The Space NK advent calendar has landed on my desk, I’ve opened every door, and I have thoughts.
Mostly good ones. A couple of grumbles about where the money has gone. And one product I genuinely can’t work out how to use, which we’ll get to.
This is my Space NK advent calendar 2026 unboxing, with every product, every listed value and my honest first impressions. I haven’t tested most of it yet, so this is a first-look post rather than a verdict. Where I’ve already used something, I’ll say so. Where I haven’t, I won’t pretend.
If you’re comparing calendars this year, I’ve also opened the Lookfantastic advent calendar and the Stylist x Latest in Beauty advent calendar, and the advent calendar round-up has them all side by side.
The quick facts
Here’s what Space NK says about this year’s calendar:
- Price: £275, which is £15 more than last year
- Claimed value: over £1,200
- Products: 35, across 25 days
- Full size: 26 of the 35
- Exclusives: 31 products are exclusive to the calendar
- Repeats from 2025: none
- Launched: 10 September
Last year’s calendar sold out in about two and a half weeks, so if you’re reading this hoping to buy one, check stock before you get attached to the idea.
Everything inside the Space NK advent calendar 2026
Values below are the individual worth listed for each product. Space NK doesn’t give a price for three of them (marked “not listed”). The Refy lash set counts as two products, which is how they get to 35.
Skincare
| Product | Size | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| Medik8 Exo-PDRN Prismatic+ Serum | 30ml | £79 |
| La Mer Crème de la Mer Moisturizing Cream | 15ml | £85 |
| Votary Super Renewal Serum | 30ml | £85 |
| Sunday Riley Good Genes Lactic Acid Treatment | 30ml | £70 |
| Skin Rocks The Cleansing Balm (fragranced) | 100ml | £58 |
| Caudalie Vinoperfect Brightening Dark Spot Serum | 30ml | £52 |
| Summer Fridays Pink Dew Gel Cleanser | 150ml | £48 |
| Patchology FlashPatch Restoring Night Eye Gels | Full size | £46.40 |
| Laneige Water Sleeping Mask | 70ml | £28 |
| Tatcha The Dewy Milk Moisturiser | 15ml | £24 |
| Ole Henriksen Pout Preserve Peptide Lip Treatment in Crème Brûlée | 12ml | £17 |
| BYOMA Hydrating Milky Toner | 150ml | £12 |
Makeup
| Product | Size | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| Hourglass Unreal Liquid Blush in Whim | Full size | £38 |
| Vieve Skin Nova Instant Radiance Primer | 30ml | £33 |
| Charlotte Tilbury Beauty Light Wand in Pinkgasm | 12ml | £31 |
| Refy Lash Sculpt in Brown and Lash Curler | Full size | £30 |
| Kosas Soulgazer Mascara in Black | 10.5ml | £28 |
| Lisa Eldridge Kitten Flick Liquid Eyeliner in Black | Full size | £25 |
| Kulfi Beauty Lassi Lips Staining Lip Oil in Rose | 3.8ml | £24 |
| Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb Lip Gloss in Fu$$y | 9ml | £20 |
| Glossier Lip Line Enhancing Pencil in Buff | 5g | £20 |
| Rare Beauty Harmony Flexible Lifting Gel | 4.5g | £19 |
Hair
| Product | Size | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| K18 HeatBounce Conditioning Heat Protectant | 118ml | £48 |
| Olaplex No.3 Plus Complete Repair Treatment | 100ml | £32 |
| Color Wow Dream Cocktail Carb-Infused Leave-In Treatment | 200ml | £26.50 |
| Gisou Honey Infused Hair Perfume in Vanilla Glaze | 15ml | £20 |
| Philip Kingsley Elasticizer Deep-Conditioning Treatment | 40ml | £13 |
Body and fragrance
| Product | Size | Worth |
|---|---|---|
| Augustinus Bader The Body Cream | 100ml | £92 |
| Phlur Missing Person Eau de Parfum | 9.5ml | £32 |
| Sol de Janeiro Rosa Charmosa Dewy Body Cream | 75ml | £21 |
| Naturium The Booster Hyaluronic Acid Body Wash | 500ml | £19 |
| D.S. & Durga Debaser in Bloom | 7.5ml | Not listed |
| Saltair Santal Bloom Body Oil | Travel size | Not listed |
| Space NK Nordic Wilds Bubble Bath | 100ml travel size | Not listed |
Add up every listed value and you get £1,175.90 across 31 products. The three unpriced ones are presumably what push Space NK’s claim past £1,200.
The products I’m most excited about
Seven things in here made me properly happy.
Medik8 Exo-PDRN Prismatic+ Serum (£79). I love Medik8 and I’ve been loving PDRN skincare, so this one is a double whammy. A full 30ml bottle, and the most valuable thing in the calendar that I know I’ll use. I’ll write it up properly once I’ve been through a few weeks of it.
Patchology FlashPatch Restoring Night Eye Gels (£46.40). I’ve used Patchology before (see my Patchology post) and I love a gel eye mask. Space NK lists these as 30 pairs, so this is a proper stock-up rather than a sample.
Laneige Water Sleeping Mask (£28). I’ve already gone through a few tubs of the Laneige sleeping mask and I used it last night, but this is a version I’ve never tried. Easy win.
(and they even put the Patchology eye gels and Laneage sleep mask in the same day. THAT IS CRAZY!)
BYOMA Hydrating Milky Toner (£12). The cheapest thing in the calendar by value, and one I really like. BYOMA is a more affordable range and I rate it. Not every door has to cost £80.
Color Wow Dream Cocktail Carb-Infused Leave-In Treatment (£26.50). The Color Wow leave-in treatment from the Lookfantastic box has become my new favourite, so I’m excited to try another one from the same brand. This is the 200ml size too, so it’ll last.
Olaplex No.3 Plus Complete Repair Treatment (£32). You know I love Olaplex, and my Olaplex posts say as much. For anyone new to it, No.3 is a pre-shampoo bond treatment, not a conditioner. You rinse it out and follow with your usual shampoo and conditioner. The Plus version is a treat.
(again, Color Wow and Olaplex in the same day. These people are doing the lords work)
Ole Henriksen Pout Preserve Peptide Lip Treatment in Crème Brûlée (£17). I’ve never used this one, but a lip treatment is always going to get a place in my handbag at some point. I’ve changed my mind on this product: I tested it, and the Creme Brulee flavour is too much for me. It smells like intense pudding and makes me feel slightly nauseous.
Those seven add up to £240.90 at the listed values. So already, worth it.
Good, but not blown away
These are products I like, with a caveat.
La Mer Crème de la Mer, 15ml (£85). Extreme luxury, and I’m really looking forward to trying it. I wanted to be mad at the size of it, but I’m actually struggling to be disappointed here. It’s small, and for it to take up £85 of the value is a bit silly, but it’s so luxurious I can’t be mad.
Sunday Riley Good Genes Lactic Acid Treatment (£70). It’s a good product. I just wasn’t blown away by it, and I already have an almost full bottle that I can’t see myself finishing any time soon. So a second one lands in the calendar and takes up £70 of the claimed value. A bit disappointing (for me, not for an average person probably).
Augustinus Bader The Body Cream, 100ml (£92). Again, £92 of the value, and it’s a body cream. I’ve never been fussed about body creams and I’m not sure I’ve finished a tube of one in my whole life. I’m excited to try it, but I doubt I’ll use much. Maybe that’s on me and I need to start using more body cream.
Gisou Honey Infused Hair Perfume in Vanilla Glaze (£20). Yum. But I got the full size in the Stylist x Latest in Beauty calendar, so this one is a repeat for me. It was a different scent though, so I am excited to try this.
Not bothered
Honestly, nothing in here disappointed me, which is rare for an advent calendar. And even the two products I listed here came on days where there were multiple products. So to be clear, there were no bad days what so ever, just two products that weren’t up to my personal preference.
The Lisa Eldridge Kitten Flick Liquid Eyeliner (£25) gets a shrug purely because I’m in my no-eyeliner era right now. That’s a weird personal preference and nothing to do with the product. I’m a millennial, so I’ll be back on the eyeliner before long and I’ll be glad of it then.
The Rare Beauty Harmony Flexible Lifting Gel (£19) is the one I’m properly unsure about. I looked it up so you don’t have to. It’s a clear brow gel. Rare Beauty describe it as a weightless, water-based formula that shapes, lifts and sets brow hairs with a flexible hold, and you brush it through in short upward strokes in the direction your hair grows. You can wear it alone or over brow pencil.
So yes, it’s the same product category as the Anastasia brow gel in the Lookfantastic calendar. Whether it behaves the same way is another question, and I’ll only know once I’ve tried it. If it turns stiff and flaky I’ll say so here. The brand claims it’s never stiff, sticky or crunchy, which is exactly what everyone claims. But I don’t think I actually need a brow gel, so I may just skip this one entirely.
The double days are what blew me away
Here’s the part nobody warns you about with this calendar: the double days.
Ten of the 25 doors have two products behind them, which is how 35 products fit into 25 days. That’s a lot of doubles. What really got me is that not one of them was a weak pairing. There was no “great product plus a filler sample” combination anywhere.
Some of the pairings I loved most:
- Patchology night eye gels and Laneige Water Sleeping Mask. Same day. That’s a whole night-time routine in one door: eye gels on, sleeping mask on, bed. £74.40 of value in a single day, and both are things I’ll happily use.
- Color Wow Dream Cocktail and Olaplex No.3 Plus. Same day again. It’s a hair treatment double, and it’s two of my favourite brands on the same date. I could have a proper hair night off the back of that one door.
- Refy Lash Sculpt mascara and the Refy lash curler. The curler and mascara come together, so you can open the door and do your lashes straight away. The pairing is sensible as well as generous.
- Phlur Missing Person and D.S. & Durga Debaser in Bloom. Two perfumes on the same day. Two fragrances behind one door is a nice surprise, and a more unusual one than another skincare double.
And the products I was a bit disappointed about? They were scattered through the calendar on other days, tucked in amongst the good stuff rather than paired up. So there was never a day where I opened a door and felt let down. If I hadn’t been paying attention to the value maths, I’d barely have noticed.
It feels so well built. Space NK have clearly thought about the order of the doors rather than just filling 25 gaps. Honestly, I’m blown away. This calendar is insanely good.
The value maths
La Mer (£85), Augustinus Bader (£92) and Sunday Riley (£70) add up to £247. That’s about 21% of the £1,175.90 in listed values, tied up in three products I’m only lukewarm on. Two of them are things I might not use up.
Meanwhile the seven products I’m most excited about are worth £240.90 combined, which is nearly the £275 you pay for the whole thing. So for me, the calendar roughly pays for itself on the stuff I love, and everything else is a bonus.
But it does show how much “worth over £1,200” depends on you wanting the expensive items. If you already have a Good Genes on your shelf and you don’t use body cream, your real value is lower than the headline. You always need to work out your own number before you buy bundles like this.
The honest downsides
A few things I’d flag to anyone considering this calendar:
- The price went up £15 on last year, and it’s still not a casual purchase.
- The big values come from a small number of products. A 15ml La Mer is a lovely thing, but it won’t last you long.
- Three products have no listed value, so you can’t fully check the maths yourself.
- Some of what’s inside may duplicate things you already own. I’m in that boat with Sunday Riley and Gisou.
- It tends to sell out, so you can’t take your time deciding.
Is the Space NK advent calendar 2026 worth it?
If you’ll use the full-size serums, treatments and masks, yes, it stacks up well. If you’d mostly use the cheap, easy things and skip the body cream and the lactic acid, the headline value is flattering.
My approach: add up what you’d honestly use at the listed values, compare it to £275, and decide from there. For me that number is close to the price on the loved products alone, so I’m happy.
FAQs
How much is the Space NK advent calendar 2026?
£275, up £15 on last year. Space NK says it’s worth over £1,200.
What’s inside it?
35 products across skincare, makeup, hair, body and fragrance. The full list with values is in the tables above.
How many products are full size?
Space NK says 26 of the 35. Some other outlets quote slightly lower figures, so go with Space NK’s own page if you’re checking.
When did it launch?
10 September 2026, online and in stores.
Is it still available?
Last year’s sold out in about two and a half weeks. Check Space NK’s site for current stock.
Can you buy it outside the UK?
Space NK ship worldwide and run separate sites for the UK, US, Ireland and the Netherlands, so check your own country’s page. The limit of five per customer is written for UK and Irish customers.
I’ll update this post as I work through the products. If you’re deciding between calendars, the advent calendar round-up has all of them in one place.
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If you like the sort of recommendation that still holds up six months later, leave your email below and I'll write to you on Sunday.
Most Sundays, once the house has gone quiet and it's edging towards nine, a letter goes out. It's the one I'd write to a friend with good taste and not nearly enough time: one thing worth reading, one thing worth buying, and one thing to skip. No noise, no pressure to spend, just the considered version of what I've actually been using, loving, or quietly sending back.
