Hey there pals and strangers! Continuing with my well-documented quest for the perfect mascara, today I come to you bearing my review of No. 7 Exceptional Definition. If you read my Benefit ‘They’re Real’ review then you will know that this was one very difficult mascara to follow. I loved it with the passion of a thousand amorous lovers (ooh I don’t think I’ve managed to make a post creepy this early on before, 5 points to Gryffindor), but decided to see what else the mascara market had to offer. Also I will say on a side note that They’re Real began to dry up around the 6 week mark, which is worth bearing in mind if you’re not willing to spend almost £20 that regularly.

I asked the lovely Twitter world for recommendations for a mascara to try next and had YSL’s ‘Baby Doll’ suggested to me, which sounded amazing. Unfortunately, this month I had a few horrible things I needed to pay out for, such as car tax (when I tell you that I still haven’t passed my test and so fork out for a car I can’t even legally drive, you’ll be able to imagine how much this pained me), and so I decided to be sensible and seek out a more purse-friendly high street option. One that stuck out to me in a review was No. 7’s Exceptional Definition mascara, so I hot-footed it to Boots to pick this little baby up. You know how every time you go to Boots you get a No. 7 voucher? Yeah, well I think some random goat must be going in my purse and munching mine because I couldn’t find one anywhere, so had to pay the full amount of £11. Luckily the nice shiny packaging stopped me from being too angry and I went on my merry way.

The main thing that drew me to this mascara is the brush; I much prefer plastic brushes to synthetic as I find they’re better at separating my lashes. The brush is also a ‘triple effect’ one with three different types of bristles which serve different lengthening, volumising and separating purposes. So, onto the results:

I’m really impressed with this mascara. As you can hopefully see from the photos, it added some good length, colour and definition to my mousey little excuse for eyelashes. The application is a little messy due to the rather wet formula, though I also found that to happen with They’re Real and don’t mind it too much. Depending on your method of application, it can clump a little – for example, that little habit of turning the brush vertical to wiggle on your bottom lashes is an absolute no-no with this. Overall though, I would say the effect isn’t much different to They’re Real and so I’m very happy indeed. I’ve been using it for about two weeks now and so can safely say that its staying power is quite good – maybe not quite as long-lasting as Benefit, but on the plus side it is much, much easier to remove at the end of the day than that stubborn little thing.

Have any of you tried No. 7’s Exceptional Definition mascara? What did you think?

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