I got myself a Shu curler this past Summer and every since after I haven’t gone back to another curler (read about the first time I became smitten with the Shu curler by clicking here!).
I’ve been through many curlers and none have worked as well as my Shu! But the Excel Spring Power Curler did tempt me with it’s allure of Limited Edition Pink Glitteryiness (is that even a word?).
When I seen it on the Sana website with the Excel Christmas Collection I knew I had to have it. It was cute, it was compact, and it had something important called “Spring Power”. My god it sure did sound amazing! I love Excel cosmetics so anything else this great brand puts out must be fantastic right? Wrong.
Where as the Shu is long, slick, and easy to handle the Excel is more compact which actually isn’t a problem at all. It fits very comfortably in my hand and my fingers slip right in, nice and snug in the handle. The size as far as I can see isn’t a problem at all and I was quite excited about how very tiny it was and how great it fit into my hand. This was surely a sign of wonderful things to come, sadly not! Now the beauty of the Shu curler is it fits the contour of my eye perfectly without pinching, tugging, or just general ouch! The Excel, to my horror, pinches like a lobster (I think I lost a few eyelashes somewhere along the way!!!!). Ow! It doesn’t fit well along the contour of my eye and it almost seems as if it isn’t catching all my lashes plus I have to sort of sit and maneuver it around my lashes and eye, I feel like I’m doing a puzzle and the piece isn’t fitting so I have to sit and jiggle it in. When I finally do have it fitted correctly to my eye and squeeze down I get a really harsh pinch! Ugh!
Now the entire idea of a spring back on the handle seemed interesting although I’ve figured out it’s somewhat pointless! When I use my Shu curler I hold down for a few and I’m ready! With the Excel the point of having a “springing” action in the handle seems just to make life more difficult. The urge of the handle to pop right back after making contact with your lashes is instant which leads to a problem of waiting a few for the curl to set in so to speak. If you curl your lashes you must know what I mean! Squeeze once and yes of course your lashes do curl up but the handle snaps back really quickly and holding it down is a bit tricky and tiresome due to the “spring”. I like to hold the curler down for a minute to let the curl set in a little bit. This is especially important if you’re using a curl keeper spray for your curler like I do (if you aren’t familiar with curl keeper it’s an Asian product, it’s not available in the US as far as I know, that you spray on your curler and it holds the curl of your lashes, almost like hairspray for your eyelashes).
My next gripe would be with the curler pad. It’s not a soft foam sadly. It’s more like a plastic piece and it’s hard and it hurts. I think the pinching not only comes from the fact that this isn’t fitting my eye correctly but also from the hardness of the pad!
Overall, if the promise of a spring powered curler and the delights of pink and glitter have blinded you and you felt the urge to purchase this I’d say you’re better off skipping. This is only cost me about 800 yen I believe so it didn’t break the bank too much! Take your money and buy a Shu curler you’ll be happier! If you’re planning on purchasing this I’ve seen it range from $12.50-$16 USD at Asian online shops so that indeed would be major money lost as at that price you can just buy a high end curler!
The weird thing is I believe this is a best seller for Sana but me it’s just money not spent too well!
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