Having discussed beauty advent calendars recently, we have big news on this front. I’ve just seen the advent calendar of the year – and quite possibly the century. Chanel’s first ever advent calendar is the grand finale of their year celebrating 100 years of N°5 perfume. And it is quite literally a thing of beauty. Shaped like a huge bottle of N°5, the box is filled with a collection of numbered boxes containing limited-edition beauty gifts (27 in all), from trinkets to lipsticks and scents. The exquisite treasures include the egg-shaped N°5 L’Eau hand cream, a classic red lipstick, a tiny N°5 snowglobe and the perfect winter nail colour, plus more than a few drops of the classic fragrance itself. If there was ever a museum dedicated to beauty, this would certainly be a star exhibit. It’s €700 and is exclusive to Brown Thomas Dublin (and online) from today, October 15.

There’s also a limited-edition N°5 Holiday Make-up Collection which celebrates the amber hue of the famous perfume. The eyeshadow palette is surely too beautiful to use. Being practical for a second, I’d invest in the Light-Reflecting Illuminating Fluid: Chanel are so good at these kind of skin-enhancing make-up products, and this will help you have glowing skin throughout the winter. I’d also stock up on the new shade of Baume Essentiel, the skin-glossing stick that is the epitome of low-maintenance beauty – simply swipe it on cheekbones. It’s probably my most-used make-up product of the year. The lipsticks, too, are in limited-edition packaging.

There are some enticing perfume collectables, too. We covet the bottle of Chanel N°5 eau de parfum, or N°5 L’Eau (the lighter, more citrussy version created by Olivier Polge in 2016), made from recycled glass. This bottle is a counterpoint to the exquisite black Coco Noir bottle launched back in 2012. I can’t help comparing these beautiful objects to the gaudiness of some other recent launches.

Chanel’s N°5 Factory pop-up, a display of creatively packaged N°5 beauty products, caused a furore in London this summer, with queues around the block and limits put on the amount you could purchase; in Korea, the entire collection sold out in two days. This extravagant Christmas collection could go the same way…