Review: Sanrio Hello Kitty Curling Iron

*Note* Sparklebee.net sent me this item for free to review *end note*

Hey ladiess! My finals are FINALLY OVER UGH. It has truly been a grueling semester, but it's now time to relax. As for my plans, I'll be hanging out with my bestie and a whole TON of people that I met during Taiwan Camp <3 Lets review!

So I recently got the Sanrio Hello Kitty Ceramic Curling Iron to review. Let's put down some details from their website:

Amazingly gorgeous hair is yours with this smart Hello Kitty ceramic curling iron. Your hair goes glam with sleek and smooth curls as the iron adds body and bounce to any hair style. You'll love the 20 levels of precise heat settings to let you create any chic "do" easily and quickly. Iron in lovely fuchsia with fun Hello Kitty faces everywhere design.  

- 1" barrel
- Auto shut off
- Blinking LED ready signal
- On/Off button
- Chrome-plated built-in safety stand
- Extra-large thumb grip
- Tangle proof swivel cord
- 12.5" x 3.25" x 1.5"

First Looks: When I first opened it, I was like YAY! PInk! I love pink! Hello Kitty, not as much, but I can deal. This kind of is like the Heatherette collection by MAC or LimeCrime packaging in that it will be a hit or miss. Some people love pink and will love the design while others will be completely disgusted. I don't see a real in-between thing because it's kind of extreme. I mean, it's bright pink instead of the traditional silver and black. 

I also noticed that there is this smell that it gives off. Like the factory smell, but it's the "new curling iron smell"... not that I get that with any other appliance that I've used... The weight is light and I like how there is a black rubber grippy on the clampy part. It shows up as pink on the website. I will be linking you to sanrio where you can buy it at the very end. 

The clamp is pretty strong. Usually I like to put the hair in the iron, clamp, pull to the end of the hair to straighten and smooth and then curl. Don't try this because the clamp is really strong. It'll be tough to drag your hair through the iron. This is good because hair won't slip out while you're curling it and you get a good grip and it enables a tighter curl. 

Heating Times and Other Functions: I hate how there is no real "temperature" setting as in you can't tell what temperature it's at. There is this little wheel that you slide to set a "temperature". You tell the heat setting by looking at the little window. It goes from 1-15 (I think). I put it at 10. It heats up really quickly actually. It's like 1 minute... wow. uhm okay. cool. The tip gets hot so don't touch it. You can tell that it has heated up when the LED light quits blinking. 

Performance: It's not bad actually. Once it heats up, you get really nice curls. As long as you don't touch the wheel, you get a stable temperature. However it's really easy to move the wheel to change the temperature so you have to be careful. I hate that. I wish that the temperature setting was controlled by a clicky button instead. My curls are quite nice and I am pleased. 

Price: It retails at 39.99 and you can buy it here. Honestly, I'm really glad that I got it for free because I wouldn't pay 40 dollars for it. I feel like if I have 40 dollars, I'm going to Ulta and getting a Hot Tools curling iron instead. I mean when I have a coupon/sale. The performance is good but I still feel like if you're going to pay some medium-serious cash, get something that's tried and true. If this were 25-30 dollars, okay. I feel like it's more expensive than it should be because it's got Hello Kitty on it. 


Recommended: Yes for the Hello Kitty/Pink fanatic in your life. Or snag it if it goes on sale.

Review: I love my Croc (Nero)

OMG. I hope that you ladies didn't think that I was going to say that I loved Croc shoes. You know, those rubber shoes with holes in them? I don't understand how they could possibly be comfortable. They're rubber shoes. If you do like them, enlighten me please.

But, a few days ago, I bought a Turboion Croc NERO Titanium flat iron (pictured below in pink) at CVS. It retails there for 69.99. I had 2 five dollar off coupons to make it 59.99 or 60 dollars. It's expensive for a Croc Nero becuase I believe you can get these at Amazon for 40 dollars, but you do have to pay shipping. I wanted to get a Chi, but not enough money eh! Let's get on with the review.

Packaging: It comes in this plastic case which encloses the actual box. The box slides open to reveal the sleek black croc. The cord has this plastic thing that wraps around it to hold everything together. It's really useful becuase you shouldn't wrap the cord around the iron. It destroys it. Theres this little instruction manual inside thats like 3 pages. It shows how to iron hair, curl it, make flips. It also comes with a 1 year warrenty, however if this thing breaks in one year, it's really not worth the money you know? I expect my new iron to last for a few years.

Price: Again, at 70 dollars at CVS, its not too cheap. You can look for deals online though

Functions: This, I'm a bit iffy on. Let's just talk about the past first. First, my family bought me a cheap Vidal Sassoon Wet/Dry iron. It's pretty horrible, but I was in 7th grade. I didn't really use it much. However, as I got into hair, then I realized that after I used it, my hair was kinda puffy after. Also, when I slept, it would become unstraightened significantly. Why would I do it before I sleep? I don't have time in the morning to straighten my hair and do makeup. It took me 45 minutes, previously.

Now, this iron heats up to 430 degrees F. It doesnt really say how long it takes, but I estimate about a minute. Also, I hate how it doesnt have a temperature control. I mean, when I want to do touchups, I want to be able to set the iron to a lower temperature, because my hair isn't really wavy. Also, the plastic stuff around the plates get so hot. Ugh. I wonder how I'm not killing the thing. Therefore, you can't really hold the plates together at the tips. You don't need to do that though because the plates close nicely. The cord is uber long and it swivels!

Styles: I only really tried straightening and curling. Okay, whats up with those youtubers? They seem to be able to get thier hair nice and curly. I got a frizzy mess. I tried all methods and it's not working. I can't comment on the curling aspect at all becuase I'm pretty damn incompetent at that.

Before and After Pictures:

The pictures speak for themselves. Also, after I woke up the next morning, I only needed a minor touchup. Like I didn't even bother because I'm lazy. I apologize for my roots. UGH. I will be dyeing them next week. Do you want a post on that? Let me know!

Overall, I like this iron. I'm not going to be looking for another, but I don't think that I'll be buying this again purely becuase I want to upgrade to a FHI or GHD you know? I mean, this is assuming that I'll have saved enough money to get those irons. If i were a bit broke, I'd probably get this again.

Toodles