What I actually got in an Essence advent calendar

** On a personal note this week: My thoughts on "To All The Boys P.S. I Still Love You"

OK, look, I know it's been two months since Christmas and I'm kinda late with this, but would you believe me if I told you I just now got the time to go through it? I honestly haven't touched any of these stuff since I opened them.

The other advent calendar I had was for a giveaway so I took care of it sooner, but this one I wasn't in a rush to deal with. If the recipients of the giveaway are reading this, I would love it if they send me a feedback or a photo or something.  Anyways, let's get into my advent calendar by, probably, my favorite brand out there.

Nail products:

Of course I'm going to start with my favorite category. If you ask me, Essence's strongest game is in the nail department, even though they have some awesome products out of it too. In total, I got 6 nail polishes. Each one has a Christmas themed bottle which is so cute. They are also typical winter and really festive colors with dark red, berry, glitter black and gold. I also got a sparkling nail file which, to be honest, I won't be using much, but I love these small ones to carry around with me, just in case my nail breaks. And then there is a package of nail stickers. I also put these other 2 packages of stickers here because I'll most probably use them on my nails too. All in all, I'm very happy with this category.

Make-up products:

Starting from my favorite, I got this gorgeous red lipstick. It's a deep, a bit darker red with matte finish. I can't wait to try it out. Then I got a lip liner in a dark mauve color. I really like it, but it would make more sense if they just gave us the same shade as the lipstick. However, I can use this lip liner on its own to fill my entire lips and I love that color on me. I also got a color changing lipstick which goes from black to pink-ish and I thought I would hate it because I don't like how pink lipsticks look on me, but this one transfers into a darker pink on my lips and I fell in love with it immediately. It's a perfect everyday look. I got two more pencils, one brownish for the eyes which I know I'll use and one brow pencil, but in shade blonde which I definitely can't use so I'll give it away. I also got a highlighter which looks great for a slightly darker skin (or me during summer), but I already have 3 highlighters and I don't need another one so I'll give it away as well. Last item here is mascara which I'll keep. It's a standard black one, but I love the big spooly.

Other items:

Here we have a bath bomb which I'll never use cause I tried it once and I freaking hated every minute of it (post about hating bath bombs). Then there's a bracelet which is cute, but also for a teenager or 10-year-old so I'm going to give it to my friend for her younger sister. One very useful thing here is this hand cream. I always love these mini versions, again, so I could carry it in my bag and always have it with me. Then there's a pocket mirror which I was actually excited about because it's cute, but there's no lid on the other side. You get this cute front side and then there's an exposed mirror on the other. I can already see it being all scratched and dirty, not to mention it could shatter so easily. They did not think this one through very well. I also got oil control papers which I like carrying around, but never actually use so we'll see what I'll do with those. The last thing are Christmas presents tags which will come in handy next year so I'll definitely save those.

All in all, I'm quite happy with the stuff I got. I won't be keeping all of these, mostly because I already have those products in some versions, but I would say they're all good products. I know for sure I'll use nail polishes and lip products.

Would you be happy with any of these? Did you buy any advent calendar this last holiday season?