Balea The Most Wonderful Time Adventskalender Review
By Maychiri's Thoughts - February 23, 2023
I know it’s not Christmas time anymore, but this took a
while to thoroughly review! This is the Balea The Most Wonderful Time
Adventskalender.
So, I like to buy an advent calendar or two each year. It’s
a fun tradition! I wake up and open up that day's surprise, who knows what will
be inside! I actually wasn’t too sure whether I’d buy this advent calendar, but
when I saw that it’s flying off the shelves as soon as it hit them, I wanted to
see if it really was that worth the hype. The affordable price of the calendar is
definitely a big factor in me deciding to buy it, too. I, somehow, managed to grab
the last one my local DM had, and I felt so fulfilled! Ain’t nobody taking it from my
hands now! Finally, it’s mine! And the waiting began... waiting for December so
that I could start opening each door. Let’s see whether it’s worth the hype!
Packaging: it’s made of cardboard but it’s reinforced by
plastic inside. It’s actually very sturdy and it is difficult to damage it. I
love the soft lavender colour Balea picked, it’s such a relaxing colour. But,
my god, the design on the front! It’s got this festive print of a floral
wreath, presents and adorable little animals. I mean, look at the lil' birdie! Anyways,
if you want to spoil yourself you will find pictures of everything inside the
calendar in the back, numbered, and the ingredients list. So just don’t look at the back if
you don’t want to get spoiled. Each of the windows are perforated and open very
easily. The items vary in terms of how easy they are to remove from the
plastic, sometimes they easily pop out, sometimes it takes a bit of finagling
to take them out.
The most difficult were the face mask, and the eye pads,
since they were secured with a piece of glue. The items are kept securely
inside the plastic so that they don’t fall out during transit. All in all,
quite a good quality design!
This is a skincare focused advent calendar, so expect
creams, lotions, masks, and shower products. As such, there is no makeup in
this calendar, look to the Trend It Up Advent Calendar for that. I love the
variety of products included in this calendar; and it’s evenly distributed across face, hair, and body products.
So, let’s start from the top!
First item, for day 01 – Waschgel The Most Wonderful Time
(Wash gel)! This is a wash gel with glycerine.
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This is a slightly larger rube with an ochre cap. Look at
that huge bow! Perfect for the first present in this advent calendar!
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Ingredients: only glycerine for nourishment. No parabens,
though. This gel is unscented; there is only a barely noticeable chemical smell
that comes purely from the ingredients used. It’s not a particularly pleasant
smell! The expiration date is listed as a real date: 11/2024.
The formula is pretty weird. It’s like gelatine, very gooey
and thick. Also, it’s extremely greasy, leading to a very unpleasant feeling on
the skin. It just feels heavy and greasy and occlusive. Not really what my
oily, problematic skin would want.
It seems like this wash gel does a decent job at cleaning
the skin, although it is really nothing too spectacular. It doesn’t take too
long to wash it off, despite the thick, gelatinous formula.
My skin doesn’t look any different after washing it with
this wash gel. Sure, it is a bit more matte, but it’s always matte after a wash,
no matter what cleanser I use. Besides that, no real results; blemishes are
still just as red, my pores look the same, and my skin doesn’t even feel any
softer to touch. In fact, it feels a bit dried out, if anything! At least it
doesn’t seem to cause any irritations.
All in all, this wash gel is definitely not meant for oily,
problematic skin. It only has glycerine in terms of nourishing ingredients, not
even vitamin E or anything calming or soothing. And while glycerine is pretty
hydrating on its own, when it is just glycerine, it’s just not enough. The
formula is weirdly gelatinous and blobby, just like Jell-O. It can be difficult
to use as it likes to slide off surfaces. It also feels really greasy and thick
and occlusive on the skin, which I really don’t like. My skin is oily and
problematic as is, so it needs to breathe, not be suffocated with thick
formulas. And it’s not like the results justify everything I just said, as
there aren’t any real results to speak of! My skin just feels a bit dried out,
there are no improvements in either the way my skin feels or the way it looks.
So, yeah, I just really don’t like this wash gel. Not the best start, eh?
Hopefully other products won’t be as disappointing.
Rating: 3/10
Day 02 – Aromadusche The Most Wonderful Time (Shower aroma)!
This is sort of like a shower gel with a cinnamon and orange scent.
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This is a slightly larger bottle with a magenta cap. The
bottle is white and had a pretty picture of a bauble and a gingerbread
Christmas biscuit! So lovely!
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This scent reminds
me of shoe stores. I am not too fond of this smell, but it’s not bad. Thing is,
the scent is only intense in the bottle; outside of it, it evaporates very quickly.
I will elaborate a bit more on that in a second. The expiration date is marked
as a concrete date: 12/2024.
This shower aroma (?) is colourless. Its formula is very
thin, it actually feels more like shower oil than shower gel. It’s very oily,
but also super lightweight, so it actually doesn’t have that typical heavy oily
sensation. It doesn’t really create a lot of foam, compared to the shower gel
and shower cream. There is some foam, but it’s really not much. Though I will
say that it feels nice washing my skin with this shower aroma, its slick
formula glides across skin and that feels really pleasant.
I feel like this shower aroma cleanses the skin relatively
well, but definitely not as well as the shower gel or shower cream. My skin
feels cleaner, but it’s not too noticeable. Though it is soft after drying! It’s
not as soft as with the gel or cream, however. It does not leave an oily
residue, despite being so oily. Now, as for the scent: while it is very intense
when you smell it in the bottle, and it still smells intense in the shower, as
soon as you rinse it off it fades. And by the time you dry your skin, it will
have completely faded. Which, I mean, if it is categorised as a shower “aroma”,
then it should be longer lasting, no?
All in all, out of the three shower products (aroma, gel,
cream) I feel like this was the most disappointing one. The other two are excellent,
but I just don’t like this one as much. I dislike the thin, soapy formula that
feels like oil. I wish it was a bit more creamy, though I do like that it’s so
much more lightweight than other shower oils. It doesn’t do a whole lot for my
skin, though it does make it softer. I have mixed feelings about the scent:
while I don’t hate it, I am not a big fan of citrusy scents, especially when
it’s a mix of sweet and citrusy like in this shower aroma. These kinds of scents
can be nauseating for me, sometimes. And worst of all, it evaporates as soon as
you rinse it, and it’s gone by the time you are done showering. I am not too
impressed with this shower aroma, but I really don’t hate it. It’s just
average!
Rating: 6/10
Day 03 – Tagescreme The Most Wonderful Time (Daily moisturiser)! This is a daily moisturiser with vitamin C and vitamin E.
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This is a small tube with a pretty picture of presents and a
mint cap. The cap closes extremely securely! It’s a cute design, and perfect
for the holidays!
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Ingredients: glycerine, vitamin E, panthenol/provitamin B5,
vitamin C and ubiquinone/co-enzyme Q10, surprisingly! No parabens. I really
didn’t expect it to have Q10, but it’s great that it does! So, the advertising
is true, it indeed has vitamins C and E; it’s nice that they also added
panthenol, too!
The scent is very gentle at first, smelling faintly floral and
creamy, but it becomes more intense once spread on the face, taking on a more perfumey
floral scent. It’s not unbearably intense, and I actually like it! The
expiration date is 12 months after opening.
This is a white cream. The formula is really heavy and
greasy, way too much for my oily skin. I expect drier skin types will enjoy it
more. Nonetheless, despite the heavy formula it actually absorbs very fast and
then it becomes very light. To aid with the absorption I tap my skin gently
with my fingertips. The greasiness makes the cream super easy to apply as it
glides easily across skin. I am not a huge fan of this type of formula but it
turns out that it is surprisingly comfortable to wear.
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The shininess can, of course, be mitigated using setting powders, so
it’s no big deal.
All in all, I grew to really like this moisturiser! At first
the heavy, greasy formula bothered me greatly, but seeing how hydrated and soft
my skin is because of the cream made it so much easier to deal with. I need to
keep tapping my skin for a while after applying this moisturiser to get it to
absorb into the skin. But after it has absorbed it leaves my skin feeling
velvety soft and hydrated. And that hydration lasts for the entire day; even
after having a shower my skin still feels soft and hydrated! This moisturiser
is so much better than it has any right to be! It only makes me sad that this
is it, as when I use it up I won’t be able to buy it again. Oh well, I will
cherish it for as long as I can!
Rating: 8/10
Day 04
– Winter Shampoo The Most Wonderful Time (Hair shampoo)! This is a shampoo for
winter-stressed hair.
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This is a large (at least in terms of other items in this
calendar) tube with an ochre cap. The picture is so adorable, it’s a little robin on a flowering branch next to a pinecone! The birdie is so cute!
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Ingredients: panthenol/provitamin B5, glycerine, and hydrolysed
wheat, corn, and soy proteins to strengthen and repair hair. There are no
parabens, but there is SLS. The scent is relatively intense and very perfumey,
aromatic. It’s kinda floral, but it’s also much more like soap or laundry
detergent.
It’s a nice scent! The expiration date is marked with a concrete
date: 11/2024.
This is a cloudy white shampoo. It’s very rich, creamy and
thick, and also somewhat soapy, but not really greasy. It creates an
extraordinarily huge amount of foam (thanks, SLS!), which feels soft and
creamy, not at all greasy! I love how rich and creamy it feels while lathering
my scalp with this shampoo, it’s so luxurious!
This shampoo seems to clean the scalp quite well, as it
feels calm and clean. Though, since I have a sensitive scalp, it does feel a
tiny bit irritated by SLS. That’s why I usually exclusively use sulfate-free
shampoos. And since I let my hair air-dry, I will have to wait until the
following morning to see how my hair reacted to this shampoo.
I will say that this shampoo is really easy to rinse out,
and it doesn’t leave any icky, slimy residues or an oily film. My hair feels
soft to touch immediately after washing, while it’s still wet!
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Now that I’ve been using this shampoo for more than two
weeks, I can say that it does a great job keeping hair clean and healthy! My
scalp feels calm and clean, and even 3 days after a wash it still feels good,
not greasy and terribly itchy like it usually feels after using my previous
shampoo. It’s not that there is no greasiness or itchiness, but is significantly
reduced. My hair also stays relatively good looking even if I am sweating or
working out, when it usually starts to look like spaghetti with my usual
shampoo (Love Beauty and Planet). The SLS in the shampoo does cause some slight
irritation, which isn’t uncommon when you have such a delicate scalp as I do.
All in all, this is a great shampoo; it would be excellent
if it only didn’t have SLS. My skin is too sensitive and tends to start to feel
itchy after washing my hair with SLS-containing shampoos. Besides that, the
scent is wonderfully floral, and the shampoo cleans my scalp and hair really
well, making my hair feel light and lively the next day! It manages to keep my
hair clean until the next wash, and keeps it from looking stringy like spaghetti, which is a real problem when you have straight, fine and very dense
hair. I really like the way my hair looks, and especially how healthy and
nourished it feels! Such a great little shampoo!
Rating: 7.5/10
Day 05 – Mizellenwasser The Most Wonderful Time (Micellar water)!
This is a gentle cleaning micellar water.
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This is a slightly bigger plastic bottle with a magenta cap.
There is a lovely picture of flowers.
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Ingredients: glycerine, panthenol/provitamin B5, jasmine
(Jasminum officinale) flower/leaf extract, Aloe barbadensis leaf juice for
nourishment. No parabens.
I like that there is both jasmine and aloe extracts,
it makes the micellar water much more suited for sensitive skin! And it should
help calm down irritations. This micellar water is unscented, it’s got a very
faint chemical/industrial scent that’s due to the ingredients used. The lack of
any perfumes also makes it more appropriate for sensitive skin, though I would
honestly like some kind of nice scent. Maybe vanilla, at the very least? This
just doesn’t smell pleasant. The expiration date is listed as a concrete date:
11/2024.
This micellar water is colourless and watery (big surprise).
It is not one bit greasy or oily. It also absorbs within seconds, so you don’t
need to wash it off. Just apply a couple of drops to a cotton pad, and swipe
across your face.
This micellar water feels really refreshing and hydrating on
skin. There is a slight cooling sensation from the aloe juice that is really
refreshing. Afterwards, my skin feels pleasantly clean and calm, without any
oily or tacky residue. I like how gentle this formula is on the skin!
It removes makeup surprisingly well! I thought it would be
average, but it is actually well above that! Foundation, concealer, waxy eyebrow
products, lipsticks, they are all removed with ease! Like, just one swipe with
a cotton pad soaked with this micellar water and most of my foundation is
gone! No harsh rubbing that could lead to irritations or redness. It is not as
effective with liquid lipsticks and mascaras; while it struggles a tiny bit to
remove them, it still removes them fairly easily. You just need to press and
hold the cotton pad instead of rubbing with it. And after a couple of passes
the mascara will be gone, without irritating the eyes too much due to rubbing. I
was honestly really surprised when I saw just how much foundation was left on
the cotton pad after a single pass! It’s much better than I ever anticipated!
It also doesn’t cause any irritations or new blemishes to
form. And my eyes aren’t irritated by the micellar water, nor do I have
problems with blurry vision when it gets into my eyes. Thanks to the glycerine, jasmine extract, and aloe juice the skin is hydrated and calmer.
All in all, this is actually a good little micellar water! Although
it kinda smells bad, ironically, due to being unscented, it does a very good
job removing make up. Even foundation goes easily! The only things that are a
bit tougher to remove with this micellar water are liquid lipsticks and mascaras.
But that’s alright, since it does such a good job removing all other make up! And
it leaves the skin feeling refreshed and calm. Really, a great micellar water!
Rating: 7.5/10
Day 06 – Washi Tape (Decorative tape)! This is your regular
old paper decorating tape.
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Rating: 7/10 I guess? It’s as good as any decorative tape???
Day 07 – Sternförmige Hydrogel Augenpads The Most Wonderful
Time (Star-shaped hydrogel eye patches)! These are eye patches with vanilla
extract and hyaluronic acid.
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These eye patches come, like most eye patches, in a plastic
satchel. This satchel, though, has the most adorable little robin on it! Aww,
so cute!
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Ingredients: glycerine, Vanilla planifolia fruit extract,
hyaluronic acid for nourishment. No parabens. There’s also carrageenan. The
scent is pleasant and relatively intense. It smells chemical yet still
decidedly sweet like vanilla. It’s a very nice scent!
The expiration date isn’t
listed anywhere, but face masks tend to last 3 years after manufacturing date,
so this one should last until roughly 11/2025.
These eyepatches are super cute! They look like shooting
stars, so you’d better make a wish! I love how metallic and almost sparkly the
hydrogel looks! It’s like a real star! The hydrogel actually sticks extremely
well to skin, unlike many other hydrogel eye patches! There’s barely any
slippage during the 15-20 minutes required for the patches to absorb. And
hydrogel usually starts slipping all over my cheeks, so the fact that this one
is still perfectly in place is wondrous! The hydrogel feels nice and thick and
gelly, though, do be careful with the stars; it is easy to accidentally rip
them with your nails!
The serum inside these little stars is thick and quite
greasy, and a little bit tacky, though the tackiness disappears soon enough. It
is a pretty lightweight serum, despite being so rich. While the serum is
absorbing into the skin I can feel a very refreshing, slightly cooling
sensation, which is quite nice! My skin also feels like it’s being deeply
hydrated, which is great, as my undereye often looks tired!
After the 20 minutes have passed, my undereye area looks
visibly brighter and incredibly hydrated! It looks more awake, as I cannot see
the dark blue discolouration that I usually have, especially if I haven’t been
drinking enough water or sleeping well enough. It just looks lovely, hydrated,
and bright like a shooting star! Amazing results!
The next morning my undereye area looks bright and awake! It
looks and feels hydrated and just so good! Which also makes makeup look much
better, when the skin is in such good condition.
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All in all, these are fantastic eye patches! I love how well
they stick to skin; I’ve had a lot of problems with eye patches slipping
before, but these don’t. The serum is very pleasant and feels hydrating and
refreshing. My skin looks and feels hydrated, noticeably brighter and more
awake after using these patches! Simply amazing! And I love how it looks like a
shooting star! Perfect for Christmas! And the little birdie on the satchel! So
cute! I really love these eye patches!
Rating: 9/10
Day 08 – Bodylotion The Most Wonderful Time (Body lotion)!
This is a body lotion with a wonderful vanilla and coconut scent.
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This is a large (compared to other products in the calendar)
tube with a magenta cap. The cap closes securely. There is an adorable squirrel
on the front, holding a pinecone!
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Ingredients: glycerine, almond (Prunus amygdalus dulcis) oil
for nourishment. Also, carrageen moss (Chondrus crispus). No parabens. The
scent is intense and pretty good, though it is also extremely sweet. It smells
much more like vanilla than like coconut.
I think it’s a bit too sweet and
sugary for me, honestly! The expiration date is listed as a concrete date: 11/2024.
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This is a white lotion. The formula is very watery and thin,
much too thin for my tastes. This thin formula helps it absorb super fast,
within seconds, without leaving any streaks. It is completely gone by morning. It
is just slightly greasy, so that means it is very comfortable to wear.
Unfortunately, this lotion does not seem to be very
hydrating at all. My skin doesn’t feel hydrated after 8 hours of having this
lotion on it, while I am sleeping. Of course, it does not dry out my skin, but
it doesn’t really help at all either.
All in all, quite a mediocre body lotion. Nothing about it
is noteworthy; the scent is alright, the formula is way too thin and watery for
me and it doesn’t really hydrate all that much. It’s better than not using
anything, that much is certain, but it’s just not really all that good,
especially compared to other Balea body lotions and creams.
Rating: 6/10
Day 09 – Duschpeeling The Most Wonderful Time (Shower
scrub)! This is a body scrub with blooming rose scent.
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This is a slightly bigger tube with a mint cap and a pretty
picture of a Christmas bauble and a gingerbread biscuit. So festive!
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Ingredients: glycerine and vitamin E for nourishment. No
parabens or sulfates. Pretty sure that the exfoliating agent is
microcrystalline cellulose. Interesting, one would assume it would be sucrose
or salt. The scent is very intense, smelling like rose blooms, but it’s kind of
an old lady kind of scent, or an antique shop scent.
It’s kind of nauseating to
me. I don’t know, I just don’t particularly like these fragrant rose scents
that smell old-timey. The expiration date is marked as a concrete date:
11/2024.
This scrub is colourless, but you can clearly see the white exfoliating
particles inside, giving it an overall speckled appearance. I must say that
it’s odd! The exfoliating particles are quite large but actually rather gentle
on the skin, surprisingly enough! I though it would be very scratchy and rough,
but it is actually just the right amount of scratchiness, just enough that you
can feel it exfoliating your skin without actually damaging it. I really like
that!
The formula is, well, slimy, to be PC. It just slides right off the skin, so if you don’t
immediately start scrubbing your skin with it, it might slide off and into the
drain! I’d rather it was a more creamy or at least a bit drier formula so that
it actually sticks to the skin, instead of sliding off. It feels slimy and
soapy while scrubbing, while the exfoliating particles give a gentle, yet
effective scrub.
It’s very easy to wash off, and it leaves the skin feeling
quite soft. I don’t think it dries out my skin. I also love that the scent
stays on the skin even after washing it off and drying your skin!
Pro tip: this scrub is ideal for pre-shaving exfoliation. It
removes dead skin cells, leaving the skin smooth and perfectly prepared to be
shaven.
All in all, I think this is a good scrub, but the smell is
too intense and too old-timey for me. At least it stays for very long on the
skin! I find the formula odd, as it’s slimy and slides off of skin way too
easily, and it feels slimy and soapy while scrubbing your skin with it. The
exfoliating particles are quite large but somehow still feel relatively gentle
on skin; I genuinely thought it would end up scratching my skin! I love how
soft my skin is after using this scrub, and especially how much better it feels
to shave my skin after exfoliating it with this scrub. Instead of feeling dry
and tense, as it usually does after shaving, my skin still feels soft and supple.
So, this is definitely the best time to use this scrub! I am happy with the way
it performs, but I am not overjoyed with it, thanks to the old lady smell.
Rating: 7/10
Day 10
– Winter Spülung The Most Wonderful Time (Hair conditioner)! This is a hair
conditioner with panthenol for damaged hair.
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This is a small tube with a pretty picture of a present.
It’s got an ochre cap that closes extremely tightly. It’s quite the festive
design!
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Ingredients: panthenol/provitamin B5, hydrolysed wheat
protein, hydrolysed corn protein, hydrolysed soy protein, vitamin E for
nourishment. The plant proteins help condition and repair hair effectively. The
scent is pretty much the same as with the Winter Shampoo: it’s a relatively
intense, floral, synthetic, almost like laundry detergent type of scent.
I
don’t mind it; in fact, I think it’s kind of nice! The expiration date is listed
as a real date: 12/2024.
This conditioner is white and looks like a cream, but it is
actually very greasy. It’s not so much soapy as it is truly greasy, but,
somehow it does not feel heavy! It doesn’t create any foam; few conditioners do,
anyways. While applying it to my hair it feels soft, greasy yes, but also quite
light! It becomes much more watery the more I massage it into my ends. That was
quite the surprise after seeing how greasy and heavy it seemed at first!
I do think that this conditioner helps repair hair. My hair
is in pretty good shape, so the results won’t be as visible on me as on someone
who really has dry, brittle, damaged hair. But initial results seem promising;
my hair feels very soft and nourished, but I will have to keep an eye on it
during the next few days to see the actual results.
It’s super easy to wash out and doesn’t leave any greasy
residue. My hair feels nourished and soft right after washing it, while it’s
still wet.
Okay, so, after more than a week of using this conditioner I
can say that it is good for my hair. It’s definitely way better than the
conditioner I had been using before. Though my hair isn’t as poofy as with the
old conditioner, it is very soft and looks healthy and strong. And finally my
hair can stay looking good after a workout or a hot day, instead of looking
greasy and like spaghetti. My hair also stays in fairly good condition for a
few days until the next wash. The results aren’t spectacular, but they are
quite good!
All in all, I like this conditioner. The scent is wonderful
and it isn’t too greasy. I love how easy it is to wash out and how lovely and
healthy my hair looks when using it. My hair feels light and lively and it
stays more or less the same for 2-3 days post-wash, which is great because my
hair usually becomes very greasy very fast! Now, there isn’t as much volume or
bounciness as with the Tresemmé conditioner, nor as much shine as with the I
Love Beauty and Planet conditioner, but it definitely feels stronger and
healthier!
Rating: 8/10
Day 11 – Handcreme The Most Wonderful Time (Hand cream)!
This is a hand cream for supple, delicate hands.
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This is a slightly bigger plastic tube that has a magenta
cap that closes really tightly. The front has a picture of candy canes. Perfect
for Christmas!
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Ingredients: glycerine, shea (Butyrospermum parkii) butter, panthenol/provitamin
B5, carrageen moss (Chondrus crispus) algae extract, hydrolysed keratin for nourishment. No
parabens. Look at that, there’s keratin in this cream to help make nails
strong! The scent is absolutely divine: it smells like chocolate, but not the
like synthetic chocolatey scent, no, this smells like real dark chocolate!
Delicious!
And even after the top notes have evaporated it still smells like chocolate,
but a little more bitter. It’s absolutely perfect! The expiration date is
listed as a concrete date: 12/2024.
This is a white cream. The formula feels extremely hydrating
and it is super silky and smooth! A bit thin, yes, but that only means that it
absorbs faster into the skin. Within seconds it is fully absorbed and then it
becomes almost invisible, that’s how light it is! I love this formula, it’s
just so comfortable and wonderful!
As for its effects, I can say that my hands feel more supple
and I can clearly see that my nails have become at least a bit stronger. This
cream is very hydrating, and works amazingly well as an overnight cream. In the
morning I wake up to soft and supple hands, without any tacky or greasy feeling
on them.
All in all, I really love this hand cream! The scent is
absolutely perfect for chocolate connoisseurs like myself, only, it sometimes
makes me a bit hungry! And I don’t want that before going to sleep! It’s a
real, delicious chocolatey scent. The formula is super silky and absorbs within
seconds, but it keeps hydrating the skin for hours! I like to apply it before I
go to bed, so that it works its magic while I am sleeping, and when I wake up
my hands feel soft and supple. Also, the keratin in this cream helps, if only a
little bit, make my nails stronger and less brittle. A real treat, this cream!
Wonderful!
Rating: 9.5/10
Day 12 – Haaröl
The Most Wonderful Time (Hair oil)! This is a hair oil that cares for stressed
hair!
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This is a slightly bigger bottle with a mint cap that closes
very securely. There is a lovely picture of flowers and pinecones!
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Ingredients: argan (Argania spinosa) kernel oil, vitamin E
for nourishment. No parabens. The scent is lovely: it smells like vanilla, but
like a more roasted vanilla. It’s kinda like vanilla Christmas cookies! The
expiration date is marked as a real date: 12/2024.
This oil is yellow. It is thin for an oil, but I think that
is actually a good thing; the lighter it is the better! It will be easier to
absorb if it is lighter. It feels... oily. Big surprise. But it’s not
uncomfortably oily. And it seems to absorb really fast into moist hair. It
doesn’t make the hair look wet and glued together, instead it absorbs so well
that hair only looks softer, not like spaghetti.
I’ve used it two times now, both after washing my hair while
it is still moist, and I must say that I love the results! At first it seems
like there are no results, but you have to wait until your hair is dry to truly
see how good it is! Both times my hair was noticeably more shiny and it looked
healthier and bouncier. My tips are super smooth and soft, when they are
usually a bit sharp if I don’t use any oils after a hair wash. Also, my hair
was much easier to brush, even without any detangling products! I usually
always have to use a detangling brush-proof cream to prevent breaking too many
hair strands, but I don’t need it when I am using this oil! It’s so super
brushable and looks even glossier after brushing it! My hair also seems to look
fresh longer, since it doesn’t look heavy, and like spaghetti on the day of a
hair wash. Nope, it still looks soft and light!
All in all, I never expected this oil to be this amazing! I
don’t usually use hair oils since they tend to make my hair look greasy and
oily. But not this oil! It absorbs into the hair super fast and makes it look
shiny, soft to touch, and feel light and bouncy! It just looks gorgeous! And my
lord, how soft it is! My hair is also somehow much easier to brush and doesn’t
break too much. In fact, I can even brush my hair without the brush-proof cream
that I always use, which is very rare for me! And it still looks healthy and
light even 3 days later! This oil really hydrates and nourishes my hair, and I
love how amazing the results are!
Rating: 9/10
Day 13 – Cremedusche The Most Wonderful Time (Shower cream)!
This is a shower cream that has a chocolate and honey scent.
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This is a slightly bigger plastic bottle with a ochre cap.
The bottle is white with a pretty picture of Christmas presents. Lovely!
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Ingredients: glycerine, panthenol/provitamin B5, prickly
pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) stem extract, vitamin E for nourishment. No
parabens. It’s also not sulfate-free, as there’s SLS. The scent is absolutely
delicious: it smells like the yummiest dark chocolate! And when in the shower
it smells like hot chocolate, slightly bitter but just like melted chocolate,
not at all synthetic.
I adore this scent, it’s perfect! No, it’s more than
perfect! The expiration date is listed as a concrete date: 12/2024, instead of as
PAO.
This shower cream is colourless, but slightly cloudy. It is
super creamy and soft. It is soapy, but it’s not at all oily or greasy. It
creates a very nice amount of foam. I love how nice and creamy it feels while
lathering my skin with it.
I feel like this cream cleanses the skin very well; my skin
feels soft and nourished after washing the cream off. There are no tacky or
oily residues, just a relaxingly soft feeling on the skin. Regrettably, the chocolate
scent evaporates pretty quickly after drying. At least I was able to enjoy it
to its fullest while showering!
All in all, this is a great shower cream! I love how smooth,
silky and creamy it is and how much foam it creates; the creamy formula makes
lathering skin with it a real relaxing experience! The real chocolate scent
only adds to that; it smells literally like melted dark chocolate, such a
delicious and just perfect smell! And using this cream now, during winter, only
makes me want to brew hot cocoa! Imagine, having your skin smell like chocolate
due to this shower cream and then drinking hot cocoa! It doesn’t get much
better than that! I really love this shower cream!
Rating: 9/10
Day 14 – Augenpflegecreme The Most Wonderful Time (Eye
cream)! This is a hydrating eye cream with vitamin E.
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This is a quite small tube with a magenta cap and a simple
yet nice illustration of branches. I like the gold text! The cap, of course,
closes super tightly.
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This is a white cream. The formula is silky and smooth, but
it is also very greasy and takes a really long time to absorb. You might think
that this tiny tube won’t last long, but you really need a tiny amount of
cream. Like, even if I take the smallest amount I physically can, it’s too
much! And since it’s greasy and takes so long to absorb I have to keep tapping
it or it will just keep sitting on my skin. It’s not an awful formula, it’s
just too heavy for my skin type. After it absorbs I can feel a slightly warming
sensation, which also feels quite hydrating. After that stops it just feels
nice on skin, not at all heavy. Also, there is a good amount of pilling with
this cream, which makes applying any makeup on top a real hassle. I really hate
it when creams pill!
This eye cream is supposed to be applied both in the morning
and in the evening. In the morning I apply it after using a face serum, while
in the evening I apply it after a toner. While the results aren’t astounding, I
do think that there are some results. I have slightly bigger eyebags under my
eyes, which is where my skin tends to become more dehydrated, which brings more
wrinkles. So I usually have the finest little lines there. My skin seems like
it is hydrated and slightly more plump with this cream. The lines are a bit
less visible. I wasn’t expecting miracles, so I am not disappointed. I am just glad
that it makes at least some difference. A more nourishing cream, with Q10,
would be better. Like the Nivea Q10 that I quite like!
All in all, this is an alright eye cream. The results aren’t
astonishing, but they are there. The fine lines in my undereye area seem less
visible and the area looks more hydrated in general. I don’t really like the
formula all too much, it’s very greasy and takes an annoyingly long time to
absorb, even if I tap it into the skin. I also need such a small amount that I
always end up taking too much from the tube. Like, even the smallest bit of
cream is too much for my small face. But when it actually absorbs into my skin
I get a nice, slightly warming, and hydrating feeling, which I quite like! So,
it’s not great but it’s also not bad! Now if only it didn’t pill up, as that is
so annoying!
Rating: 5.5/10
Day 15 – Lippenbalsam The Most Wonderful Time (Lip balm)!
This is a lip balm with a creamy chocolate scent for supple and soft lips.
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This is a small bottle with a teal cap. The cap closes
extremely tightly. There is a modern illustration of branches.
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Ingredients: shea (Butyrospermum parkii) butter, vitamin E
for nourishment. No parabens. There is also some oils: sunflower and castor
seed oil. Those will ensure your lips stay hydrated. The scent is really just
so delicious! It’s a bitter, chocolate scent that is just like cocoa beans.
The formula of this lip balm is super, super oily and
greasy. There’s that sunflower and castor oil! But it’s not uncomfortable. No,
it’s actually quite rich and feels very nice on lips. It’s not too slippery; it
just feels like a nourishing serum on lips. Even hours after applying it, it
doesn't become thick or waxy. It’s still slick and oily, which is honestly
surprising because most lip balms tend to become harder and waxy after a few
hours on my lips. The texture is soft glossy, more waxy than oily.
It’s very easy to apply. You can apply it straight from the
bottle or you can squeeze out a small amount on your finger and apply it that
way. It is very blendable so that you don’t have any thick parts.
This lip balm actually helps repair my lips. I use it
whenever I have flaky parts on my lips and after a few hours they are
noticeably reduced or even gone! Rarely do lip balm actually have a lasting and
visible effect, especially as great as this one. I love how much softer and more
nourished my lips are while using this lip balm. There are no dry parts and my
lips stay soft for a long time! Wonderful!
All in all, this is a wonderful lip balm that actually helps
my lips stay nourished and repairs damaged areas. Which is more than I can say
for many other lip balms. The formula is actually quite nice, though it takes
some time getting used to the oiliness of it. I am used to having thick,
creamier lip balms, but this is actually more comfortable! And unlike most of
those thicker formulas, this one stays just the same foe hours; it doesn’t dry
up or becomes more uncomfortable as time goes on. And the smell! Oh, it smells
like the most wonderful dark chocolate! I love that it’s a bitter smell as
opposed to a super sweet one. After all, dark chocolate is bitter! So it’s
really a great lip balm that does so much more than you’d ever expect it to. I
love it!
Rating: 9/10
Day 16 – Haarmaske The Most Wonderful Time (Hair mask)! This
is a nourishing, caring, and anti-static hair mask with a wintry floral scent for
winter-stressed hair.
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This hair mask comes in a satchel that is exactly like the
ones face masks usually come in. There is a beautiful picture of a cute little robin on a flower! It’s so adorable!
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Ingredients: shea (Butyrospermum parkii) butter, glycerine,
panthenol/provitamin B5, hydrolysed wheat, corn, and soy proteins for
nourishment. No parabens or sulfates. I really like the addition of plant
proteins, they should nourish the hair and make it soft. The scent is not too
intense, and it’s so wonderful!
It is a gentle scent that smells kind of like
chocolate mousse, but is also quite aromatic and floral but in an understated
way. There’s a fair bit of vanilla in the scent, too! I am glad it stays on
hair after washing it out, as it’s just so nice and pleasant! The expiration
date is marked as a concrete date: 12/2024.
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I think that this mask really does help nourish and hydrate
damaged hair. The formula really feels nourishing and the ingredients list is
very promising! My hair seemed to immediately be softer, but we’ll see what the
actual effects of this are in the coming days.
It’s also super easy to wash out, and it doesn’t leave any
greasy or oily residue, nope, my hair is soft to touch even while it’s still
wet!
The day after washing my hair, it felt and looked a bit
sharp. I thought that this mask maybe wasn’t good for my hair type, but that
all changed after I brushed my hair! My hair was super soft to touch, easy to
brush, and was way, way more shiny than it usually is! It literally looked like
satin, which doesn’t happen too often with my hair! And it felt light and
bouncy. The antistatic effect isn’t really there, I think, because my hair
still ended up being frizzy when I got back home from shopping. But that
doesn’t matter, because of how healthy and shiny this mask makes hair!
And even two days later my hair still looks much better than
usual. It doesn’t look stringy or without volume, which is what it usually
looks like with the shampoo+conditioner that I am currently using (Love Beauty
and Planet). Of course, it’s not as soft nor shiny as two days earlier, but it
is still markedly in better condition! And there is less dandruff and less
itchiness that usually starts at the end of day 2 post-wash.
All in all, what a wonderful hair mask! The formula is super
rich and creamy and just feels luxurious. After waiting a couple of minutes and
rinsing it out, my hair felt soft and nourished. And that is while it was still
wet! The next day I thought that my hair disliked this mask, because it seemed
to be sharp and without a lot of shine. But that’s just an illusion; after
brushing, my hair became incredibly soft, bouncy and extremely shiny! And it
still feels good even two days later! Instead of looking stringy and like it
really needs a wash, ASAP, it still looks good, like it could go one more day
without a wash! This mask almost tricked me into disappointment, but then it
showed just how great it actually is! Amazing!
Rating: 9/10
Day 17 – Haarduft The Most Wonderful Time (Hair perfume)!
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This is a bigger (in comparison to the other products in
this calendar) plastic bottle with a clear plastic cap. The bottle is magenta
coloured and has a perfectly festive picture of a gingerbread cookie and a Christmas
bauble on the front. The atomizer is made of clear, if slightly white, plastic.
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Ingredients: glycerine, panthenol/provitamin B5, hydrolysed
wheat protein, lactic acid for nourishment. No parabens. Wait, this thing
actually has nourishing ingredients? I thought it was just perfume, but it is
actually meant to condition hair, as well?! Wow, colour me surprised!
The scent
is intense, and smells like “wintry flowers”, so it’s a very, very sweet and floral
kind of scent. It’s so sweet that it actually smells synthetic. After spraying
it smells more like berries than flowers. The expiration date is marked as a
concrete date: 12/2024.
The atomizer is good, but it could definitely be improved!
It makes a fine enough mist usually, but it also often sprays it in the form of
bigger droplets. Nothing that big that it would actually drip down the length
of the hair, but it is often not exactly fine enough. Especially if you don’t
press the atomizer down completely. It doesn’t really bother me, honestly.
After spraying this perfume on dry hair, it seems to
immediately make the hair softer! It is also easier to brush, with fewer
tangled parts, and it looks shinier and smoother! I honestly didn’t expect it
to do anything, so this is just phenomenal!
After brushing through this perfume, my hair is silky and
smooth and I can’t even feel the perfume on it; it does not leave any tacky or
heavy residue like some other hair sprays. Nor does it make my hair look
greasy. It also doesn’t cause any irritations, itching or any other adverse
effects.
All in all, having had absolutely no expectations of this
hair perfume, it has blown me away! I thought it would just make my hair smell
nice, but it does so much more than that! It also makes hair easier to brush,
and gives it a beautiful silky shine, and it also makes hair feel soft and smooth
to touch. So, hair actually looks visibly better after using this perfume! It’s
just really fantastic, and a real surprise!
Rating: 9/10
Day 18 – Schaumbad The Most Wonderful Time (Bubble bath)! This
is a bubble bath with a cinnamon and orange scent.
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This is a slightly larger bottle with a mint cap. There is a
pretty picture of a Christmas present! Very appropriate for an advent calendar!
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This bubble bath is colourless and has a very thin formula. It’s
extremely soapy and greasy. I need to pour more than half of this whole bottle in
one use to get a good amount of foam. Still, there’s not a huge amount of foam,
I expected it to look more like in films. Instead there’s just a thin layer of
foam, not even enough to conceal your body in the water. So you cannot do the
whole Hollywood, body hidden by foam thing. It doesn’t make the water slimy,
despite feeling so greasy; the water feels a bit more soapy, but it is actually
rather nice.
This bubble bath doesn’t really make the skin much cleaner,
but it also doesn’t make it slimy. It is very easy to wash off, and the scent
lingers on the skin for a while after drying. My skin doesn’t seem any softer
or dryer.
All in all, since I don’t like to have baths in general,
this bubble bath wasn’t too impressive. They always seem to irritate my skin afterwards, and I get infections from the messed up pH values. So I am not a good person to ask to review bubble baths.
Rating: 5/10
Day 19 – Gesichtsmaske The Most Wonderful Time (Face mask)!
This is a face mask with grape seed oil that provides intense hydration.
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This is a slightly larger tube with am ochre coloured cap. There
is a lovely picture of Christmas baubles and pinecones. Festive!
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Ingredients: glycerine, grape (Vitis vinifera) seed oil,
panthenol/provitamin B5, vitamin E for nourishment. No parabens. There’s also carrageen
moss (Chondrus crispus). This is a clay mask, as there are two types of clay in
it: kaolin and hectorite. The scent is subtle and vaguely sugary or like
vanilla. Definitely sweet. The expiration date is marked as a real date:
12/2024.
The formula of the mask is quite clay-like and creamy at the
same time. It spreads really easily across the face, almost like a nourishing night
cream. The formula isn’t too thick, I actually prefer clay masks to be more
like this rather than very clay-like and too thick.
This face mask, at first, feels hydrating and refreshing on
the face, but that feeling is soon replaced by a slightly warming, and
incredibly tightening feeling. It is clay (kaolin) after all, so it’s no
surprise it would feel this tight. Still, since it’s not supposed to be washed
off (?) it’s quite an unpleasant feeling. And I question how good it is to
leave such a layer of dried clay on your face overnight? I would really prefer
to wash it off! It just feels powdery, like dried clay on my face, and I don’t
really like that. Also, the warming sensation isn’t really too pleasant either.
Now, I know that the instructions specifically say not to
wash off the mask. And I tried to just remove it with a cotton pad, but the
mask just started pilling like crazy and the powdery feeling drove me insane. I
couldn’t leave it like that overnight, who knows how my skin would react to
having that pilled up clay for 8 hours. So I washed it off, in spite of the
instructions telling me not to.
And honestly, my skin feels so much better now! There isn’t
any pilling and gone is the tight, clay-ish feeling that bothered me so much.
Instead, my skin looks visibly hydrated and slightly plumper, and perhaps just a
tad brighter! I did not expect to see any results, but here they are, plainly
visible! It seems that my skin appreciated this face mask as it really looked much
better! And best of all, it is so soft to touch! Almost velvety! Very good
results that I doubt I would have had I left the mask overnight.
The next morning, my skin feels really soft and like it’s
still in good condition. It also looks pretty hydrated still.
All in all, this face mask has much better results than I
thought it would have. The formula of the clay mask is comfortable at first, being
quite creamy and easy to spread. But as it is drying it becomes so tight and
pretty uncomfortable. Of course, most clay masks feel like this after they dry,
but then again, most clay masks are meant to be washed off after some time.
This one is supposed to be left as is, only wiping the excess with a cotton
pad. Thing is, I couldn’t do that, it just felt too suffocating and
uncomfortable on my skin to leave it like that overnight. So I washed it off.
And man, that really seemed to be the right thing to do, as my skin immediately
felt more hydrated and looked slightly plumper and brighter. It was also so
soft to touch! So, despite the instructions telling you not to wash it off, if
you have oily skin I think you should, anyways. The other thing is that there
was this warming sensation while the mask was drying that wasn’t particularly
too comfortable. This definitely isn’t the best clay mask that I have ever
used, but I do like the results on my skin. You just have to flat out ignore
the instructions!
Rating: 6/10
Day 20 – Fussbutter The Most Wonderful Time (Foot butter)!
This is a foot butter with a sweet vanilla scent.
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This is a slightly larger tube with a magenta cap and a
lovely picture of flowers and pinecones. The cap closes tightly.
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Ingredients: glycerine, shea (Butyrospermum parkii) butter,
vitamin E for nourishment. No parabens. The scent is subtle, but it is very
sweet and just like vanilla. It’s quite nice. The expiration date is listed as
a real date: 12/2024.
This is a white cream. The formula of this foot butter is
too thin for my liking. I am used to greasy, heavy foot butters that are more
like foot masks. This one is much more comfortable but it is just far too thin
and light to actually do anything overnight. I do like how buttery smooth and
creamy it is and how easy it is to spread it across feet. Oh and don’t get me
wrong, it is greasy but it is far more watery than truly like butter. If only
it were more nourishing!
As noted earlier, this butter doesn’t really do much to help
my feet overnight. I routinely develop hardened skin on the sides of my feet
(not as much on the heels), so I need a rich foot cream to help soften that
skin. This one is very light and, despite being greasy, isn’t very hydrating. So
it doesn’t soften the hardened skin, but hey, at least it’s better than using
nothing!
All in all, a very average foot butter. I wouldn’t even call
it butter, honestly, because it’s too thin. Butter is supposed to be a thick,
rich formula not a very thin, greasy formula. Besides that, it doesn’t do much
for my feet. It doesn’t really soften hardened skin nor does it actually
hydrate my feet. It’s just... there. The scent is nice, I guess. But overall
it’s just aggressively average; not bad, not good, like it’s trying it’s
hardest to be average.
Rating: 5/10
Day 21 – Duschgel The Most Wonderful Time (Shower gel)! This
is a shower gel with a Christmas scent.
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This is a slightly bigger plastic bottle than the plastic
tubes of the other items in this calendar. It’s white, with a mint cap and an
adorable picture of a squirrel. It’s really cute!
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Ingredients: glycerine, panthenol/provitamin B5, prickly
pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) stem extract, vitamin E for nourishment. No
parabens, but there is SLS. The scent is gentle, and not too intense. Balea say
that this is a “Christmas scent”.
I would agree, as it smells like speculaas
biscuits, which are typical Christmas biscuits! It smells like spices,
specifically cloves and nutmeg, with a hint of cardamom. It’s a fantastic
smell, though it quickly evaporates after showering. Sadly, it doesn’t linger
on skin for a long time. The expiration date isn’t written as PAO, but as a
concrete date: 12/2024.
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This shower gel is colourless. The formula is rather thin,
more like an oil than a gel. It is very oily but it isn’t runny. It foams up very
nicely, despite the oily, thin formula. I like how pleasant and soft it feels
while washing my body with this gel!
I think this shower gel cleans the skin very well, and it
leaves the skin feeling soft, cleansed, and refreshed. It is super easy to
rinse out and doesn’t leave a slimy residue. I just feel sad that the scent
quickly fades. Oh well!
All in all, this is a good shower gel, but is more similar
to a shower oil than a shower gel, because it is far too thin and oily, and
doesn’t really feel like gel. Despite that, it creates a lot of foam and
cleanses the skin really nicely, without it feeling dried out (thanks to the
prickly pear extract and panthenol!). The scent is perfectly Christmassy,
smelling like speculaas biscuits! But it evaporates very quickly, so you’ll
only really smell it while washing yourself with the gel. By the time you dry
yourself, it will have already evaporated almost completely. Now that my skin
is totally dry it still feels pretty soft to touch, so this gel is definitely
hydrating! I actually like it!
Rating: 7.5/10
Day 22 - Nachtcreme The Most Beautiful Time (Night cream)!
This is a night cream that offers intense hydration overnight.
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This is a small tube with a very pretty picture of flowers
and an ochre cap. The cap closes extremely tightly. Another pretty design that
is ideal for the holidays.
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Ingredients: glycerine, panthenol/provitamin B5, shea
(Butyrospermum parkii) butter, almond (Prunus amygdalus dulcis) oil, avocado
(Persea gratissima) oil, olive (Olea europaea) oil, vitamin E for nourishment.
No parabens. This cream is indeed loaded with emollients, just look at all
those oils!
The scent is, at first, very gentle and calming. But, as you apply
it, it takes on a much more intense, creamy, slightly floral, but very relaxing
scent. Perhaps it is just a tad too intense for me, but I like the character of
the fragrance! The expiration date is 12 months after opening.
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This is also a white cream. This cream’s formula is
ridiculously greasy, thick and heavy. I suppose it should be like that, in order to
provide hydration and nourishment through the night! At first it felt almost
like it’s suffocating my skin, and since I already have oily skin, I very much
prefer lighter formulas. But it’s actually not that slippery type of greasy,
it’s more like a thick, more paste-like greasy. It’s super easily spread across
the face, despite being that drier, thicker formula, it’s still very creamy! Just
not oily. And also in spite of its really heavy formula, it absorbs very fast,
so it quickly turned from feeling like a heavy cast on my face to a much
lighter, but still just ever so slightly tight feeling.
It feels rather
comfortable now that it has been absorbed, even to my oily skin. I reckon dry
skin would really enjoy this cream to its fullest!
The condition of my skin seems to be improved from using
this night cream! My skin is noticeably softer and more supple, and it looks
nourished overnight! Despite the very heavy formula it does not cause any
irritations or acne. It just feels relaxing on the skin, and after a night’s
rest I wake up to skin that is balanced and nourished, and just looks good.
Though this cream does make my skin looks more shiny, it is less shiny than
with the daily moisturiser. I love how soft my skin is!
All in all, this is a very good night cream! It’s got a ton
of oils and butters that function as emollients, helping hydrate your skin
deeply overnight. All these oils also nourish the skin, helping it stay supple
and soft, while also balancing it. I simply adore how soft my skin is after
this cream absorbs into it! It’s like a baby’s bottom! But, speaking of
absorption, this cream is super, super heavy and thick. It’s also greasy, but
more like butter greasy than oil greasy. It’s way too heavy for my already oily
skin, but it somehow manages to absorb very fast! So, in the end, I don’t even
mind the heavy formula! And the scent is so relaxing, perfect for bedtime! I
love this cream; too bad that it’s only available in this calendar, I would’ve
loved to keep using it!
Rating: 8/10
Day 23 – Körperpflegeöl The Most Wonderful Time (Body oil)!
This is a body oil with almond oil and a vanilla scent.
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This is a slightly larger bottle with a magenta cap. The
bottle is white and has a very pretty picture of a pinecone and a bow. Festive!
The cap closes very tightly, so don’t worry about the oil spilling.
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Ingredients: almond (Prunus amygdalus dulcis) oil, vitamin E
for nourishment. No parabens. The ingredients list is quite small, isn’t it?
The
scent is relatively intense and smells just like vanilla! It reminds me of both
Christmas cookies and vanilla pudding! It’s really yummy! The expiration date
is marked as a concrete date: 12/2024.
This oil is colourless. It feels very oily (no surprise) but
it’s not heavy like oils often are. It is actually thin and feels light on
skin. It’s quite easy to spread, but I do need a lot of it, though, or it
becomes a bit dry and difficult to spread.
This oil absorbs super fast and then it stops feeling oily.
It doesn’t leave an unpleasant fipm on the skin, instead making the skin soft.
But it is not as hydrating as I would like it to be. While
it does make my skin feel soft, I don’t think it actually hydrates or
nourishes it that much, unless I apply an extremely thick layer. I don’t know,
perhaps my skin just doesn’t appreciate oils.
All in all, this is an alright skin oil. It smells
wonderful, like vanilla. And it absorbs super fast and the formula, while oily,
isn’t annoyingly thick or heavy. But it’s just not very hydrating, which is
unfortunate. Oh well.
Rating: 6/10
And now, the last item, day 24! For Christmas Eve I got the Tuchmaske The Most Wonderful Time
(Sheet mask)! This is a sheet mask for all skin types.
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This sheet mask comes, like almost all sheet masks, in a
plastic satchel. But this satchel has an adorable squirrel on it! So cute!
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Ingredients: glycerine, hyaluronic acid,
panthenol/provitamin B5, almond (Prunus amygdalus dulcis) oil, Vanilla tahitensis
fruit extract for nourishment. No parabens.
Obviously, this is meant to be a
hydrating and nourishing sheet mask. Plenty of hydrating ingredients, and almond oil and vanilla extract to nourish the skin when it’s stressed from the
harsh winter weather. The scent is intense, quite floral and perfumey. I can’t
really say what type of flower it is, but it’s that typical perfumey scent. I
like it! The expiration date isn’t marked anywhere, but it should be 3 years
from the manufacture date, so probably 11/2025. It dries relatively fast, in
10-15 minutes.
The sheet is nice, pretty soft and very stretchy. It adapts
to the contours of my face but it is far too large for my face. Most sheet
masks are; that’s just the price you pay when you have such a small face! Though
this one is bigger than they usually are, it almost covers my ears! And this
way too big size means that the are a bunch of folds where the serum doesn’t
absorb adequately. Plus, those fold tend to create fine lines in the skin;
sure, they disappear by morning, but it would be ideal if the sheet was fully
stretched out, not all crinkled like this! The sheet was so soaked in the serum
that I was almost dripping!
Balea definitely did not spare any serum with this
sheet mask! The material of the sheet adheres to skin very well, I did not
notice it slipping on any part of my face during the 15 minutes of absorption. In
terms of design, this sheet is amazing! It’s utterly adorable with its squirrel
face pattern! Now I can be a squirrel, too!
The serum is lightweight, more on the watery side, but still
greasy. It’s a type of serum that I like, as I prefer water-type serums to
cream-type serums. The water-type serums absorb much better into my skin. This serum feels really hydrating while it is absorbing, my skin really feels like
it is going to be thoroughly hydrated after the 15 minutes! There is also a
slight cooling sensation that could just be due to the cold temperature, but it
is really calming and soothing.
15 (okay, more like 25, I was in the middle of something and
had to remove it later than indicated!) minutes later and my skin looks hydrated,
but that’s about it. The mask did not enlarge my pores. My skin still looks
rather even in tone, but it does not really help with redness or blemishes. I
always have acne, the joys of having oily, sensitive skin! That means that rarely do
face masks actually manage to help reduce redness. Blemishes don’t look worse, they
just don’t look any better, either. Since this is first and foremost supposed
to be a hydrating sheet mask, I am satisfied with the results.
My skin looked very good the next morning. It still looked hydrated
and it felt fresh. It was a bit more even than right after removing the sheet.
It’s pretty good, though I would prefer it to have some anti-blemish, soothing
effect.
All in all, it’s a very nice hydrating mask. The sheet is soaked
with serum and, while too large for my small face, does adhere nicely. The
sheet has the most adorable squirrel face print! So cute! I like how hydrating
it is and how it balances my skin a bit, but that’s about it in terms of
results. It does not reduce redness nor does it really soothe blemishes. The
next morning my skin still looks hydrated and feels fresh. It’s good enough if
what you are looking for, specifically, is hydration; otherwise, it just
doesn’t have very impressive results. Still, I liked it!
Rating: 7/10
So, the advent calendar in general has some fantastic items
inside! A few are disappointing, but it can’t only be amazing items. The shower
products are great, except for the bubble bath, but I don’t use bubble baths
anyways. The hair products are phenomenal and make visible, positive
differences in the condition of the hair. The body products are good, but not
too special either, in general. The face products are more or less good. The
worst products are the bubble bath, the eye cream, and the wash gel. The best,
hmm, I can’t decide! The shampoo, conditioner, lip balm, shower cream, hair
perfume, hair mask, hair oil... they are all fantastic! So many great products
that I wish I could buy again! It’s a great advent calendar with a great
diversity of products and great quality, in general. And it wasn’t even
expensive! I am more than satisfied with this calendar and it was a real joy to
wake up each day and see what I got. Now that I’ve tried out all the items I
can safely say that this calendar is awesome and I don’t regret buying it one
bit! I know I took my time reviewing the calendar, but there were 24 products
and I didn’t want to do a shoddy job, I wanted it to be thorough.
Unfortunately, that does mean that this calendar is unavailable now; however,
if it was still available I would highly recommend it!
Rating: 7.5/10 (overall)
Would buy again? NO (I would buy certain products in the
calendar, but there’s some products that I really don’t want to have again, so
buying the whole calendar again wouldn’t be the best idea)
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