CHOOSING CUTICLE NIPPER - [GERmaniküre] 5mm Cuticle Nipper | REVIEW

It's been a long time since I've done a review on anything nail art related, BUT! I'm making a nail care routine video right now, so here's a review for one of the tools I use in the video.

By the way, totally not realated, but I'm LOVING Britney's new album 'Glory', especially the 'Man on the Moon' track. It's so good. Check it out!! /*edit:clearly this post was started months ago lol. But I still love the album tho. Also, NOW blogger support emoji yaayy 💕😍, they added it on the dashboard 😆*//*2nd edit: lol the first edit was written months ago when I just discovered the emoji feature*/

Okay, let's get back on track. The review.

GERmaniküre 5mm Cuticle Nipper

I was emailed by Dave last February offering me to try the cuticle nipper and nail file from GERmaniküre. As I was actually looking for a cuticle nipper at the time (yes, I've been planning the nail care routine video for MONTHS! /*edit: more than a year now*/), I immediately looked for information about the brand because I've never heard about them before.

I was specifically looking for a good quality cuticle nipper with sharp blade and reliable material because it's used to cut (dead) skin around your nails after all, so it's better if it's sharp to prevent over-cutting, or worse, tear on your cuticle, which can lead to bleeding and infection (damn, imagining that hang nail tearing down gave an imaginary stinging on my nails).

Ever heard of the phrase "Dull knives are more dangerous than sharp ones"? Even though that phrase is for kitchen knife, I think it's applicable in cuticle nipper as well. Blunt nipper will just make you tug on your hang nail or dead skin really hard, which is just not safe.

Once I felt pretty confident that it's a quality product (they're a German company btw) and not those generic cheaply made ones, I agreed to give them a try.

I've had this nipper and the nail file for SIX months /*edit: 9 months now*//*2nd edit: 11 months now lol. Now you know how long it takes me to write a single blog post* 😂/, so I guess now is about the time that I review them (the nail file review is coming up in the next couple of days).

Like all my reviews, I'm gonna start with the basic information:

• Handcrafted in Solingen, Germany
• Made of surgical steel from Sweden
• Jaw length available in 3mm, 5mm, 7mm, and 9mm
• Jaw shape available in standard, tapered, and tower point
• Exclusively available at Zamberg.com
• Retails for US$37.95 (the 5mm standard jaw I'm reviewing). Full price list HERE.

Another thing worth mentioning here is that GERmaniküre is against forced/child labor, so their products are guaranteed free from unethical workmanship.

With that basic info out of the way, let's get into the nitty gritty.

MATERIAL

GERmaniküre cuticle nipper is made of High Carbon Stainless Steel, also called Surgical Steel. I'm not gonna try to explain what surgical steel is in my own words 'cause that's probably gonna be confusing af, but here's a quote from this website:

Stainless steel is an alloy that contains 10.5% or more of chromium (Cr) and iron (Fe) in excess of 50%. Chromium is the element that makes stainless steel so resistant to stains.
Carbon steel has a good edge when sharpened properly and regularly, and it is a much harder material for using in knife construction. Carbon steel knives corrode more easily and need to be oiled on a regular basis.
High carbon stainless steel is a metal alloy containing relatively high amounts of carbon. When you combine carbon steel and stainless steel to get high carbon stainless steel you get the best of each alloy. This steel is resistant to rust or staining, it’s very hard, and holds an edge with minimal maintenance. It is generally thought of as a higher quality stainless steel alloy.

Think of surgical steel as the best of both world. It's hard and holds its sharpness well like carbon steel, but it's also stain resistant, like stainless steel. As far as I know, at the time of this blog post is being written, GERmaniküre is the ONLY brand that uses this material for its cuticle nipper!

Here's a comparison to another cuticle nipper I bought from Althea (not sure, but I think the brand is called It's My).

You can clearly see the difference in the quality. To be fair, the price of the GERmaniküre nipper is almost 10x to the other one, but it means that the extra cost goes into the quality, not some gimmicky shit.

FEATURES

I'm gonna show you some features that's worth considering when purchasing a cuticle nipper!

Double-Spring & Beveled Joint

This nipper has double-spring, which gives it a smoother and frictionless squeeze (HERE's an example of a single-spring nipper if you're not familiar with it), while the beveled joint works to reduce friction as well. Less friction means less wear and tear, so the nipper can last for years without being jammed. I can definitely vouch for the oh-so-smooth squeeze, it's super easy get control over of the area I want to cut because of this.

Here's a great video if you're not sure what are joint types, spring types, jaw lengths, etc and their differences:

*yes, I realized I made a typo in writing "disassemble", so just pretend I typed it correctly ok 😅*

Disassembly
You can disassemble the spring for easy cleaning and lubrication. I admit though, having to disassemble it everytime I want to store the nipper becomes a bit mundane to me, or maybe that's just me being a lazyass lol 'cos really it only takes 2secs to disassemble, but I still feel lazy to do it.

Leather Case
I love love love the case. It makes the nipper look chic 😍. Vanity aside, the case also makes it easier to travel with, as the sharp blade is safely protected inside the case, so I don't have to worry that the blade might scratch other things inside my bag.

Oh! And they said that the leather is also dehumidifying and wick away condensation, which I assume can make this nipper even more rust-proof.

Crush Stopper
Probably one of the most essential feature to look for in my opinion (other than material). You see how there's this tiny gap between the sharpened edges? It's a nifty little feature, because if you over-squeeze a cuticle nipper and the sharpened edges meet and firmly pressed against each other, it will dull the nipper overtime. So what crush stopper handle does is it basically prevents you from over-squeezing the blade by only permitting the nipper to close just far enough to cut cuticle tissue, thus the sharpened edges barely touch each other and stay sharp longer. I first thought that I won't be able to cut my cuticle and other bits (like striping tape, etc) because of the gap, but it actually works just fine since the gap is really small.

I put together this quick video to show you just HOW SHARP this cuticle nipper is! (I did double-fold in this video, but the nipper is able to handle until 4-FOLDS, that's 16 LAYERS of +/- 48gr PAPERS people 😱 - tho I don't recommend you to use it to cut paper at all 😅 )

I've had this nipper for 11 months now and it still looks and feels as good as the first time I used it, grip and squeeze smooth as ever, and the sharpness stays the same too (I just tested it again using paper lol. DON'T do this please, it's meant to be used to cut cuticle, so I think using it on paper -multiple layers too at that- over and over again is gonna dull the blade a bit. If you die die have to prove the sharpness, then do it just once or twice).

PRO:

• Quality build and material

• Long-lasting

• Crazy sharp

• Nice grip and smooth squeeze

CON:

• Only available online

• The only other con I can think of is the price point, which admittedly is on the expensive side. Think of it as an investment 'cos this nipper will last you YEARS and only require rare sharpening (I haven't needed to sharpen mine so far after almost a year. I'll update this post when I need to sharpen it, but that's probably still way way down the line).

Here's the LINK to this nipper I'm reviewing. There are other types of nipper available too with different jaw length and shape.

Hope this blog post helps you guys in knowing what to look for in a cuticle nipper!


FTC Disclaimer: The Germaniküre cuticle nipper was sent to me to try. However, I'm not compensated nor obligated to make this review blog post. None of the links are affiliate. I simply write this blog post to share with you a quality cuticle nipper available in the market, and to share what I've learnt to look for in a cuticle nipper.