Epilady Face Epil Ep-803-17
MSRP
$24.95
- ProsLight and compact design for the face.
Cheap.
Travel friendly. - Cons Painful.
Burns through batteries quick.
Difficult to pick up shorter and thicker coarse hair.
Difficult to hold at the correct angle.
Not waterproof.
Not precise. - SummaryWhile the Epilady Epi Face’s price may be tempting, unless you have light facial hair, you should probably skip this for a better facial epilator that removes hair better.
Even the smallest amount of facial hair can drive women crazy. As we age, our dancing hormones can cause unwanted facial hair to sprout just about anywhere on our face. Even younger women can have issues with facial hair. Most of us have no problem shaving our legs, but the face that is a whole other story. Waxing and threading work but can cost too much, be too harsh, or be too messy.
With the Epilady Face Epil, Epilady hopes to have the answer to our problem. Epilady claims that the Epilady Face Epil is designed to handle the finest facial hair as well as coarse hair. This battery operated tool is supposed to work on the upper lip, chin, and cheeks, leaving you with minimum discomfort. You can also use it to for touchups around the bikini area, underarms, or inner knees. Does it live up to its promise? Find out in our in depth and hands on review.
Note: The Epilady Face Epil has been redesigned from an earlier version. We are reviewing the latest version. The original version had problems with the on/off switch and sported a white case with red accents.
What’s In The Box
Inside the box, you get the epilator, the cleaning brush, and protective cap.
Design
The Epilady Face Epil looks a lot like a lipstick case, except it is a bit wider. The flowery print on the front, pearly plastic, and bright purple accents give it a very feminine-look that is designed to appeal to women.
With its small diminutive size, it felt very lightweight, compact, and comfortable in my hand. It is small and handy enough to toss in a purse and take it on the go. The smaller size makes it easier to get to the tighter areas on the face. While its smaller size is great for the face, it is not really designed to cover larger areas of the body like the legs. While it is small, it isn’t small enough to be used anywhere near the eyebrows or eyes.
It is completely cordless, but not rechargeable. It uses one AA battery which is not included. Like most facial epilators, the batteries must be changed frequently and don’t last very long. On the back of the epilator is the battery compartment. There is a little notch on the back that makes it easy to remove the lid. The instructions recommend taking out the battery if you don’t plan on using the epilator frequently to prevent the battery from leaking inside.
At the top, there is a protection cap that covers the tweezer head. To remove the protection cap, you simply press the two purple tabs on the side to release the cap. Removing the cap exposes the 6 staggered tweezers in rows of 3 on round rollers. On the front of the device is the on/off button. In order to turn the epilator on, you have press the small safety switch on the on/off button sliding it upwards. The safety switch is a great idea. While vacationing, you don’t want the epilator accidentally going off, making vibrating noises. That could get a little embarrassing. When you turn on the epilator, the tweezers spin around really fast opening and closing, plucking the hair out.
After you are done epilating, it is easy to clean accumulated hair with the included cleaning brush.
Preparing The Face
Claudia Pierre of the Absolute Body and Spa in Orlando recommends exfoliating the skin the day before removing hair at the root. One day before testing this Epilady facial epilator, I gently exfoliated my skin to remove any dead skin on my face. I find this helps the tweezers pluck the hair more cleanly. The instructions say that you should use the epilator on a completely clean face free of makeup, creams, and lotions. I took a warm shower to soften my skin as epilating works best on skin that has been washed and completely dry -free from moisturizer and other facial products.
Any time you remove hair on the face from the root, you have a chance of a breakout. According to Braxton Dutton, a massage therapist, “Many spas and estheticians use Witch Hazel astringent as part of their facial process. “ I like to apply a little witch hazel on my face as it is a natural anti-stringent that helps prevent breakouts. I do this before and after epilating. It works a lot like a men’s after shave. I also dipped the cleaning brush in rubbing alcohol to lightly brush the tweezers to sterilize them. If you are using rubbing alcohol on the discs be careful not to get it on the plastic as it could cause discoloration. After everything was dried, I was ready to epilate.
Epilating With The Epilady Face Epil
Compared to our best rated facial epilator, while the Epilady Face Epil seemed to pick up most fine hair, it had trouble with courser and shorter hair, leaving most of them intact. I went over this type of hair with many repeated and unsuccessful attempts.
When I turned on the Epilady Face Epil, it sprang to life buzzing at around 69 dB. This was one of the loudest facial epilators we tested. Like all loud epilators, the first thought that pops into your head is, “This is going to hurt so bad.” I find that it helps to just place the epilator on your hand or any place with no hair to work up the courage to use it on your face. It won’t hurt where there is no hair.
The Epilady Face Epil is designed to work on the cheeks, upper lip, and chin. It should never be used around the eyes or eyebrows as it is not a very accurate plucking device. I first tried the epilator on my cheeks. To epilate properly, you really have to stretch the skin in the area you are removing hair.
Since hair grows in many directions on the face, I found that it works best when you make small circles against the direction of hair growth. The circles should barely skim the surface of the skin, not rub firmly against the surface of the skin. I found that you have to make circles in the same area again and again before an acceptable amount of hair is removed. The slower you go the better it works. You can also gently guide the epilator in the opposite direction of hair growth with the on button facing in the opposite direction of the growth. For most of the face this is upward. If you don’t remove a hair, you can make a repeated pass later. With stubborn hair, don’t hold the epilator in one place for too long as it could heat up or chafe the skin.
I know it can be tempting to press down on the epilator to get closer to the hair, but please don’t do this. This is not like a shaver. You should never press down on the epilator as this will cause the tweezers to slow down, stop rotating, or pinch the skin. You never want to hear the motor stressing. When you push down so hard on the epilator, there is no room to pluck out the hair as the hairs are pushed flatly against the skin.
Whether the Epilady works or not will largely depend on how much hair you have and how thick your hair is. While it took several passes over the same area, I found that it managed to pick up most of the fine hair on my cheeks.
While Epilady claims that this epilator removes even the shortest and finer hairs, the shorter and very fine hairs were often left behind. A closer look at the tweezers revealed that the tweezers were either too far away from the hair to actually pluck them or failed to grasp them. Light peach fuzz or really fine hair can be difficult to remove with this facial epilator.
While it somewhat works for the upper lip, it can be difficult to navigate. It is hard to get all the hairs. For the most part, it seems to remove little blond hair on the chin and upper lip. For thicker course hair on the chin, most of the time, the hair would slip right through the tweezers. Occasionally, it would pluck a thicker hair but it felt like a lot of trial and error. Compared to other facial epilators, it doesn’t seem to remove as much hair. You will need to touch up a lot of the hair that is missed with a tweezer.
I didn’t find the size or power adequate enough to use on the underarms or bikini area unless you have very light hair. The larger rechargeable epilators work so much better. While it works similarly to the Emjoi Epi Slim, it is not as fast or as powerful as the Emjoi Slim.
One of the biggest problems I had with this epilator is that the plucking area is not located directly at the top of the epilator. This means that in order to get the best results you have to hold the epilator at a slight angle away from the perpendicular. I found an angle a little less than 90 degrees worked best. The trouble is that there is no guide to help you keep it at the correct angle. If you hold the epilator incorrectly, there is a tendency for the epilator to break the hair instead of pluck it.
Does It Hurt
Removing facial hair is always painful. After all, you are pulling out the hair at the root. Although this epilator is specifically made for the face, I didn’t find it to be more sensitive than the larger epilators. In certain areas of the face the pain can be intense. The upper lip area near the mustache hurts like crazy. For the rest of the face, the pain is manageable. The fine little hairs don’t hurt much.
After epilating, it is normal to feel a little tenderness or redness, but this should dissipate in a short period of time. It is best to epilate in the evening and not before you are going out. Resist applying any facial products for at least an hour after you epilate to avoid clogging and irritating your hair shafts.
Whenever you epilate, there is chance of getting ingrown hair that doesn’t break the skin surface. The old skin grows on top of the part where the hair has been pulled. Then when the hair grows back it gets caught under the skin. That’s how you get an ingrown hair or a bump. It is so important that you physically exfoliate your face every day after removing hair. I also like to apply a chemical exfoliant like Bliss pads because they are super easy to apply on the face.
What Others Are Saying
A few beauty bloggers have rated the Emjoi Epi Face fairly well.
Nicole Fierro, a Skin Care Therapist, said “It’s not so good for large areas of the body, but does work great on facial hair or for touch-ups on the bikini line.” She rated it 4 stars out of 5.
Alison Blackman, a beauty and fashion expert, who admits she doesn’t have much hair on her face said “it’s a great choice at an affordable price.” She seconded the opinion, rating it a 4 stars out of 5.
On Amazon, the reviews are mixed. It has only a 3.1 average with just about the same number of 5 stars to 1 star reviews. Women with finer hair thought it worked great, but women with coarser hair said it barely works. A few users who rated it low pointed out that it slows down when pressed against the skin, but this is the incorrect way to use it.
Wrap Up
$25 for a facial epilator is a very good value, especially for an epilator that promises to remove both fine and course hair on the chin, cheeks, and upper lip. While the Epilady Face Epil works on most fine hair, it has trouble grabbing shorter and thicker hair, leaving you with a lot of extra stragglers to pluck. On the plus side, it did remove more hair than the Epilady Esthetic facial epilator. Unfortunately, there are plenty of better alternatives in this price range.
The Emjoi Epi Slim has a bit more tweezers and removes a lot more hair than the Epilady Face Epil. In addition, the similarly priced Bellabe Facial Hair Remover, while not as fast, gives you a better more complete finish. As it stands, even at a low price point, we don’t think the Epilady Ep-803-17 Face Epil is worth your money, unless you have very light facial hair.