Customer Reviews
It does the job, but at the expense of massive discomfort 
2007-10-15
Tired of shaving everything frequently as well as being able to see the root of the hair beneath the skin, I figured I'd give this thing a shot. I had read other people's reviews, so I braced myself for some pain. WOW. Ok, I have several tattoos, and this thing hurt just as much or more than getting tattooed. I could almost feel my skin crawling as the tweezers yanked out hair after hair. I just kept telling myself "this is the 1st time, it's supposed to hurt a lot, it will get better, and the results will look better and last longer." Partially correct.
I wanted to remove all the hair from my body (I intensely dislike having hair on my body, and I enjoy the feeling of being smooth.) It took somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 or 5 hours to get the job done. I was left with bleeding follicles, bumps everywhere, and a whole hell of a lot of painful associations of this thing. I was looking forward to a few week's respite, but that was not to be. After a few days I noticed lots of missed hair, or new hair. I again told myself that's fine, because hair grows in different cycles, and I'll just have to hit it again. Another 3 hour session, and I seemed to have gotten everything. The pain was a bit less, but it still hurt. A LOT.
After that I fully expected to have approaching 3 weeks or so of nice smoothness with no shaving. Nope. After maybe 4 days or less, hair started to become noticeable again. I broke out with the Emjoi and went to town on it. Another 3 hours down the drain. More pain, more bleeding, more bumps, but smooth again. Three days later, the same thing. At this point I gave up.
A couple of further notes: you can't get this thing anywhere near your scrotum or penis. The pain is incredibly intense. I'd imagine for the women they probably can't get close to their labia either. Also, I had more in-grown hairs using this method of hair removal by *far* over shaving or sugaring. It was insane. My legs would itch and be irritated, and I had to dig all the hairs out one by one. I will never use this thing again. Back to the razor for me.
The bottom line:
- Takes way too long if you have a lot of hair to remove
- Incredibly painful
- Causes bleeding, bumps, and in-grown hair
- Results do not last anywhere near as long as advertised
Much better than shaving! 
2007-09-13
I just received this product today, and I decided I'd try it out. I took a nice warm bath and exfoliated my legs like the instructions said too. I plugged it in and turned it up to the slow speed - and it scared the living daylights out of me! Then I turned it up to the high speed and in the back of my mind I thought.. no way. Not doing this. I paced a while and thought about it, then decided to give it a go. I tried it first on my arm hairs and it really didn't hurt too bad. So, I went for my legs. Ouch! However, as I covered more and more skin, it got to be less a shock and more just a vibration. Yes, it didn't get all the hairs, but it got the coarse dark ones towards the end of my legs. I'm guessing as I use it more and more the hairs will get finer and there will be less of them. Yes, you do bleed a little and have some red bumps, and it is uncomfortable. However, it's better than shaving every other day or going to get waxed. Overall for the first time I am satisfied and would recommend this.. don't be scared to use it! It may sound intimidating.. but it's worth while. For my first epilator, I'd say things went well. =D
EXTREMELY Dissapointing! 
2007-09-08
I bought this product last year for its original price. I thought it would be a great solution to remove hair on different areas of my body. WRONG! This was the worst product I've ever tried. Not only was it excruciatingly painful (and I have a medium-high tolerance for pain), but it took several passes to remove the hair. Sometimes it wouldn't remove most of the hair, and quite often it would not remove the hair from the root, but just break it off. Thus, some hairs would grow back as quickly, if not QUICKER than shaving. Wasn't the motivation for buying this product to find a longer lasting, easier way of removing hair? Also, it caused me to bleed (which could be expected with PULLING ONE'S HAIR FROM THE ROOT!). I have this advice for any prospective buyers: DO NOT BUT THIS EPILATOR! I don't know why there aren't more negative reviews for this product, but there should be. If you buy the Emjoi OptiMini Epilator be prepared to have red skin and pain for hours, bleeding, and a feeling of dissapointment or anger. To remove unwanted, hair go to a waxing salon or buy a really good razor.
Works well; Short Product Life 
2007-09-03
I have used other epilators. What I liked about this one was the size and the contoured, dual opposed tweezers. I used it mostly for arm hair - fine, dark hair. The epilator easily removed it. I cannot imagine that the results last for SIX weeks for most people. You'd have to have a very small amount of blonde hair to get away with that.
I've used it on arms, legs, bikini line, and facial hair (that wasn't recommended). I have a lot of leg hair, and have experienced ingrown hairs when I've epilated my legs. Plus, it took way too long to epilate my legs - it's just easier to shave. I imagine if you had a SMALL amount of leg hair, the epilator would be fine for legs.
Yes, epilating is PAINFUL. Hey, it's pulling out hair. What do you expect?
My biggest complaint is that the unit is now broken simply from regular use. (I've had it a little over a year - past warranty.) A little part broke, and since I can't replace just the part, I have to replace the whole thing.
Best Epilator I've tried 2007-07-11
I have a tried a few different epilators and this is the best one by far. The shape is comfortable and can get in the harder-to-reach areas although the placement of the cord would be better on the very bottom rather than off-center. The two speeds are something that not many epilators have and are very useful for the different types of hair. Because the two heads are rotating in opposite directions it gets more ahirs than the other epilators I've had because it grabs hair that grows in any direction. The heads rotating in opposite directions also help pull the skin taut so it's less uncomfortable, but if you have loose skin or thin skin, please make sure to use your free hand to pull the skin more taut or you may be in for a painful surprise.
Like one person said, of course it's going to hurt a bit the first few times, it even hurts me if I don't do it for a very long time. You are, after all, pulling out each hair by the root and not just one by one, but you have 30 tweezers working all at once very quickly pulling the hairs. Let me tell you, even with the initial discomfort, it proves well worth it. After one or two times of going over my whole legs, the hair is so fine and soft that I had probably 1/4" of regrowth and you could see it was there, but you couldn't feel it! I have a problem with the hair on the back of my thighs and no matter how fresh the razor was or how much shave gel I used etc... I could never get a smooth result and it was embarassing. Using this epilator, I now have smooth thighs all-around and they stay that way!
Epilating dow take a long time to do a large area, but each time you do it, you have less hair, it hurts less, it's quicker, and soon you master thge technique that works best for you.
The only reason I gave this four stars instead of five is because I had one and my skin ended up getting caught while the tweezers were rotating. Now of course, that's not really the machines fault, but when that happened, the gears stripped and I tried desperately to contact the company to try and get a replacement head, but I have had absolutely NO response from them.
I've been very sad and *irritated* since I haven't had my epilator, but I shouldbe getting my new one in the mail in a couple days so I can finally give my skin a break and stop having ingrown hairs!
Emjoi OptiMini Epilator 2008-07-21
I have used another Emjoi epilator for a few years but got tired of buying batteries. This Emjoi is very gentle and removes the hair quickly without any pulling. My legs feel as smooth as if I'd used a razor. Hair grows back so fine that it isn't very noticeable. It's compact and comes with a storage pouch which is nice for travel and it has a long cord. I highly recommend this item.
Durabilty is it's biggest down fall 
2008-07-12
I've owned epilators since they were first introduced to the market. I've owned 3 of the Emjoi Optima's, (5 Emjoi's total) With all 3 Optima models, the rotating heads quit working. The 1 year warranty does not cover the cost of shipping the unit back to the vendor. In April, Customer Service required me to return the entire unit. They returned it with the original body and I suppose a new head. But the head has quit again, but I am out of warranty, and out of luck. Emjoi does not sell replacement parts. The motors also last about 1.5 years before dying. But I refuse to return to shaving.
Great for the price 2008-05-27
I bought this product a month ago and love it so far. I have done legs, arms and even armpits (though you must have a high pain threshold for this) and it works great and lasts way longer than shaving. The best part is not having to wake up every morning and shave!
Ladies this does not work don't buy it 2008-02-10
I decided to buy this epilator because it has dual heads and claims to remove more hair with them. It does not. I followed all the instructions and prepared before i used it with terrible results. It cuts most of the hair but it does not pull it out by the root. It is very painful and it gave me red blotches and all that without removing the hair from the root. I promptly returned it. Ladies do not waste your money or time.
Not Usual Emjoi Quality 2007-11-08
Emjoi AP-96 OptiMini Epilator
I am disappointed in model AP-96 Optimini Epilator. I have purchased several other Emji products,
all of which are great! But this one is not up to their usual standard. It pinches skin between the moving parts and the edge of the housing - occasionally, which can be painful.
