I've been a devotee of GHD for many, many years, and though I've dabbled with other brands (Babyliss really excel in the straightening department) I've always returned to my trusty GHD's eventually. It takes a lot to tempt me away from this tried and tested tool, but somehow Cloud Nine managed it.
They haven't completely replaced GHD in my heart, but the fact that I turned to them ABOVE my GHD's for an important night out surely says something?
The Cloud Nine straighteners come beautifully packaged in a large presentation box, which makes it feel like you're opening a present. They nestle comfortably within the box, with a handy heat guard pressed over the plates. This is easily removable, but is quite useful when you want to pack them away without burning your fingers.
The straighteners are available in three sizes, and the Standard and wide model both come with a heat protection pad and a RFID chip to let you identify that your purchase is real.
There are heat settings to choose from, which you adjust by moving a slider button up and down to the different heats, unlike the GHD scroll wheel. The heat range is 100-200°, though unless you have very fine hair, you'll generally use the top setting. The black ceramic Ion plates are very ergonomic to hold, being slightly rounded at the sides to enable a firm grip. This also makes it ideal for creating curls in the hair, as it's easier to wrap hair around the contours.
I'm used to using wide plate GHD's and it felt a little strange at first to use a slimmer model, but they glided through the hair very comfortably with no snagging. The finish was extremely shiny and glossy, and I was impressed at how smooth my hair was after use. I have naturally wavy hair that can be quite difficult to tame, but these managed to straighten my locks without me needing to run it through more than twice. (The picture demonstrates the results after I'd been through the hair once- a major difference on all the curls).
The plates contain a slight pearl sparkle which are meant to imbue the hair with an extra sheen, but though I found my hair looked very shiny, I couldn't detect any pearlised elements to it.
The team behind Cloud Nine straighteners used to work on GHD, so it's clear they know what women require from their hair tools, and they've come up trumps with Cloud Nine straighteners. Easy and effective to use, they're now my straighteners of choice when creating complicated styles, as I find them fantastic for precision styling.
The battle is on!
£129.99 from Cloud Nine