But for some reason the 2019 Edition fell flat with me. In fact if you read my 25 Day's Of Beauty posts throughout December you'll already know the problems I had with this calender. It saddens me that there were so many flaws with this calender after three very successful years but this year I actually found myself picking apart the flaws rather than looking forward to what I would be recieving. Now I know that there is always going to be issues with a calender that is aimed to meet the needs of different individuals but for me this year there were more than necessary.
Let's kick it off with the products. Marks and Spencer actually show you the products both on their website and in store before you buy the calender so I know some of you may be thinking why did you buy it when there were products in there that you didn't like or knew you weren't going to like. I brought it because I thought that whilst the brands were the same, they'd switched up the products and this year included six full sized products and added some interesting products from brands I adore. Yet when it came to opening each box, there was a lot more misses than hits. I think I kept out about a maximum of ten products from the whole calender. Normally the number is a lot higher but this year there were a lot of pointless filler products and repeats from years before that may be popular when brought in full sized but could have easily been swapped out in the calender to give another product a chance. My favourite products from the calender this year were the Emma Hardie Pink Clay Detoxifying Mask, the full sized This Works Sleep Spray and the Beautiful Butters Coconut Body Butter. And do you know why some of these are my favourites? Because they are all new to the calender. I've never recieved any of them in previous years and it was nice to be able to try different products from my favourite brands whilst also discovering new products. Whilst I understand that many people were probably very happy with what they recieved daily, I for one found it a disappointing selection of products from M&S's varied Beauty Hall that boasts the likes of Pixi, Stila, Neal's Yard and more. If they release this calender again this year, I really hope they really think about the products they put in it, instead of just recycling the same products for another year.
Now I'm already on a Debbie Downer for this post so I may as well continue. Another big problem for me was the ratio of product size to the box it came in. There were so many products that came in
boxes that were significantly bigger than necessary, it was beyond frustrating. Now I'm not always the most enviromentally friendly but I do try and do my bit towards it all. Yet for a big company like M&S it just seems a very thoughtless thing to do in packaging their products in boxes that were a good two times bigger than necessary. Sure some of the products fit into the boxes perfectly but some were ridiculous. Take for example this eye cream from Filorga. As you can see the eye cream itself is miniscule, a tiny 7ml tube compared to the size of the box it was presented in. Something twice the size of the eye cream could have been put into the box instead, a smaller box could have easily been slotted into the box at some point but I don't see the point of having this biggish box with such a tiny product in. It just seems wasteful and creates more rubbish for me to get rid of when it comes to breaking down and disposing of the calender.
Overall I think it's safe to say that I'm disappointed by the offerings from this calender. Repeats of products for the third year running, unneccessary packaging and just the something that I can't quite put my finger on that was missing. It's a shame that I didn't enjoy this calender and I hope that they put more thought into products, packaging and design when planning out the 2020 calender because if they release it with the same old products for another year, I think I'll be taking my money elsewhere and giving another calender a go. Such a shame as I've loved every previous year which is what makes 2019 such a let down.
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