Boots stocks a broad spread of beauty advent calendars this season, from the mid-twenties to just under two hundred pounds, under its own name, its own brands and other brands. This guide goes through what is inside the ones that stand out, names the rest of the Boots range we track, and then covers how to choose between them.

Standard delivery from Boots is £3.95 on orders below £25, and free above that.

Boots 24 Days of Skin

Twenty-four products, twenty-one of them full size, and no single brand dominates. It reads as a tour of the skincare Boots stocks, with a strong Korean skincare presence alongside high-street names, Boots' own brand and Soap & Glory.

Toners, essences and mists. Anua PDRN Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Mist, 100ml, a facial mist. Round Lab 1025 Dokdo Toner, 200ml. Beauty of Joseon Ginseng Essence Water, 150ml, a toner-essence. Haruharu Black Rice Probiotics Barrier Essence, 120ml.

Serums, creams and treatments. Byoma Phyto-Mucin Glow Serum, 40ml. Genabelle PDRN Rejuvenating Cream, 20ml, a face cream. Zeriod Soothing Cream, 80ml. Dr.Reju-All Advanced PDRN Rejuvenating Mask, a single sheet mask. Hero Mighty Patch Original, a pack of twenty-four spot patches. Mediheal Collagen Ampoule Pad, fourteen toner pads, one of the three that are not full size.

Eyes. RoC Retinol Correxion Line Smoothing Eye Cream, 15ml, and Curel Moisture Repair Eye Cream, 25ml.

Cleansing. The INKEY List Oat Cleansing Balm, 150ml. e.l.f. SKIN Holy Hydration! Makeup Melting Cleansing Balm, 56.5g. Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser, 118ml. Clean Skin Club Clean Towels, a travel pack of ten disposable face towels, not full size.

Sun protection. HABI Sunny Shield SPF 40, 50ml, and Tocobo Cotton Soft Sun Stick SPF50, 19g, a stick format.

Body, hands and neck. Q+A Salicylic Acid Body Wash, 250ml. PRAI Beauty Ageless Throat and Decolletage Crème, 30ml. Nursem Caring Hand Cream, 30ml, not full size. Soap & Glory Vanilla-licious Fragrance Mist, 50ml.

Lips. Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm in Red Dahlia, 4.25g, and Boots Glossy Lip in Crème Caramel, 15g.

Between the retinol eye cream, the salicylic acid body wash and the two sun protection products, this is a calendar with actives in it. Boots' own page marks the RoC retinol eye cream as not suitable during pregnancy.

Twenty-one of the twenty-four are full size, so most of what is inside is something you would keep using after December rather than a trial. It is sold online only, while stocks last.

Boots 12 Days of Scent

Twelve doors and fifteen pieces: fourteen fragrances and a NEOM Wellbeing Happiness travel candle, 75g, so some doors hold more than one. One piece is full size, a Givenchy L'Interdit Eau de Parfum, 35ml. The rest are fragrances of 4ml to 10ml, plus a 50ml Floral Street body mist.

The houses represented, alongside Givenchy, are Balmain, Estée Lauder, Zadig & Voltaire, Kayali, CRA-YON, Marc Jacobs, Valentino, Lancôme, Floral Street, Sabrina Carpenter, Maison Louise Marie, Tobba and Billie Eilish.

This is a discovery calendar with one full-size anchor, the opposite shape to 24 Days of Skin: most of what is inside is for trying, with one bottle to keep. It suits someone looking for a new scent more than someone restocking a favourite. It is sold online only, while stocks last.

Boots 24 Days of Luxe

Twenty-seven items, nineteen of them full size, by Boots' own count, and it spans skincare, make-up, haircare and fragrance in one box.

Among the full-size pieces are Clinique Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm, 125ml; Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye Lift + Sculpt, 15ml; Aveda Rosemary Mint shampoo and conditioner, 250ml each; Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 91 Perfume Mist, 90ml; Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask, 20g; Caudalie Vinoperfect serum, 30ml; and NARS The Multiple Blush Stick, 8g. Those are a selection of what is inside, not the whole box.

With nineteen of twenty-seven at full size and four categories covered, it is a broad box rather than a deep one in any single area.

No7: two calendars, two shapes

No7 25 Days of Beauty holds twenty-four products and a No7 voucher, all No7, eight of them full size. The full sizes are Pro Artist make-up and the Lift & Luminate primer; the smaller sizes are skincare from Future Renew, Radiance+ and Protect & Perfect. It is a make-up-led calendar with a skincare sampler alongside.

No7 The Ultimate Beauty Advent Calendar holds twenty-four products and a voucher, all No7 and all full size. What sets it apart is that it carries the complete Future Renew regime: serum, SPF 40 day cream, night serum, night cream, eye serum, body serum and hand cream.

Both are single-brand, so they suit someone who already uses No7, or wants to try it properly, more than someone after variety.

Liz Earle 24 Days of Beauty

Twenty-four products, all Liz Earle: sixteen full size, two supersize and six smaller, so eighteen of the twenty-four are full size or larger. A smaller twelve-day Liz Earle calendar sits in the range too.

Full size. Restore & Glow Instant Radiance Serum, 30ml. Superskin Advanced Lift & Define Serum, 28ml. Cleanse & Glow Transforming Gel Cleanser, 150ml. Cleanse & Polish Rose & Lavender, 100ml. Superskin Advanced Nourishing Cleansing Balm, 100ml. Instant Boost Skin Tonic, 200ml. Skin Repair Hydrating Night Cream, 50ml. Skin Repair Light Cream, 50ml. Revitalise & Glow Radiance Reveal Night Cream, 50ml. Hydrating Cream Mask, 75ml. Instant Brightening Eye Cream, 15ml. Superskin Eye Cream, 15ml. Superskin Superlip Lip Balm, 15ml. Botanical Hand Wash Orange Flower, 200ml. Mandarin & Nutmeg Botanical Body Cream, 200ml. Mandarin & Nutmeg Botanical Body Wash, 200ml.

Supersize. Revitalise & Glow Illuminating Gel Moisturiser, 100ml, and Superskin Moisturiser with Natural Neroli, 75ml.

Smaller. Gentle Face Exfoliator, 15ml. Smooth & Glow Exfoliating Tonic, 50ml. Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser, 100ml. Eyebright Soothing Eye Lotion, 50ml. Orange Flower Hand Repair, 50ml. Mandarin & Nutmeg Hand Cream, 50ml.

It is a complete skincare routine from one brand, with body and hand care alongside.

Soap & Glory Unwrap The Magic Within

Twenty-four pieces, all Soap & Glory, and all of them mini sizes, which Boots describes as sizes for on the go. There is no full-size element to this one, and that is the honest way to read it: it is a sampler of the range rather than a restock.

Inside are five masks and patches; body butters, washes and scrubs; a face wash; hand and foot creams; five fragrance pieces, three of them limited-edition Velvet Cherry; a bath fizzer; and a glass nail file. The scents span Original Pink, Call of Fruity, Vanilla-licious and Velvet Cherry. Boots also notes that the front of the packaging doubles as a wreath.

Macmillan 24 Doors of Joy

Twenty-four items across No7, Soap & Glory, Liz Earle, Champneys, Botanics, Boots' own brand and MASQD. Most are travel and discovery sizes rather than full size, and five are tools: a slanted tweezer, an eyelash curler, nail clippers, a pure cotton cloth and hand mask gloves.

Boots states that £2 from every calendar produced goes to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Baylis & Harding Men's 24 Days of Advent

Twenty-four grooming items across body, face, hair and bath: shower gels, hair and body washes, a face wash, body lotion, aftershave balm, soaps and a muscle soak. The fragrances run across three profiles, Citrus, Lime & Mint; Black Pepper & Ginseng; and Bergamot, Hemp & Sandalwood. Boots describes it as vegan-friendly.

Boots does not publish an itemised contents list or a full-size split for this calendar, so we cannot say how much of it is full size.

The rest of the Boots range we track

How to decide between them

How to choose a beauty advent calendar has the general checklist. Applied to the Boots calendars covered here, two things decide it: how much of it is full size, and whether it is one brand or many.

Mostly full size. No7 The Ultimate Beauty is twenty-four of twenty-four. 24 Days of Skin is twenty-one of twenty-four. 24 Days of Luxe is nineteen of twenty-seven. Liz Earle 24 Days is eighteen of twenty-four at full size or larger. These suit restocking: most of what is inside is something you would keep using.

Discovery-led. Soap & Glory is entirely minis, Macmillan is mostly travel sizes, and 12 Days of Scent has one full-size bottle among fifteen pieces. These suit trying things: the point is the range, not the quantity of any one product.

One brand throughout. Both No7 calendars, Liz Earle, Soap & Glory and Baylis & Harding. These suit someone who already likes the brand. 24 Days of Skin, 24 Days of Luxe, 12 Days of Scent and Macmillan each span many brands.

Not published. Boots does not give the full-size split for Baylis & Harding, so it sits outside the first axis.

The choice turns on whether you are restocking or exploring, and on whether you want one brand or many.

For anything Boots is running on its calendars right now, the offers page lists current promotions, and Boots on FindMyBasket covers the retailer more broadly.

Availability

Calendars sell out, sometimes well before December, and two here, 24 Days of Skin and 12 Days of Scent, are sold online only while stocks last. For what is in stock now, and at what price, the advent calendar edit shows live prices across the calendars we track, Boots' among them.

Prices vary across retailers and change regularly. Use FindMyBasket for live prices. FindMyBasket may earn a small commission when you shop through our links, at no extra cost to you.