As ever, Christmas has come early in the beauty world – all the biggest retailers and brands have unveiled this year’s best beauty advent calendars. But we’ve been waiting for one: M&S. And the retailer has finally lifted the lid on the brands and products on its roster for 2026, the price and the launch date.
While heavy hitters such as Liberty and Cult Beauty come with a hefty price tag, M&S’s beauty advent calendar is one of the cheapest. In previous years, you had to spend £35 in-store or online to secure the calendar for just £60. But there has been no mention of the in-store spend this year, with the 25-day calendar costing just £75.
Worth £460, the Christmas countdown features a selection across skincare, makeup and haircare from the likes of Color Wow, Estée Lauder and The Organic Pharmacy. Here’s everything you need to know about the 2026 M&S calendar.
Read more: Best beauty advent calendars for 2026
M&S beauty advent calendar 2026
Price: £75
Worth: £450+
Number of days: 25
Number of products: 25 (more than 8 full-size)
Why we love it
- Self care-focused contents for anyone in need of some TLC
- Covers make-up, skincare, haircare and body
- Affordable
Take note
- Brands like Floral Street, Philip Kingsley, Iconic London, This Works are included in lots of advent calendars
- Not as exciting as others
When does M&S’s beauty advent calendar launch in 2026?
The M&S beauty calendar will launch on 13 October 2026, both online and in-store. But Sparks members get early access from 1 October until 10 October.
How much will M&S’s beauty advent calendar 2026 cost?
The M&S beauty advent calendar is one of the most eagerly anticipated, largely thanks to its affordable price tag. This year the retailer’s Christmas countdown will cost £75. It’s much cheaper than some of the competition – Liberty’s beauty advent calendar (£285, Libertylondon.com) costs nearly four times as much. However, M&S’s offering is £15 more than last year.
Unlike previous calendars though, it doesn’t appear you’ll have to spend £35 in-store or online to snag the calendar for £75.
What’s inside the M&S beauty advent calendar for 2026?
Makeup and skincare seem to be the focus of this year’s calendar. You’ll find some well-loved makeup favourites, including Estée Lauder’s double wear smooth and blur primer and Benefit’s badgal bounce mascara and BareMinerals’ complexion rescue blonzer.
Hard-working skincare formulas feature, such as The Organic Pharmacy’s hyaluronic acid serum. That said, I would’ve liked to see newer, cult products be included in this year’s calendar.
Where haircare is concerned, Color Wow’s money mist is probably the most exciting inclusion. Elsewhere, Aveda and Philip Kingsley also give the haircare offering some credibility. There are also several full-size products, which makes the £75 price tag considerably easier to justify.
As a whole, the 25-product line-up feels somewhat familiar and leans heavily towards traditional beauty-advent-calendar territory. Alongside the makeup and skincare are an Espa body butter, Cowshed bath and shower gel, This Works body whip, a hand cream with SPF and an &Sleep pillow mist. The Aveda shampoo and conditioner, Pai cleansing oil and Clinique eye cream also come in relatively small sizes. While these products aren’t bad, they make the calendar feel more like a luxury self-care hamper than a particularly exciting snapshot of where beauty is heading.
There’s a sense of déjà vu, too. Hair by Sam McKnight, Floral Street, Philip Kingsley, This Works and Iconic London have all become familiar faces in beauty advent calendars, so their inclusion doesn't have quite the same element of discovery it once did. Even some of the categories feel a little predictable: cleansing oil, body butter, bath and shower gel, night cream and pillow mist are all perfectly pleasant treats, but hardly groundbreaking additions to an already crowded advent-calendar market.
The pillow mist is the clearest example. It would have felt completely at home in a 2020 beauty calendar, but feels considerably less compelling now that the category has matured and calendars increasingly compete on genuinely innovative beauty technology and high-performance products – think of the kind of devices and treatments coming from brands such as Lyma and CurrentBody.
That said, there is enough here to prevent the calendar from being a disappointment. The Estée Lauder primer and Organic Pharmacy serum are particularly impressive full-size inclusions, while the Benefit mascara, bareMinerals blonzer and Sweed lipstick add real substance. The Floral Street fragrance and Philip Kingsley elasticizer are also the kind of premium additions that make the calendar feel more worthwhile.
Ultimately, the contents represent a decent value proposition, particularly for someone who enjoys classic bath, body and beauty treats and likes discovering established brands. But compared with some of the more innovative beauty calendars now on the market, it feels safe rather than groundbreaking.
That said, it is supremely affordable, so if you’re not willing to spend more than £100, it’s a nice pick.
Buy now £75, Launching 13 October
Everything included in the M&S beauty advent calendar 2026
- Iconic London prep set blur setting spray
- Iconic London birthday cake glazing gloss in sugar cookie
- Color Wow money mist
- Benefit badgal bounce volumizing mascara, full size
- Pai light work cleansing oil
- The Organic Pharmacy hyaluronic acid serum, full size
- Floral Street ylang ylang espresso eau de parfum
- Bloom and Blossom lip service nourishing lip balm in Christmas kisses, full size
- Hello Sunday the one for your hands hand cream, full size
- Formula Ultra peptide night cream, full size
- Aveda rosemary mint shampoo
- Aveda rosemary mint weightless conditioner
- Prai ageless throat & décolletage serum
- Philip Kingsley elasticizer
- Espa tri active smooth & firm body butter
- Cowshed indulge bath & shower gel
- This Works deep sleep body whip
- bareMinerals complexion rescue blonzer, full size
- Estée Lauder double wear smooth and blur primer, full size
- Clinique all about eyes rich eye cream 5ml
- Hair by Sam McKnight happy endings nourishing balm mini
- &Sleep cloud nine pillow mist
- Sweed le lipstick, full size
- Discover pink pepper EDP
- Discover midnight blossom EDP
- Nails inc topless polish in dakota, full size
Read more: Exclusive: I unboxed the Sephora advent calendar before anyone else, here’s my review
