Carmen 14466 Andrew Collinge

Unfortunately my hair could be classed as being slightly wild and out of control, which is rather embarrassing to me however these Carmen ‘Andrew Collinge’ straightening irons have really helped me to almost look normal! I have owned these for a good two years now and I clearly remember paying a mere £9.99 for these in the Morrisons Supermarket, they are currently priced £18.65 on Amazon and I believe that this price is still very reasonable considering the overall quality of these straighteners.

~~~ A bit about the Carmen ‘Andrew Collinge’ 14466 straighteners ~~~

These straighteners are a nice and slim design with a fancy LCD screen on the top to show the temperature settings and to indicate that the straighteners are switched on. The straightener has 10 different heat settings of which are chosen by using the two arrow buttons next to the LCD screen at the user’s discretion. The straighteners have an impressive quick warm up of only 30 seconds and the Tourmaline coated heating plates are quickly up to temperature and ready for use, the plates are also slightly curved to allow flicks in certain hair styles – Anyway, enough of me blabbing, do these work??

~~~ Using the straighteners ~~~

The straighteners are easily turned on by holding the green button on the top and the LCD screen powers on and automatically sets the straighteners to the lowest heat setting, I find it very easy to change the temperature with the buttons on the top and I find that 210 degree’s works best on my hair. The straighteners are fully warmed up and ready for use well within the 30 seconds that the manufacturer quotes and with over two years of daily use, they still impress me! The top temperature of these is 230 degree’s which should technically be hot enough to sort out some of the wildest hair around, mine is classed as slightly wild and the lower high setting sorts it easily.

I find that these work much better with dry hair, I have tried these on wet hair but hot steam is thrown everywhere and the straightening effect is not fabulous but they are not made for wet hair after all, so I shall not complain about that. The Tourmaline plates glide effortlessly over my hair without any breakage or damage to my hair whatsoever, the straighteners have an instant effect on dry hair but I find that I sometimes have to go over an area twice for full effect but overall they work extremely well. During my straightening sessions I find these extremely easy to hold and they fit easily in both my left and right hands, they are easy to open and close and not much effort is needed to straighten my hair. I do however sometimes find myself in awkward positions as the power lead is not extremely long but they never seem to be on products like these, the lead is just about long enough for me to straighten while standing but I’m a good 6ft4 which could explain the slight lack of cord length.

The straighteners apparently have curved heating plates that allow you to add a flick to the end of hair, I have used this feature by accident when I twist them towards the end of my hair and I have ended up with a funny looking flick. I went out a few days back looking like a tea cosy and it was slightly embarrassing but I had to try the flick feature. In the right hands I believe that this feature could be very handy with certain styles and it definitely works, I’m not too skilled with these and I always look an idiot when I experiment but hey ho…

~~~ Reliability / durability / safety ~~~

In all honesty, I’m surprised that these straightening irons still work 100% after putting up with my negligence over the years. These have travelled the world being chucked into a suitcase, dropped onto tile and wooden floors, been accidentally left on for a long time (There’s a special feature here – I’ll come onto it in a minute) and they still work with no issues or signs of breakage at all. They are truly extremely well built and they feel solid in my hand during use, I cannot fault the reliability at all.

Now straighteners are sometimes seen to be dangerous in a household, mainly from people leaving them on unattended but Carmen have though this problem through. I find that if I leave the straighteners on for a long period of time from being temporarily distracted that they turn themselves off, this is usually after roughly 60 minutes which in my opinion is a very good feature. I no longer drive off to work wondering ‘Did I turn those straighteners off this morning?’, it’s a great feature that probably all other straighteners in the world have but my set before these certainly did not! There are other good safety features with these, such as the small and thing straightening plates minimise burning and accidental ‘Ear torture’ as I call it – when you accidentally catch your ear between the plates, I have not done this once with these and it used to be a daily occurrence!

~~~ My overall opinion ~~~

As you can probably tell, I love these straighteners and I have no plans of changing them in the near future. They have so far lasted me two years and I believe that they will easily go on strong for another two years or even longer, I may have just cursed myself but I know that they won’t let me down. They are very easy to use and they straighten as they should, I’m also very happy with the price that I paid at the time and I would happily pay more after experiencing the power of Andrew Collinge! I’m happy to say that they are extremely good value for money and in all honesty, they are worth every penny!

I recommend these highly!