You might be looking forward to Christmas, but your skin is not. Between the piercingly cold weather and the endless slew of booze-spiked nights, the festive period is essentially an endurance test for your complexion.
Because you shouldn't have to face the elements alone, Mr. Porter has just released its 12 Days of Grooming Kit: an annual collection of luxurious goodies that will make midwinter feel a bit less bleak.
In case you missed the memo, advent calendars are no longer stuffed with chalky chocolate. Not the good ones, anyway. Mr. Porter's 12 Days of Grooming Kit taps a trend for grown-up calendars that has boomed in the last few years. Now, you can treat yourself to a box stocked with beer, craft gin, or Fortnum & Mason preserves to keep you entertained right up to the 25th.
But Mr. Porter’s countdown of grooming products is the smartest way to jump on the advent calendar bandwagon. Unlike 25 whisky miniatures, it has the potential to reverse the usual party season slide into sallow skin and puffy eyes, making you actually look better come Boxing Day than you did pre-festivities.
This year, Mr. Porter has stayed true to its quality-over-quantity mantra, filling this calendar with 12 products from its most prestigious brands. Stand-outs include 111Skin's reviving Cryo ATP Sports Booster (alone worth £85) , Dr. Barbara Sturm's brightening Anti Pollution Drops, and the cream Augustinus Bader was so confident in, he literally named it The Cream.
What’s more, if you share our opinion that trial-sized products are strictly for hotel bathrooms, you’ll be pleased to hear that everything inside is large enough to last you longer than a long weekend: in fact, 8 of the twelve products are full size, making the £120 price tag astonishingly good value. (That Bader moisturiser alone will set you back more than the calendar). Really, the only difficult decision will be whether to open it one day at a time, like a good boy, or rip it open and enjoy everything at once. Remember – Father Christmas is watching.
