Beauty: Irresistible Me Sapphire 8-in-1 curling wand review

Curling irons, man. I grew up with a mom who wasn't into makeup or hairstyling at all, so curling irons pretty much mystified me for much of my formative years. I was always envious of my curly and wavy haired classmates, though. My hair has always been fine and flat, unless I saturate it with a heavy dose of dry shampoo (ambrosia to my locks!), so any type of texture was good in my book. I even contemplated getting a perm, but I was too scared of incapable hairdressers to trust them with the future texture of my hair. Discovering rag curls, pin curls, hot rollers and curling irons in my 20s opened up a world of previously out of reach hairdos to me. 

After a long time of using my 25mm curling iron in the traditional way, with the clamp keeping the lock of hair in place, reading a blog post somewhere about converting a curling iron with a clamp to a curling wand by removing the clamp inspired me to use my curling iron a different way to create a looser, more natural wave without the kinks you can get from that darn clamp: I just ignored the clamp, wrapping strands of hair around the entire iron. Of course that technique isn't ideal, so I JUMPED at the opportunity when Irresistible Me offered to send me their Sapphire 8-in1 curling wand set for a review. I mean, who wouldn't??

It's not just that this was my first experience with a legit curling wand, I was also moonstruck by the EIGHT different shapes and sizes of wands. I figured that with this wand set, I was pretty much set (PUN INTENDED) for life, and I could finally try those tight curls of the small diameter wands, as well as the loose bouncy blowout result you get from using the largest barrel. Let me share my thoughts and opinions with you.

The Sapphire 8-in-1 curling wand has an easy to use click-in, click-out system to switch out the wands, and you twist the base to lock it into place for safety. The set comes in a faux leather pouch with separate compartments for all of the different components of the styling tool: the handle, a heat protective glove (which I don't use because I've gotten quite handy with the wand technique already and because I love living on the edge), eight tourmaline wands and the electric cord. It also comes with a heat protective stand to set your tool down while separating your hair for example. Since this is a US tool, you'll need an adapter to make it work with EU sockets. I already had an adapter lying around, but you can buy one of those for 10€ tops.You won't need a converter because the tool is dual voltage, making it compatible with electric networks worldwide.

The wand allows you to set your heat anywhere up to 230°C or 450°F, the entire package is quite light weight for basically containing 8 curling irons, and all of it comes in a high quality box with magnetic closure which is ideal for storage. Even better: the wand comes with an auto-shut-off function, which is great for those extra forgetful curling afficionados out there.

When you start up the iron, the display shows the temperature in Fahrenheit, but pressing down the arrow button to the right of the ON/OFF button switches the display to Celsius. It reaches its target heat super quickly, I don't think it takes more than 30 seconds to reach 180°C, which is the top heat I use.

Apart from all of that info, you are probably most interested in peeping some pics of me demonstrating the wand! Let me just tell you that I loved using it. It's easy (takes me about half an hour to do all of my hair), high quality, my hair does not feel dry or damaged afterwards (I do use my Kerastase l'Incroyable Blowdry with it!) and I had lovely curl, wave and texture for three days. Here is a look at what two of the 8 curling wands do for my locks.

The 25mm wand is pretty much the most versatile out there and if you only get one iron, I'd advise you to get this one. But the 18/9mm wand really stole my heart. I never thought my hair would ever look like this, nor that I would love it this much! I felt like a bohemian goddess with my wild curls which only got better looking as they got messier and more voluminous during the day. On the second day, they gave me perfect beachy waves, and on the third my hair had shape and body to it that it normally does not have. I don't like using heat tools on my hair too often, so I used the clip in extensions I had lying around to demo the type of curl you get from all 8 wands.

From left to right, the pearl wand gives you natural, irregular curls; the 32mm gives loose curls which start drooping quite quickly so that you're not left with curls as much as bouncy, voluminous hair; the 13mm is perfect for ringlets or that romantic 90s look on the likes of Mariah Carey or Kerri Russel; the 25mm is the best if you want gorgeous waves (brush them out for Veronica Lake hair!); the 25/13 is a good one to create volume on top with playful ends; the 19mm is best for the angelic look rocked by Kate Hudson as Penny Lane in Almost Famous; 13/25mm gives you volume from your base to your ends, and the 18/9mm is the best if you want your hair to have texture for many days, each day being a bit different from the last.

This set isn't cheap, but I think it's 100% worth its price at $199/€179 (with free international shipping!) for the range of wands you get, especially since a decent individual iron easily sets you back €35. I had to pay about €50 import taxes though, which kind of sucks, but that's the luck of the draw since they don't check every parcel at customs. Amazon has them discounted to $159, but they don't ship to Belgium so you'd have to go via a website like Shipito.

Let me know if you have any questions!

EDIT: this curling iron sadly broke down after about 8 uses and I haven't heard back from the company to get it fixed. So if you buy this iron, as much as I love it and as much as I notice the curls lasting so much longer, I can't give it my full support anymore.