Finishing Touch® Flawless in Review

It’s hard to miss a lot of the new-fangled gadgets on television these days and, as always, the main thing we find ourselves asking is, do they really work that well?

This certainly did occur to me when seeing commercials for the Finishing Touch^® Flawless facial hair remover.

So, in a never ending adventure to find ways to cut corners, or in this case, remove pesky facial hair, and provide potentially useful information to web followers, I bit the bullet and picked one up.

Price

 
Available from their online site at https://finishingtouchflawless.com for $19.99 plus shipping and handling (which is a whopping $5.99), the total purchase price comes out to $25.98.

NOTE: A $10 surcharge is added for orders sent to Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, US Virgin Islands and Alaska. Sales tax will be applied to orders from CA, CT, NJ, NV and WA.

Overall, that seemed a bit pricey.

However, bearing in mind that it actually does contain some amount of 18-Karat gold plating, that dulls a bit of the sting from the price right off.

As a side note: The Gold-Plated tip is a nice touch of bling and does possess anti-microbial properties.

This is a key fact other manufacturers should pick up on as detritus cells and remnants can cause and spread infections, and other metals can cause skin irritation.

You can avoid an additional $6 S&H in overhead by getting more than one, or by purchasing it directly from a participating retailer (AKA a local chain pharmacy or Walmart even) which is what I did.

The advantage to that approach is to see for yourself the selection of colors, and of course the instant gratification factor.

Ordering online also carries an arbitration requirement, which as a rule should generally be avoided unless you don’t like the idea of class actions in the event something goes terribly sideways with the product.

After looking over the selection of colors I went with a silver metallic looking one that had a very light copper-pink sheen to it.

To benefit the in-store pickup approach the obligatory refills are right there, with no extra charge.

So long as this thing is kept on the shelves, you are covered that way, and hopefully they will stay available online as a last resort.

However, I did notice that 2 pack refills were nearly the cost of the device at $12.95 making me figure they really should rethink their pricing model.

The Packaging

 
The packaging was fairly discrete and reasonably elegant – a mostly black cardboard box that could stand on the shelf or be hung on a display.

With a slightly metallic highlight on the key features, such as: ‘As seen on TV’, the product name “Flawless”, its intended purpose, “removes hair instantly and pain free,” and “18K gold plating”, along with framing the item in the bubble packed plastic insert, I had no doubts that this was the item I had seen advertised earlier.

More subtly it advanced the concepts “perfect for facial hair, gentle on all skin types, built in light.”

They further added a small unofficial “Dermatologist Approved” caduceus mark and the words “battery included” so as to hold back nothing.

A person could clearly see the item inside and, as previously mentioned, the colors available.

The working parts are covered and the battery is hidden from view.

The web site promotes it as a great gift.

More likely it is perhaps a stocking stuffer.

Continue reading for more on that.

The Product

 
Let me preface this section by mentioning this product was a 2018 Cosmopolitan Beauty Awards Winner.

Not too shabby, they must be very proud, but not so proud that they put it all over the box and, in a way, that’s appreciated.

The design is pretty straightforward.

Once the battery is installed you pretty much have a picture of how to use it.

The downside is that it is battery operated, in the days of rechargeable everything else.

The upside is, it doesn’t seem to drain batteries very fast.

So then there is putting it to use which is not complicated at all as it has peel off instructions on the side and bottom.

Slide the switch to turn on, use in a circular motion… clock-wise, counter clock-wise, does it matter?

They don’t really say.

Does It Work?

 
So then just turn it on, right?

Well no, by all means read the directions carefully.

The most important information is that the device is not to be used in, around or on anything wet.

That’s right, it is a dry shaving product.

Liquids of any shape or form could damage the workings unit, result in undesirable residues and present a shock hazard, among a number of other risk factors.

Ok, got it.

Let me just say this; what the device offers in discreet appearance is instantly lost to the sound.

It sounds like a toddler’s toy car, or more accurately a toy bug, it was pretty raucous, initially jarring, and eventually just tedious.

That is even before it makes contact with skin or hair, after which the sound is only slightly muffled and accompanied by irregular unpleasant sounds.

So the fact that it is advertised as something you take and use anywhere, that likely won’t be happening.

The light adds a slight advantage, which they advertise on the box as, “lets you see even the finest hairs.”

That too may be true, but that is not to say it can get rid of them.

This way and that way, that way and this… over and over, and back, and again around and around and around, some things, and I do mean hairs here, it just won’t remove.

If you are patient, take your time and go over areas repeatedly, intended results might be achieved, eventually, almost.

This unit may work in a pinch, for light caterpillar fuzz under the nose, longish side burn hairs or an errant chin wisp.

By no means does this device replace a good old-fashioned dermaplaning at a favored neighborhood spa or salon.

Not only that, but claims against redness are patently untrue.

Though the redness does go away fairly quickly and is by no means out-of-hand, such results may prove inconvenient, especially if handled on the fly as their recommended usage implies.

In terms of removing other unwanted body hair, you would need the patience of a saint, and the persistence of the almighty to get through that chore.

To start with, the surface area covered by a single pass is just too small, and likely has to be repeated, repeatedly, like a lot.

Eventually, the intended result may be achieved, but gosh oh golly, who has that kind of time?

To their benefit they do have a “Flawless Legs” hair removal tool available, which has 4 heads like the one on this unit, for about $60, however at the conclusion of this review, that device will probably not get reviewed on this site.

I am pretty convinced the problem with this thing overall is in the design of the tip, which happens to be “the secret” of their patent butterfly design.

The raised doughnut shape designed to lift hairs to be trimmed, leaves a lot to be missed, where generally vellus hairs have a tendency to lay flat across a surface by their very nature.

With continued practice and patience, better results might be achievable, but it is certainly not very simple right out-of-the-box.