Review: The Nipper Clipper

When I was asked if I'd like to review a new style of nail clipper for children, I jumped at the chance.

Ever since an unfortunate incident at Christmas where I ended up cutting the top of S's thumb, I've felt like the world's worst mother, and been scared to cut her nails. Her nails get longer and longer, and only when they start to really dig in while I'm feeding her, do I relent and attempt a trim.

The selling point of the Nipper Clipper is that it has a hole in the top, so that you can see the child's nail. I have to admit that, for me, this didn't make a blind bit of difference. Perhaps I'm cutting S's nails kak-handed, and we'd have less trouble if I was doing it in a way that required use of this window. Or (more likely) perhaps that window will be of more use to us when she is older and understands the concept of staying still for nail clipping a little more. At the moment though, it's more of a ninja expedition.

The Nipper Clipper also comes with a clever distraction device. There's one of those clever barcodey thingies on the box which you scan with your iPhone, and hey presto, you have an app which will distract and entertain your child while you merrily clip away. I don't have an iPhone, so for the purposes of this review we enrolled a friend. Said friend has kept the app on her phone, and plans to use it at nail clipping time at her house.

Another thing I like about this clipper is the design of the actual clipper part of it. You know when you clip nails, and they ping off all over the room, only to embed themselves in your heel in the middle of the night as you get up for a wee? These ones don't ping your nails. I took a photo and everything to show you:

See how the blades are slightly slanted? Now look at the clipper you usually use. They're not slanted, are they?

When you push down to clip the nail, these bad boys actually gradually cut across the nail, rather than clipping it all in one go. The result is that it can take a bit of getting used to on grown-up nails (yeah, I tried it on my own nails, what of it!), but also that you have a nice neat pile of discarded nails to pop in the bin at the end of it, instead of Russian Roulette on your way across the bedroom.

The Nipper Clipper also comes with a cute S-shaped nail file, which means you can cut the nails across, and deal with the sharp corners in a much more agreeable fashion. S didn't mind the file half as much as she hates all nail clippers. And its shape makes it easier to use - why they don't think of these things for adult nail files, I don't know. Luckily, I can "borrow" S's one...

The Nipper Clipper costs £9.99 and is available from several shops (mostly online) at the moment. I'm sure it will be on the high street proper soon though, as it is pretty cool. I was thinking, "ooh, £9.99, that's a bit steep..." until I remembered I paid about that for the nail clippers we have at the moment, which didn't come with a nail file or a clever distraction app, and managed to remove the top of my daughter's thumb at Christmas. So it probably actually is good value for money on that front. Especially if you value the tips of your children's fingers, your plaster budget, and your eardrums.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a Nipper Clipper free for the purposes of this review, but that was not dependent on my writing a favourable review. All opinions (and confessions about missing thumb tips) are all my own.