In Spenny vs Penny we compare the products we love, with those following in their (sometimes pricey) footsteps. Are they worth the cash? Here, we try to find the best tweezers, seeing how the cheaper versions compare to posh(er) Tweezerman.
Spenny: Tweezerman Slant Tweezers, Boots, £21.95
Give a person the right tweezers and they’ll conquer the world (and their facial hair)... But which tweezers should we be spending our hard-earned cash on?
Tasked with trying out three cheaper tweezer options and comparing them with my beloved neon pink Tweezermans, I was pretty sure that nothing could possibly measure up.
Retailing at £21.95, Tweezerman tweezers are definitely on the spenny side, but I like the fact they provide a precision pluck – they make grabbing onto hairs a doddle and are easy to grip onto (a must when you’re about to pull a wad of hair from your face).
In some circles they’re considered to be the holy grail of eyebrow plucking, but when you can get tweezers for as cheap as £2, is it actually worth spending more than 10 times that for a decent set, or do the less expensive versions actually compare reasonably well? I was tasked with finding out.
Penny: Professional Tweezers, Superdrug, £1.99
These come with a little rubber band to keep the tweezers together, which is a nice touch for a product that’s so cheap. The handles are made from a smooth, matte metal as are the tips, which feels very similar to the Tweezermans. However when I come to pluck away at my eyebrow hairs (which have a good two months of growth) the tips of the tweezers are quite thick, so it’s hard to latch on.
The tweezers are good for pulling out multiple hairs but not so ideal for precision – it was really hard to get the odd straggler. That said, once you’ve managed to patiently track down a group of rogue hairs and position the tweezers to pull them out, they do get a good grip on them and with a flick of the wrist, out they come away fairly painlessly.
Generally, the handles were quite stiff which meant it was a real hand workout to clamp down on hairs. They do the trick if you’re not so bothered about the odd hair being left behind, but all in all I found it to be a laborious process. With these, you really do get what you pay for.
Penny: Precision Grip Slanted Tweezers, Boots, £3.80
Initially I’m a bit thrown by the rubber handles on the Boots tweezers and then I notice that they’re curved... WTF? While I have no doubt the curve has been introduced for ergonomic reasons my hands just don’t seem to be able to deal with it for a good few minutes. The tweezers feel weird to hold and it’s initially quite difficult to clamp down onto hairs with.
At first I don’t really know if there’s much precision – which is pretty awkward seeing as they’re called ‘precision slant tweezers’ – but actually the hairs pull out quite easily and without pain, probably the least painful of all the ones I tried. It’s also easy to grab hold of smaller, more fiddly hairs too.
The edges feel fairly clunky compared to what I’m used to but still precise when pulling out solo hairs. If you can get over the weird shape and texture then the payoff is worth it.
Penny(ish): Mavala Oblique Tweezers - Gold Tip, LookFantastic, £6.85
These feel like proper fancy pants tweezers and, according to the packaging, they come with a lifetime guarantee, which definitely appeals to my needy side – these are tweezers that are going to stick by me for life.
It’s definitely more like a traditional tweezer as it is completely metal with very fine, gold tips. There’s a bit of grip to them but not as much as the others so it’s quite hard to hold the handles without them slipping.
That said, the tweezer ends are thin, precise and slightly curved (as opposed to the straight harsh edges on the other tweezers) and it’s very easy to find the longer, thicker hairs and pluck them out with very little pain. It almost feels like a luxurious experience.
I like that it makes plucking a fast and easy process. The one downside is that it’s quite hard to grab the smaller hairs. I think the Boots tweezers would be a lot better for that.
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