Stylfile Nipper Clipper review

When the opportunity came up to review Tom Pellereau’s Stylfile Nipper Clipper we jumped at the chance. Cutting babies nails was a huge dilemma for me when I had my first baby and despite asking all the nurses, midwives and health visitors for help, none of them were actually able to help me.

Some of them made suggestions like biting my babies nails (just as tricky) or cutting nails when they are asleep which is what we ended up having to do.

But as babies grow older, they sleep less and less and so we did need to tackle the dreaded nail cutting chore during waking time. Three babies on and I’m still no better at cutting nails and so this product seemed the perfect, long-awaited solution with its spy-hole to help you see what you are doing.

The free Timmy Tickle-Baby distraction app is designed to be used in conjunction with the Stylfile Nipper Clipper to help distract babies and toddlers and help keep them still. So we downloaded the app onto our iPad and we were all set to test out the Stylfile Nipper Clipper.

Here’s how we got on:

• The app is fantastic. T loved the octopus character on there and having seen her big brother playing on the iPad was very excited to have an app of her own to play with.

• I can’t say it helped her keep still though as she wanted to be touching the iPad the whole time – but it did keep her sat in one place and focused on the app rather than the nail clippers.

• The Nipper Clipper itself was bigger that I expected and I would say almost too big for babies and toddlers nails. It is similar in size to the adult clippers that we use on ourselves.

• The slicing action rather than the ‘ping’ you get with traditional clippers worked effectively on longer nails but I found it tricky to get a really close cut - Even with the spy hole it was still tricky to see that last little bit close to their fingertips.

There is no doubt that Tom Pellereau identified a very real need in inventing the Stylfile Nipper Clipper but to make it work for us it would need to have a smaller ‘head’, cut closer and be able to see much closer to the nail. 

On the positive side the Nipper Clipper is comfortable to use with the large orange end to hold onto, it has an effective ‘slice’ action rather than a ‘ping’, and it comes with a baby stylfile nail file to smooth baby’s nails after cutting. The distraction app is a great app in its own right and one that our little girl wants to go back to time and time again.

As we are reviewing a Tom Pellereau product, we can't let the opportunity pass of mentioning that he was our fave on 2011 Apprentice. It is one of the few programmes we watch and enjoy on TV and were thrilled that he won. We since discovered that he is also Bath Uni Alumni just like us!

I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Network Research Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity.

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