Babyliss Miracurl / Perfect Curl Review

I was browsing Carousell the other day when I came across this preorder for the Babyliss Miracurl. I didn't know what it was at that time and I wasn't looking for any curling irons because they just don't work on me. But that might be because I don't know how to use them properly as well.

Well anyway, I was bored so I went into the page to take a look. And lo and behold, it was actually this really cool, fool-proof curling device.

What it does essentially was that you place a section of hair into the chamber, and it'll just suck your hair in, do its magic, and out comes curled hair. Sounds so effortless and fuss-free right?

It's actually called Babyliss Miracurl in US and comes in blue, and Babyliss Perfect Curl in UK and comes in black. There is a cheaper version (about 50 pounds cheaper) which came out later called the Babyliss Curl Secret (in dark purple). This version did basically the same thing but only has two toggles to adjust the temperature and duration. In other words, you won't be able to adjust the direction of the curls. This version is tauted to be the 3rd generation on qoo10, and is actually priced slightly higher at most stores, so do your research before buying.

I did some research and found that the authentic ones were selling for like 170 pounds, which will come to about $400 sgd if you include shipping and all.

That is crazy expensive.

The seller was asking for about $100 on carousell, but she says they are authentic. So I went online to do some research.

I finally ordered mine off qoo10, the Singapore equivalent of gmarket.

I ordered it on Friday and it arrived on Wednesday afternoon.

I don't think this is the real deal even though the seller claims that it's direct from the Babyliss factory in China. (In case you didn't know, even the real deal Babyliss Miracurl / Perfect Curl is manufactured in China). But given the price that I paid, of course I was already expecting that. Anyway if you do a search off taobao you'll see that there's a lot of 'miracurls/perfect curls' that looks exactly the same but under different brand names. But I mean, if the fake ones gets the job done at a fraction of the price, why not?

I found this powerpoint on slideshare and a video on youtube sharing some of the differences between the imitations and the authentic ones, and there were indeed some differences.

So I tried mine the night that got it. It was really fun to play with and really easy to use. There was a slight burning plastic smell from the device, but hey, at least the smell wasn't coming from my hair right.

On my first try, it actually looked quite ugly because I still haven't figured out how to use the thing. The hardest part was sectioning the hair and getting everything AND making it balance on both sides of my face.

It did get jammed a couple of times when I got lazy ans tried to squeeze in more hair in one go. But once it got jammed, the machine gives a warning and you can just release the hair. I didn't have to cut my hair off or anything like some of the other reviews online. My suggestion is that, when in doubt, just put in less hair and it'll be fine.

On my first try, I did my whole head in about 40 minutes I think. On my second try it only took about 25 mins, so with practice, I think I'll be able to manage under 15 minutes.

My gripe with the Babyliss Miracurl is that because of the small rotating barrel and the small section of hair that you can put in, the curls are actually quite small. I haven't been able to achieve the big beachwave curls just yet, but I've seen videos of people doing this. So I guess I need to do more experimentation.

I rebonded my hair just two weeks ago, but the curls were managed to hold better than I expected. Of course they weren't fresh and bouncy the whole night, but as time went on it kind of settled into a looser wave that still looked nice. And all this is done without any hair products. And once I wash my hair, the curls are washed out as well.

I don't know how the curling power compares to the real deal but I've read that for for some people, their curls could hold for the whole day, or even several days. But I honestly doubt this is possible with Singapore's humidity. Nevertheless, if you're only using it for a night out or special occasion, it will more than suffice.

This is a really useful device and I would suggest it for all curling iron noobs who can't operate them for nuts. If you're tight on cash like me, I suggest you check the the cheaper options first, then get the real thing if you want to. But for me, for now, I find the qoo10 version sufficient already.