So you may be wondering, what exactly are these strange products? The eyelash curler is the Panasonic Eyelash Curler EH-SE60 VP (for those who want to know the model number) and Panasonic Face Steamer EH-SA31 VP. I think the VP in both product names is a colour code for the pink versions of the equipment, but I'm not sure what it stands for (very pink, perhaps?). In any case, this is the first time EVER I'm using an eyelash curler, as well as a face steamer, so I was a little bit worried when I first tried these - I was so scared that I would burn my eyelashes off, or else just scald my face! Fortunately all turned out well and I lived to tell the tale.
The Panasonic Eyelash Curler EH-SE60 VP is actually operated by battery - so one of the first things you'll have to do is to put in an AA-sized battery to get this little gadget working. The next thing that you'll need to do is actually take a read through the manual - I didn't at first, because it looked like such a small, simple piece of technology (it's the size of an electric toothbrush) so I thought I could figure it out on my own, but it turns out there are some safety measures built in so you can't just take it out and burn yourself, thankfully.
Inside the box, you get the Panasonic Eyelash Curler, a manual, and a little brush to help you clean the eyelash curler when it gets dirty (say, with mascara or general dirt and grime), as you can see in the photo above. In the photo below, I've disassembled the eyelash curler head for you. You can see the cap (in pink), the cleaning brush, and the main head with the heating rod. The little coiled cap is actually a piece of plastic insert that goes over the heating rod, and it serves two functions when you use it: 1) to catch your lashes and place them against the heating rod, and 2) to prevent you from burning your eye by accident.
So yes, the head below is what you use to curl your lashes. When you use it, it kinda feels like using mascara, except that instead of applying mascara liquid to your lashes, you're placing them against a heated coil to curl them up. But application-wise, you brush your lashes upwards while holding the eyelash curler, and hold the coil as close to the lashes as possible without touching your eyelid, just like mascara. You can actually rotate the heating coil with a button too, to help you curl those lashes even more.
So I know, you're wondering, what happened when I used the eyelash curler? Did I burn my eye? Singe my eyelash? Quiver with fear? Well, only the last one actually happened, sort of. In any case, I tried it out various ways - I tried using it alone, with eyelash curler, and in various directions of rotation, and without any rotation but just using the heated coil. And you can bet that I had to do that, because I have the most challenging set of lashes known to man - not only are they sparse and short, they are straight, and they point downwards, not even sideways or up like most people's. In fact, my lashes are so wimpy and puny that I'm fond of saying that I'm probably the most demanding mascara user on the planet (which I've said before in my mascara reviews here and here). So why wouldn't I be as picky when it came to lash curling?
After some experimentation, I found that the quickest way was to curl my lashes with a traditional eyelash curler, and then to reinforce that curl with the heated eyelash curler. I would apply mascara after that. Behold, the before and after. I've tried to take the photo of my eye from the same angle, but as you know it's a bit hard to make it exactly the same. Still, I hope you can see the difference. What you see below is just my bare lashes in both the before and after (if it's a bit hard to see my "before" lashes, it's because they're busy pointing down at the ground and refusing to be photographed). There is no application of mascara or anything - all I've done is curl my lashes.
Pretty good, right? Keep in mind that this is just curling only, even before mascara. For some reason, I find this combination with the traditional lash curler, and then the Panasonic eyelash curler works best. I found that the results were more moderated with just the heated lash curler only. But I quite like the combination of lash curling and then heating - I feel like it helps the curl to keep its shape for longer, and I think heating makes the curl look nicer than just plain ol' curling. But I'm probably splitting hairs (no pun intended) over here.
As you can see from the above and below photos, it did help my lashes to not point down. You can see the "before" lashes pointing down very clearly, and then in the "after" photos you can see they are pointing straight forward to the sides. That's maybe not exactly the OMGWOWBBQ kind of change some of the other users might get, but what can I say - my lashes are notoriously demanding and difficult, and this is pretty much an achievement as far as I'm concerned, and I'm not going to complain. I like the effect. Add on mascara, and you have me pretty happy. Panasonic says you can apply your false lashes and mascara before using their lash curler, but I'm a traditionalist and prefer to apply the mascara after.
Now that we've successfully NOT burned my eyelashes off (because OMG having no eyelashes would totally suck, in a first-world-problems kind of way), let's turn to something else that I can scald on a greater scale - my entire face!
Yes, this time I have the awesome Panasonic Face Steamer EH-SA31 VP. This little baby is surprisingly small and compact - I remember my mother's old style facial steamer, and maybe my imagination was rather fanciful as a kid, but I remember hers being some hulking piece of equipment with some sort of compartment in which you stuffed your face into. This is much smaller and more elegant. It has a little nozzle inside that shoots out steam into the air, and you place your face strategically in front of it (keep a distance of 20cm, or risk scalding yourself if you come too close), and let the good old steam do its work.
The Panasonic Face Steamer EH-SA 31 VP was actually very easy to use, and requires very little set-up time. After you've plugged the power plug into the socket, all you need to do is just pour clean distilled water into the water tank (you don't want to use mineral water or tap water, because it might have trace elements inside that could eventually build up on the insides of the steamer, and you also can't use essential oils), and flip the button switch from "0" to "1". After a few seconds, steam starts shooting out of the nozzle, and all you have to do is just relax in front of the nozzle. A full tank of water lasts for about 6 minutes, which is just a good amount of time to relax and ponder life's important questions (like, how fortunate am I to not have burnt off my eyelashes today?). You can even enhance your life-questions-pondering session, by making it a part of your cleansing routine, by applying applying cleanser to your face and then turning on the face steamer, letting it steam your face for 3 mins or so, and then washing it off.
Oh, and one last note - because too much steam can dry out your skin (it causes your face to sweat after all), it's always a good idea to apply some sort of moisturizer, or else get your skin wet again (e.g. if you're cleansing your face after steaming), after the entire skincare routine, especially if you're in a very dry climate.
Below, I've attempted to take a photo of the face steamer shooting out steam. I'm not sure if you can really see it (steam being transparent and all), but you can see a fine white mist shooting out of the nozzle, towards the top right corner of the photo? Yup, that's the steam trail.
So, how did it work? Actually, surprisingly well. At first, when I used it, I took before and after photos of my nose. I selected my nose because 1) it has huge, ugly, horrible pores, and because 2) I think a lot of the reason why people steam their face is to get their pores to open up and to remove debris, and goodness knows our noses have a lot of those. Initially, the difference wasn't visible to me at all, so although I took those photos out of a dutiful sense of blogger responsibility, I was like, "Gah, why am I taking these photos? I can't see any difference when I look in the mirror!" And I left it at that, thinking that worst come to worst, I could just say honestly in this review that there was no difference for me before and after steaming. And that wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary for me, because although I'm not really a super-famous Xiaxue-type celebrity blogger, I've been known to give products I didn't like bad reviews, and sometimes very bad ones at that. (If you don't believe me, you can read this classic post, or this one, or this memorable one - it probably doesn't really endear me to the PR people of those companies, but if you're a blogger and your currency is your reputation for accuracy and honesty, then that should always take priority, because readers can sniff out all sorts of shady things and leave pretty quickly.)
But then, that kind of changed when I actually started looking at the super-macro close-up before and after photos of my nose. Turns out, my nose pores were indeed cleaner in the photos I took after the steaming session than before, it's just that the changes were not really visible to my naked eye. (Isn't macro photography scary? And I'm not even using one of those fancy DSLR type cameras!) Look at the below (and please, try not to laugh at my horrible-looking nose):
The difference doesn't look that stark when you're looking at my entire right? It's a bit more obvious if you actually click on the actual image and see the difference in its full glory. Initially, in those full-nose photos, I didn't notice the difference either. Until I zoomed in for both the before and after photos, and then I saw that in the "before" photo, my nose had all these visible oil clogs and oil heads sticking out! OMG, it was a serious gross-out moment for me, but it was also pretty cool (in a gross way) to see all that dirt in there. And, in the after photo, those oil plugs are gone. There is still some residual blackehads and stuff in my pores, but hey, a 6-minute steaming session (where you spend half of the steaming session trying to take photos of your steamer in action) isn't going to change the world. I was impressed at the change in my nose after just one session, and I think that if used regularly, eventually you might see some visible improvement in your nose. Else, if you're like me, you could always take these close-up shots of your nose pores to see the changes for yourself:
So, what's my verdict on using these products? They aren't as scary as I thought they would be. Seriously. The fact that I didn't burn my lashes off using the Panasonic eyelash Curler EH-SE60 VP for the first time is not only a source of personal price (look ma, I'm not as clumsy as we thought!), but also a testament to the fact that the product is actually pretty safe, because I'm really quite a butterfingered type of person and I still managed to use this with care, to pretty good effect. The Panasonic Face Steamer EH-SA31 VP was also one that I felt was absolutely usable and easy to incorporate into everyday life - for one, it doesn't take up much space on a vanity table, and for another, it's really quick and easy to use. I can see myself using the Face Steamer on a fairly regular basis (say, every week with a face mask), without too much hassle or fuss. And, the results from the Face Steamer demonstrated that it was useful to my nose pores too. So there you go, my first foray into the world of beauty tools, and I made it out unscathed, and with curled lashes and clearer nose pores!
both products seem interesting, tho if i had to pick one it would be the face steamer but only cause i do not have eyelashes problem just curling them up and using mascara (my favorite being NYC ultimate lash in the navy color tube) give me enough that i do not even own or have worn false lashes, but i do have a seriously pores and debris issues, wondering if its $ worth it maybe a comparison between this product and the old fashion steam your face with hot water and blankets method would be good :P
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