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Liverpool Echo

Entertainment

Narin Flanders

I opened the £79 OPI Advent Calendar to see if it's worth the money

OPI Black Friday (Topic) Argos

As someone who loves the idea of grown up advent calendars but doesn't wear much in the way of make up, beauty advent calendars often don't hit the mark for me.

I've tried and loved advent calendars that are bath treats only, like this Baylis and Harding one, while L'Occitane's £99 advent calendar had plenty of pampering products as well as two fragrances perfectly sized for tucking in my handbag.

But as someone who only really feels 'put together' if I have my finger- and toenails painted, OPI's 2022 advent calendar is pretty much made for me. But is it worth its price tag, which comes at £79.90 this year, ten pounds more than last year? It's a tough job, but I was happy to try it out.

The packaging

The OPI Advent calendar comes in a compact cardboard box with no additional plastic packaging. While it feels quite modest for almost £80, it feels sturdy and has a weight to it.

When you start opening it up you can see how well put together it is - which is vital when every day's gift is made of glass. There's no risk of any surprise breakages.

It looks cheery, festive and with the theme of the calendar this year being jewels also suitably bling.

The contents

The 2022 OPI Advent calendar includes 25 3.5ml mini bottles in a range of colours including some OPI classic shades as well as the full set of new festive hues released as limited editions for Christmas 2022.

There are also essential OPI nail treatments to make sure that your nails stay healthy and your manicure lasts as long as possible - including a rapid dry top coat, Bubble Bath coloured Nail Envy and Start To Finish which can act as both top and base coat.

With 12 festive colours and 10 classic OPI shades, you might the odd duplication of colours in your beauty bag if you're a regular buyer of the firm's polishes, but that said, with them being mini-sized, they're perfect to tuck in a washbag or give to a friend so it doesn't feel like a deal breaker.

You can see the full collection of colours below.

I was really impressed by the range and quality of polishes and other nail products in the advent calendar (Narin Flanders)

The pros

This year in terms of colours it really feels like OPI has outdone itself. While the price tag might be off-putting to some, there are very few colours in the collection that I'd avoid wearing.

I love OPI colours generally, especially the sparklier hues, finding that their glitter polishes apply better and last longer without chipping than some other brands I've tried.

There's several lovely Christmassy reds which will be my go-to for nights out in the run up to the festive season, including Rhinestone Red-y and Bring Out the Big Gems.

But as someone who loves bright purples and blues, there's loads to love this year.

The Pearl of Your Dreams is a much-welcomed full glitter colour in baby blue, Tealing Festive is a lovely, shimmery teal which I'm going to be wearing a lot this winter, while OPI Ink is a vivid purple with the lightest of shimmer which isn't done justice to by the picture on the back of the box.

While cheery Christmas colours are welcomed, part of the joy of this collection is that there is a good selection of more subtle colours if you're looking for something natural or summery, meaning you'll be using these polishes well into 2023 and beyond.

My go-to for my fingernails, which I like to keep looking clean but fairly pale to avoid obvious chipping that comes with darker colours, is either Nail Envy or a pale pink or white.

Here the Bubble Bath Nail Envy was my favourite, but Alpine Snow and Worth a Pretty Penne were solid options.

Overall, whether an advent calendar or a Christmas gift set is worthwhile often comes down to how many of the products you'll use and how many will stay languishing in a bag somewhere taking up bathroom cupboard space.

Out of the 25 in this year's collection I'd definitely use 22 of them and I have no doubt my mum or sister would quite happily snag the others that weren't quite to my taste.

Mini bottles can divide opinion but I'd much rather get a more reasonably priced calendar - with OPI full bottle RRP coming in around £16 now this is a lot of colours for your money.

I'm happy to have less packaging and waste and just pick up bigger bottles of my favourites as I work through them - and a full size bottle of OPI Ink is already on my Christmas list.

The cons

If you bought this advent calendar last year then six of the ten OPI iconic shades are repeated from then. This includes Alpine Snow, Big Apple Red, Lincoln Park After Dark, Strawberry Margarita, Gelato On My Mind and Tickle My France-y.

Arguably though, we should be replacing nail varnishes within 18 months anyway so it's not the end of the world, especially if any of these colours are ones that you've liked so much you've got through last year's bottle already.

Overall verdict

If you love nail polishes, particularly if you're a fan of OPI, then this calendar is definitely one you should be considering .this year.

The OPI Advent Calendar is available to buy now - but where you pick it up from might depend on whether you're more interested in saving money or getting additional freebies.

If you get it from OPI direct it costs £79.90, but there's a current offer where if you the code OPICALENDAR at checkout you can get a free Correct and Clean Up Corrector Pen or ProSpa Nail and Cuticle Oil To-Go.

If you're less bothered about freebies then Look Fantastic is selling it at £67.92 and you can get either 22% extra off by making your first purchase on their app or use the code SECRET and generate a secret Black Friday discount code which may give you different savings.

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