Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler review: Air-powered curling that doesn’t cost the world

In the world of automatic hair stylers, those that use the Coanda effect are a real luxury, and the Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler is by far the most affordable on the market right now. It comes with six different styling attachments, providing great versatility for multiple styles, and some impressive statistics.

Impressive on paper doesn’t always measure up to reality, though, so I was excited to test out the Aeris Multi-Styler to see how well it performed against its competition. In my testing, I was blown away by how effective the hair curling was, as well as the smooth results I was able to achieve with the blow-dry brushes. It seems Beauty Works has finally made a multi-styler that can truly rival the curling power of the Dyson Airwrap, at a fraction of the price.

Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler review: What you need to know

Multi-stylers have recently gained popularity as a convenient and versatile alternative to traditional hair dryers, blow-dry brushes and airflow curling irons. These innovative styling tools use hot air to style damp hair at low temperatures. In the short term, this cuts the time needed to style hair down significantly, as there’s no need to dry hair completely before going in to add curls or straighten. With long-term use, the reduced temperatures of many multi-stylers lead to healthier, stronger hair compared to hair styled using traditional heated tools.

The most costly multi-stylers are those that curl hair using the Coanda effect. This is an effect that causes air blown along a surface to “stick” to that surface – hence why hair appears to automatically wrap itself around the barrel of an airflow curler. The Dyson Airwrap took the hair styling world by storm when it was first released in 2018, being the first airflow curler to hit the market. In our full Dyson Airwrap review, we found that it created gorgeous soft curls from wet hair, reducing the time needed for styling. The only catch was its hefty £480 price tag.

The Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler was released in October 2023 and is the second direct competitor to the Dyson Airwrap, after the Shark FlexStyle in 2022. It’s the cheapest of the bunch, retailing at £220 compared to £300 for the FlexStyle. With such a significant price difference, I was sceptical as to how well the Beauty Works Aeris would perform.

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Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler review: Price and competition

The Beauty Works Aeris multi-styler retails at £220 and is easily the best-value option if you’re dead set on having Coanda-effect curling. Its results in our tests were mostly as good as the results we had when testing the Dyson Airwrap. Here’s a rundown of its direct competition.

If you’ve got the cash for it, the Dyson Airwrap (£480) is the best blow dryer you can buy for smoothing the hair. As well as having curling attachments, its brushes use directional airflow that push hair in one direction to more effectively smooth flyaways and frizz. Bear in mind that this multi-styler doesn’t come with a large blow-dry brush or a diffuser – these are available to buy separately on Dyson’s website for an additional £30. Alternatively, the Shark FlexStyle (£300) is easily the best airflow curling multi-styler for people who have curly or wavy hair. It comes with a diffuser attachment that has extendable prongs, as well as a large oval blow-dry brush for smoothing down hair and adding volume. This model only has one size of curling barrel, though.

Despite its comparatively low cost, £220 is still a lot to spend on a hair-styling tool. If you’re looking for a multi-styler that will give you bouncy blow dries, there are many far more affordable hot brushes on the market. For example, the BaByliss Hydro Fusion 4-in-1 hair dryer brush (£80) has various blow-drying attachments and a far more reasonable price if you’re willing to skip the curling option. Alternatively, the Revlon One Step Multi Styler (£75) is a fantastic multi-styler that also has a curling tong attachment. For a true budget option, consider the original Revlon One Step (£42), which is a simple hot brush that leaves hair voluminous, shiny and bouncy.

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Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler review: Design and key features

The main body of the Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler uses the same pearlescent white and rose gold plastic casing as the Aeris hair dryer. Its build quality feels sturdy and its diameter is small enough to fit comfortably in the hand. The attachments slot securely into place on the top of the device using a twist and lock system, and the air is filtered through the base of the styler. Like other stylers, this means that the filter needs to be cleaned regularly. This is an easy process on the Aeris styler: simply unscrew the plastic cover on the filter and give the area a wipe with a clean, dry cloth.

The Aeris Multi-Styler also uses the same 1,200W digital motor that’s found in the Aeris hair dryer. This might not sound like much, but in our tests we measured wind speeds of up to 26.8m/sec, which is 4.3m/sec faster than the Dyson Airwrap and measures up to far more powerful hair dryers we’ve tested.

For all that power, there are three speed settings, three heat settings and an additional cold shot. To control them, you simply use the four buttons on the base of the styler. The setting in use is displayed on the digital screen located directly above the buttons, which turns on when you press and hold the power button.

It has a generous 2.5m long cable, which feels durable and thick. Unfortunately, it’s not a swivel cord, which means the cord gets twisted around when doing a curly blowout. This can easily be remedied by turning the styler back the other way after styling, but it makes the device feel clunkier in use than its more expensive counterparts.

In terms of attachments, however, the Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler has the most impressive range we’ve seen. It comes with six attachments, including one hair dryer, one paddle-style hair brush, two sizes of vari-directional hair curling wands and two different-sized blow dry brushes. Sadly, no diffuser attachments have been announced at the time of writing.

The Coanda-effect curling attachments are strikingly similar to those included in the second generation of the Dyson Airwrap. There’s a long, thin barrel for tighter curls and a shorter fat barrel for creating big bouncy curls. Both of these can blow the hair in both directions around the barrel – simply turn the knob on the end of the barrel to choose the direction you want.

Unlike the Airwrap, you also get two blow-dry brushes included in the set. The thin round brush can be used to create more dramatic curly blowouts, while the thick oval brush can be used to quickly create bouncy blow dries on long hair. The lack of swivel cord means this isn’t as easy as it could be, but the results are still impactful and it was useful to have this versatility.

Essentially, the Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler cherry-picks the best parts of the Dyson Airwrap and the Shark FlexStyle, producing a styler that offers every attachment most straight-haired people will use regularly. Those with curly hair will need to wait a little longer for a diffuser attachment to become available, though.

The package comes in an attractive white faux leather case, which neatly stores all the attachments and the body of the styler. You also get a handy drawstring travel bag for use on your travels.

Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler review: What’s it like to use?

Of course, impressive technical stats on paper are only part of the story – what really matters is how the Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler performs during everyday use. I tested the styler multiple times using each attachment, noting if they were easy to use, as well as how good and long-lasting the results were.

During my tests, I washed my hair as usual with a shampoo and conditioner and prepared it for styling using a heat protection spray. My hair dries straight and is on the long and thicker side, but I didn’t use any other styling products to avoid inconsistencies in my tests. Despite this, airflow curls have a strong tendency to drop out faster than hair that’s been curled using a traditional curling iron. That means you’ll likely need to use a styling mousse or hair spray to allow the curls to set in place and last for longer. Outside of testing, I have taken to using a strong-hold mousse with this type of curler.

Before using any of the brush or curling attachments, I always rough-dry my hair using the hair dryer attachment. This took a little longer than if I had used a purpose-built hair dryer, but this is typical of most multi-stylers and not a deal-breaker as it allowed me to dry my hair to a stylable level more precisely. It’s widely accepted that you’ll get the best results with Coanda-effect curling if your hair is around 80-90% dry.

Another bonus is that the Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler has a wider and more clearly defined range of temperature controls than its competition. While the Dyson Airwrap has two undefined heat settings and a cool shot, the Aeris Multi-Styler comes with an impressive three heat settings, ranging from 60° to 120°C. The temperature and speed settings are displayed clearly on the screen, and this array of functions gives you a great amount of control over your style.

Once my hair had dried slightly, I tested each curler, blow-dry brush and the paddle brush on separate occasions. Starting with the curlers, I found that the faster wind speeds on the Aeris made it easier for the curler to automatically wrap my hair around the barrel. Even when using slightly larger sections of hair, the Aeris could curl my hair with ease. After wrapping the hair around the curler using a high heat setting and the fastest wind speed, I used the Aeris Multi-Styler’s cool shot button to cool the hair. This step is integral to help set the curls in place and reduce the risk of them dropping. However, you need to press and hold the power button to switch off the curler between each curl and it can be difficult to hold down both buttons at the same time.

If you release the cool shot button to press the power button, hot air returns, defeating the object of using the cool shot. To solve this, you can either leave the curler running between each section or turn the temperature setting onto the cool setting rather than using the cool shot button. This isn’t a huge problem, just a tiny annoyance.

When testing the two blow-dry brush attachments, I found them both incredibly effective. The large oval brush comes with large plastic bristles as well as short, fine bristles to grip the hair and add tension for effective styling. I found it worked best for adding volume and movement to limp, flat hair. The thinner round brush can be used to create curlier blowouts. The only problem with this was that the placement of the buttons sometimes meant that I would accidentally press them and change the settings mid-way through styling. It would be better if the settings could be locked in place to avoid these accidental changes. Again, though, this is a minor problem that doesn’t materially change the styling results.

The final attachment to test was the smoothing paddle brush, which is essentially a paddle brush with gaps at the base of the bristles for the hot air to escape from. This was the simplest of all the attachments to use, as you just turn the brush on and run it down the lengths of the hair like a normal hair brush. This is designed to have a smoothing effect, which worked most effectively to straighten and smooth out wavy hair. While it’s not as good at smoothing the hair as the Dyson’s directional airflow paddle brushes, it was still good at smoothing out texture, which was particularly useful to do before going in with the airflow curlers.

In all cases, the styles I created with the Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler lasted all day, with the curls in particular dropping out to resemble a smooth bouncy blowout by the second day. Considering the fact that I didn’t use any hair spray to set the styles, that’s an impressive result that rivals most good curling irons.

Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler review: Verdict

The Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler is easily the best-value airflow curler on the market. Its attachments offer a fabulous amount of versatility, with a wide range of heat settings that provide lasting results. At just £220, its results were strikingly similar to those produced by the Dyson Airwrap. So, if you’ve been eyeing up an airflow curling multi-styler but have been put off by the exorbitant cost, the Beauty Works Aeris Multi-Styler is a ridiculously easy recommendation.

Overall, it’s a cost-effective and capable choice for those seeking an all-in-one hair styler. That being said, if you want the best smoothing paddle brush attachments or a diffuser, check out the Dyson Airwrap or the Shark FlexStyle.

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