Boots

At MSE, we’ve challenged you to ‘downshift’ your grocery shop for years (check our Downshifting Guide), but you can also save on make-up and beauty products by downshifting from brands to much cheaper ‘dupes’ – lookalike products, where often even the packaging is similar to the expensive brand.

Beauty Advent calendars are significantly pricier than chocolate ones, but they've become increasingly popular in the last few years as a way of bagging beauty products at a fraction of the normal cost. They often sell out early, but can also be heavily discounted later if they don't, so here's a round-up of some of the best I’ve seen.

It's that time of year again, and one of the big beauty Advent calendars MoneySavers wait for has been released. Once again, Boots is offering two No7 Advent calendars at different price points. I've got the info on what's inside them and I've done the maths so you can decide if they're worth buying.

Boots is a high street stalwart and always popular with MoneySavers. Whether you're a fan of big brands, No7, or even just a sandwich, we've been busy filling our boots with deals to bring you eight ways to save right now so you can bag some Boots bargains.

MSE Update, Wed 17 Feb at 11.22am: This trick has been very popular and a key element of it – the 'Shimmer All Night' set – has now sold out, which sadly means it's no longer possible to get £116 of No7 for £30. You can now get £40 of No7 beauty for £12 online, plus delivery – it's not as strong a deal, but still decent, and is significantly cheaper.

We've left the original trick below for reference as you may still want to use some of the other offers...

Here's a trick to bag a huge £116 of No7 beauty products for just £30 by stacking deals and a 'free gift' offer – you'll only be able to do this full trick online but it is possible to still get £28 of No7 for £12 in-store. Boots says it has decent stock, but these deals are incredibly popular with MoneySavers and usually go quickly, so don't hang about if you want to do this.

Here's a trick to pay just £10 for £56-worth of Boots No7 beauty, by cleverly stacking a '£10 off' in-store coupon with a 'free gift' you receive for buying two or more No7 products.

Beauty advent calendars, though significantly pricier than their chocolate alternative, have in recent years proven increasingly popular. They often sell out early, so here's a round-up of some of the best I’ve seen, with the best discounts. 

Until Wed 11 Sep, Boots* has a deal where if you buy £20 of selected beauty products in store or online, you get a free 'Beauty Edit' box with contents worth £37 individually.

It was popular last year, and this week it's back - with an even greater amount of No7 beauty products inside, and you can get your hands on it from Wednesday 17th July online and in Boots stores...