Anyone tried Boots 'Smooth Skin' home IPL hair reduction system yet?

RebekahR

HanSpan wrote: »

I wondered about a few practical aspects I'm having issues with and how others have got round them (or of course if its just me!)

Bikini line - I've pretty much left this alone for years with nothing more than a minor trim as anything else gives me monster spots from ingrowing hairs. Before the first treatment I shaved and then thoroughly regretted it - itchy! When I then came to do it again I had spots. The instructions say not to do with acne but what about the odd spot? As they are red I wonder if I should leave them be or dot on some white?

Nipples - how on earth do you cover them? I tried cutting out circular labels but, apart from the fact my blue peter skills are rubbish, even when I got a circle the right sort of size it really didn't work as they aren't flat. I've got a white nail pencil (couldn't find an eyeliner) but I could be here for weeks colouring in so I resorted to white eyeshadow mixed with vaseline. It sort of worked but it was very messy. I'm actually wondering about getting some of that complete sunscreen white cream - like surfers wear on their noses - although I haven't found anywhere to buy it yet. What does anyone else do?

Armpits - I haven't even tried these yet as the contortions to get to the bits I have done are bad enough. Do you all do your own or get some helpful person to do it for you?

I must say one unexpected bonus is the amusement the process is giving my other half - me wandering round the house half naked with blobs of various white goo tests, followed by lots of ouchy squeaks is giving him a great deal of entertainment.

I have spots on my face I am doing my chin. Was so desperate to be rid of the hair i've ignored the spots tbh and just got on with it. Doesn't seem to have done my any damage. Shave your bikini line with an electric razor then you dont get the spots as its not as close a shave.This is the only way I can remove hair from y upper thighs and bikini line! There is nothing worse than that itch. My skin is so sensitive there the exfoliate every day thing does nothing to help.
Armpits pretty easty tbh once you get in the swing of it.
Nipples - cardboard. cut put a small rectangular peice say 3x2 inches. Hold over nipple to see rough size. Then cut round shapes round all corners. 2 can be tiny ones jsut to get the sharp edges off :eek: ouch lol. And the other 2 round to about the middle of the card so they meet as 2 1 big round edge. Hold against nipple - this will only cover 1 part say the top part. Make sure that the areola is covered but the card not overlapping where you hairs are if you need to trim the card down a little then do. Then as you do the treatment. Gel up all round the outside of the nipple. then place the card of the top part all covered - zap - move the card to the right - zap - move the card to the bottom - zap and then the last part and done.

That may make no sense whatsoever! If it doesnt i'll take a photo or 2!

Katie-Kat-Kins

HanSpan wrote: »

I wondered about a few practical aspects I'm having issues with and how others have got round them (or of course if its just me!)

Bikini line - I've pretty much left this alone for years with nothing more than a minor trim as anything else gives me monster spots from ingrowing hairs. Before the first treatment I shaved and then thoroughly regretted it - itchy! When I then came to do it again I had spots. The instructions say not to do with acne but what about the odd spot? As they are red I wonder if I should leave them be or dot on some white?

Nipples - how on earth do you cover them? I tried cutting out circular labels but, apart from the fact my blue peter skills are rubbish, even when I got a circle the right sort of size it really didn't work as they aren't flat. I've got a white nail pencil (couldn't find an eyeliner) but I could be here for weeks colouring in so I resorted to white eyeshadow mixed with vaseline. It sort of worked but it was very messy. I'm actually wondering about getting some of that complete sunscreen white cream - like surfers wear on their noses - although I haven't found anywhere to buy it yet. What does anyone else do?

Armpits - I haven't even tried these yet as the contortions to get to the bits I have done are bad enough. Do you all do your own or get some helpful person to do it for you?

I must say one unexpected bonus is the amusement the process is giving my other half - me wandering round the house half naked with blobs of various white goo tests, followed by lots of ouchy squeaks is giving him a great deal of entertainment.

Hi there, I find my armpits are the easiest bits to do, easy to see what you are doing. I just raise the arm I am treating, slather on the gel, hold the handset in the opposite hand and blast away. If you are struggling try a different handgrip on the handset.

I use several ways of holding it depending upon where I am treating, holding the handset either vertically or horizontally.
- Holding it sort of like a knife and using index finger on the button
- Holding it like you would pick up a saucepan handle and using thumb on the button

These work best for most areas but experiment a bit too, occasionally I hold it by the "wrong end" to get into hard to reach places!

I haven't done round my nipples so have no experience of this, but can't you hold the sticker in place with your free hand so it doesn't lift up?? Or could you make the stickers conical? Cut a round sticker and the cut a slot into it along the radius and overlap it to get the right shape, like those eye stickers for sunbeds.

Hope that makes sense!

Katie-Kat-Kins

Oh and if you can't shave your bikini line the BSS will work with closely trimmed hairs so get the scissors out!

All_eBayed_Out

Around the nipples you could use a lightly damp round cotton wool pad, cut to size and it will stick to the gel.

HanSpan

RebekahR wrote: »

Thank you very very much for this. Right ok I shall start doing this now twice a week. I'm getting married in September and desperately want to be rid of this face hair. So it does actually work then? It just takes a long time?

I can't tell you it will actually work - I still have telegraph pole like hairs in my chin and see lots of people on here having chin problems (that looks ever so strange written down), nor can I say if using twice a week will be safe given the instructions are not to use more than one a week. I can only tell you I plan to take the risk with my own chin as its driving me MAD!

HanSpan

RebekahR wrote: »

I have spots on my face I am doing my chin. Was so desperate to be rid of the hair i've ignored the spots tbh and just got on with it. Doesn't seem to have done my any damage.

Right - I'm off to zap that chin again.

Shave your bikini line with an electric razor then you dont get the spots as its not as close a shave.This is the only way I can remove hair from y upper thighs and bikini line! There is nothing worse than that itch. My skin is so sensitive there the exfoliate every day thing does nothing to help.

I did it with an electric razor and still got spots and itching. I have a bikini trimmer but it doesn't relly get them less than 2mm so its back to the scissors - just have to make sure not to snip holes in myself (again!).

Nipples - cardboard. cut put a small rectangular peice say 3x2 inches. Hold over nipple to see rough size. Then cut round shapes round all corners. 2 can be tiny ones jsut to get the sharp edges off :eek: ouch lol. And the other 2 round to about the middle of the card so they meet as 2 1 big round edge. Hold against nipple - this will only cover 1 part say the top part. Make sure that the areola is covered but the card not overlapping where you hairs are if you need to trim the card down a little then do. Then as you do the treatment. Gel up all round the outside of the nipple. then place the card of the top part all covered - zap - move the card to the right - zap - move the card to the bottom - zap and then the last part and done.

That may make no sense whatsoever! If it doesnt i'll take a photo or 2!

Oh dear - nearly spat my tea over the keyboard
If it weren't for the fact this is completely public it would be great to have a visual message board - just the idea of pictures of us all contorted into stupid shapes, with bits of nonsense stuck to us and white pencil blobs all over, will keep me amused all morning!

HanSpan

KatP wrote: »

Oh and if you can't shave your bikini line the BSS will work with closely trimmed hairs so get the scissors out!

Did that last time - cackhandedly snipped at least one little hole in myself. I can see a pair of rounded end scissors will have to be added to the rapidly growing pile of strange accessories for my BSS.

HanSpan

All_eBayed_Out wrote: »

Around the nipples you could use a lightly damp round cotton wool pad, cut to size and it will stick to the gel.

Oh dear - that's made me chuckle even more. Sod's law says I'll just get to that stage and the postman will ring the door bell! Actually sounds like a good idea though so that will be next on the list after painting fetching dots over my face to cover the freckles and stabbing myself in the groin with scissors.
Even if the hair doesn't go that fast the amusement from this thread will keep me going!

RebekahR

HanSpan wrote: »

Oh dear - nearly spat my tea over the keyboard
If it weren't for the fact this is completely public it would be great to have a visual message board - just the idea of pictures of us all contorted into stupid shapes, with bits of nonsense stuck to us and white pencil blobs all over, will keep me amused all morning!

I actually thought the same whilst I was writing it! I mean are we all bleeding mad?! They didn't care about being hairy in the olden days. What's with us? :rotfl:The world's gone bonkers. Paying hundreds for this machine that fries us. Why not stick our gel on and go and sit in the sun :rotfl:Get a tan whilst we are at it.

Lizzy

HanSpan wrote: »

I can't tell you it will actually work - I still have telegraph pole like hairs in my chin and see lots of people on here having chin problems (that looks ever so strange written down), nor can I say if using twice a week will be safe given the instructions are not to use more than one a week. I can only tell you I plan to take the risk with my own chin as its driving me MAD!

Hi there I have said on one of my earlier posts to pluck a few out from the chin or lip (those telegraph pole one's). Check the colour to make sure they are dark. Thats what I did with two hairs kept zapping with the others and one of the plucked ones never grew back, the other grew back much softer and because I have plucked it again it has not yet returned. So it has either worked or the growth is much slower.

As I said previously its worth a try if you are not getting anywhere. Do it on a patch where you can easily count whats going on. Or just pluck one side and shave the other whilst of course still zapping. I zapped about twice a week.

For some strange reason the ones I was shaving got thicker than ever before. I thought it was because I had caramalised em :eek:. It was a big suprise that they have not come back after plucking.

Good luck