I was really excited to se sent a couple of items from the No.7 Christmas Collection which isn't out until November in stores. I don't own any No.7 makeup but I remember using it when I was younger. I have to be honest that it was never a favourite but I was willing to give the brand another go since the packaging looked interested (so shallow, I know!).
I was sent two compacts, one was a highlighter powder and the other was an eyeshadow palette containing 5 different shades.
I really liked the graphic designs on the packaging and I was really looking forward to using them when I opened them and saw the cool designs inside (how beautiful does the highlighter look!!!)
I think they were aiming for a more bold look for Christmas with strong colours and futuristic designs to compete with higher end brands.
Unfortunately, the packaging and look of the products was where my excitement ended...as soon as I swatched the highlighter I could see that it was far too sparkly and had chunks of glitter in it, which is a pet hate of mine. 
The lovely design on the surface of the powder would disappear within a couple of uses but this is the part of the powder that has the most glitter in it anyway so I would thankfully wave goodbye to that. Even though I look amazing designs like this on products, I don't think it's worth sacrificing the quality of the product to achieve it in the first place! Even after the glittery motifs were worn away, I could still see that the powder was nowhere near finely milled enough for my liking. A swatch of the powder can be seen below (all colours swirled together).
The lovely design on the surface of the powder would disappear within a couple of uses but this is the part of the powder that has the most glitter in it anyway so I would thankfully wave goodbye to that. Even though I look amazing designs like this on products, I don't think it's worth sacrificing the quality of the product to achieve it in the first place! Even after the glittery motifs were worn away, I could still see that the powder was nowhere near finely milled enough for my liking. A swatch of the powder can be seen below (all colours swirled together). It's hard to explain but the consistency is kind of gritty, if that makes sense. I like my highlighter powders to be super smooth, blendable and extremely finely milled to ensure a nice even sheen. This product just fails to deliver that and I was really disappointed as it looks so pretty in the compact. It's a perfect example of style over substance in my opinion.
On opening the eyeshadow I had a similar excitement as I loved the random design of the eyeshadow pans and I especially liked the look of the shimmery brown in the middle. However, on swatching the eyeshadows I was again disappointed as they were so poorly pigmented, it took 4 applications to even get them to show up for the pic I took! I think that is just ridiculous and I don't ever remember their eyeshadows being that bad so maybe it's just confined to this range. The shimmery eyeshadows in the palette have the dreaded chunky glitter in them, whilst the matte ones are just so dull when applied to the skin.
I really wanted these palettes to be amazing but they really let me down. I liked the design idea for them but the product inside just doesn't cut it for me.
Let me know if you have had a chance to try this yet and if you got it to work for you?
