I bought the Essence advent calendar several years in a row, but skipped it last year, because I always ended up not really using the products in the calendars. I think it’s the first year Catrice has done an advent calendar with new limited products, and I thought the theme of the calendar looked really fun and pretty, so I decided to buy the Catrice The Great Christmas advent calendar this year, and I’m going to show you what was inside the calendar. I haven’t tried all of the products yet, but I’ll let you know, how I feel about the ones I have tried.

I’m going to talk about six products at a time, so let’s begin with the product that was behind the first six doors. They were a highlighter (gold), an under eye brightener, a Full Shine lipstick in C01, a lip liner in C01, hydrogel eye patches, and a Cream-To-Powder blush.

The only product I’ve worn of these first six is the highlighter. It was quite pretty, and a shade of gold that actually works on fair skin. I like the inclusion of an under eye brightener, but I don’t think it works on every skin tone; because it’s quite light. I’m sure it’ll work on me though. There’s another lipstick and lip liner coming up, which I have worn, and I liked both, so I’m sure I’ll like the formula of these ones as well. And I have a couple of blushes in the same packaging (and probably the same formula) as this one, but this shade look identical to one of the shades I have, which is a bit disappointing. I actually really like the cream-to-powder formula, so I would have loved to see another shade in the calendar.

The next six products were an eyeshadow shader brush, a matte liquid lipstick, a nail lacquer in C01, a lip liner in C02, a Full Shine lipstick in C02, and a 2in1 nail file.

The matte liquid lipstick is a deep red shade, and I’m actually planning on wearing it today. I really like Catrice brushes and nail polishes, so I’m excited to use those. And this is the lip liner and lipstick that I’ve worn, and they were very nice.

The second to last set of six products were face jewels, an eyeshadow blender brush, a hydrating lip mask, a multi-chrome eye pencil in C01, a nail lacquer in C02, and a hydrogel plumping lip patch.

I’ve never worn any of the face jewels I’ve gotten from Essence calendars, but I’m considering maybe using some for my New Year’s Eve make-up look. I think the lip mask is a fun addition, but my favourite product from the calendar that I’ve tried so far is the multi-chrome eye pencil in C01; it has a very nice warm orangy red/brown/green shift, and I’ve used it quite a few times already.

The last six products were glitter nail foils, a multi-chrome eye pencil in C02, an eyebrow brush, a hair clip, a nail lacquer in C03, and an eyeshadow palette.

I love that they included another shade of the multi-chrome eye pencils. I haven’t used this one yet, but it seems to be a pretty blue/pink shade. The third nail lacquer is probably my favourite by just looking at it (I haven’t worn any of the shades yet), and I think it’s very nice to see an eyeshadow palette in an advent calendar. I’m excited to see if the quality is any good.

Overall, I really like this advent calendar, and I think it’s better than any of the Essence advent calendars I’ve bought in the past.