Many people are enjoying the surprise and enchantment of advent calendars as the holidays approach. However, not everyone is pleased with Chanel’s limited-edition £610 N°5 advent calendar. Unsurprisingly, we did not include it in our round-up of luxury advent calendars and that’s because it’s hardly luxury.
The calendar, which was created to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Chanel N°5, has 27 numbered boxes containing products such as lipstick, nail polish, hand cream, and, of course, perfume.
However, TikTok user Elise Harmon posted multiple videos this weekend, which have since gone viral, revealing the rest of the disappointing contents of the calendar and they’re certainly not worth the price tag.
Not only were many of the products sample size (read: tiny), the calendar also included key chains, a mirror, a magnet, stickers, temporary tattoos (what?!), a mini plastic snow globe and … a Chanel dust bag. Naturally, upon opening one of the boxes to find the stickers, Harmon exclaims “this is a joke,” but it is the dust bag people were particularly offended by.
The TikTok videos have been seen over 50 million times, and each post includes thousands of comments also expressing their dissatisfaction with the calendar. One person commented: “They straight up mixed samples with office supplies huh?”
Another added that the items in the calendar are the same as the complimentary samples customers receive when they place an order with Chanel.
Following that, TikTok fans claimed Chanel’s official account had been removed in response to Harmon’s video. They thought that Chanel’s TikTok page had been wiped and set to private, but this has been disputed by the brand, who deny deleting TikTok.
Although they detail the complete contents of the calendar on their website, so no one is left in the dark about what they’re purchasing, but this still doesn’t explain their exorbitant price tag. On Chanel’s website, the product is described as a “calendar unlike any other” and a “piece to treasure for years to come.” Unfortunately for Chanel, just because a dust bag has “Chanel” written on it, it doesn’t make it a desirable dust bag – no one wants a dust bag.
Perhaps the fact that it’s Christmas makes this even more of a scandal — Chanel isn’t exactly showing its customers the goodwill we’d expect in the festive period. Let’s just hope for all of our sakes that if they release an advent calendar next year, it lives up to its price tag. And that they remove the office supplies.