review: nume curl jam set - fashionista flat iron

hi all. so all the way back in march, i ordered the nume curl jam set. i had a coupon, and paid $74+12ship ($86) on top for this set. well, when i ordered it, it was major back ordered and didn't actually arrive until the later part of may. to my surprise, they included a free thermal pouch and their moisturizing shampoo & conditioner in my package (see review of those here).

when i first ordered this set, i was torn between the curl jam set and the 4play. i decided on this set because there was an extra barrel in the 4play that was an "ok, whatever" to me (the reverse 9-13mm) and the curl jam had a flat iron and only the three barrels. the flat iron in this set was originally intended to be my chi's replacement (see post here), but it took forever to arrive and i've decided that i'm just going to keep one here and one at the in-law's so i don't have to worry about bringing one back and forth whenever i want to straighten my hair.

i haven't finished testing out the tri-effect wand yet, but i wanted to get this up here, since you can purchase the fashionista flat iron separately anyway. so, on to the review! ~Lin-chan ^.~

update 8/1/14: i still have not worked on my post for the tri-effect wand. know that my curl jam set is from march 2013 and that they have since changed the design of this set.

fashionista flat iron:

• the design of the temperature setting on this is horrible. the lowest setting is 140°F and the highest is 410°F, but it doesn't have an easily viewable line as to indicate temperature milestones (it's a tapered thin to thick line), so you can just flip the wheel to whatever setting and just run with it: it's somewhere between 140° and 410°! also, unlike my one 'n only argan heat flat iron, the temperature wheel doesn't lock in place, so if you inadvertently move it, it will change the temperature. pending on how you hold the flat iron, it's not likely that you'll hit the temperature wheel, but not impossible. also, the flat iron has two LED lights inside, a green and a red. both lights will light up when you turn it on. when the iron is at your desired temperature, the green LED will shut off, leaving the red on.
• i don't particularly like how this iron doesn't stay consistently hot. i feel like when i first start using it, it's great, but then about four strands later, it's cooled down to where the green LED is back on. it's kind of annoying because my argan heat iron seems to maintain consistent heat until i'm finished using it. i feel like i'm wasting more time using this iron because i'm waiting for it to heat back up again.
• the plates seem particularly fond of my heat protectant. i feel like i have to clean them off after every use because they accumulate quite a bit of residue. blehhh.
• overall: not impressed, it's only ok.