Beauty products: Flaconi advent calendars: The 2022 calendars are really worth that much money

No love is as beautiful as loving yourself.

Beauty products: Flaconi advent calendars: The 2022 calendars are really worth that much money

No love is as beautiful as loving yourself. Okay, that may not be entirely true for parents, newlyweds or dog owners, but they too would do well to adore their likeness in the mirror. That can sometimes be pretty horrible, both men and women know. However, the lords of creation still have some catching up to do when it comes to self-care. This expressly does not include going to the pub, but caring for your body and taking time for yourself.

Unfortunately, men in 2022 are still only too happy to use their girlfriend's body lotion for their face and a shower gel for their hair and body. Reason enough for Flaconi to give some extra help and launch the first beauty advent calendar for the (un)groomed man in 2022. Women are a little further along. You know the joys of a nourishing night cream or a rich serum. The Flaconi advent calendar is part of the beauty retailer's standard repertoire. The stern test clarifies whether both calendars are worth their money.

Well, what can one say about the great exterior. Once lugged home, the Flaconi advent calendar for men blends seamlessly into an otherwise sparsely decorated home. The dark green flatters the withered plants around it. Otherwise it is a plain rectangle. If you look at it for a long time, you still don't know exactly whether it looks good or not. Just neutral. But because nothing is worse than a man who doesn't care whether something in his apartment looks good or bad, we say what we say on Saturday afternoons in Swedish furniture stores to get out of there quickly: I think it's great, let's take it With.

While the dark green flatters the withered plants, the pink advent calendar for women blends less harmoniously into your own four walls. The chosen color is too cliche. Haven't we long since outgrown the days when girls were pink and boys were blue? Suggestion for the future: don't separate the sexes by color, but by design, so woman could get a square and man a triangle, or vice versa? If you leave out the paint, the look is reminiscent of converging nail polish colors. In summary: The outside doesn't look as great as the inside of the calendar. Because that can do something.

What unites advent calendars and people? The inner values ​​have to convince. Contrary to modern contemporaries, the Flaconi advent calendars need neither self-confidence, nor charm, nor wit or eloquence, but rather a sense of responsibility. And they have because they are recyclable. Nothing is torn open and the 24 packets are resealable. Perfect for using the calendars again next year and doing the environment a favour.

Attention: There follow three highlights of the products most interesting for the testers in the calendar. All products are then subjected to a price check. If you want to be surprised, you should skip the highlights.

You have to give the Flaconi advent calendars one thing: They offer such different and, above all, unusual products that after testing them it is really damn difficult to pick out three highlights. Shower gels and hand soap fall out. Both are nice to have when traveling because they don't exceed 100 milliliters. But nothing helps and so the decision should fall on two unknown and one already known product.

All three products replace the usual standard of the morning routine. After the morning shower, Dr. Barbara storm in the face. I neither know who the good woman is nor did I know her products, but one thing I do know after her cream flattered my face: Dr. Barbara Sturm knows exactly what she is doing. Especially those who have problems with tight skin on their face during the cold season will enjoy their face cream. Never before have I used so little cream, never before has it spread so well, never before has it absorbed so quickly and left a similarly pleasant feeling on the skin. No residue, no feeling of tension, no unpleasant smell. Splendid.

The American Crew Forming Cream follows in second place. A product I already know and have bought several times. It is reminiscent of a water-based pomade, but is more of a cream. It does not create a matt look in the hair, but rather a shiny one. Accordingly, it is also better suited for more stylish evenings and classic hairstyles. The cream spreads smoothly in the hair as usual without making it too sticky, as is known from the classic gel, for example. The hold is rather shallow and supports the natural look or hairstyle. You have to like it, I do it.

Third place goes to Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540 Eau de Parfum. What a scent. The perfume is ideal for the cold season because it leaves a heavy and woody scent that is not intrusive, but - on the contrary - very noble. Really something fine and no wonder that the perfume is hidden behind the last little door. This is how a man wants to smell at Christmas. I didn't have to apply much. Two small splashes were enough and the scent has lasted for several hours. Without a doubt a real highlight.

The face serums from Babor take first place. So far, the products of this brand have been too expensive for me to buy blindly. It is all the nicer that three of them are now hidden in the advent calendar. I especially like the mixture, so I can get an impression of three different serums. I did not find this combination in retail, the calendar offers me added value straight away. I like the Hydra Plus concentrate best, my skin is velvety soft and smells wonderful.

In second place follow the Glow Drops from Dr. Barbara Storm. I have to agree with my colleague here, Ms. Sturm is a master of her craft. I mix the drops into my moisturizer in the morning. The result: a creamy consistency that is easy to spread over the face and prepares the skin for the day. Unfortunately, only three millimeters are included in the small advent calendar edition, if you want to buy more, you pay for quality, but not less. Converted, the small amount already costs 12.50 euros.

One of my favorite brands is L'Occitane, so I'm happy about this old acquaintance. The Shea Butter Hand Cream is just right for winter, because my hands need an extra portion of moisture. So this highlight is not a creative masterpiece of product selection, but an accurate one, so that I, as a tester, am particularly happy about it. The small size is also ideal for traveling.

The question remains what the calendars offer for their money. Flaconi himself promises a goods value of 390 euros for men at a purchase price of only 70 euros. There is no information on the value of the goods for the women, the purchase price is also 70 euros. At first it sounds too good to be true. That's why we take the trouble to hunt all products through the comparison search engine. If there is a product that is not the size of the calendar, we calculate the price per milliliter per euro for the product and multiply the result by the volume of the advent calendar products.

Admittedly, the comparison isn't entirely fair, because independently of the shop, the cheapest price without shipping costs serves as a reference. If you would want to buy all the products individually from different retailers, you would have to factor in shipping costs of around 30 euros if you found all the products in five shops. Accordingly, we add these 30 euros to the final result.

And that's really surprising with the men's advent calendar: we come up with a raw goods value of 335 euros (rounded). Unfortunately, one product (after shave) could not be found at all. Its estimated value was 15 euros. So the result is not completely accurate. Plus shipping costs, the products cost a total of 365 euros if we had decided to buy them individually – without the calendar as such. Strong performance, even if it's not quite the "promised" 390 euros.

The advent calendar for women also undergoes the price check: research the products, calculate the quantities and you arrive at a goods value of 213 euros (rounded). Plus estimated shipping costs of 30 euros, that means the end result: 243 euros. That's a whole 122 euros less than what's in the men's calendar. The products included far exceed the purchase price and to be fair, it must be said that the products are not always available identically in stores. However, the calendar does not reach the advertised value of 270 euros.

The Flaconi advent calendar for men is a real bombshell. The product mix is ​​simply strong, because in addition to many well-known and useful things such as shower gels and deodorants, there are also really good treasures hidden in the calendar that people don't know yet, but quickly appreciate. The calendar is particularly worthwhile for men who travel a lot on planes and have correspondingly small sizes for shower gel

The same applies to the female version of the advent calendar. Mixture and value of the products are convincing. If you feel like discovering something new alongside popular and proven brands, you can try out a lot. And isn't that what you expect from an advent calendar? You want to be surprised and feel anticipation 24 times before the small packages open. The Flaconi advent calendar definitely triggered this joy.

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