Can the Nori Press Convert a Steamer Diehard? Honest Nori Press Review

I had the opportunity to try the Nori Press steam iron, but thought it would be more helpful to read an honest Nori Press review from a non-influencer. I reached out in the Wardrobe Oxygen community for a member to receive the Nori Press and provide their honest, unfiltered thoughts. Is this social media-famous mini clothing iron worth it? From dozens who applied, I chose Hally Spiller, and her Nori Press review is below.

Can the Nori Press Convert a Steamer Diehard? Honest Nori Press Review

by Hally Spiller

When Alison reached out asking for someone to review the Instagram-ad-famous Nori Press, I couldn’t email her fast enough. 

I am in many ways its perfect customer: I’m Instagram ad-prone; I live in the Southeast and gravitate to many wrinkly fabrics like linen; I work a hybrid schedule with three days a week in a business casual setting; I’m a mom with a young kid and not a lot of time; and I can’t resist an appliance in a pop of color.

The Nori team knows this, as I’ve been seeing Nori Press ads for months. This handheld press looks a lot like a flat iron hair straightener, with its two plates and clamp. But its bright colors and promises of “not your grandma’s iron” felt like something fresh.

What Is the Nori Press?

The Nori Press is marketed as a handheld steam-iron that eliminates the need for an ironing board. Its biggest selling points are its “travel-ready design” and its ability to “iron and steam in half the time.”

I was also interested in its dual plate design, which promises to iron both the front and back of your garment at the same time, eliminating the need to flip your garment and work on its reverse side.

It’s a patented design that hopes to sway you from an old-fashioned iron or clunky steamer. Plus: it’s cute. Unlike your everyday garment de-wrinkler, the Nori Press is available in candy-colored hues like lavender, pink, blue and green, as well as navy and white.

I once had a Gen Z coworker who used a hair straightener on her clothes to tackle wrinkles (I promptly gifted her a steamer). It makes sense, then, that the Nori company’s founders, a pair of young women who were college roommates, have shared their college days of relying on their handy hair straightener to address wrinkles. With that history in mind, it’s clear by looking at the Nori Press the hair straightener’s influence on its design.

First Impressions of the Nori Press

The Nori Press comes in a box that matches the color you selected—in my case, a minty green box for my minty green Nori. It’s a nice detail, and overall, the packaging feels like a luxury product. But the box hints at my initial first impression: this device is large.

The Nori Press is significantly larger than I imagined it to be, as evidenced by the comparison photos with my hand, my old hair straightener and my current Conair clothing steamer. 

I do not travel with my steamer because of its clunky size, and was hoping the Nori Press would become a go-to travel item. However, while significantly lighter, the Nori Press is notably longer than my steamer. It does not have a lock function to “lock” it closed, so its arms remain wide open, making it potentially awkward to pack (though it could be held shut when pressed into your suitcase with a bunch of other items, and Nori of course sells a travel case to store it). It’s like a pair of tongs that always jam in your utensil drawer. 

I can imagine some people traveling with their Nori Press, but for me, it’s highly unlikely to be worth making room in my carry-on.

Other first impressions earn points for its streamlined design. It’s intuitive to use, with just three buttons on the side—Power, Fabric, and Steam. Unlike the large tank of a steamer, the Nori has a small fill hole and reservoir built seamlessly into one arm, which promises up to 10 minutes of steaming time. And there is a small leather-like cord holder attached to the cord to help organize it when not in use.

Operating the Nori Press

Operating the Nori is fairly simple: plug it in and turn it on. The fabric settings will rotate in a little screen on the top, and you click the “Fabric” button to select the fabric you’ll be ironing. The options are: poly, silk, wool, denim, cotton, linen.

Once selected, the fabric setting will flash as it’s heating up, then stop flashing when it’s hot enough for that setting. I found these ranges to vary significantly but generally under a minute—9 seconds for polyester, 29 for denim, 52 for linen.

From there, you go about ironing as you normally would, sans ironing board. Nori recommends you hang your clothes while using the device and pull your garment tight with your free hand to create tension.

To steam, you add water to the reservoir, then select your fabric setting and click the steam button. The instructions that come with it recommend you use their Nori Fabric Facial product or distilled water, but the website mentions tap water, which, let’s be honest, is the no-frills option most of us make do with.

The Nori Press vs. the Steamer: A Comparison

Like any modern consumer who bows down to the era of influencers and Insta ads, I’m always hoping I’ve just found the bigger, better thing that will change the way I live. That being said, for me, the Nori Press had some real competition: I’m a steamer person.

If you’ve used a handheld clothing steamer before, you might’ve experienced the delight of a “first-time steamer user,” where you go into a frenzy, steaming all your clothes as you watch wrinkles melt away. This happened to me after I experienced a steamer among a group of bridesmaids getting ready for a wedding—I immediately got one for myself.

That same steamer, nearly a decade old, is the one in the size comparison photo of the Nori seen above. My steamer still works great, though steaming has evolved into a once-a-week chore before the work week and not a miraculous moment of modern technology.

So the Nori had to do two things for me: live up to its selling points, and beat out my steamer.

Does the Nori Press Actually Work?

I tried the Nori Press on a crumpled pair of jeans, a deeply wrinkled Boden cotton button-down, a Universal Standard “better than silk” polyester top, and a Universal Standard stretch linen button-down. 

The Nori does remove wrinkles across fabrics, and I found the iron and steam functions to perform about the same. However, I found it needed several passes across the material and wasn’t good at fully eliminating wrinkles. 

The Nori Press pointy nose is helpful on collars, but the overly large design can make it hard to get at the fine lines around chest pockets and plackets. I hang my clothes on a standalone clothing rack, and realized that without the pressure of an ironing board or the tension of hanging it on a door or a more stable surface, it was hard to get the right tension to press the wrinkles out. 

Most of all, the Nori Press is cumbersome. It’s a big tool and almost difficult to use with one hand, especially when you’re using your other hand to hold the garment. I found myself wishing for a locking mechanism that would hold the plates closed as I maneuvered it down the fabric, like modern stick vacuums have. My hand muscles were cramping from holding the clamped position for such a long time. And I was so focused on getting the front wrinkle-free I didn’t feel much quality assurance that the back of the garment was looking any better.

I needed the Nori Press to make getting wrinkles out easier and faster than before, as well as be a travel-friendly solution. Instead, it felt like it required patience, practice and hand strength, and would be too big for me to consider packing. In short, it made me long for my steamer.

Verdict: Is the Nori Press Worth It?

If you’re currently using a heavy iron and ironing board, or default to a hair straightener to do your de-wrinkling, the Nori Press may be worth it to you. It’s a definite upgrade from those methods and cute to look at. But at $120 (currently on sale for $96), it’s a pricey way to press your clothes.

But if you’re a grown-ass woman who wants to have wrinkle-free clothes quickly and without your hand cramping, try a handheld clothing steamer. Usually $70 or under, they get the job done with ease. I’ll continue to gift them to the girls graduating from hair straighteners.

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