Emjoi AP-10R Soft Caress Epilator Review

MSRP
$69.95

CHECK PRICE

We were anxious to review the Emjoi AP-10R Soft Caress cordless epilator as it’s one of the popular epilators recommended by beauty bloggers on Youtube. The Emjoi Soft Caress has 36 gold plated tweezers, featuring two speeds. According to Emjoi, the Emjoi Soft Caress allows you to remove hair as short as 0.5 mm from the legs, arms, underarms, and bikini line.

Emjoi has earned its reputation as being a brand with some of the least painful epilators on the market. Emjoi named this epilator “Soft Caress” because this epilator features Emjoi’s “pain reduction” technology which is designed to be as gentle as possible when removing hair. It’s supposed to be perfect for those just starting to epilate. The manufacturer claims that its pain reduction technology reduces the discomfort normally felt while epilating. Does it live up to this claim and how does it perform? Read our hands on review to find out.

What’s In The Box

It’s pretty difficult to pry open the box even with a pair of scissors. Inside the box there is a power cord, exfoliating loofa scrub, a cleaning brush, an additional massaging cap, and a cover for the epilator head. It comes with a convenient drawstring travel pouch to keep everything in. The instructions are clear and concise.

Here is what is inside:

• Emjoi Ap-10R Soft Caress
• Massage finger attachment
• Protective cap
• Cleaning brush
• Charging adapter
• Exfoliating loofa
• Travel pouch
• Instructions
• 1 Year warranty

Design

The Emjoi Soft Caress looks and sounds very similar to a men’s electric razor. Instead of cutting hair, it has a bunch of tweezers that pull out hair. It’s a lot more convenient than waxing. If you notice a patch with hair, you can just whip out the epilator. It’s simple, practical, and has a nice compact size.

The Emjoi Soft Caress comes in a cute purple and pink design. The shape of the epilator fits perfectly in your palm. This epilator is the just the right size to epilate almost everywhere on the body. The smaller head fits in tight places though the small bumpers on the side of the head can make it difficult to maneuver. While it is light and convenient, it feels very durable and sturdy in the hand.

The smaller size means that it is great for traveling with. There is a small protective cover that protects the epilation head when it is not in use. Emjoi makes a similar model with a built in light but this model doesn’t include that option. In order to turn on the epilator, you have to press down the safety switch first. This means you don’t have to worry about embarrassing vibrations accidentally going off in your luggage. The Emjoi Soft Caress operates at only 120V and is not designed for overseas use.

There are two caps. The regular cap is pink. There is also an additional purple “massaging” cap. We found that it is very hard to remove the cap to switch caps or clean the epilator. You have to squeeze the sides to pull it off and it tends to be tight.

It is rechargeable and comes with an adapter to charge it. On the base of the unit there is a slot to insert the plug. The actual adapter plug is pretty big and we wish it was a little smaller.

The design is not perfect. It can’t be used in the shower or under water. There is a slight curvature to the model that makes it difficult to get closer to the skin especially on curved areas.

Number of tweezers

The Emjoi Soft Caress has 36 tweezers, which are gold plated and hypoallergenic. This means that you are going to get less irritation on your skin. This is not the most tweezers that we have seen on an epilator, but it is a respectable amount. Emjoi has found a middle ground between their high end model and lower end models. This model is really geared for beginners or people who don’t want to remove a lot of hair at the same time. It’s great for touch ups or using on difficult to reach areas of your body. Because there are fewer tweezers, it is supposed to be not as painful. This does mean that you are going to spend more time epilating. If you want to shorten the time that it takes to epilate, you are better off going with the Emjoi Emagine which has double the amount of tweezers at 72. It costs a bit more, but it will shorten the time you spend epilating.

As the tweezers spin around, they pluck the hair out of your skin. If you spin the tweezers around while the epilator is off, you can see where they close. On this epilator, the tweezers close at the top of the epilator. You want to lightly rest the epilator on your skin at this point. For the tweezers to pluck hair correctly, the epilator should be held at a 90 degree angle to the skin facing you.

Battery

The Emjoi Soft Caress operates on rechargeable batteries but it can also be used plugged in. It is nice to be able to use it without getting tangled in the cord. The ability to use it cordless is very convenient because body hair grows in different directions. You will have to flip it around every now and then. It is perfect if you are on the go or are traveling. Emjoi recommends charging the battery for 16 hours before the first use. They also recommend charging the battery for 8 – 16 hours after every use. Compared to other epilators, this seems like a very long time. In contrast, the Braun Silk Epil 7 recharges in 1 hour. To preserve the battery, it is recommended that you occasionally drain the battery completely and fully recharge it.

To charge the battery, you simply insert the power cord in the bottom of the unit and plug it into an outlet. The problem is that it is difficult to know when the epilator is fully charged since the indicator light always stays red. You are supposed to charge it between 8 – 16 hours. To charge it, it is best to plug it in at night and remember to unplug it when you wake up. You can also use it while it is plugged in to an outlet. If it runs out of battery or you forget to charge it, you can still use it. The cord is nice and long so you don’t need to be right next to the outlet.
You really have to charge the battery fully to get the best cordless performance out of this epilator. The only problem with the battery is that as you are epilating, the power starts to fade a bit. The battery seems to last only for 30 minutes before the power starts to fade. This doesn’t seem to be a very long time.

Speed settings

There are two settings on this epilator. Zero means that it is off. To turn it on, you press down on the safety lock and slide it to the desired speed.The speed you use depends on what part of the body you are epilating. The slower speed is for finer hair like on the arms and face. The second speed is for thicker coarser hair like on the legs. You can start out at the lower speed and move to the faster setting. At its top speed, the Emjoi Soft Caress will reach 79,000 tweezes per minute.

Head

This model’s head is considerably smaller than the Emjoi Emagine which means it is a little bit more precise. The smaller head means that you can use it on areas that are just too difficult to navigate with larger epilators. There are two purple bumpers on the side of the head that vibrate when the epilator is on. This can make it trickier to reach some areas.

Caps

This epilator actually contains two different cap types. If you press on the sides of the cap you can remove it. There is the regular pink cap that is already on the epilator but there is also a purple massaging finger cap. The massaging finger cap has a little plastic comb piece that sticks out. The separate hair lifting head is pretty much useless for short hair. It’s supposed to massage skin and reduce pain, but we didn’t feel any difference. You do have to grow your hair out a bit longer to use it. Your hair has to be about a centimeter to use it and it’s kind of bulky. If your hair is long enough, it helps lift flat lying hair off the skin and into the epilator. Some people might find it useful but others may feel that it just gets in the way.

Noise Level

When we first turned on this epilator, the noise it made was intimidating. It sounds crazy scary like a food processor or a torture device. We understand why people would be hesitant to use it. You have to get familiar with the sound it makes. It is best to try it on your palm to work up the courage to use it. At 74 decibels on the slower speed, the Emjoi Soft Caress is very loud. It is hard to be discrete when using it. The second speed is even louder at 78 decibels. Even if the bathroom door is closed, you can hear it. If you are watching TV, it is loud enough to block out all the sound.

Body Areas It Can Be Used On

Emjoi has designed this epilator to remove hair from the legs, arms, bikini line, underarms, upper lip, and chin. You can’t use it everywhere on your face, just for individual hairs on the chin or upper lip. It can also be used to remove hair on the stomach. However, we only recommend using this epilator on your arms, legs, and armpit area as other areas maybe too painful. It works best on the flatter areas of your body. It can take awhile to do the legs and the arms since the smaller head covers a smaller surface area.

Legs

The Emjoi Soft Caress performs pretty well on the legs.  Since the head is pretty small, it does take a great deal of time to get every hair on the legs. You do have to make a number of repeated passes to remove all the hair. We found it difficult to grab the hairs around the knees and curvier areas. For the knees, you have to straightened your legs and try coming in at different directions. For stubborn short hair you usually have to wait a week later for the epilator to pick it up.

Underarms

The Emjoi Soft Caress is one of the most popular and best epilators for the underarms because of its smaller size. It works great for coarse armpit hair. On Youtube, there are a number of beauty bloggers who use this specific epilator to get the prettiest underarms with no dark stubble.  It keeps the underarms looking lighter and brighter. They look fresh and clean.

Epilating the underarms is painful business since hair is thicker and coarser. It is best to shave them first and epilate the stubble. If your underarms have deep rooted hair and aren’t used to hair removal at the root, it is normal to experience a little bleeding at the spot of hair removal. With very coarse hair, it hurts a lot and can be difficult to pull the hair out. Sometimes the epilator will tug on hair without removing it. Try to do as much as you can bear and try again a few days later. After you epilate the entire area once, it is amazing how much more comfortable it is.

Underarm hair grows in all kinds of crazy directions so you have to keep going around the area and try different directions by flipping the epilator all around. It’s hard and awkward because it’s not a flat area. Place your arm with your elbow above your head to stretch the skin. You have to go up, down, and sideways.   Circular motions can help pick up stray hair. It can be difficult to get all the hair. There is no light on the Soft Caress so it can be a little difficult to see what you are doing on the underarms. Sometimes you have to go by feel.

Bikini Area

You can even use this epilator on more sensitive areas of your body. The closer you get to the bikini area, the more it hurts. If you are using this on the bikini area, it is really just designed to neaten up the bikini line. You can use it to remove hair from the top and sides of the bikini area. Unless, you have already done a full Brazilian by waxing, you really shouldn’t attempt to give yourself a full Brazilian with this epilator.

While some women have used it for a full Brazillian, it is better for touch ups. The potential for snagging is very real. You need to hold your skin very tightly with one hand and move the epilator in circles to remove hair. The skin down there is very sensitive and at a weird angle. You have to understand the way skin moves and how to keep it tight especially around the sensitive bits. It is less painful to wax your bikini area first and epilate the re-growth.

Face

According to Emjoi, the Soft Caress Epilator can be used to remove single hairs from the upper lip, cheeks, and chin. It is best to use speed setting 1 on this area. Removing facial hair is very painful as the skin in this area tends to be most sensitive. If you are pretty used to tweezing or waxing your facial hair, it is not a problem. If you have never plucked hair, it is very uncomfortable. The upper lip is very sensitive especially under the nose. We recommend numbing the upper lip with ice first. Depending on the coarseness of the facial hair, it can take a few sessions before the process is comfortable.

The Soft Caress Epilator works pretty well on peach fuzz provided the hair is long enough. When removing facial hair, it is very important to hold skin very taut. The Emjoi Ap-10R won’t grab very short hair. Let the hair grow a little longer than you would if you plucked the hair with a pair of regular tweezers. The hair has to be long enough for the epilator to pick up.

We tried the Emjoi Soft Caress on the face on the chin, cheeks, upper lip and sideburns. It hurts like heck but is much more efficient than rolling a spring on the face. The Emjoi Soft Caress does work well to remove the few stray hairs that crop up under the chin and minor areas on the face. It leaves the cheeks and chin smooth. It does leave the face a little bit irritated and red because the skin is very sensitive. It takes a couple hours for the skin to calm down so it is best to epilate at night. Unlike tweezing, it yanks all of the thick and tough chin hair out pretty quickly.

However, we found it a little too large and powerful for smaller areas of the face. Unlike other epilators, the Soft Caress doesn’t include any special attachments for the face. This makes it difficult to reach tighter areas like the upper lip. It is hard to get all the hair. It is a little too big the maneuver around your upper lip though it can be done. We recommend specific smaller epilators for the face and sensitive areas.

Performance

We found that the Emjoi Soft Caress performs much better when it is plugged rather than when used cordless. It seems to have more power when plugged in. No matter how long we charged the Emjoi Soft Caress, when it is running on the battery, the tweezers seemed to rotate slower. It’s not as efficient. When the battery starts to lose its charge, the epilator slows down, reducing its performance.

For best results you have to make sure you are using it properly. You are supposed to hold the epilator with the text facing you. This is important because of the direction that the tweezers are rotating. If you hold it wrong, it won’t pluck hair. This is something to keep in mind if you are left handed.

Don’t press down hard like shaver. You just have to glide it flat on the skin. If you press down too hard, the epilator can pinch the skin. While it will stop if it pinches the skin, it can hurt and leave a bruise. Always use a light hand and it will never catch or pull your skin. It works best with slow short brush strokes in up and down movements against the hair growth. You really need to pull your skin taut. Circular motions can help get all the extra hairs you missed.

The Emjoi Soft Caress works great in smaller areas, but can take awhile on larger areas. We found that the larger Emjoi Emagine was much more efficient on the legs and larger areas. Because the Emjoi Soft Caress is smaller it can take awhile to remove hair on larger areas especially at first.

The Emjoi Soft Caress grabs about 90% of the visible hair. It effectively grabs hairs that are sticking off the skin. It is hard to get every hair especially the flat lying hairs since there is no way to pick them off the skin. You have to patiently go over areas very slowly and make several passes. Depending on how thick your hair is, sometimes you have to go over the area multiple times to get the hair out. It does not remove every single hair especially the super short ones.

While Emjoi claims that this epilator can remove hair as short as 0.5mm, it can be difficult to remove very short hair and hair on curvier areas of the body. Compared to the top rated Braun Silk Epil 7, you do have to let your hair grow out a bit longer and make more additional passes.

We didn’t see any benefit to the curved design. The curved tweezer head actually makes it harder to reach certain places. The curved design and bumpers on the side don’t allow you to place the epilator flat against the skin on curvier areas, making the design is not friendly to curves.While the epilator head is curved, the tweezers are in a straight line, making it difficult to get close to the skin without a little maneuvering. It seems to work better on hair that is not lying flat against the skin. The only problem is that lots of hairs do not stand straight up, which makes them difficult to pluck. You have to pull skin in such a way that the hair stands up off the skin surface. Sometimes it is easier to pluck random hairs with a pair of tweezers.

The majority of hair is plucked but occasionally hair will break at the skin surface. A small percentage of the hair can break at the skin surface if the hair is too long or grabbed at the tip. However after a few growth cycles, you will eventually pluck the hair.

The Emjoi Soft Caress will work on all hair types including extremely fine blonde hair. It will grab some thin blonde hair but not all of them. It does take multiple passes for thinner and tinier hair. It even works on areas with coarse hair and coarser hair types, though it is definitely more painful to remove hair.

Although Emjoi claims that you will be hair free for up to 6 weeks, it is hard to say how often you will have to epilate. Epilating is a long term solution and not a quick fix like a razor. You really have to do several sessions to achieve better results than shaving. It does take awhile to achieve completely smooth results since hair grows in 3 growth stages. Hair on the body grows out at different rates. At first you have to touch up the area at least once a week. Still, it goes pretty quick since you are not removing much hair. Unlike waxing, you don’t have to wait till hair completely grows back. You only need the shortest hairs for it to work. If you feel a small speck of hair, you can try to epilate it. For special events, you can epilate first and shave, which results in very smooth skin.

The first few times, it is normal to get red bumpy skin after epilating so it is best to epilate at night. The skin sort of tingles a bit and can be tender. This is something you want to keep in mind if you are going to be throwing on a bikini and going to the beach. This is caused because you are pulling the hair out at the root. This usually will subside by the next morning. A few hours after epilating, be sure to clean the skin well with witch hazel to reduce sensitivity and irritation. Some women like to apply an after epilation cream. After epilating, don’t forget to always exfoliate the skin everyday to prevent ingrown hair. It comes with a loofa that is great for exfoliating dry skin. You can also use a solution like Tend Skin, PFB Vanish, PX After Epilation Cream, or Amlactin to help with ingrown hair and bumps.

Pain

Emjoi has a reputation for making some of the least painful epilators.We did think that the Emjoi Soft Caress was slightly less painful than comparable models. It has got two bumpers on the side of the head that seem to vibrate as you epilate. This helps to slightly distract you from the pain. Still, if you have a low pain tolerance this might not be for you. How much it hurts really depends on your hair type. If you have thick coarse hair, it hurts more to rip hair from the root.

If you are just used to shaving, the Emjoi Soft Caress is going to hurt. Because the Emjoi AP-10R pulls hair from the root, it can be very painful at first. It feels like a tiny pin pricks every time you pluck out hair. The pain is sharp yet momentary. It is somewhat more painful for the first few minutes. Then the body gets somewhat accustomed to the plucking sensation and gets numb. You really have to have the right mindset. Pulling out hairs gets less and less painful, the more you do it. The second time through it is so much easier. Over time, the hair grows back noticeably thinner. After awhile, you barely feel it anymore. Once you get over the pain, it is really nice that you don’t have to worry about the hair growing back for some time.

If you have already waxed or plucked hair from the root, it doesn’t hurt as much. Some women prefer to get the area waxed first. Then once the hair starts to grow out, they touch it up with an epilator. The pain is different. Waxing removes a large quantity of hair at one time, and the pain is over a large area. An epilator plucks each hair out, creating tiny pinpricks where the hair is removed. While it doesn’t pull skin like waxing, it can be painful. Sometimes you don’t know when it is going to pluck the hair. Some women like to take a pain killer like Ibuprofen a half an hour before epilating.

It really depends on your skin sensitivity, the hair length, the density of hair, and the area you are removing hair. If you have a lot of hair to remove, it will hurt more. Since skin is very delicate on the face, bikini area, and underarms it can be difficult to tolerate the pain in these areas. On the legs, it is more bearable. It feels like little rubber bands snapping on your skin. Areas like the ankles, knees, and calves can be more sensitive. The upper thigh is especially painful. The closer you get to the bikini area, the more sensitivity there is.

There are a couple of things you can do to make the process more comfortable. Exfoliate the skin 2 – 3 days before you epilate. Epilating works best on short stubble. Shave the area you plan to epilate and wait for the stubble to grow out 2 or 3 days. If the hair is too long, the epilator might break hair. If the hair is too short, the epilator will not be able to grab the hair. Take a hot shower and scrub the area with a towel to keep it dry and clean. This also helps lift hair away from the skin. You can also wrap your legs in a towel warmed in the dryer to soften hair. Pulling the skin taut reduces the feeling of pain greatly. Don’t epilate around your period as epilating will be more painful.

Cleanup

Cleanup is far easier than cleaning up after waxing. There is no sticky wax to remove. The only really real concern with epilators is that there is no distinct place where the hairs end up. Some will fall out of the device and on the surrounding area and some get stuck inside the epilator. Emjoi has included a convenient brush to clean the hairs out.

What Others Are Saying

Both beauty bloggers and customers have good things to say about the Emjoi Ap-10R Soft Caress. This epilator is one of the most popular epilators on Youtube. It is recommended by users like Xteener, bebexo, fafinettex3, and brazilianbella7.

Xteeener uses the Emjoi Soft Caress on her underarms and upper lip. She put together a great demo on youtube on using this epilator on the underarms on upper lip. The first time she used it on her armpits, it bled. Still, she loved the results and thought it was worth it. She is so much less self conscious saying “it changed her life.”

Bebexo used to shave her armpits which left them dark. Now she uses the Emjoi Soft Caress which she finds so much better. She found the Emjoi Soft Caress epilator less messy than waxing and very convenient to use at anytime. She found it doesn’t grasp all your hair with just one stroke. You have to make several repeat passes. She liked that it is cordless. She only recommends this epilator for the underarms. She doesn’t recommend it if you can’t stand pain. The first few times it will hurt. She was afraid to use it for 2 months because of the sound it made and how fast the tweezers were spinning. It made her sweat. She finally got over it and she said that the pain is worth it.

Fafinettex3 uses the Emjoi Soft Caress on her underarms. She warns that at first it is very painful, but now she is used to it. At first, she had tears in her eyes. She likes using the Emjoi Soft Caress on her underarms because it leaves no dark hair shadow like with shaving. She likes the convenience, the price, and the effectiveness. She can’t live without it and adores it.

Brazilianbella7 loves the Emjoi Soft Caress. Compared to the Emjoi Emagine, she found it is thinner and has fewer tweezers. She thought this epilator works great for the arms and underarms though she recommends the Emjoi Emagine for the legs. She uses the Emjoi Soft Caress for quick touch ups. One reason she really likes the Emjoi brand is because she felt that its epilators are less painful than epilators from other brands.

Customers seem to love it too. It is one of the highest reviewed epilators on Amazon, averaging 4.0 out of 5 with over 400 reviews.

Summary

The Emjoi Soft Caress is a great epilator for those new to epilation. It also works well to remove hair on smaller areas like the underarms. It’s a great investment. With 36 tweezers, we did find it slightly less painful than the Braun Silk Epil 7. This is because it doesn’t remove as much hair per pass.

It’s not all perfect. With a smaller size head, it takes awhile to remove hair on larger areas. While it is a cordless model, it seems to be more effective while plugged in. The battery life could be better. While it effectively removes most hair, we found its curved design made it difficult to remove short hair and fine hair especially on the curvier areas of the body.

Still, if you are new to epilation or just want an epilator for smaller areas, the Emjoi Soft Caress comes highly recommended.