I did the ‘girl math’ on Space NK’s £275 beauty calendar - here's why it's really a bargain

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There are few beauty advent calendars more coveted than Space NK, with the retailer’s festive countdown renowned for its impressive value and seriously sought-after contents. With La Mer, Augustinus Bader, Sunday Riley, Charlotte Tilbury and Hourglass all hiding behind its doors for 2026, the haul is certainly not short on big names sure to pique the interest of the beauty obsessed.

It’s also not short on products, with 35 beauty treats packed into this year’s £275 countdown, 26 of which are full sized. And while that price tag will undoubtedly make you do a double take, the contents are worth more than £1,200, with four items alone covering the price of the calendar.

As well as £925 worth of free products, the calendar also features 31 products that are exclusive to Space NK, making it a great way to explore what the retailer has to offer in its beauty hall. And if you need a little bit of girl math to justify the investment, each product averages at £7.86 apiece.

When unboxing the calendar, I realised I’d scarcely have to buy a single beauty product in 2027 for the amount included in the set. And if you think about how much you might spend on beauty products annually, the calendar works out at under £23 a month for a year.

And this isn’t just a case of filling the calendar with lots of obscure brands to inflate the value. There are plenty of names that beauty shoppers will immediately recognise, from Charlotte Tilbury, Hourglass and Fenty Beauty to K18, Olaplex, Sol de Janeiro, Rare Beauty, VIEVE and Medik8. It feels a little like someone has ready my letter to Santa and added a few extras for good measure.

There’s a number of products in the calendar that I already know and love as a beauty editor. For example, there’s Medik8 Exo-PDRN Prismatic+ Serum, which launched earlier this year. I spent weeks trialling it and it’s a great example of a PDRN formula. Meanwhile, the Sunday Riley Good Genes Lactic Acid Treatment is a gentler alternative to their glycolic acid version, and has become a go-to for me ahead of events and special occasions when I’m determined to have a good skin day.

As for fragrance, there’’s a couple to discover but the Phlur Missing Person Eau de Parfum is the standout for me. It has a distinctive, dreamy skin-scent quality and, as I was already running low on my existing bottle, so the calendar provided a much-welcomed top-up.

I’m also excited about the Saltair Salt Water Vanilla Nourishing Body Oil. I haven’t tried this particular version before, but I already own the Santal Bloom scent and absolutely love it, so I have high hopes for this one. And in makeup, the Rare Beauty Harmony Flexible Lifting Gel gets my vote. I have fairly unruly brows and this is a seriously good formula for keeping them in place all day, so this is one I know I’ll get plenty of use out of.

Of course, half the fun of an advent calendar is discovering products you haven’t tried before. The Skin Rocks Cleansing Balm is high on my list. I’ve tried a few products from Skin Rocks now and have been really impressed, and I’m a self-confessed cleansing balm girl, so this should slot very nicely into my routine.

The K18 HAIR HeatBounce Conditioning Heat Protectant is another one I’m looking forward to using. I’ve been using the K18 hair mask recently and my hair has never felt better, so adding another K18 product into my routine feels like a no-brainer.

And I’ve recently finished a summery Space NK body wash so I’m very pleased to see a wintery Space NK Nordic Wilds Bubble Bath to incorporate into my bathing routine. It has a lovely earthy, forestry scent with notes of black pepper, juniper berry and tonka bean. It’s not necessarily something I would have picked for myself from the shelf, but it’s a really calming, cosy product that works exceptionally well in an advent calendar.

There’s also a full-size Hourglass Unreal Liquid Blush in Whim, worth £38, as well as a Charlotte Tilbury Beauty Light Wand in Pinkgasm, a Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb in Fu$$y, Kosas Soulgazer Mascara and a VIEVE Skin Nova Instant Radiance Primer, so the makeup offering is particularly strong.

There’s also several that I’d usually put firmly in the ‘I’ll admire it but probably won’t buy it’ category, including La Mer Crème de la Mer Moisturizing Cream, which is worth £85 for 15ml, as well as Augustinus Bader The Body Cream, worth around £92, both of which really elevate the skin and bodycare offerings in this countdown.

Another interesting point is that there are also no repeats from last year’s calendar, which will be particularly good news if you’ve had one of the previous editions, but it also just goes to show how much consideration goes into curating the countdown each year, too. With all that considered, that £275 price tag doesn’t seem quite so eye-watering, after all.