Facing My Fears - Losing My Epilation Virginity With Philips Satin Soft

A little while ago I was sent three fabulous electrical items on behalf of electronics giant Philips, under the headline "Get Set For Summer" Although summer is now firmly on it's way out (did I hear the word frost mentioned the other day?) all three of the products including the fabulous Avance Juicer are things that you can use in your health and beauty routines all year round.

The next two product from Philips cover one of the less glamorous aspects of beauty - hair removal. I've said it before and I've said it again it one of the dullest and most time consuming tasks that we do - give me colour and sparkle over fighting the fuzz any day. I was kindly sent two products from Philips though to make this process a little easier - I will be reviewing the Philips Bikini Perfect Trimmer in a few weeks but today I'm going to start with the Philips Satin Soft Epilator.

I have to be honest and say that the thought of epilating terrified me - everyone I know who'd tried said and hurt like hell and was much more painful than waxing. Although I no longer find waxing that painful I stuck (haha) to my sticky strips, with the occasional pull of a razor or a slap of cream - no epilation wasn't for me, but when I offered the chance to try this I thought why not

The Philips Satin Soft Epilator Model HP6522/01 is specially designed for sensitive skin and it designed to be one of the most effective, painless and easy to use epilators on the market. It can be used wet or dry and comes complete with a battery charger and several interchangeable heads, and accessories.

As well as the epilator and charger you also get a storage bag, and a soft, exfoliating body brush. You get an epilator head with a roller attachment and an attachment to do smaller areas such as the bikini line.

Also included in the box is a  shaver head with an attachment to help you shave longer, and thicker hair and a cleaning brush. You also get full instructions, and an quick start guide to get you up and running.

For those of you how don't know epilators are basically lots of tiny tweezer heads that rotate and pull the hairs out from the root much like waxing. Using this method hair grows back much more slowly and finer.

To start use need to make sure that your skin is nice and smooth, so 24 hours before you use the product they advise that you use the body brush on areas that you want to treat - the brush is made of synthetic bristles and it feels nice and non scratchy on the skin. You then need to make sure that your epilator is full charged before you start - this took a couple of hours - it's not that easy to decipher but there is a light indicator that tells you when it's ready.

Then you sit or lie in whatever in the most comfortable position for yourself and holding the epilator at a 90 degree move it over the legs to remove the hair - how about some befores and afters :) (remember to click on the images to enlarge :)

Before

After 

Before

After 

As you can see it certainly did it's stuff, the hairs came off quickly and easily, and do you know what it didn't really hurt! Yes this is just my experience and I've waxed my legs since I was 17 so the hairs aren't really that strong any more, and your experience may well be different, but all I felt was a tiny tingle no more, no less, in fact I would even go so far as to say I find waxing is more painful as you seem to pull the skin more than what you do with this. As you can see you do get a bit of redness, and a bit of the plucked chicken look afterwards but again in my experience that's nothing that I haven't had before with waxing. I tried using this both dry and wet in the shower and I have to say I prefer to use this dry, using it wet just didn't seem to be as effective and it stung a little bit more. If your going to use it dry though I'd advise that you either sit or lie on either a towel or an old sheet, this didn't occur to me till afterwards, when I found my duvet was covered in thousands of little hairs lol where did I think they would go. I would also say that I found this to be slightly quicker than waxing too which is always a bonus and the results seem to be pretty long lasting too - 2.5 weeks after epilating and my legs are still pretty smooth and hairless.

I also tried the shaver head on my underarms and again I have to say I was pretty impressed, it did the job quickly and easily with no nicks and no pain. Again I tried it wet and dry and in the case I found it to a bit easier to do wet but it's horses for courses and it's great that you can use it either way.

My only worry apart from the pain with this was how easy it was to clean, well as well as getting a little cleaning brush for stubborn, you can also stick the heads under the tap - which did the trick in seconds, I just left it dry for a little while before popping it back into the storage bag.

As I said I was apprehensive when I received this but after a couple of uses I'm a total convert. I've just being thinking about how much I've forked out for wax strips, razors and so on, when I could have just bought one these. As I say everyone's pain levels are different but for this was relatively pain free, quick, easy and convenient - I'm officially hooked hair removal isn't glamorous but at least with this it isn't too big a chore. The Philips Satin Soft Epilator range retails at around £80 from several retailers including Boots.. Have you ever tried epilating? What did you think? and what's your hair removal method of choice? Let me know in the comments I love hearing what you have to say x

(The Philips Satin Soft Epilator Model HP6522/01 Was Provided For Review / Promotional Purposes)