Emjoi Epi Slim+ e18 AP-14LC Epilator Review

Emjoi Epi Slim+ e18
MSRP
$34.99

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Hormones, age, and genetics can cause unwanted facial hair to grow on the face. All women know how embarrassing facial hair can be. We spend tons of money to remove it. When we originally reviewed the original Emjoi Epi Slim, we called it one of the best epilators for the face.

According to Emjoi, this is the most advanced portable epilator that Emjoi has produced. The Emjoi EpiSlim+ e18 is a battery powered epilator with 18 tweezers designed to “comfortably” erase unwanted hair from the root on the face, underarms, and bikini area for up to 6 weeks. The patented 3 disc system along with the skin glide technology is supposed to increase comfort and reduce irritation.

Tim Farrel, Emjoi’s nation sales manager, said, “The compact silhouette of the Epi Slim+ e18, which features exactly the same fabled eRase technology as its larger Emjoi stable mates, makes it absolutely ideal for travel and for women to keep in their purse on a daily basis.” Does it live up to the hype? Find out in our hands on review.

What’s In The Box

The Emjoi Epi Slim comes packaged in a hard plastic shell. You have to destroy the entire package to remove the epilator. Inside the box, there is the epilator. Tucked underneath the epilator is the cleaning brush, warranty and the instructions. It would have been nice if it came with a travel bag.

Design

I love the slim design. About the size of a lipstick case, the Emjoi Epi Slim e18 is perfect for smaller and delicate areas of the body like the face, underarms, and bikini area. Thanks to its ergonomic design, I found it felt lightweight and very comfortable in my hand. Super small and compact at about 6 inches long, the Emjoi Epi Slim is perfect for throwing in your beauty bag and taking on the go. I think it is a great product to have on hand during a beach vacation for touching up the upper lip or bikini line. It will definitely make its way into my bag when I go to Maui.

The Emjoi Epi Slim+ e18 keeps the same body of the original, while adding some new additions that are meaningful. Emjoi recently updated its line of epilators with fabulous new colors. The Emjoi Epi Slim e18 is a beautiful cobalt blue color. Even with just the color change, the Emjoi Epi Slim e18 looks so much sleeker than the original.

The product pulls out hair with tiny tweezers. It is basically a motorized tweezer wheel. As the roller spins around, the tweezers open and close like that fish game where the fish opens and closes it mouth. When the tweezers close on a hair, it plucks it out.

Compared to the original, the most notable update is that the number of tweezers has been doubled from 9 to 18. This is the most ever on a facial epilator. With 540 tweezer actions per second, the Emjoi Epi Slim e18 seems to grab hair a little bit better than the original reducing the number of passes required. The skin guides help guide the hair into the tweezers.

One of the reasons the previous Emjoi Epi Slim worked so well was because it featured a row of 3 circulating discs that spin instead of just 1 like other facial epilators. The row of three tweezers is back, but this time Emjoi has introduced a new technology which they call the Erase Glide technology. It has a fixed disc tweezer in the center and two discs that spin on the outside. Compared to the original, we found this setup allowed the epilator to be more efficient, more comfortable, and cause less irritation. The epilator seemed to glide over skin better.

On the back of the device is the battery compartment. While the Emjoi Epi Slim is fully cordless, it runs on 2AA batteries, which are not included. The upside is that you don’t have to deal with a cord. The downside is that you have to replace the battery. For a battery powered epilator, I was surprised at how powerful it was. For regular users using the epilator once a week for a 20 minute session, the batteries should last for about a month or 4 sessions. Like other battery operated epilators, when the batteries are weak, the performance tends to dip. If it doesn’t run super fast, it is time to replace the batteries. We do wish it was rechargeable or had the option to plug it in. If you plan on epilating a lot, rechargeable batteries are a must.

The facial epilator comes with a clear plastic cover that protects the tweezers when the epilator is not in use.

My biggest complaint is that the epilator head can’t be removed for more thorough cleaning. Like the original Emjoi Epi Slim, it is a little difficult to whisk away hairs that get caught inside the epilator. There is a little area beneath the tweezers which the hair seems to get stuck in. I found that blowing on the epilator can help, but sometimes it is hard to get the hair out.

Setting it up is as easy as opening the package, popping in the batteries and, sliding up the on button. The on button has a safety function to ensure it won’t accidentally go off in your bag, causing unwanted stares. We only wish that it had more than one speed setting.

Preparing The Face

Before using an epilator on the face, preparing your face for epilation is a must for best results. I like to exfoliate my skin before epilating with a facial cleansing brush or a gentle face scrub. You do need to let the hair grow out long enough for the epilator to grab it. If the hair is just shaven, it will not be long enough for the tweezers on the epilator to grab. If your facial hair is long, I suggest shaving or trimming it to 5mm first. Epilators work better on shorter hair. Using it on longer hair may cause the hair to break instead of being pulled out at the root.

Always begin with a clean face, removing and makeup, skin cream, or lotion. Do not use this with makeup on. On the day I epilated, I took a warm shower as this softens the skin and makes it more porous, which allows the hair to slip out easier. I also like to apply a warm compress beforehand.

You have to be very diligent about disinfecting the epilator and keeping your face clean to prevent a break out. When removing hair at the root on the face, oil and bacteria can get into your pores, which can cause an infection. To clean the skin and prevent breakouts, I like to use witch hazel on a cotton ball to wipe down the area I plan to epilate. You should always clean the skin with witch hazel before and after epilating. If you don’t like using a cotton ball with witch hazel, using Oxy facial pads to clean the skin works too. I’ve found that thoroughly cleaning the skin before and afterward, with witch hazel, salycic pads or a benzoyl peroxide wash, almost completely prevents a break out.

Since this epilator is not waterproof, I also like to clean the epilator head with rubbing alcohol to remove any residue or bacteria that can cause an infection. I use a cheap dollar store toothbrush dipped in alcohol to clean the tweezers. After everything was dry, I was ready to epilate my face.

Epilating With The Epi Slim Epilator

Before turning on the epilator, I tied any loose hair back. When I turned on the epilator, I could see the 18 tweezers spinning around faster than a carousel. One of the downsides to this epilator is that it is one of the loudest facial epilators. For such a small epilator, I was amazed at just how loud and unnerving it sounded. At 74 decibels, it is about as loud as an electric razor. If you are trying to hide that you are using it, sadly it’s not going to happen. Combined with the frightening noise, it’s actually pretty intimidating to see the rotating tweezers. My face grimaced a bit when I inched the epilator close to my skin. Emjoi suggests trying the epilator on the back of your hand until you get used to the sensation. For working up the confidence, I like to put it on an area with no hair and take deep breaths like a pregnant lady.

To use it you just run it lightly in small circles over the area you want to remove hair until all the hair is removed and the area is smooth. Hold the skin tightly with your free hand to stretch and flatten out the area you are epilating on. In areas with looser or wrinkly skin, be sure to pull skin flat. It takes a couple of passes to clear a small area.

When I was ready, I placed the epilator perpendicular to my skin and moved it in a rapid small circular motion. Hold it straight on the face not slanted. It can sometimes skid on the skin if the epilator is not held correctly. Unlike other facial epilators, the Emjoi Epi Slim has no cap or guide that covers the tweezers. This allows the tweezers to come closer to the skin, but it can be difficult to hold it correctly. It takes a little patience to master how to use it. We do wish the epilator head would pivot with the contours of the skin like the Braun Silk Epil 7.

Do not use the Emjoi Slim like you would use an electric shaver. Do not press down at all on the skin; the trick is to skim it over the skin barely touching it. The tweezers should never make contact with the skin. I used light pressure with the Epi Slim in a circular motion until I couldn’t feel anymore pulling, which meant that it had picked up all it can. Like with any tweezers, the hair has to be a certain length for the tweezers to pluck it out. You know those roll on deodorants, imagine the epilator has a rolling ball on the top. Glide the epilator on the skin.

You can also use small paint brush strokes to scoop away the hair. You may need to adjust the orientation of the epilator as you epilate. For certain areas, I found sometimes turning the epilator sideways would help me get into the area better. No matter how you orient it, you should always be able to see the logo as it should face you. Always move the device in circles or brush strokes towards the logo on the front of the epilator.

If you push down too hard on the hair, the epilator will not be able to grab flat lying hair pinned underneath it. The hair has to be allowed to stand up. If you hear the motor stressing, you are pressing down too hard. Using the epilator incorrectly could allow the tweezers of the epilator to pinch or scrape the skin. I know it can be hard but never try to go after tricky short hair. Wait for it to grow out or tweeze it.

Performance

Manually tweezing unwanted facial hair is very time consuming. I tried out the Emjoi Epi Slim+ e18 for myself to see how well it performs in all the areas that it was recommended by Emjoi: the face, underarms, and bikini. The Emjoi Epi Slim e18 was one of the best performing facial epilators that we tested. Even compared to our top rated facial epilator, the Braun Face, the Emjoi Epi Slim E18 was able to remove facial much faster thanks to the built in 18 tweezers. Though it lacks the precision of the Braun Face, the Emjoi Epi Slim e18 has a row of 3 tweezers which allows it to cover a greater area than the Braun. The bump in tweezers even improved its performance over the original Emjoi Epi Slim. It was easily the most powerful battery operated facial epilator that we looked at. It even performed better on thicker and courser hair than the Braun Face.

We generally like the Emjoi Epi Slim, but it is not perfect. It’s not as precise as tweezing or the Braun Face so strays are difficult to pick up sometimes. Since it runs on batteries, when the batteries are low, the performance dips. It would be nice to see a guide on it that keeps the tweezers away from the skin. If you are not careful and press down too much, especially around the upper lip, it can pinch skin. It can be difficult to pick up flat-lying hair, but pulling the skin tight helps pick them up off the skin. Multiple repeat passes are required for a smooth finish and it sometimes tugs on very coarse hairs especially in the bikini area.

While Emjoi claims this epilator will remove hair as short as 0.3 mm, we found that you do need a couple of days of regrowth before the tweezers can grab the hair. This epilator will pull the hair out, but only if it is long enough. Most of us hate to grow our facial hair out for a few days, but your hair needs to be longer than 0.5mm to 1mm for it to work. Hairs shorter than that have to be plucked with tweezers or you have to wait until they are long enough. In contrast, I found that the Bellabe hair remover spring and Braun Face would pick up hairs that are much smaller and finer, but this gets the thicker and coarser hair better.

It actually works better on finer thinner hair. It removes all of the fine downy hair on the face. With smaller and courser hair, you do have to make numerous passes from different angles to clear each hair. Unlike shaving, it won’t pick up all the hairs at once.

While epilators pull hair from the root and keep hair away for weeks, it is not permanent. Although Emjoi claims that you will be hair free for 6 weeks, hair grows in 3 cycles. Not all the hair grows out at the same time. In the beginning, you have to use it more often as you work through the different stages of hair growth. It takes a couple of sessions of hair removal to stay smoother for longer periods of time. How often you have to epilate depends on how quickly your hair grows. After about a week, I saw no signs of the hair growing back. Most women are going to have to touch up every one to two weeks.

Once you have removed all the hair, touching up every couple of days is easy. With waxing or tweezing, you have to wait a few weeks for the hair to grow long enough. With this epilator, you can run it on your face every day, and as soon as the hair gets long enough, this will pluck it out. This never causes the hair to come back coarser. Over a period of time the regrowth is greatly reduced and thinner.

How did it perform on the different areas of the body?

Face

The head of this epilator is too big to use anywhere near the eyebrows, forehead, or hair line. I first tried the Emjoi Epi Slim on my cheeks working my way down the jaw line to the chin and finally to the upper lip and side burns. Since hair on the face grows in multiple directions, using small rapid circles barely skimming over the area of the skin where I wanted to remove hair seemed to work the best. The sides of my face went quick and you just feel small pinches here and there. I used a light circular motion on my lips and chin to pick up the hair. A lot of women I know try to pluck out each individual hair on their chin. I thought this worked beautifully for the stubborn hairs on the chinny chin chin. I even used it to remove hairs on my neck, but it is hard to get all the hair. After clearing the outer corners above my mouth, I moved on to the upper lip.

For the upper lip do not place it against the skin, just hover it above the skin. I like to pull my upper lip tight using my bottom lip. On the upper lip, I found moving it in an erase type motion and dividing the lip into 3 sections helped it pick up the majority of hair. The only place that caused me to really wince and tear up was the middle part of the lip right under the nose. Dang those tiny hairs hurt. Removing my annoying sideburns was a little more tricky and almost as sensitive as the upper lip. Still, I think the Emjoi Epi Slim+ e18 is one of the best epilators for the sideburns. When doing the sideburns, make sure any long hair is tied back and pulled back tight. I pulled up on the skin near my ear to keep the skin tight before using small circles to remove the sideburn hair. It takes a couple of tries and hurts like the dickens. I found it even worked well around the ears(for men).

It was able to grab the majority of thicker hairs within one pass. However, it took a couple of passes to get the white almost invisible hairs that are harder to see. It picked up most of the annoying peach fuzz on my chin, upper lip, and jaw line. While it worked great for longer thinner hair, it sometimes would leave short thick hairs behind. Emjoi claims that this epilator removes hair as short as 0.3mm. It does not get all the hair. No epilator is going to remove 100% of your facial hair. You still have to go back a bit. Only the Braun Face was able to leave my face with a smoother finish. This removed about around 80% of my unwanted facial hair, before I went over with a tweezer real quick to remove any stragglers or stubborn hair it left behind. After epilating my face, I like to wipe my face down with witch hazel or use an after epilation cream containing witch hazel. When you remove hair on the face, your makeup goes on much smoother. It gives you a fresh feeling.

Underarms

Though I don’t recommend it for beginners, I also tried it out on the underarms. A lot of women shave their underarms during the spring and summer. Using an epilator eliminates the dark shadow effect you get with shaving. I absolutely love wearing tank tops without having to worry about the 5’o clock shadow.

I have coarse dark hair under my arms. I normally shave or trim my underarms so I had to let my hair grow out a bit before testing the epilator. For some reason it is difficult for me to get all the hair when I shave.(Gross side note: I let my hair grow out for two days prior to use.)  The smaller size and power made it one of the best performing epilators for the underarms. Just be warned the burning discomfort can be difficult to handle especially if you have never removed hair from the root in the underarms.

After a warm shower, I soaked a clean white towel in hot water and applied it to my underarms for about a minute. My underarms were free of any deodorant, lotion, or cream. I held my arm over my head and pulled the skin tight with the same hand. This helps a lot. To begin, I used the Epi Slim with short strokes against the direction of growth. Since hair grows in so many different directions under the arms, I found gliding the epilator in small circles lightly over the area helped get most of the hair. Compared to other epilators, I found it easier to direct the smaller head where I needed to remove hair. While it was very painful, the epilator seemed to have no trouble plucking the coarser hair in the underarm area. Occasionally, it does tug a bit on the hair before removing the hair. Because hair grows in different directions under the arms, you do have to make a number of passes over the same area to get the majority of the hair.

It did hurt, but the stinging pain went away after I stopped epilating. The first time when I epilated my underarms, in some places I got a little bleeding at spot of hair removal but nothing serious. They were only small sized pin prick dots. I got most of the hair off with the Emjoi Epi Slim Plus but for more stubborn hair I found I had to use a tweezer. My underarms were a bit red and sore after but this went away after a couple of hours. I finished the other underarm the next day. It took only a couple minutes to do both underarms.

Once the redness subsided, my underarms looked amazingly smoother and lighter with no hint of razor burn. The shadow effect was no longer there. From a distance, they look perfectly smooth. If you looked very closely, it didn’t get all the tiny hair. However, when the hair grows out a teeny bit more, the epilator will be able to grab it.

Bikini Area

There is nothing worse than having wicked razor burn on your bikini line. You can use the Emjoi Epi Slim on the bikini line but it is best to wax or shave the area first. It works great for the sides and top of the bikini line. Wait until after the hair has grown out at least 1/8 of an inch. Using it on long hair is too painful. Sometimes the hairs won’t come out right away but take a few passes. This is because the hair is much thicker and coarser here.

The Emjoi Epi Slim works fairly well on the bikini area, but the discomfort is much more intense especially the closer you get to the private area. It is like going to the dentist. You have to be brave. It is tough to go through with it. Its smaller size means it can reach your most private areas in the most difficult nooks, crannies, and corners.

Inside the panty line, while deadly painful, it is one of the best epilators for a Brazilian. I would never allow a large one near there. It is best to do this section a little bit of a time and let it go when gets too painful. It is a much slower process than waxing since you are only removing a few hairs at a time before the pain gets too intense and you have to take a break. If you have never had a Brazilian, my advice is to get is professionally waxed at a spa or salon a few times and then epilate the regrowth for maintenance. Touch ups are required every week or so.

Whenever you remove hair from the bikini area, it can leave you with little red bumps. I recommend using Bikini Zone Medicated Crème or using plain deodorant after removing bikini hair to prevent ingrown hair and razor bumps. For those who can’t bear the pain, I recommend using a good bikini trimmer.

Other Areas

You can use this epilator in other areas besides the face, underarms, and bikini area. Because it has a smaller head, it is very maneuverable in tight places like on curves, joints and bony areas like the knee caps. It is great for removing hair on the knuckles, toes, feet, ankles, knees, and wrists. You can even remove light hair on the stomach around the belly button. With its smaller epilating area, it is not really designed to remove hair on larger areas. It is not the best epilator for the legs, since the legs take forever. For the legs, we recommend good full sized epilator with a larger head. This works better for touching up these areas or for smaller areas that are hard to reach like the back of the knees. If you are using an at home laser or waxing, this is great for touching up the finer hairs.

Does It Hurt?

You really want to know does it hurt? Three words, “Beauty is pain.” There is pain involved. The price of smooth skin is that you have to deal with the pinching sensation. How much it hurts really depends on you. Because you are snatching the hair out of the follicle you are going to feel something.

When I first epilated my face, I couldn’t do the whole thing at once. I used it as long as I could tolerate it. Then I took a break and started up again later.

Epilating the face is super painful especially if you have never removed hair from the root before. If you have waxed or tweezed the face, then it will be much more manageable. It is a lot like waxing or tweezing. With waxing the pain is over in an instant. This hurts every time a hair is removed. When each hair is removed, you feel a little zing. You have to be sure to pull the skin tight as this makes it much less painful. I did find it less painful when I used it shortly after a warm shower, when the skin is more relaxed and the hair is softer.

When you first use it on your face there is a tendency to pull it away. The first few plucks definitely can lead to screams, cursing, or tears, but after you get over the surprise, the skin eventually gets numb to the plucking sensation. After using it for a couple of weeks, the level of pain goes down drastically.

Certain areas tend to be more sensitive to pain. Even the hair type can make a difference. There was barely any pain with the soft peach fuzz on the cheeks and chin. Coarse hair on the chin hurts more. The pain intensified on the outer lip and was the greatest under the nose though it is pretty difficult to skip that part unless you want to look like Hitler. The upper lip and side burns can be deadly painful since there a lot more nerve endings there. Epilating both the underarms and bikini area was very painful business since the hair is thicker and coarser.

Ingrown Hair

Like waxing, anytime you remove hair from the root, you have to worry about ingrown hair. There are two methods of exfoliation that should be used to prevent ingrown hair on the face- physical and chemical. I like to use a facial cleansing brush or a gentle facial scrub from Aveeno to help the hair break through skin cleanly when it grows back. This will help keep new hair from getting trapped under the skin’s surface. To prevent ingrown hair from developing on the face, you should also use a glycolic, salicylic, or alpha hydroxy product to clean the face every day. I find that Bliss ingrown pads are super easy to apply to the face and work pretty well. The first time I epilated my face, it was red. After epilation, sometimes my skin gets itchy or irritated so I like to apply an after epilation cream like Finipil or a bit of neosporin, which helps to cool the skin.

What Others Are Saying

Here is what beauty bloggers are saying about the Emjoi Epi Slim e18 Plus:

Krystal of the Glamourgirlreviews called it her go-to method for hair removal.

Rita at Ritareviews says it works and is the “perfect addition to any woman’s tool supply.”

Phyche Southwell of the Economystyle blog concurs. It also made it in Psyche Southwell’s travel bag. She called it her “secret weapon”, saying it comes in handy for touching up her upper lip and bikini line.

Wrap Up

The Emjoi Epi Slim+ e18 gets nearly everything right. It is the perfect addition to any woman’s beauty bag. It is faster and has more tweezers than previous model. If you don’t want to invest in an expensive full size epilator, but want to see if epilators work for you, it is a good choice.

Like the previous Emjoi Epi Slim, we think the Emjoi Epi Slim Plus e18 is one of the best epilators for the face. The Emjoi Epi Slim works well to remove fine and coarse hair from the cheeks, chin, and upper lip area. With its smaller size, it’s great for the underarms and bikini area. At under $40, the Emjoi Epi Slim practically pays for itself after the first use. It is a lot faster than tweezers and great for busy moms who don’t have time for a waxing appointment or endless tweezing. With tweezing, it is tedious to find the right angle in the mirror. With Emjoi Epi Slim , you just make light small circles over the area. Other than the ouch factor, the Emjoi Epi Slim is a great tool for leaving the face smooth and hairless.

Compared to the Braun Face, the only place where it fell a little short was picking up shorter hair. It won’t get hair that is too short or extremely fine. You do have to wait for hair to grow out so that the tweezers can pluck the hair. Sometimes it can be difficult to pick up missed hair without going over the same area multiple times.

Otherwise the Emjo Epi Slim is an outstanding value and leaves the face feeling smoother than most other facial epilators. It’s definitely making its way into my travel bag.