Remington EP-1050-CDN Facial Tweezer System
MSRP
$14.99
- ProsCheap.
Attractive.
Compact and portable.
AA battery included. - Cons Difficult to remove coarse chin hair.
Requires multiple passes from various angles.
Can be painful.
Not rechargeable.
Not waterproof.
Not precise.
Not powerful.
Loud.
Loose fitting cover. - SummaryWhile it is cheap, the Remington Facial Tweezer system is not the most effective facial epilator. It doesn’t seem to have the power or precision required to remove unwanted facial hair in a timely manner, often requiring multiple passes from different directions.
With the Remington EP1050CDN Facial Tweezer System, Remington hopes to have the answer to removing unwanted facial hair. Remington claims its battery operated facial hair remover will remove hair as short as 0.5mm, giving you long lasting results that last from 4 to 6 weeks. At first glance, this slim and compact epilator with 6 tweezers seems very attractive given its low price. But, can it really remove unwanted facial hair? Find out in our hands on review.
What’s In The Box
Inside the box you will find the epilator, the epilator cap, 1AA Rayovac battery, and the instructions.
Design
I love the size and shape of the Remington EP1050GDN. It has a very nice shape that fits in your hand comfortably. The facial epilator is large enough to fit in your hand, but small enough to fit in your purse. It is simple to use, durable, and very lightweight. Designed to appeal to women, the lavender color and artsy purpley flower design is very cute. The epilator is very reminiscent of the other models in the Smooth And Silky line of Remington products.
The battery compartment is located on the back. The cap simply slides off. Once you insert the battery, the battery lid easily snaps back on. While it is cordless, it is not rechargeable. It takes a standard AA battery, which Remington has kindly included in the box. The battery doesn’t last terribly long, but your mileage will vary depending how much you use it. Even with the battery, it feels very lightweight in the hand.
To turn on the epilator, you simply slide the switch on the front up. There is only one speed on this model. Being a facial epilator, there are only 6 tweezers on this model. This is about half as much as our top rated facial epilator. The tweezers are aligned in rows of 3. With its smaller footprint, it is not really designed to cover large areas like the body and legs. In our comparison of facial epilators, we found you don’t need a whole lot of tweezers for the face.
The smaller size makes it very easy to maneuver around tight areas like the upper lip. The Remington Tweezer system is not waterproof so you can’t clean the head under running water. You simply have to shake off the excess hair and brush them out with the included cleaning brush. The epilator comes with a cap to protect the tweezers when storing it. However, the cap is very loose fitting and can easily fall off.
Epilating With The Remington EP-1050-CDN
The Remington EP1050CDN doesn’t offer the same level of precision as the Braun Face. While it operates similarly to the Emjoi Epi Slim, it just doesn’t seem as powerful. I felt that the Bellabe Facial Hair Remover seemed to remove lighter hair better. Compared to other epilators I tested on the face, it was much slower and tedious to remove facial hair with this one.
Proper preparation is essential when removing hair from the face. Lele Gomes , an esthetician who works at the Rita Hazan Salon in New York City, recommends exfoliating the day before you remove hair at the root. The night before I tried this electronic tweezer, I gently exfoliated my facial skin with a cleansing brush. After taking a shower to soften my hair and relax my skin, I used the Remington tweezer on my face with the included battery.
Mona A. Gohara, M.D., a dermatology professor at Yale, says that anytime you remove hair from the face, you can break out since bacteria can enter your pores. In order to minimize any chance of a breakout, I applied a little medicated witch hazel on my skin to cleanse it. Then I brushed the tweezers on the epilator head with the included brush to minimize any chance of infection.
When I first turned on the epilator, I was greeted with the loud whirling sound this epilator makes. At 70dB, this epilator was pretty loud. If you have never epilated before, it can be a little scary. The first thought that pops up in your mind is, “Oh my god, this is going to kill me.” I recommend first trying it on an area like your finger where there is no hair to work up the courage to epilate hair.
Never press the epilator on your skin like a shaver as it will cause the tweezers to stop and you might accidentally cause it to pinch the skin. It works best when you are gently floating the device over the hair.
I tried it on the side of my face, cheeks, chin, and upper lip. Unlike the Braun Face, it is not very precise so it can’t be used near your eyebrows or forehead. The epilating surface is a bit wide and it could remove a significant portion of your eyebrow. It is also a bit hard to use under the chin.
In order to get used to the epilator, I first tried the Remington tweezers on a small area on my cheeks. I placed the epilator perpendicular to my skin, using slow small circular motions while sweeping the head away. I moved in the opposite direction of hair growth. I also tried using a slow continuous movement against the hair growth. I tried it sideways, up and down, and in circles.
I found that while it occasionally plucked a hair or two, it took numerous attempts to clear an area. You have to play around with it since hair on the face grows in different directions. I found it works best when you vary the direction of the strokes you use to help it pluck hair. Sometimes it works better when you hold it up and sometimes it works better when it is upside down. It can be time consuming. Compared to other facial epilators I tested, it takes a significant amount of time to remove any acceptable amount of hair. While it can remove hair, it takes many repeat attempts from several different directions.
It is impossible to get every hair with this facial epilator. I found it works better on fine hair and very light colored hair. It will remove the majority of unnoticeable peach fuzz. With longer peach fuzz, you do have to trim it down to around 5mm. Coarse hair is a bit hit and miss. It can remove spare chin hairs, but it is difficult to find the correct angle. You have to go over and over them before it grabs them. Sometimes it will pull at the hair, but it is not strong enough to pull it out.
You do have to grow your facial hair out for this epilator to successfully tweeze it. With shorter hair, you have to use your free hand to keep the skin tight to help lift up the hairs off the skin. While Remington claims that the epilator will pick up the shortest hairs as small as 0.2mm to 5mm, I found that the epilator left most of my short hair in place despite repeated attempts to remove them. It seems that the hairs did not get close enough to the tweezers to be plucked out. I eventually gave up before my skin became chafed. Eventually I found it easier to use a tweezer on real stubborn hair.While the epilator head does slightly get warm after 30 minutes of continuous use, it is never hot enough to burn the skin.
Remington claims that removing hair with these electrical tweezers will leave you hair free for weeks. This is not entirely true especially at the beginning. It does take a couple of epilation sessions through your own personal hair cycle before you stay hair free for a good amount of time.
Since you are removing hair at the root, there is a chance for ingrown hair. I like to gently physically exfoliate my skin with a cleansing brush or with a facial scrub every day until the hair grows back. I also like to apply a chemical exfoliant like Tend Skin, PFB Vanish, or Bliss Pads. I find that Bliss pads are very convenient to use on the face. The hair that grows back will grow back lighter the more times you pluck it. Remington recommends using the epilator weekly as routine touchup will help weaken the growth and keep the face constantly smooth.
Does It Hurt
Removing hair at the root from the face can be very painful. This will hurt if you have never waxed or tweezed before. I recommend tweezing or waxing first to weaken the roots. The more you do it, the less it hurts. Every time a hair from my skin was plucked, I felt a bit of a tingly sting. It sort of feels like very tiny electrical shocks. Certain areas hurt more. The area of the upper lip right under the nose is the most sensitive. If you are not used to it, it will make you teary eyed.
It hurts, but like all epilators you get used to it. I found pulling the skin tight with my opposite hand, helped to minimize the discomfort. If you are used to plucking or waxing your face, the pain is very similar. If you are used to plucking, it kind of feels like the same except you are plucking the hairs at a much faster rate which magnifies the pain.Like all epilators that I tried on my face, it did leave my skin a bit irritated and red for a few hours after. This is a normal reaction and it usually clears up the following day. An after epilation cream can help soothe the skin.
What Others Are Saying
There isn’t a whole lot of buzz around the Remington EP1050CDN as it is not one of Remington’s most popular epilators. On Amazon, it is getting a 3.5 out of 5 with over 90 reviews.
Wrap Up
While the Remington EP1050CDN Facial Tweezer System works well to remove some peach fuzz, there is too much trial and error involved with removing thicker hair on the face. Certainly, if you have a lot of patience and let your hair grow out a bit, you can probably remove a lot of your facial hair. With its low price point, it doesn’t really hurt to try it, but there are so many better and faster options out there.