I ordered the Braun Silk-epil5 5180 from Amazon.com for less than $65. It was the green one and is for legs only but I think it can still work for underarms and other body hair.
I've read terrifying reviews on epilators so I was very skeptical and quite scared of trying it. I finally mustered up the courage to order one. It was mostly due to the fact that I was annoyed with shaving every single week and having the hair start to grow back within just a couple of days. I mean I felt stubble on like the 2nd day after shaving -___-.
So before my epilating experience, after I would shave and some hairs would grow back, I would grab a tweezer and start plucking. It hurt a little but I guess this feeling helped prepare me for what the epilator might feel like except 40 times more since this Braun one has 40 tweezers.
So details on the epilator: it's green, has 2 settings (soft and optimal) and both settings turn on the smartlight. There's 40 tweezers on this baby and the box comes with an ice glove, 2 attachment caps (the dual massage system and the EfficiencyPro cap), a small brush cleaner, a charger, and a white pouch. This epilator is not cordless or rechargeable, it must be connected to the charger to work. When on, the epilator's head will rotate and the tweezers, which are all around, will start to pick up the hairs.
My experience: I only used this on my legs and I must say I was surprised at how unpainful it was. I mean yeah it hurt a little here and there but it was not so bad (or as bad as I had thought or anticipated from other reviews). It was tolerable. The smartlight was so so so helpful! You can see every single hair when it's illuminated. Also it may sound scary to come with an ICE GLOVE but I think it is just used to stimulate the hairs. I haven't used it though so I can't say.
So after I plug in the charger, I set the epilator to the optimal (or high) setting. I start from my ankles and work my way up. Running it gently (you don't have to push it so hard up against your skin, just have it touching your skin) a couple strokes at a time. The smartlight helps you spot hairs that it might've missed and would usually pick it up the second time. So after that, I would run my hands across my legs to feel where it might not be as smooth and just run that section over again. So yes, it it very time consuming and not a quick fix like shaving but I believe your legs would stay smoother and for a longer period of time with epilating.
I'd say the knees were the most difficult. You don't have to worry about razor scars anymore but that doesn't mean the epilator won't cut your skin. When I started on the back of my knees, I made the huge mistake of not stretching out my legs so the skin there would be tighter. So what happened was that the epilator's tweezers took hold of my skin. It didn't bleed but it did hurt like hell and turn really really red. So word of advice: Hold your skin taut while epilating and keep your legs straight when working on the back of your knees!
The verdict: I am really happy with the results and I totally recommend this to people who don't like the short-term results with shaving or the messiness with waxing. What are you waiting for girls? Go get yourself one and rock those smooth legs before the summer ends!
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