Beauty YouTuber slammed after being accused of re-selling used freebies to fans

The festive season is almost upon us, and like all greedy capitalists, we're scrounging the internet to find the best deals to buy presents for our loved ones... and for ourselves, of course.

And for beauty fanatics, Christmas is a very special time indeed. There are all sorts of promotions on, and few things are more exciting than purchasing a beauty advent calendar. Instead of chocolate, the calendars give you a surprise product each day, as we start the countdown to December 25th.

That is, unless you've purchased one from Eltoria, a YouTuber who has incited furore on social media for allegedly selling used or second-hand products in her £49 hand-made advent calendar.

Eltoria, whose YouTube channel boasts over 150,000 subscribers, became known for reviewing beauty advert calendars from a range of brands, including Estèe Lauder, MakeUp Revolution and John Lewis.

When she announced that she'd be designing her own this year, fans were excited to purchase the calendar which promised 12 items worth over £90 altogether. However, after it went on sale, rumours quickly began circulating that the influencer had been selling old, unwanted PR products from other advent calendars that she had previously reviewed.

In the past, she had reviewed a calendar by The Body Shop, and when she unboxed the "White Must Body Lotion", she proceeded to tell viewers: "Personally, I don’t like this scent. I’ve never liked the White Musk scent."

This incident was brought up when fellow YouTuber, Willow Biggs, posted a review of Eltoria's advent calendar, and revealed that she had, in fact, received a White Must Body Lotion.

Other customers raised similar grievances.

A YouTuber who goes by the moniker, "Soon-To-Be-Wilson", said "I’ve literally just opened this package on camera for you and this brush is opened. And it’s got dirt on the packaging.”

She also noted that two other products came without a hygiene seal, and appeared to have been opened.

People then took to Twitter to call out the social media star for reportedly "breaking trading laws" by re-selling PR items that she had received as gifts.

"Can we just acknowledge #eltoria illegally resold items she didn't want to fans in a £50 advent calendar, broke trading laws, didn't apologise, won't refund, disabled all of her comments and is now striking people who make videos about it? Incl the poor buggers who bought them?" one Twitter user wrote, while another added "Catching up on this drama with someone called Eltoria. She's wrapped up PR and sold it for £50 in advent calendars and now everyone is going mental [...]  Surely she should've just done a few giveaways instead. £50 for repackaged PR my god."

In a statement to The Metro, Eltoria responded to the allegations, and announced that had since issued refunds.

"I would like to thank the customers for purchasing this handmade, very limited edition product. I would also like to thank my fans for the support. It is unfortunate that people have made guesses and assumptions for it then to be treated as fact. Perhaps this is an issue that platforms need to figure out how to regulate," she wrote.