No.7 Exquisite Curl Mascara

Any Beauty Blogger will know exactly what I'm talking about. Every-so-often, I'll receive an email from a Beauty Company or their PR Agents, asking me to try and test their product in order to review it. These emails come in all different shapes and sizes, and varying levels of politeness. I even once received a request written in txt tlk! As a writer, this almost, no completely, guarantees a quick and easy click of the delete button! And normally, the products that they are trying to sell has no interest to me whatsoever, because I'm just not into that kind of thing, for whatever personal reason.

I'm not one of those bloggers who is just in it for the free stuff. Of course I'd be lying (to you guys, as well as myself), if I told you that it wasn't nice, because of course it is, but I never want to be testing products that I don't believe in, or have an interest in. Perhaps I'm a bit of a cosmetic snob, but I think that's good. It's important to know what you like.

Nevertheless, last week, I received an email asking me to review the new No.7 Mascara, and it made me realise, that I have never actually tried a mascara by No.7. I own a couple of their eye shadows, by that's around about where my usage ends. So, I thought to myself:why not?!

So, on Saturday morning, the nice little Post Man brought me this nicely wrapped bundle, which I just had to show you guys. If only Boots sold their No.7 Mascara like this all the time! I wonder if they'd sell more? Or, maybe it's just me that is a sucker for nice wrapping!!

Packaging: There isn't really anything particularly special about the packaging for this Mascara, although I do quite like the colour. It's kind of subtle, and quite a pretty colour (to me anyway!) In the midsts of all the other No.7 Mascaras in my local Boots Store, it doesn't particularly stand out, or even scream look at me. Well, it kind of does, but only because it has a little NEW sticker attached to the lid. But, other than that, it's just a pretty standard, nothing really amazing Mascara bottle.

First Impressions: The first thing that I noticed about this Mascara, when I opened it up to take some photos, was of course the shape of the wand, which is curved. This isn't a very innovative method for adding "curl", because I've been Mascara's with this shape of wand before (in fact, I once made a Mascara wand this shape, when I accidentally broke it, but that's not entirely relevant!). Other than the shape, the brush is pretty much like a normal Mascara.

Does it do what it says on the Tin? The tin (or packaging) claims that the Exquisite Curl is "for beautiful curl and volume". Did it work? Well, here are a couple of pictures to give you an idea of how the Mascara looked, after just one coat of the Mascara:

 Eyes Closed: 

I can't even, honestly, 

tell that I have any Mascara on.

 Eyes Open: 

I wouldn't say that it has added volume, 

but there is definitely a bit of shape to the lashes.

Personally, I like the fact that there is a little shape, but that it doesn't look volumised, but only because I tend to find that Mascara's that move more towards volume, rather than shape, tend to be thicky and heavy, which a. weighs down my poor eye lashes, and b. looks clumpy, and like spiders legs, which some girls might like (and plenty of them go around with eye lashes like that), but it's not for me.

So, who is this Mascara Suitable for? Ultimately, if you are looking for a really va-va-voom look, with huge volumised eye lashes, then this is probably not going to be the Mascara for you. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a more subtle Mascara that adds a little lift, but isn't too "in-your-face", then I personally think this is perfect.So, I guess what I'm saying is that this is an ideal daytime Mascara, but you should try something else for night time. It's a much more "classy" look.


Note: Apologies for the poor quality of some product pictures. I was having some issues with lighting when taking them, mainly because the shiny-ness of the packaging led to a "mirror-effect"!