Clarins offers two ways to count down to Christmas this year, and they are different propositions rather than two sizes of the same thing. One is a twenty-four door advent calendar. The other is a single set of twelve pieces, six of them full size. Which suits you depends on what you want the next few weeks to feel like, and on how much of what you open you expect to still be using in January.
Both sit on the Clarins Brand Spotlight.
Two ways to do the Clarins countdown
The 24-Day Beauty Advent Calendar is the traditional format: one door a day through December, twenty-four products, four of them full size. We have been through every door of it in detail, so if you want the complete contents list before deciding, start there.
The Showstopper is not a countdown in the strict sense. It is one box holding twelve of Clarins' skincare and make-up icons, six of them full size, opened when you choose rather than a piece at a time.
So the first question is not which has more in it. It is whether the daily ritual is the thing you want, or whether you would rather have the products.
What the Showstopper set is
Twelve pieces, six at full size, drawn from Clarins' icons across skincare and make-up. Clarins positions it as a gift set rather than a calendar, which is why it arrives as one box.
Half of it being full size changes what it is for. A full-size product is one you will finish: it sits in your routine, gets used up and replaced. A set weighted that way is closer to a starter kit for the brand than a tasting menu of it. If you already know you like Clarins, or you have been meaning to try the icons properly rather than in sachets, that weighting is the point of it.
The trade-off is that twelve pieces give you fewer separate moments than twenty-four. You open it once.
What the 24-Day Calendar is
Twenty-four products behind twenty-four doors, four of them full size.
The spread is the interesting part. Eleven of the twenty-four are face care, taking in cleansing, toning, masks, a serum and an eye treatment. Seven are body and hands. Six are make-up and lips. So it reaches across more of a routine than the Showstopper does, and into body care in a way few calendars bother with.
The four full sizes are a mascara, a lip balm, a lip oil and a day cream. Everything else is a smaller size of something from the range.
That makes it a calendar built for finding out what you like. The Hydra-Essentiel line appears four times in different forms, and there are two toning lotions positioned for different skin types, so you can work out which suits you before committing to either in a larger size.
Full-size versus discovery sizes
This is the axis the choice actually turns on, so it is worth being plain about it.
Six of twelve against four of twenty-four is not a question of which gives you more. It is a question of shape. The Showstopper gives you fewer things, more of which you will use up. The calendar gives you more things, most of which are there to be tried.
Neither shape is better. They answer different questions. If you want to stock a routine, the Showstopper's weighting does that. If you want to explore a range and find the two or three things you would reach for again, the calendar's spread does that, and its four full sizes carry on past December regardless.
Discovery sizes are not filler, which is a point to hold onto. They are the low-risk way to try an expensive serum or a texture you are unsure about. The calendar has twenty of them, and that is a feature rather than a shortfall, provided exploring is what you are after.
If you are buying it as a gift
For someone else, the calendar is usually the easier choice, for two reasons.
The ritual travels well as a present. Twenty-four doors gives the recipient something to do each morning through December, which is most of what makes an advent calendar a gift rather than a box of products.
And the spread forgives not knowing their routine. With twenty-four smaller pieces across face, body and make-up, something in it will land even if you are guessing. A set weighted towards full sizes is the stronger choice only if you know what they use, because a full-size product in the wrong texture is a full-size product that sits unopened.
The exception is the person who already uses Clarins and has told you so. For them the Showstopper is the one to pick, because you are restocking rather than guessing.
If you are buying it for yourself
Buying for yourself removes the guessing, which flips the reasoning.
You know your skin type, you know whether you wear lip colour, and you know whether you will actually use body products. So the question becomes simpler: are you restocking or exploring?
If you have a Clarins routine and want more of it, the Showstopper's six full sizes do that in one go. If you are curious about the brand, or you want to settle which of the two toning lotions suits you and whether the Hydra-Essentiel textures work on your skin, the calendar's twenty-four pieces are built for exactly that, and you get a daily thing to look forward to as well.
And if the honest answer is that you simply want the ritual, take the calendar. That is a good enough reason on its own, and no amount of reasoning about sizes should talk you out of it.
Where to find both
The Showstopper and the 24-Day Beauty Advent Calendar are both on the Clarins Brand Spotlight, with Clarins' own descriptions, and the full door list for the calendar is here if you want it before you decide.
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