No7: Amazing Eyes Pencil Review

I had a look at the customer reviews of these No7 Amazing Eyes Pencils on the Boots website and it appears that these pencils enjoy pretty good ratings. There were some negative reviews but there were many positive ones: 'favourite eye liner', 'stays on for hours', 'so long wearing', 'doesn't smudge'.

Well, I won't spout forth such words, I'm afraid.

These eyeliner pencils came in a holiday boxset that was issued by No7 in the run-up to Christmas. You've seen those three very pretty but disappointing eyeshadow palettes, Stay Perfect (Mini) Trio Eye Shadow Palettes - Cappuccino, Twilight and Beside The Sea.

The pencils that came in this boxset are smaller versions of those in the normal range. The regular ones retail for £7.75 / € 7.95 per piece and come complete with a smudger at the other end. I have here 05 Black and 10 Brown. One's a matt black and the other, a lovely taupey brown with very subtle shimmer.

Ingredients

So, here's what I think:

Once properly warmed up, they go on fairly creamy and the pigmentation is all right. They are quite easy to smudge out for a smokey look.

While they aren't faded by the end of the day, I can't say they are terribly durable. On my lids, they show early signs of creasing within two hours. When used to tightline, most of it is gone by midday. They aren't waterproof, so they do smudge if you have watery eyes or say, after a short walk in the rain.

The good thing about these pencils is that they are hypoallergenic, so ladies with sensitive eyes would probably find these agreeable.

Personally, I can't give the Amazing Eyes Pencils the thumbs up. To those ladies who love them, good for you! I don't think these pencils were made for my kind of eyelids. On a couple of occasions, I actually ended up with mildly racoon eyes by evening. Not a pretty sight.


More information:
My review of the No7 Stay Perfect Mini Trio Eye Shadow Palettes
Eye looks with the abovementioned No7 eye products
Boots Nederland website
Boots UK website

No7: Eye Looks With Stay Perfect Eye Shadow Trio Palettes

Perhaps you still remember these pretty mini eyeshadow trio palettes by No7 that I bought last month. The palettes are called (L-R) Cappuccino, Twilight and Beside The Sea.

Following my review, I now have here one eye look using each of these palettes. As mentioned earlier, the general quality of these palettes isn't that great - the pigmentation could be better. The state of the eyeshadows in my palettes now isn't as pristine as in these photos here. I've been almost scraping at the eyeshadows (especially with Twilight and Beside The Sea) to get as much colour out of them as possible, and I know I've gotten waaaay past the imprint.


No7 Stay Perfect Eye Shadow Trio Palette - Cappuccino

Products used:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
No7 Stay Perfect Eye Shadow Trio Palette - Cappuccino
No7 Amazing Eye Pencil - Brown
No7 Amazing Eye Pencil - Black
Make Up For Ever Aqua Smoky Lash Mascara - Waterproof Extra Black

No7 Stay Perfect Eye Shadow Trio Palette - Twilight

Products used:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
No7 Stay Perfect Eye Shadow Trio Palette - Twilight
No7 Amazing Eye Pencil - Black
Etos Max Volume Mascara - Black

No7 Stay Perfect Eye Shadow Trio Palette - Beside The Sea

Products used:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
No7 Stay Perfect Eye Shadow Trio Palette - Beside The Sea
No7 Amazing Eye Pencil - Black
Essence Holographics.com Liquid Eyeliner - Blue Ray
Make Up For Ever Aqua Smoky Lash Mascara - Waterproof Extra Black

More information:
My detailed review and swatches of these No7 Stay Perfect Mini Eye Shadow Trio Palettes
Boots Nederland website
Boots UK website

No7: Stay Perfect Mini Trio Eye Shadow Palettes Review

Here in the Netherlands, the drugstores that we frequently visit are Kruidvat and Etos (the former, especially, is ubiquitous!). For those in the UK, that's quite like your Boots and Superdrug stores.

Over here, Boots stores are quite a novelty. I mentioned Boots early last year in my Beauty Shopping In The Netherlands: Drugstores post. To cut a long story short, Boots had been in the Netherlands before in the 1990s, then left us and returned in early 2009. When I wrote that abovementioned post, there were only five Boots stores here. Almost two years later, they've grown to about 20 stores throughout the country.

The Boots store that I've been to is a fairly small one, a cosy neighbourhood pharmacy/drugstore. The range isn't huge but it has got No7 and Botanics products. I walked into the store a few weeks back and I saw some really pretty makeup palettes from No7. They are from the Christmas collection and ladies in the UK would surely have seen these in the local Boots stores.

I bought this set: No7 Mini Eye Palettes.

Aren't the eyeshadow palettes pretty? They are laminated cardboard palettes with covers that swivel open. They are small, measuring only 4.5cm x 8.5cm.

This giftset is made up of smaller versions of products that are in No7's existing range. It consists of:

• No7 Stay Perfect™ Eye Shadow Trio Palettes (Cappuccino, Twilight, Beside the Sea)
• No7 Intense Volume Mascara Black
• No7 Amazing Eye Pencil Black
• No7 Amazing Eye Pencil Brown

I had never tried No7 products before, even back in the old days when I had easy access to Boots. I'm shamelessly saying that, this time around, I was plainly sold on the cute packaging.

I've decided to split this feature into several posts. I will also write about the eye pencils but I doubt I will do a post on the mascara anytime soon. I won't start using this new mascara until I've finished my existing ones (must be disciplined!).

Mini Trio Eye Shadow Palettes
Here, we'll take a look at the three cute trio eyeshadow palettes. These three colour combinations - Cappuccino, Twilight and Beside The Sea - are mini versions of the No7 Stay Perfect Trio Eye Shadow Palettes that are in the main collection (housed in round/oblong black palettes). The applicators that come in these mini palettes are tiny. The sponge isn't too bad but the handle is ridiculously short, 2cm (in order to fit inside the palette).

Swatches with eyeshadow primer

Columns, L-R:
Cappuccino
The browns: skintone beige (mine), taupey brown, golden brown (all with fine shimmers)

Twilight
The black&whites: white, silvery grey, matte black

Beside The Sea
The blues: grey-ish white, light aqua, medium blue (all with fine shimmers)

These eyeshadows are hypoallergenic.

Ingredients

Quality
In general, the eyeshadows do crumble a bit and their pigmentation is so-so (it's nowhere near excellent). You definitely need a good eyeshadow base for them. It took a while to get past the imprint (for a while, all I was getting were disappointing ashy, chalky shades). Of these three palettes, I think Cappuccino performed the best. The darkest shade, golden brown is gorgeous and the most pigmented. In the blue set, Beside The Sea, the pigmentation of the middle shade could be improved on.

The black&white palette, Twilight, was the worst performer. The white is fine but the silvery grey is half-dead and the black is weak. When I see black, I'd like a black black, please.

So, bottomline, I find the quality of these eyeshadows just average (to below average for Twilight). Cappuccino, though, is a good one.

Price
This giftset is priced at €17.95. Just like in Boots in the UK, Boots Netherlands is now also holding a 3 for 2 Christmas offer on giftsets. I got two other products from Botanics to take advantage of this offer.


I don't know if this specific set is available in the Boots physical stores in the UK. I see a similar set on its website. It has the Classic Matte, Good Earth, Beside The Sea mini trio eyeshadow palettes, the same two eye pencils and the No7 Extreme Length Mascara. It's called the No7 Smoky Eye Trio. Price: £16.00.

For Dutch ladies, there is now a Boots online shop. There are a few other palettes available - with different combinations of products including lipglosses and nail polishes.

More information:
Boots Nederland website
Boots UK website