Beauty gadgets you would not buy again

mrshippy

oh wow I am glad to read it's not just me that the laser hair removal systems didn't work on. I thought my leg hair had super powers after 6 months of trying to kill it!

faerielight

battery operated blue light teeth whitener didn't make any more difference than the whitening stuff alone, foot spas .. way too heavy and not powerful to massage. homedics back massager, too hard and dug into my spine

FBaby

GHDs - they work but there are far cheaper alternatives that do the job just as well

Would certainly disagree with this! I have gone through so many hairstraightners, anything up to £50 and never managed to get the look when I came out of my haidresser. I finally decided to invest on an expensive one (cloud 9 as it is, even better than GHD and I can't beleive the difference!

I have thick curly hair that looks like a mess naturally. I have to wash my hair every day, and every morning, it took at least 15 minutes to just about avoid the wild look. Now I have the proper stuff and I could kick myself for not getting it earlier! 5 mns max and I look normal! I have had many compliments on my hair since so people have noticed!

30 seconds to get hot, and most importantly, it turns itself off so I don't have to text my daughter every other day asking to check if I did turn it off because I start doubting myself I have. The best beauty product buy ever!!

robin53

Foot Spas are a waste of money. You use them a couple of times and then they gather dust in the bathroom cupboard. They are heavy to empty and carry. You might as well just soak your feet in the bath.

jenniewb

I have not bought many myself (this is where it's very helpful being too broke to buy what seems like a good idea at the time...) I have a few but it could have so easily been much, much more! My mum however...;)


Myself I've bought a curling wand. Well actually I didn't buy it, to cut a long story short I got it for free (the very old straighteners I traded them in for a give-away trade-in broke and I got boots vouchers to exchange them with and got a curling wand instead).
Despite the glove I ended up with so many burns! Yes I got a pretty curl but couldn't see the back of my head to see what I was doing- not the same as straightening at all! Also the curl dropped so quickly and pretty much brushed out to look somewhat like a bush the next day. Takes me 15 mins max to straighten my hair, took at least 30 minutes to curl it at a very basic level. Not used it in years.


I was gifted an electrical nail buffer thing. Has about 4 or so different attachments...doesn't work well enough to make a dent on my nails, and turns itself off at the nearest sign of pressure.


An electrical massager. Made by Homedics it's supposed to massage by pummelling your muscles via vibration or a circular motion and is supposed to use infra-red heat. It is so painful to use that I'd rather use a foam roller in the gym! (Those who know what the hell that is will understand exactly how bad this thing is!).


And last but by far least on my list: An epilator!
I am just *so glad* this thing has a shaver option or it would have been a total waste of money! It hurts, yes, but I just forced myself through the pain. Well lets just say your body screams at you for a reason. Every time I used this (and I tried it many, many times over a few years) it never changed; I'd end up drawing blood. Not streams of it but with every hair that was yanked out I'd get a dot of blood. You'd think it would be easy enough to just wash away but nope, the blood would still keep appearing throughout the day and unless I was wearing baggy black clothing (definitely NOT bare skin!) I'd get pin !!!!! dots of blood over everything! It was so embarrassing as it happened every single time!! Under arms were the worst though as I'd often get blood pouring. In the end I resorted to tweezers which hurt far less and got rid of hair for far longer-that is how desperate I was to get rid of my underarm hair!


I did have a heart rate monitor, but it became the worst thing in my life as it monitored both calories burnt and my heart rate and I became trapped in a cycle of needing to burn a certain amount a week every week and it just got worse and worse...I don't use it anymore and the battery has since died, I wont be replacing it!


My mother however has a far longer list:
The swiss ball for exercise which is never used; the foot spa which she used about 3 times before donating to my sister who used it about twice, it's not been used in years since. The pedometer, the heated rollers, the heated eye lash curling wand, the Wii my sister used for a year, donated to my mum who used it for about a year to exercise on before it became a seat for the cat....and don't get me started on the kitchen "time saving" devices....!

chanie

I try and stay away from those beauty devices and find alternatives:

Facial steamer - I steam my face with a bowl of water and a towel.

Facial brush system - I have a small face brush from the body shop which does the job.

The only device I do use is my foot roller, which I love. It really has made it so much easier to keep on top of my feet.

Newme2014

I find my epillator is fine, it did hurt and made me look like a plucked turkey for the first few uses but using it every few days my skin got used to it and did a great job. It does take perseverance though but I found shaving left my skin so itchy so it was worth it.

The boots nail buffer thingy with the rough skin attachments was utter rubbish and stopped working when you tried to apply any pressure so that was returned

The Lumea was my biggest waste but my own fault for thinking that even though my skin and hair weren't suitable according to the colour chart id give it a try just in case

In_Debt_Bet

One of those slendertone vibrating belts - made no difference at all to my waist line and GHD hair straighteners, I tried them a few times but decided life was too short to spend ages trying to straighten my hair and I finally learned to love my curly hair.

Hermia

asset2004 wrote: »

I have the Boots version, complete waste of money, cost around £300 :eek:

Same here! I apparantly have the perfect hair/skin colour combo for laser systems, but it did not do a thing for me. When I bought it there were so many positive reviews on blogs and forums, but not so much lately - hmmmm!

My best buy gadget-wise was the micro pedi. I have really bad hard skin on my feet that normal foot files can't touch, but no other foot problems so this has saved me a fortune on going to chiropodists.

faerielight

The one gadget I really love and I use it every evening is the homedics deluxe shiatsu foot massager, it does work for me !