Emjoi eRase e60 AP-14EB Epilator Review

Emjoi eRase e60
MSRP
$79.95

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As the heat rolls in, the flip flops, tank tops, skirts, shorts, and bikinis come out. For most women that means hair removal. If you are spending time waxing, threading, or shaving hair from your legs, bikini area, underarms, or face, Emjoi claims its latest epilator, the Emjoi eRase, will save you time and money. The Emjoi eRase was a big hit at the International Home and Housewares show because of its compact size.

The new Emjoi eRase has all the latest technology and features. This corded epilator includes a dual opposed head, dual speeds, 60 tweezers, and a patented 3 disc system. Emjoi says it features erase glide technology which allows you to glide it back and forth or in circular movements to remove hair in seconds. This is a full body epilator designed to remove hair from the legs and body and includes a “sensitive” cover for delicate areas like the face, bikini line, and underarms. Emjoi claims that the Emjoi eRase removes the majority of hair from the root as short as 0.3mm on the first pass, leaving you smooth for up to 6 weeks. Does it live up to the hype? Find out in our full review.

What’s In The Box

As soon as I picked up the Emjoi eRase e60, the high quality packaging made a very good first impression. The box is beautiful. The Emjoi eRase comes nicely packaged with the eRase e60 epilator, a shaving/trimmer attachment, a cleaning brush, a sensitive area cap, a 71″ AC adapter, two protective covers to protect the heads, and a nice zippered nylon carrying pouch. Each of the items was nicely wrapped in a plastic bag and seated in a plastic mold.

I really like the nylon zippered carrying pouch because all of the components including the adapter fit inside with ample room. Along with the excellent packaging, it gives the whole package a premium feel. Before starting, I thumbed my way through the instructions and found it to be a helpful guide on epilating.

Design

Emjoi recently updated its line of epilators with several fun new colors to choose from. Ours was a gorgeous beautiful purple color. Given the amount of tweezers, at (4” x 2” x 5”) the Emjoi eRase was a lot smaller and compact than I thought. Even for an epilator, it is so tiny that it is irresistibly cute. It’s not going to take up a lot of room in the bathroom. Smaller than my palm, I like the smaller size for getting into smaller trickier areas like the underarms and bikini area. It felt nice and light in my hand, not too heavy, but substantial enough to feel like an attractive beauty product not a plastic toy.

It basically looks like an electrical razor but instead of blades it has tweezers that pluck out the hair. Even with its smaller size, Emjoi was able to incorporate its unique dual head design with 60 tweezers rotating in opposite directions. There are little guides that help guide the hair into the tweezers.

According to Emjoi the dual head is supposed to hold the skin taut, making epilation more comfortable than other epilators. It sort of works, but you still need to use your hand to pull the skin tight. With 60 tweezers, only the larger Emjoi Emagine has more with 72. Epilators work by grasping multiple hairs at once and pulling them out. So picture 60 pairs of tweezers pulling hairs out. As the device spins, the tweezers open and close, snagging the hair from the root.

The sides of the epilator taper off a bit, allowing the tweezers more room to make contact with the skin. For smaller areas, you can even tilt the head so just one head is making contact with the skin. Like other Emjoi Epilators, it uses their patented 3 disc system with a fixed disc tweezer in the middle and two discs that pluck hair on the outside. The result is less skin irritation. The epilator’s dual epilator head reminds me a lot of the larger Emjoi Emagine. Like the Emjoi Emagine, I’m not sure how long this unit will hold up as the entire system is driven by plastic gears.

This epilator also comes with a shaving attachment. Having a separate changeable shaving head is a nice feature. The heads can easily be removed by pressing the small release button on front on the epilator. The shaving attachment simply clicks into place.

For beginners and more delicate areas, Emjoi has also included a “sensitive” cap. There is nothing terribly sophisticated about the sensitive cap, it merely covers 2/3rds of the tweezers and is supposed to lessen the pain since you are plucking out less. It narrows the epilation area to the just the center portion of the epilator covering the ends. For large areas, I like to go full force without the attachment because it is faster and less painful, but on more sensitive areas and for beginners the cap can be helpful.

The only quibble I had with the design is that this epilator requires a cord for use. On one hand, this means that it has full and consistent power and you never have to charge it, but I do wish there was the ability to use it cordless as well. It does seem more powerful than comparable battery operated epilators.

At about 6 feet, I felt that the cord could be a bit longer. While you can’t use this in the shower, I like to epilate in a dry bathtub. The cord wasn’t long enough to allow me to sit on the side of my tub. I had to put a towel down in the bedroom or bathroom and sit on it. Sometimes I found the cord would get in the way, forcing me to adjust the way I held the epilator. It would be awesome if Emjoi managed to create a battery operated epilator in this size though the Emjoi Soft Caress comes close.

Despite the cord, the smaller size makes it perfect for travel. The power supply is designed for 100 to 240V, which is great for travel.

Both the epilator head and shaving head come with a clear plastic cover that protects the heads when they are not in use, but we found that they fall off too easily.

The shaver attachment can be taken apart to clean but the epilator head cannot. To clean the epilator head, I used the included cleaning brush to wipe the head. You can also use your finger to rotate the head a little while blowing across the unit to blow out any trapped hairs.

Setting it up was easy as opening up the box, inserting the plug into the base of the unit, and sliding up the on button. There are two speeds. The lower speed is designed for fine hair and the faster speed is for coarser hair. You can use the speed that is comfortable for you, but for me the faster setting worked better. I liked that the on button has a safety function on it so it doesn’t accidentally go off, causing unwanted attention.

Preparing For Epilation

Before testing the Emjoi eRase on my skin, I took a warm shower and gently exfoliated my skin with spa body gloves to break up any dead skin cells. Soaking the skin and exfoliating prior to epilating can avoid ingrown hair and bumps. A warm shower and exfoliation help make the skin more pliable so removing the hair will be less uncomfortable. Epilators work better on shorter hair. If your hair is long, I suggest trimming it or shaving it and waiting till it grows to around 4-5mm. I like to shave the area and wait 1-2 days before starting to epilate.

Always use the epilator on clean skin, removing any lotion, moisturizing cream, or oil. When removing hair from the root, oil or bacteria can get in the pores, causing an infection. I like to use witch hazel to wipe down the area that I am epilating on. It is a natural antiseptic, which helps prevent against any infection. You should always clean the skin before and after with a witch hazel product.

I also like to clean the epilator head with 70% rubbing alcohol to remove any bacterial buildup that can cause me to breakout. Before epilating, I like to take a towel and dry my skin. After everything was dry, I was ready to test out the Emjoi eRase.

Epilating With The Emjoi eRase

I first turned on the epilator on its slowest speed. My first thought was that it was loud. At its slowest speed setting, it measured 76 decibels. Switching it to the fastest speed setting, it got louder at around 79 decibels. For such a small epilator, it was one of the loudest epilators we tested. Only the Philips Satin Perfect and Emjoi Emagine were louder. As with most epilators, it is difficult to use the epilator secretly. It sounds like an electric razor.

Even at the slowest setting, it lets out an intimidating whirling sound. Emjoi suggests testing the unit on an area with light hair growth in order to get accustomed to the epilation process. I always recommend testing it out on your palm or any other area with no hair before trying to remove hair with it. This epilator has a sensitive cap which covers a portion of the tweezers, exposing only just a few of them. Though I found it cumbersome, I started out with the sensitive cap. I like to begin as the calves as this is the least painful area.

To use it, you just run it over a small section with hair growth until all of the hair is removed and the area is smooth. You have to pull the skin taut with your free hand. Like all epilators, it takes a couple of passes to clear a small section.

When I was ready, I placed the epilator perpendicular to my skin and pulled the skin taut. Always stretch the surrounding area where you are removing hair as tight as you can to flatten out the area. The tighter you hold the skin, the better the epilator is able to grab the hair. This is especially important where you have looser and bunchier skin like the back of the knees, underarms, or bikini area. If you don’t hold the skin flat, the epilator could pinch the skin.

You should always work in the opposite direction of growth. I like to use small upwards and downward strokes in an erase type motion until each section is cleared. For areas where the hair grows in different directions, you do need to change the orientation of the epilator for it pluck the hair. Circular motions can work well. There is learning curve to using it correctly. The logo on the face of the epilator should always face you. Do not use the Emjoi eRase like you would use an electric razor. You don’t move it in long strokes but use rather short movements in small sections. There is no need to press down on the epilator. You want to glide the epilator over the skin just glazing it.

If you press down too hard on the skin, the epilator won’t be able to grab the flat lying hair. The hair must be allowed to stick off the skin so the epilator can grab it. If you hear the motor slowing down, you are pressing too much. Using the epilator with too much force could allow the tweezers of the epilator to pinch the skin.

Performance

I tried out the Emjoi eRase for myself to see how well it performs. Emjoi recommends the epilator for the legs, face, underarms, and bikini area. In the start, I tried the Emjoi Erase with the sensitive cover, but quickly took it off as it was difficult to reach the hair, requiring too many passes. I found it difficult to get the right angle with it covering the tweezers. With the cap in place, epilating large areas seemed to take forever. It performed much better without the sensitive cap. There are two settings and I quickly switched to the faster setting as it was quicker. I thought it worked better on the faster speed than the lower speed.

Emjoi claims that this removes the majority of hair on the first pass and it gives you smooth hair-free skin in seconds. This is mostly true but even with several repeated passes it is difficult to clear stubborn hair. A few strands will be difficult to get even if you focus several minutes on a single spot. When compared to our best rated epilator, the Braun Silk Epil 7, I found that epilating larger areas not only took a much longer time but the result was less thorough. The Braun Silk Epil seemed to pluck more hair per pass. Most of this has to do with its smaller size. However, even the comparably sized Emjoi Soft Caress was a little more effective at removing hair than the Emjoi eRase. As a result, it can take some time to finish both legs.

The Emjoi eRase performed fairly well on fairly coarse hair though fine hair required several more passes and was more difficult to pick up. You are supposed to go back and forth over each area until each section is clear. With smaller courser hair, you do have to make numerous passes from different directions to pluck out the hair. Like most epilators, for a smoother finish, you are going to have to clean up with a pair of tweezers.

It doesn’t do well on short hair. While Emjoi claims that eRase picks up hair as short as 0.3mm, it wasn’t as effective on shorter hair as the Braun Silk 7. This is especially true on the curvier areas of the body like the back of the knees. Even after numerous passes, I found it very difficult to tweeze very short hairs.

This is not like shaving where you go zip zip zip. It is not something that you can do before you go to work. It is best to epilate at night or on the weekend when you have time. You have to work in smaller areas. The first couple of times, it is not quick. However, you are not going to be epilating or removing all the hair every day. Unlike shaving, epilators pluck out hair from the root, meaning the hair stays gone longer. What grows back is lighter and finer.

While Emjoi claims that you will be hair free for 6 weeks, it takes a couple of sessions before you will remain hairless for long periods of time. Like with all epilators, your legs won’t be silky smooth because the epilator won’t be able to grab all the hair. It will take you a few sessions to be where you want to be because hair grows in cycles. Not all your hair grows at the same time. After about a week or two, you might be able to feel the hair but won’t be able to see it. Most women will have to touch up every week or two. Unlike waxing, you don’t have to wait till the hair grows out fully.

This is a full body unit. It includes a sensitive cap for more sensitive areas. According to Emjoi, when you pop on the sensitivity cover it reduces the amount of tweezers, making it effective everywhere from the face to body. Here is how the unit performed on various areas of the body.

Face

Given its size, I thought that the Emjoi eRase would be ideal for the face. I tried the Emjoi eRase on my chin, upper lip, and jaw line. The head is too wide to remove hair on the forehead or anywhere near the eyebrows. In order to use it on the face, I found I had to angle the epilator so that only one side of the dual head made gentle contact with my skin. I attached the sensitive cap and turned it on the low setting, running the epilator over the areas of my face with peach fuzz.

With the sensitive cap in place, I didn’t find the Emjoi eRase to be that effective on the face. Even without the cap in place it was difficult to reach the hair on the upper lip. The hair needs to be fairly long for this to work. It works on longer hairs that are longer than 1/4 inch but anything shorter is hard to grasp. Unlike the Braun Face, the head seems too bulky for the face.

Underarms

I usually shave my underarms. Shaving leaves the underarms looking dark with a 5’o clock shadow look and plucking underarms hair by hair is so time consuming, but jeez when I first epilated my underarms, it was pretty unbearable. I thought I couldn’t get through it. After running the epilator around my underarms a few times my skin got numb. While super painful, given its smaller size, the Emjoi Erase was one of the best epilators for the underarms.   I recommend trimming underarm hair down to 3-4mm.

It can be a little awkward epilating the underarms. It can take awhile to figure how to do this. I found that bending my elbow over my head and using the same hand to pull the skin taut was the best possible position. In the underarm area the hair is much coarser and bunched together which makes it difficult to use larger epilators. Hair under the arms grows in a crazy amount of directions so numerous passes are required. I like to use circular motions.

While the Emjoi eRase works fairly well, I felt that the head could be more ergonomic to get around the underarm area. It was hard to get all the hair especially in the deeper concave pit area. I didn’t try placing it too close to my skin because I was afraid it would pinch my skin or leave the skin chafed. While it is hard to get every hair, after a couple of passes with the epilator the underarms should be satisfactorily smooth.

Bikini Area

You can use the Emjoi eRase on the outside of the private area for cleaning up stray hairs along the panty line. I recommend starting out with the sensitive cover and the slowest speed for this area because it is a super sensitive area. Hair in this area is much thicker and the pain is much more intense. Pull your skin tight with one hand, and glide the epilator along with the other hand. I didn’t think that sensitivity attachment worked that great and ditching it and turning up the speed makes the process much faster. Since the hair is thicker, there is a fair amount of tugging before the hair is removed.

While super painful, the Emjoi eRase is one of the best epilators for a Brazilian. Its smaller size makes it easier to navigate the area. As you get closer and closer to the private area it hurts more. You have to do smaller and smaller sections. In the privies area, small erase type motions seem to work well. When the direction of the hair changes, you have to change the orientation of the epilator along with it to get the majority of hair. It is pretty messy and so you have to do it over a towel if the plug won’t reach inside the tub. It is very time consuming and insanely painful. I recommend first getting the area professionally waxed and using the epilator for maintenance.

Shaving/Trimming Attachment

Emjoi has also included a shaving/trimming attachment on this epilator. I tried out the shaving attachment to see how it performs. The shaving attachment can be used on the legs, underarms, or bikini area. It’s great for areas you don’t want to epilate or just want a quick shave. To use it you simply pop off the epilator head and pop on the shaver head. One design flaw that I found is that even though the instructions state that the shaving attachment should only be used on the high speed, it is still possible to use it on the low speed.

It is a foil shaver but it has got little teeth on the end which seem to trim longer hair. It would have been nice to be able to trim to different lengths, but the trimmer and shaver don’t operate independently. You can lean it a bit at an angle to get a hair clipper like cut. It worked well on large flat surfaces but was a little trickier to maneuver on curvier areas like the underarms. For curvy areas, if you are not careful, the trimmer edges could nick the skin.

I was actually quite surprised at how close a shave I got with the shaving attachment. Using the shaver is a very pleasant experience and you get a pretty clean finish without the pain of epilation. Like most electric shavers, you can feel just a little stubble. It’s a pretty close shave but not as close as you would get with a razor. Still, it’s a reasonably close shave that is perfect for a day at the beach.

Does It Hurt?

You are going to feel this the first time you use this. When I first put it on my skin I was a bit startled, but by the time I was on the 5th area, my skin felt numb and I really didn’t feel it as much. I’m not saying it doesn’t hurt because it does.

While everyone has a different tolerance for pain, ripping hair out of the follicle is never going to be comfortable. We didn’t find the the Emjoi eRase to be any more comfortable than other similar epilators. The head is smaller than other epilators, so the epilating area is smaller which can make it seem less painful since it plucks out less hair per pass.

The first time I used an epilator I had to take it very slow. My skin was all red and bumpy. The first time you epilate it is best not to do it before a big event. The first time I epilated there were little red dots on my skin. It is normal to experience a small rash or irritation if you have never removed hair at the root. After awhile my skin adjusted to it. The discomfort gets less the more you use it. Once you have done it a couple of times, your skin gets used to it.

If you have waxed before, the pain is much more bearable. With waxing you are ripping out all the hairs at once. With epilating, you are ripping just a few hairs at once. It feels like little pin pricks or stings when the hair is pulled out. I did find it to be less painful after exfoliating in the shower. I will say that pulling the skin very tight and stretching out the skin makes the whole process much more comfortable.

Certain areas tend to be more sensitive to pain. The legs aren’t so bad. There is a slight stinging pain like plucking your brows. It feels like little rubber band snaps. The legs are pretty manageable especially the calves though the ankles and thighs are extremely painful. This is true for all areas with thinner skin or bonier areas. The higher you get on the thigh, the more painful it becomes. Epilating the underarms and bikini area is very painful because not only are there a ton of nerves there but the hair is thicker and coarser.

Ingrown Hair

Whenever you remove hair, you have to worry about ingrown hair, which is hair that gets trapped under the skin’s surface. There are really two things you can do to prevent ingrown hair- physical and chemical exfoliation. Physical exfoliation involves using exfoliating gloves and physically rubbing the area to help break up dead skin. I like to do this just before epilating and every morning after. You should also treat the area with a glycolic, salicylic, or alpha hydroxy product every day after hair removal. I like PFB Vanish though many women swear by Tend Skin. The first time you epilate, it is normal for the skin to be red or irritated. The more you epilate, the more accustomed your skin will get to the process.

What Others Are Saying

Here is what beauty bloggers are saying about the Emjoi eRase e60:

Youtube blogger, Ginger Sjolander, said while you have to be careful to pull the skin taut, it gets a thumbs up. She likes it a lot and she got good results with it.

Joanna of The Best Of Everything was “impressed with how quickly she was able to remove the hair on her legs.

Xenia Sundell said ” the eRase provides a new option for hair removal at an affordable price.”

Wrap Up

If you’re looking for an all-around solid epilator for the legs, underarms, and bikini area — the Emjoi eRase e60 is a good starting point. Given its smaller size, it performs pretty well on the underarms and bikini area. On larger areas, compared to the Braun Silk Epil, its performance was midrange.

It’s smaller size and excellent number of tweezers is suitable for those just dipping their feet into epilation. Still, I do wish that either the cord was longer or the epilator was cordless. While the Emjoi Soft Caress is a tad bit heavier and larger, we actually think that the Emjoi Soft Caress is a better choice for beginners. With 36 tweezers, it has a beautiful curve that we thought works better for the underarms. The Soft Caress can run cordlessly but it can also be plugged in, offering the best of both worlds.

The Emjoi eRase is a decent epilator at a midrange price. The additional shaving/trimming attachment is excellent. If you can look past the short cord and small epilating area, it’s a worthy investment.