The No7 Trial.

Alongside planning and blogging about my ideas for my final photoshoot, I have decided to complete a short trial where I will trial and test out different No7 products for a week. I am doing this so that I have a better understanding of the products that my brand 'No7' promotes and sells as part of their campaign and individually, this trial will allow me to see if I have my own 'Tah Dah' moment myself due to No7 and also give myself a better idea of the colour pay off, consistency and performance of these products and how I can adapt this to my final make-up design. 

I have decided to test skincare and cosmetic products as they are both equally as important when maintaining and enhancing your beauty, plus No7 promotes both categories of products in their campaigns and also in stores. Luckily, due to my mother working at Boots as a manager, I worked my charm and persuaded her to purchase me a few products that the No7 team at her Boots store recommend and enjoy the most. These are the products I will trial as they are the products I would use due to what No7 thinks will be most beneficial for me as a customer, this is an important factor to consider as we are using the same marketing technique as our brand by promoting 'their' products on our model so that customers aspire to try and buy these products so that they can achieve the same beauty advertised in our final images. Also some No7 advertisements have been banned in the past due to false advertisement in regards of their beauty ads and the products used, this is also something I wanted to explore further as honest colour pay off and performance of these products will not only tell me if my final look would actually be possible to achieve through the use of No7 products and also If No7 cosmetics deliberately have a certain colour pay off and finish due to their customer audience and age as not everyone wants to experiment and wear pigmented, bold colour. 

When beginning this trial, I visited my Local Boots store and purchased some products as well as receiving skincare and cosmetic products and mini samples from my mum. In regards of the prices of the skincare and cosmetic range No7 sell,I don't feel the prices are too bad and are quite affordable, there were only a few products I was hesitant to purchase from the skincare range as I wasn't too sure if the product was worth the asking price. For example on the official Boots website the skincare category is captioned with the title 'Perfect Skincare for every age', and then there are numerous links on the side separating skincare products for different age ranges. Some of their face creams for my age group '20-35 year olds' have starting prices of £19.00, I was very surprised at this as I would consider skincare brands which having beginning asking prices of that much to be a luxury skincare brand such as 'Clinique'. 

Annoyingly, I did not trial any skincare products from this range which would have been ideal as it caters for my skin type and age group, but I still tested their other skincare products from the 'Protect and Perfect Intense' range.

Protect and Perfect Intense Advanced Skincare Range
Instant Illusions Airbrush Away Primer
Youthful Eye Serum.

I tested the Protect and Intense Day cream and hand cream daily for one week, and then the other two products every other day. My first impressions of the day cream was that I liked the simplistic packaging, similar to simple, clean fresh colour palette Clinique uses in their skincare packaging. I chose to try the day cream from this range also because of the use of spf in their products which is something I look for in skincare products as a customer, its a deal breaker for me as I have irregular pigmentation and melanin in my skin due to being black.

I really enjoy the scent, packaging, finish and feeling of the day cream, it leaves a dewy/ glow finish to the skin and doesn't take long to dry and absorb into the skin. I wasn't impressed with the products performance as once it had absorbed into the skin I didn't feel as If I had any face cream on anymore and my skin began to feel dry and a little de hydrated. Because of this, I began to apply more on a daily basis and sometimes even add the 'instant Illusions' primer with the day cream so that I could apply both products at once testing if it made any difference to how my skin felt, which it didn't. I felt disappointed by the day cream and primer as I felt both products did not have an amazing performance or difference compared to the skincare products I normally use.  I began to try the eye serum in the evenings, when I would normally remove my makeup and cleanse my skin. I was most excited to try this eye serum as eye products are a favourite of mine and they make a real difference in the morning, especially when I have a 9am lecture.

The eye serum has a very light/ fresh scent similar to the day creams fragrance, again it has very simple professional packaging which is nice and it dries and absorbs into the skin quickly. Compared to the day cream,it has a matte finish on the skin and has a much more dry texture finish where as the day cream was slightly tacky on the skin once dry. I liked the eye serum, and feel that It made a difference to my under eyes and also made my under eye area feel fresh and plump in the mornings.

The 'Instant Illusions' airbrush primer was most disappointing, I consider myself to be a primer hoarder and I am always searching for the next best primer, but this primer did nothing for my skin. Initially I loved the feeling of the primer, compared to silicone based primers I have used such as the 'Smash box photo finish primer' this No7 primer felt almost like moisturiser, which was refreshing and hydrating on the skin and felt lovely. Although, the matte finish it first creates when applied to the skin, disappear quickly and begins to merge into the day cream you are wearing. I didn't enjoy this product at all and found its performance terrible, especially when I wore it under my foundation and concealer also, although I have oily to combination skin so this may effect the performance of the primer, as I may be better suited for a extreme matte finish although I love a dewy finish.

The last product I used was the 'Protect and Perfect Intense Day hand cream', like the other products it has nice, simplistic, professional packaging, a fresh, subtle fragrance and a moisturising finish when absorbed into the skin. Although, I felt that this hand cream didn't moisturise or protect my skin at all, apart from the SPF in the hand cream, my hands felt normal/dry within 10 mins after applying the product as if I hadn't applied the product, and my hands aren't normally dry at all. I don't think this product did anything beneficial for my skin and I ended up hardly using it, it felt too similar to a cheap body lotion that disappeared and just dyed the skin.

'Stay perfect - Eye Pencil, Smoothing eye shadow, pressed eye shadows'
Amazing eye Pencil- brown'


I was very impressed by No7's eye pencils and shadows and will carry on using and purchasing these products. The Eye pencils and cream shadow (nude tube), had amazing colour pay off and pigment and lasted all day which I found surprising. The pencils are creamy in application and have a long lasting performance, I think I only had to reapply liner throughout the day once during the week and I wore the liner from 9 till 1 in the morning. The liners are great and compared to other brands I have tried such as Maybelline which also sell amazing kohl pencils, No7 lasted much longer and maintained colour and finish all day long. The pressed shadows weren't too bad, No7 have a beautiful range of different available colours, but I decided to try and shimmery purple shade and also a nude neutral shade as I could then experiment with the colours for my Macabre make-up. The shadows aren't very pigmented and I had to apply the show at least three times so that It was opaque enough on the lid. The neutral shade was also okay but I had to apply the same amount to the lid which was annoying, the textures of the shadows are very powdery which I didn't like as my more expensive shadows from palettes such as 'Naked 2 by Urban decay' has very buttery, pigmented, soft and easy to bend shadows. The No7 shadows lasted all day without creasing which also surprised and impressed me, I just wish they would improve the texture and formula so that the pigment was a lot stronger. Although, I wonder if they have deliberately created the shadows with this formula so that women can apply as much as they want when experimenting with colours. On the official Boots website, their is a campaign for No7 entitled 'Colour your way', where No7 encourage all women of all ages to experiment and play with colour 'your way' so maybe the muted finish of some of their products is deliberate so that women can intensify a look by adding more or less of a product. This way No7 can cater to all of their audience instead, making their cosmetics almost multi purpose in order to suit all their customers needs.

 4 applications of
No7 Purple eyeshadow
compared to 2 shades of YDK from
Urban Decay Naked 2 palette.

4 applications of
No7 Purple eyeshadow
compared to 2 shades of YDK from
Urban Decay Naked 2 palette.

Moving on to the lip products from the No7 range, these cosmetics didn't impress me much at all, all the colours did not have a fully opaque finish or application which I didn't like as I prefer very pigmented coloured lip products even if they are nude shades. Although, as i reflected on this I began to wonder again if this formula used in the lip products is deliberate so women can have more control over the amount of colour application. I tried out the 3 different lip products within three days of the week trial and didn't want to retry any of the products. I didn't like the finish or texture of the lip products or the colour pay off in the lip shades either. I like the different packaging and also the different range of sizing and product amounts as they have perfect travel sized products as well as long lasting cosmetic sizes. The 'BB Lips' product, did not suit my skin tone at all, it was very sticky/tacky in texture and finish, it had a tacky, gloopy glossy finish which I would end up accidentally smudging or eating throughout the day. The 'High shine lip crayon' is a very pretty shade, but again did not suit me, the crayon texture was soft and balmy which is great if your looking for a lot of moisture in a lip product although I think I would consider it more of a lip tint as the finish of the colour was opaque at all, the product lasted all day but I had to re apply a lot as the colour kept disappearing. Finally the 'Shine and tint' in the shade red, was the best product out of the three, I don't think the shade of red suited my skin tone but it was still a pretty vibrant red, it has a very cosmetic/chemical scent to the product which i did not enjoy and it felt very wet on the lips and took a while to set/finish on the lips. The colour pay off was okay, and definitely tinted all day although  you had to apply at  least two coats of the colour so that It did not look watery. 

Three No7 Lip products above
'BB lips'
'High Shine Lip Crayon'
'Shine and Tint'

The above image are swatches of the lip and eye products are tried.

Since trialling the No7 eye products I am now obsessed with their 'Stay perfect Smoothing eye shadow' in the shade bronze and also their 'Lash Impact' mascara in black. Both products have lovely packaging and I have found myself using them daily and always loving the finishes of both products.

My two Favourite No7 products which I am now obsessed with.



Finally, I am going to review the 'Beautiful skin Hot Cloth Cleanser' and also the 'Beautiful Skin Eye- Makeup Remover'. I found both of these products had a outstanding performance and effect to my skin, I have used both skincare products daily and still do ever since testing them out. The hot cloth cleanser is something I have begun to use every evening after cleansing, exfoliating my skin, I will usually cleanse my skin first then apply the hot cloth cleanser to my dry skin, massaging it in which is lovely as it acts as a mini facial and then I gently remove the cleanser with the muslin cloth and tone my skin afterwards. Using this cleanser has made my skin a lot softer and even and helps calm m skin down especially If I have extracted blackheads from my skin before hand. The Beautiful skin eye make-up remover, is also something I have really enjoyed using, my favourite make-up remover is by Lancome, so I was a little skeptical to try this remover and try it on really heavy eye makeup, but I was very very wrong. The No7 remover, can easily remove anything and only struggles to remove excessive amounts of mascara, other than that It works quite well and has an oily consistency to the product which helps keep your skin feel moisturised instead of dry. As other removers such as the 'Garnier Micellar water' has stripped my skins natural oils away in the past, making my skin feel dry and tight.

Overall, I was really impressed with the trial of testing No7 products, and I feel it really helped me understand my brand and advertisement aims better. No7 have some really amazing products and some really bad ones, which is a lot like every brand honestly. I feel that they attempt to make their brand seem more luxury and on the same level of other lifestyle cosmetic and skincare brands such as Chanel, but of course don't compare. I like the diversity and multipurpose benefits No7 cosmetics have and the control you have as a customer as their products cater for all women, they just need to improve their formula in some areas. One of their campaign titles are 'Colour your way', and as a tester of their products I couldn't agree more, their skincare and cosmetics do cater for all ranges but the formula and advertising to different ages could be improved.

As much as they claim to target all ages and all women, I couldn't help but subconsciously feel as If I shouldn't have been using or wearing certain cosmetics during my trial as I had this constant thought of 'older/mature' women in their adverts trying to experiment, and then I began to feel older and slightly put off the products which of course sounds ridiculous, but its due to the use of older women, mums, grandmas, business women etc in their advertisements. I initially felt quite negative when I was assigned No7 as my brand , but since testing and researching the brand more I don't mind it and feel that I will be consumer of a few of their products in the future.

No7 Colour your way campaign.
http://images.reallyree.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/no7-colour-your-way-campaign-2.jpg