Product Review: No7 Restore and Renew Sheet Mask

So I bought these on a whim right when they came out and decided to give it a try, did NOT like the results and decided to try it a couple more times with different lot numbers before I decided to make a final decision. Good news, this is a consistent product.

No7 is a British beauty company that began as an apothecary style skincare company in 1935 and is owned by Boots Alliance which became Walgreens Boots Alliance in 2014. Sold as a higher end drugstore skincare line similar to Pond’s, Olay, and L’Oréal in price point. No7 has been a highly reviewed and clinically tested skincare line since its foundation and has been awarded many awards over the decades.

No7 recently launched a new line of sheet masks in order to compete with the numerous sheet masks coming out of Asian based companies. I love sheet masks so of course it said ‘New’ and I bought some.

I was not that impressed.

I’m going to start with the pro and then going to go into the list of what I didn’t like:

The pro:

The cut of this sheet mask and overall quality of the cloth is phenomenal. It’s extra wide with cut outs to wrap around you ears of not just the facial mask section, but also the neck mask so it’s able to hug the curve of your chin and neck. And I’m a HUGE proponent of ‘your skin care should never stop at your chin line’. The cloth is really thick and finely knitted together meaning it doesn’t dry out fast which is a huge plus because …..

The cons:

1: The amount of serum is scant. Like really scant. There wasn’t a single drop left in the pouch to spread across my décolleté. And I really don’t want my chest to look like a leather hand bag later in life. So the fix for that was to put the ample amount of sheet mask which was still moist onto my chest and let that sit.

2: The solution it’s been soaked in is THICK and HEAVY. The first two times I tried this out it left my skin with a few extra friends the next morning.

3. It’s so thick the rest of my skincare didn’t soak well into my skin and rolled off after I used it. That’s due the ingredients list which you’ll find at the end under the extra credit heading. I’m pretty sure my face oil just sat there all night and didn’t move into my skin layers at all.

At $5.99 per mask, the price is double what most sheet masks are on the market. Many of the most popular sheet masks are around $3 per mask. For a couple dollars more you can get something from Karuna and Scinic. I like Scinic, they have the rubber masks. I’m wearing one without the ampule for Halloween this year and going as a house wife. It’s going to be cold for Halloween and I can totally wear my hair wrapped in a towel and with my biggest, fluffiest bathrobe on. But I digress.

Final Thought: for the market this isn’t really a competitive product. I do LOVE the cut and overall feel of the mask. It does feel luxurious. But they need more product in the pouch. It just feels like I getting the short end of the stick as nice as the mask itself is. OR they need to add something to thin the mask out a little bit making it more hydrating overall. 2/5.

Live, love, stay beautiful,

Andrea

Extra credit:

Ingredients list:

Aqua (Water), Dipropylene glycol, Glycerin, Betaine, Butylene glycol, 1,2-Hexanediol, Polyglyceryl-10 laurate, Hydroxyacetophenone, Panthenol, Ammonium acryloyldimethyltaurate/beheneth-25 methacrylate crosspolymer, Pentylene glycol, Sophora angustifolia root extract, Hydroxypropyl cyclodextrin, 3-O-ethyl ascorbic acid, Sodium hyaluronate, Parfum (Fragrance), Carbomer, Retinyl palmitate, Sorbitan laurate, Polysorbate 20, Sodium lactate, 3-Aminopropane sulfonic acid, Calcium hydroxymethionine, Disodium EDTA, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Tromethamine, Acetyl dipeptide-1 cetyl ester, Palmitoyl tripeptide-1, Palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7.

Above is the ingredients list. This is literally the epitome of you need a PhD to digest this information. If you haven’t discovered Beautypedia I highly suggest it. This mask gets 2 out of 5 stars. I’d have to agree with that rating, obviously. My rating is based entirely on the quality and feel of the products, especially after I went through the ingredients list. I’m going to let Paula Begoun rate it on the ingredients standpoint.

Although it would appear that all the ingredients are commonly used in the skincare industry my problem is the number of thickeners and emulsifiers in the ingredients list. I’m not a chemical engineer but I’d be willing to bet you could drop 2 or 3 of them and end up with a high quality product that’s thinner and just as skin conditioning.