#i've just been plaguing the discord chat with this adventure for the last few days so i thought i should channel the energy here instead

[edorazzi]

‘Tis the season, the festive spirit is in the air and I want to share the contents of this advent calendar I got my hands on. It’s either this or 24 days of chocolate and I know what’s (slightly) better for my body. The newest window will be added each day until Christmas, so keep checking back!

(It’s available online here, so you can have one too! This isn’t a sponsored post, it’s just nice to share.)

Overview + days 1, 2 and 3:

I’m throwing a chunk of stuff in at the beginning to get us up to speed, since it’s day 3 of this calendar already and I’ve only just decided to blog this adventure. Future updates will be done on a day-by-day basis!

Getting it out of the way early: I’m very aware this is a calendar meant for little kids, and with a price tag of £19.99 the contents of each window will be worth around £1 or less. Nothing in here is going to be great quality, so I’m not going to focus on that aspect more than necessary!

Here’s the outside of the box - there’s an external sleeve, but this is the ‘unwrapped’ design which doesn’t display the calendar contents (and I’ve looked at these already, I’m not going in completely blind, but since deciding to buy the calendar for myself I haven’t refreshed my memory in hopes of keeping it surprising). It’s a promotional image for the Christmas special - which coincidentally I hear is the only ML media they’re airing on TF1 all through December, yikes - and despite Marinette being front and centre it’s a pleasant surprise to see Chat Noir on the cover too. Nice to see Protagonist #2 is back on the roster!

I’m probably going to pin the back panel up on my wall after Christmas because it’s adorable and I love it. This is the content I’m here for.

Day 1 kicks things off with a nice surprise - some cream eyeshadow! It’s just a generic pallet with the Miraculous logo slapped on, as I’m sure most cosmetics in here will be, but it’s a cute start. I like to think these are the colours Marinette wears - they’d definitely suit her. 

I’ve sworn ahead of time to actually try these cosmetics out instead of just shoving them in a drawer and leaving them untouched forever, so - as I’m going out that evening - I decide to try this in place of my regular eyeshadow. I’ve never applied cream eyeshadow before (only powder), so I have to Google how to do it - the instructions tell me to “spread the cream liberally across the eyelid like butter, working quickly before it dries”, and I figure that can’t be too hard. Kids are supposed to be able to put this on, after all.

It’s hard to get a good photo, but the colours in this are a nice nude range which make a surprisingly pretty combination. The cream is appropriately princess-shimmery, and while the brush is teeny-tiny and low quality (a couple of the bristles were trying to come out in the pallet) it works well enough with broad strokes and narrower highlights. You wouldn’t pick one up at Sephora, but out of a £1 window in a kiddie Christmas calendar it’s decent. However.

However.

With this pallet, applying it “before it dries” isn’t just possible, it’s unavoidable. This does not dry. It’s more of a gel-based substance than actual cosmetic cream, and plays absolute havoc with any eyeliner you might be wanting to put on afterwards. I managed to battle it into submission with some powder eyeshadow over the top (I could have just wiped it off and started again with proper makeup, but I was determined), but even out at dinner hours later my eyelids still felt damp. I guess this is why Marinette doesn’t wear much visible eyeliner, because if this is the eyeshadow she chooses it’s just going to melt all over her face and really send Adrien running. 

Regardless, it’s a cute item to start the calendar off with, and as a kid excited about the Adventures of Makeup I think I’d be happy to get it. At the very least, now I know how to apply cream eyeshadow. 

Day 2 grants us some... hair chalk? Is this the secret of Marinette’s unnaturally blue hair revealed at last? @rosebomber says I have to put all these cosmetic things on at once at the end of the month and I’m already beginning to get nervous.

The presentation here is much more creative than the eyeshadow - the wrapper boasts a pattern of the “Lucky Charm” catchphrase with little doodles of Tikki and various magical items. I like this a lot - it’s something clearly tailored to Ladybug and not just a logo slapped onto a generic piece of girly makeup. I wouldn’t blink if I got that shimmery eyeshadow set in a Disney Princess calendar, but blue hair chalk is very clearly Marinette. Good going, calendar people.

I’ve already showered before opening today’s window, so I leave this wrapped up until the following morning when I can test it and then wash it out afterwards. 

This turns out to be good foresight, because the hair chalk is... well, it’s a stick of blue chalk. It’s extremely messy. The label looks like it should be able to slide up and down as a clean place to grip the chalk while you rub it over the hair, but it appears to be stuck in place so I have to choose between removing the label completely or trying to awkwardly crayon colour into my hair with the narrow end. I choose the latter, because if I take the Ladybug label off then it’s just a stick of chalk. The magic would be gone. It makes things more difficult than they need to be, but as with the eyeshadow, I am filled with determination.

Since it’s chalk (as opposed to any liquid colour) you’d think it would come up nicely on dark hair, but it doesn’t show very well. I have to rub on quite a lot just to make it visible, and the amount in my hair at this point releases little powdery showers whenever I touch it. My hands look frostbitten. I’m glad I chose to try it out immediately before washing my hair, because the amount of smeary blue has made me look like I’ve been punched in the face (or assaulted by a Smurf) and I don’t need my parents worrying. 

On the plus side, all inconvenience and messiness aside, it looks really nice in the mirror. I think I could utilise this chalk again in the future if I’m just sensible enough to put it further away from my face. I get the feeling this is intended for kids with lighter hair than mine (it would show up a lot more easily on blonde hair, I bet), but I’d be concerned about the ease of washing it out since the blue colour is so vibrant. 

At any rate, it’s a fun addition to Marinette’s makeup counter, if a very messy one. It’s imprisoned back in its calendar window for now.

Day 3 is simpler fare, and I’m glad about that since I’d just cleaned up the chalk explosion before realising I hadn’t checked if more messy cosmetics were closing in on me. It’s the infamous Ladybug ring, so I’m hoping the Chat Noir earrings are also in this calendar somewhere to give me the full set of in-show Miraculous. 

I haven’t forgotten that this is a calendar for little kids, but this ring is teeny-tiny! I can barely fit it on my smallest finger (and my hands are little). You’d think there would be a bit more adjustability to it with the growth spurts kids go through, but I don’t think I’d wear this around anyway - the gigantic copyright mark splashed across the top is a bit offputting, aesthetically speaking. The design is stamped directly onto the plastic, so it’s not a sticker; why not print the copyright around the edge or on the underside?

I can imagine this is a little accessory Marinette made, it’s pretty cute and I’d be happy to get this in a calendar (IF IT FITTED ME, I’M A GROWN ADULT BUT MILDLY SALTY ALL THE SAME). There’s not much else I can say about it, so here’s hoping more wonderfully terrible cosmetics are on the way. 

#josie talks about things #miraculous ladybug #i don't even know if i should be tagging this with anything lmao #i've just been plaguing the discord chat with this adventure for the last few days so i thought i should channel the energy here instead #i'll reblog this with future calendar windows under read-more cuts because they'll have pictures in 'em #ml calendar