No 7 Exquisite Curls Mascara - The Start of a Beautiful Friendship???

It’s always the way isn’t it?  You wait ages for the bus, then two come along at once.  Earlier in the week I asked my readers to help me choose my next mascara from the rather large pile I had accumulated.  No sooner had I chosen the Eyeko mascara, then a day later, the new No 7 Exquisite Curls Mascara arrives for me to try.  Usually, I would’ve put this in my drawer to use once I’d finished up the others.  However, I really wanted to test it out as maintaining a curl is my biggest eyelash problem, and this promised to do just that.

I’ve blogged before about my lashes – although they are quite long, they have no curl to them at all – in fact they seem to grown downwards.  They are also a mousy brown colour with blond roots (although I’m not blond and never have been)!  So, for me, finding a mascara which holds a curl and is a good black colour is really important, especially at the moment when I’ve not had my lashes tinted and permed for a good 5 months.

I’ve used No 7 mascaras for years and years, and with a couple of exceptions, I’ve always been impressed.  Now over the past year, with my ventures into blogging and burgeoning love of makeup, I’ve strayed away from No 7, experimenting with different brands.  So to try out this Exquisite Curls mascara was a bit of a revelation for me.  I absolutely love it, and having used it for only three days, I can say that it’s venturing into Holy Grail territory.  It’s certainly much better than the Chanel Inimitable Intense which I’ve just finished using and is twice the price.

The mascara comes in a grey, shimmery tube which isn’t anything special packaging-wise, but isn’t particularly bad either.  The wand is curved – I was very interested to try this, as I’ve never used a curved wand before.  I was slightly apprehensive how it would work, as I do like to get right down to the roots for some detailed application to cover my blond bits.  However, I love the curved wand, it’s very easy to apply and actually makes it easier to get to those pesky blond roots.

As for the curl, I have found that this does what it says on the tin – it holds a curl and holds it well. I know that it doesn’t exactly appear very curly on the before and after pictures - I'm not very happy with how they turned out - but believe me, for my lashes, this is a curl.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

What I also liked about this was the smooth formula, which was easy to apply, a dark black colour, coated my roots and dried quickly.  I’ve found that there was no flaking, clumping or streaking and it was also easy to remove.

The mascara doesn’t appear to lengthen or volumise my lashes.  If you’re looking for this, then this probably isn’t the mascara for you.  However, for me, curls are all important, so this is a winner.

I’ve used this only three days, so I know it’s too early to label it HG.  If it starts to dry up after a couple of weeks, I’ll continue with my search.  However, I’ve got high hopes for this, and I’ll let you know if it continues to perform.

No 7 Exquisite Curl Mascara is currently available for £10, which is a bargain.  No 7 are also running a competition for the photo of video of the best wink on their Facebook page, with lots of goodie bags to win and a star prize of a pampering weekend with a make-over from Lisa Eldridge.  The competition runs until 15^th February – I will be entering mine!

Thanks for reading! xx

DISCLAIMER: This item was provided free of charge for review purposes.  This has not influenced my review in any way - I always express my honest opinion on any product I review.