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

.Mia.

Okay, I will use this thread to post my progress. Are photos allowed?

I don't think I'll use both machines on my legs (Tria is just toooo small) but I might try one on each armpit (if my friend doesn't mind!).

I think I will be buying the Boots PLUS this weekend and hopefully will have my first treatment sometime this coming week.

I have a date on Wednesday, so I was thinking of shaving my legs on Tuesday and zapping Wednesday night when I get back.

Edit: I really don't know what to think about the Lumea - it just seems like a waste of time and money to me.

londonsurrey

Re having access to both machines. Excellent!

If you do use a mirror, remember - look in mirror to position machine head,
then turn head away from mirror, close eyes
THEN zap.

As for the timetable for shaving-date-zap, that's very elegantly efficient

.Mia.

Oh, I just re-read my post... when I offered photos, I was referring to leg/under arm photos - I'll keep the bikini line ones to myself, don't want to offend anyone!!

londonsurrey

*collapsed in giggles* :rotfl:

londonsurrey

BTW, when I first started doing my bikini line, the hair was very dense, and the individual hairs were very thick. This meant that because I hadn't yet discovered the gel-on-zapper-head trick, it was a bit heavy going, painwise and just getting-used-to-it-wise.

So I took it easy, and started with the edges of the bikini line. In other words, I was going for a smaller triangle of hair, rather than a full Brazilian initially.

bluejulie

I have just e-mailed Boots and asked for my money back as I'm really unhappy with the results.
I'll keep you updated!

.Mia.

It's been a long time, I apologise! What with the riots in London, I wasn't able to get home at a decent time for much of that week and even when I did, I was too tired. So, here I am tonight catching up.

I did shave my legs before my date (had a lovely time) but unfortunately did not have the Boots machine. It was only the weekend after that I was able to buy it (I bought from a Boots shop and I have the big white case for it). So, I used it last Saturday. I did find myself losing patience quite fast with the recharge time, so I only ended up doing my left leg (but that's no bad thing, as I will be able to compare the difference between legs I guess) and I did a little bit of my bikini line too (more painful but not as painful as I expected).

The tips I read on this thread were very useful, but I don't think I saw this one: in the time that I was waiting for the flash to recharge, I was getting very bored (it is only a few seconds, but my tolerance is low!). So, I started to blow directly onto the lamp head while I was waiting - this seems to have made a really massive difference with my machine. I tested a few times by not blowing and the machine head was heating up so much that it was warm when it touched my skin (and the flashes were more painful too) but when I blew on the machine head for a few seconds it made a huge difference and kept the temperature low! I can count from 1 to 20 while the machine head charges back up (very impatient, I count very fast!) so I blew on the machine head until I'd counted to 10, then positioned, looked away and flashed. It gave me a good rhythm to work to, so I will do the same on my right leg this weekend.

So, it has been just under a week since my first attempt - no hairs have fallen out from their root as far as I can tell, but it may well be too soon. The pain wasn't too great and I've had no adverse reactions - let's just hope the intended reactions are forthcoming!!

snomys

I have invested in the new version, the Boots Smooth Skin Plus.
I am male, 34 years old, I have also bought one.
I started a blog to show my before, during and after results, to help people in deciding whether its worth purchasing or not.

See my blog here:
bootssmoothskinplus.blogspot.com

.Mia.

Well, the one thing I know for sure is that I do not have the discipline or the patience to do this every week! It has been quite a while since my last session, so today I made the effort to laser everything that needed lasering. I prepared by exfoliating and I noticed that quite a few hairs were coming out of my left leg (that I last lasered) quite freely. No such thing on the bikini line which I also had done. It took me about 4 hours to laser my legs (lower only), underarms and bikini line - there is no chance I can spend that sort of time every week or other week! I see my treatment taking a lot longer, but I will persevere - though it may be a while! I am definitely finding it helpful to blow on the head between zaps, but after 4 hours of this I was tired, a bit pale and had made my way through all the League of Gentlemen audio disks and a beer!

Not sure if this update is much use, hope it helps someone. I'll get back to you guys once I get my courage up for another session!

huppelkutje

I have only used mine three times but I am already noticing about 70% reduction in hair growth. I can't believe how well it appears to be working; I've gone from shaving once a day to once a week or less. I sat next to a desk fan because I did everything in one sitting which took 4 hours so the head got very hot. I held the handset next to the fan in-between zaps!

I was just wondering if it's ok to wet shave AFTER treatment or if I should stick to using my electric shaver...it appears that the hairs that are damaged aren't growing out and I'm worried that they will stay under the skin. At least if they're slightly above the surface I can remove them with tweezers.

I'm getting really good results but I think that's because the hairs are black. I'd like to do my 'sideburns' but I'm really scared the hair will grow back worse so I'm going to wait & see how the rest goes first!

I have the Plus and according to the skin tester my arms are type 5 so I will have to wait for my tan to fade before I tackle these! My knees are also type 5 but I used the machine on the number 4 setting and didn't have any bad reactions. The highest setting I have used so far is number 3 because I have vitiligo and I'm worried about new white patches appearing!