Shu Uemura eyelash curlers are, apparently, the gold standard of curlers and it is claimed that they are the favourite of make up artists and celebrities the world over. But are they really any better than the standard own brand pair offered by Boots? This week, I've tried both.
Shu Uemura
Most premium brand eyelash curlers (Bobbi Brown, Nars, Laura Mercier) are priced at around £15/£16 whereas Shu Uemura's eyelash curlers come in at a stonking £20. This was, I had to tell myself when parting with £20, a beauty "investment"/all in the name of research...
The product is nicely packaged with clear instructions on the reverse. It also has the Instyle Best Beauty Buys 2012 stamp on it which is helpful in convincing you, post-purchase, that it was money well spent. The sales assistant also pointed out that there was a spare silicon refil pad in the box.
Boots Own Brand
For £4.50, Boots own brand eyelash curlers look fairly decent.
The packaging is, as you would expect, pretty boring and no-frills. The spare refil pad is usefully clipped to one of the legs of the curlers.
The packaging is, as you would expect, pretty boring and no-frills. The spare refil pad is usefully clipped to one of the legs of the curlers.
The curlers compared
On first impressions, the Boots eyelash curlers seemed the better purchase. They're cheap, comfortable to hold and light.
In fact, I started to wonder what there was to recommend the Shu Uemura eyelash curlers over the Boots pair - until I tried them out.
In fact, I started to wonder what there was to recommend the Shu Uemura eyelash curlers over the Boots pair - until I tried them out.
My first gripe with the Boots eyelash curlers was their colour.
I'm fairly squeamish when it comes to eyes and when I was gingerly testing out the curlers, it was extremely anxious making not to be able to easy see how much (if any) of my dark brown lashes were being caught by the curlers as they were camouflaged by the black of the curlers. That said, this maybe wouldn't be such a problem if you have blonde lashes.
The next issue was that one of the corners on the top of Boots eyelash curlers was quite rough which was a bit off-putting. Because of the scratchy corner, it was difficult to get the curlers close to the root of the lashes.
By contrast, the Shu Uemura eyelash curlers were a real pleasure to use, even for a novice like me. It seemed much easier to get the head of the eyelash curler into the socket of my eye and the curlers rested comfortably across my eye when I was using them so that I was able to get most of my lashes curled at the same time. All in all, the Shu Uemura curlers were much easier to use and, crucially, much comfortable.
Accordingly to the Instyle comments I read online, basic eyelash curlers bend lashes rather than curl them so the USP of the Shu Uemura eyelash curlers seems to be that they actually curl the lashes. I couldn't really tell if the Shu Uemura eyelash curler produced a better curl to the lashes but because they were so much easier to use, I felt that all the lashes had been properly curled and my eyes looked much more open.
The verdict
Are Shu Uemura's eyelash curlers better than a simple own brand? In my opinion, yes! They are expensive but in their defence, they are extremely easy to use and comfortable which brings me back to where I started - good quality eyelash curlers are worth investing in; eyelash curlers which aren't comfortable and are tricky to use will probably just sit untouched in your make up bag.
But if Shu Uemura were to learn anything from Boots, I'd say it would be to have the spare silicon pad clipped on the eyelash curler somewhere so as to avoid the likelihood of losing it.
Where to buy?
Boots: http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Eyelash-Curler_1115303/
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