Europe: 230 v

Technically, an "outlet" is anywhere the wires are accessible from outside the wall. That can be a switch, a light fixture, or a receptacle, which is where you plug in appliances. In 1990 I was staying in a hotel in London and there was a receptacle next to the sink. I plugged in my dual voltage hair dryer and it didn't work. I checked the breaker box, and the breaker was for 5 amps (1200W at 240V). My hair dryer drew 1600W (6.7 amps) and had blown the breaker. My guess is that the regular wall receptacles are protected for less amps than your hair curler draws, and you are popping the wall breaker, but what you call a "shaver receptacle" is intended for hair dryers and can take more amps. Kind of like a 120v, 20 amp receptacle in kitchens in the U.S.

I'm really surprised by this Eileen. Usually the shaver socket is marked something like "For Shavers Only" and they expect very low amperage with a suitably very small fuse or breaker. Standard amperage on a normal wall socket is 13 amps, more than enough for a hair curler. Said curler should blow a 3 amp or 5 amp circuit instantly. Interesting question...

Eileen, All Shaver outlets are typically "current limited", often with transformer isolation, so I'm surprised your Hair Curler worked at all when connected to that outlet. I'm assuming from your post that you tried to connect the Curler to other outlets in the room, but it wouldn't work? If that's the case, it would be necessary to do some "troubleshooting" to explain that. Did other appliances work in the other outlets in the room? One possibility is that the Shaver outlet wasn't wired correctly? I've noticed that many places in Europe don't seem to follow the same conventions as dictated by the Electrical Code here. Normally, outlets within "arms reach" of a sink must be equipped with a GFCI, and that doesn't seem to be case in Europe.