty advent calendars for day 24.

This is the last day for both of these advent calendars.

Sorry that it has been another day but here are some more reviews for last year's advent calendars.

Here  are my non beauty advent calendars for the 23rd December and to be honest it was one of my best days as I fell in love with a Smiggle item.

Here are my single brand advent calendars for the 23rd December 2015. These are Ciate and Clarins.

Here are my non beauty advent calendars for the 22nd December.

As well as the multibrand I also have the single brand advent calendars and these are my Clarins and Ciate advent calendar items for the 22nd December.

Here are the day 18 single brand Advent calendar items

To be honest its quite scary how quickly we've got to day 20 and how quickly we getting through not just this month and advent but also through this year. The thought that very soon we will be in 2016 is a quite a scary thought for me. But I suppose you can't fight time. Here are my day 20 non beauty advent calendars.

Here are my non-beauty advent calendars for 16 December.

After addressing how I feel about the single brand advent calendars at the beginning of day 13 I don't need to address that again so I'll go straight into my review. Day 14 of ciate is another plain door but this one has a snow print on it. But inside the door is anything but plain. I think that this is a really jazzy colour. This is a nail varnish in the shade Raspberry Collins.  This is the most delicious raspberry colour and I think that this would be great to wear all year round as it isn't really a colour that will go out of style at any time of the year and it would also be absolutely wonderful with the glitter overlay. It is the sort of colour that I really really like and the actual colour is quite unusual and I have not actually got a colour like this so I'm really happy. A real happy bunny with one. Next is Clarins which has a more decorated door. Inside is 10mls of the Clarins instant light radiant boosting complexion...

For me the two single brand advent calendars are probably the most disappointing of the year. I'm not sure that I would buy either next year as I now have a lot of Ciate nail polishes to use so I wouldn't need any more thanks to this and the other year I had this and as for the Clarins I'm finding it generally disappointing because the sample sizes are too small. I really am not sure that most people would get this every year but it's nice to try everything. But, here are my day 13 single brand advent calendar contents.

I'm sorry that I am actually publishing these non beauty advent calendars first but I find that these are easiest to review for you so here is my day 15th of my non beauty calendars. I hope you enjoy it.

Next is the review for my day 14 non beauty advent calendars. Once again I have managed to get three items which means that even from the start it is a good day. Here are my day 14 non beauty items though:

Back to my reviews and hopefully I can get more up to date today. But back to the subject in question and these are my day 13 nonbeauty advent calendars. Here is what I received in them: First is smiggle which has an interesting shaped aperture. Inside is a monster design bouncy ball. I think my son will really like it and it is really really cute. I particularly like the winking monster in the very centre with the horns. Strangely it makes me think of naughty children. Next is tinc and very happily has an item. Another nice item which is a keyring of a Christmas tree on which you can write your name on the back. This will be lovely for next year to put on my sons bag to label it. This is great and I'm really happy that I have actually received an item in the advent calendar today. Maybe I am easily pleased. The final advent calendar I will review for the 13th is the busy bees candles advent calendar. Inside is a scent ...

The final advent calendars for the 12th day are the single brand advent calendars which are the Ciate and the Clarins advent calendars.