Picture the scene. It’s Monday, quarter to seven, and you’ve just groggily shuffled into the bathroom to wash yourself into working-week adequacy. But then you step in front of the mirror and, good god, the ghastly horror: you’ve five or six nose hairs dangling from your nostrils like Devil’s Snare reaching out to entangle Harry Potter in the Forbidden Forest. They’re like those big rope-pull doorbells that expansive estates have on TV; pull one and you’d expect the butler to arrive. Before now, you might’ve reached for the tweezers, and prepared yourself for the attendant sneezing fit after you pluck each of the buggers; but not now, my friend. You’ve prepared. You're ready to buy one of the best nose hair trimmers around.
Enter Philips’ Series 5000 Nose Trimmer, a handy little bargain-price bathroom gadget that’ll sort you for all of your morning grooming needs — without requiring yet another charging cable to stow under your sink, because this one’s battery-operated. There are no bells and whistles here, as you might find with more expensive grooming devices, like Philips’ popular grooming god, the OneBlade. This is your bog standard nose trimmer —which, with its variety of blade head options that arrive with it out of the box, can also chop away at your ear hairs, or detail your beard and barnet. But bog standard doesn’t mean bad; far from it.
Precision at a low price
The Philips Series 5000 Nose Trimmer is essentially an affordable Swiss army knife for your grooming needs. Each blade comes packaged with two heads — a rounded trimmer for your nose and ears, and a more conventional attachment for beard and hair detailing — plus a handy selection of adapters for your brows. In one device, then, you’re adequately covered for at least four follicle zones on your face; pretty brilliant value for a device that you can pick up for a third of the cost of a PS5 game.
I used the trimmer a half-dozen times across two and a half weeks, variously for trimming unsightly hairs and general touching up. The blades are uniformly comfortable, and precise, and don’t tug as you might expect from a cheaper product.
Philips Series 5000
For nose trimming, it’s simple: use the appropriate blade attachment and slowly circulate it inside each (clean) nostril, per Philips’ instructions. I did find that more stubborn strands — especially those coating the inside of my nostrils —required a touch of force, which isn’t recommended by Philips, but I found to do the job without any irritating knicks. But one should imagine that to be the case with any trimming appliance at this price point. I had a similarly comfortable experience with trimming my ear hairs.
The precision blade is impressive. I also own a OneBlade— my regular go-to device outside of reviewing the Series 5000 — and as far as trimming down my sideburns, I didn’t notice much of a difference in ease or exactitude. It’s not any better, but it’s certainly not any worse.
Grooming doesn’t get easier
Simplicity is king with the Series 5000, making everything easier, from clearing out the stubborn hairs in your nostrils to cleaning up the edges of your recent trim. It even comes with a Philips AA battery in the box (how benevolent of them!). You don’t have to be a grooming god to use it: it’d make a great filler present for your dad’s stocking, even.
This plug n’ play nature is a major selling point, making your morning routine that much more of a breeze. Notice your trim looking a bit shabby the night before work? No problem: just whack out the precision blade and give it a little zhuzh around the edges. And those perilous strands poking out of your nostrils? Well, they package it as a nose trimmer for a reason.
As someone who previously hadn’t coughed up the 30-to-40-odd quid for your typical nose trimmer — or bought a nose trimming head for my OneBlade — defaulting to the onerous process of one-by-one tweezer plucking, the Series 5000 made for a terrific bathroom upgrade. Though I was given a complimentary Series 5000 for the purpose of this review, I’d happily pay £30 for the ease it offers — especially if I didn’t own a OneBlade already.
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