After seeing a Corioliss straightening iron demo in a mall, I was really impressed by what this little hot iron can do. Not only can it straighten the hair and leaves the hair shiny, by turning the iron at an angle while you are pulling it downward, you can create cute and perfect curls, loose curls if you pull quickly and tighter curls the slower you pull. I was also surprised at the price they quoted me (there was no price tag to begin with), they wanted $250 for one pink flat iron.

Of course, I didn't get one in the mall, and went straight to Ebay to search for the perfect straight iron. I have been reading a lot and found out the CHI irons are highly recommended, but also realized it means that you can't find a cheap one anywhere, even on Ebay. With this in mind, I bid on a no name brand (I think it's called JDL) seller that does not charge shipping, they seem to have tonnes of iron for sale at a very low starting bid, and I got mine for $18.50.  I thought that was a great deal as some other sellers charge just that much for shipping.

I received the iron within a week, it's a pink nice looking iron with ok quality, it heats up to 400 F in a few minutes, has a temperature control and a little LED screen showing the temperature. I tried it right away (setting the temperature to 360) on my hair, straightening it, it left my hair shiny and straight, just what I expected it to do. I was very happy with the result, better than any other non-professional irons I have bought in drugstores.

The next day, I tried to use the straightening iron to curl my hair, I tried to do what the Corioliss sale person was doing and found out it was not quite as easy as it seemed. I got some nice curls once in a while, some other ones just didn't look right, either too curly or too flat, I can see it will take a lot of practice to get it perfect.

Overall, I am very happy with the purchase, for what I paid, I don't expect it to last too long, I will wait and see what happens to this iron, I might purchase a fancy one for comparison's sake if this one dies, but I have a feeling that if an iron heats up to 400F and is of the ceramic material, it would't produce too bad a  result.