Does the Remington at-Home IPL Machine really Work? Part 2

by BR Natalie

Whence last we spoke I was just about to use the Remington i-LIGHT® Pro+ Face & Body for the first time.  So for those of you curious about IPL and at-home IPL in particular, here's what a session is like.  Two things you should know if you didn't read part 1 (Mummy I'm looking at you) - I'm a wimp and I'm terribly un-co.  So this could be a disaster!

What you need to know about IPL.

You can use the i-LIGHT on your legs, under arms, bikini line, chest, back, shoulders and arms and by popping on the facial attachment you can treat facial areas below the cheekbone.  BUT you need to have fair to medium skin tone and light brown to black body hair.  

If your hair colour is lighter than brown, IPL simply won't work for you.  You see it's the melanin (pigment) in your hair that responds to the light pulses.  The lighter your hair, the less melanin it has, the less it will respond.  And as for skin colour, well, dark skin is at risk of being burned.

Get Zappy wit' it.

So, here we go, my first at-home IPL session. Wait.  My first EVER IPL session.  

Step one - shave my legs.  Use shaving cream, I'm just posing here, and showing you my ridiculous ballet pump tan line! You then need to make sure the area is completely free from product residue after though.  Do not moisturise or anything before moving on to zapping.

The i-LIGHT unit is easy to set up - it's simply a case of plugging the power cord into the base, and then into the wall and turning it on.  

Once turned on, the internal fans whirled into action and the machine began beeping at me, loudly and to be honest, a little annoyingly.  Even though I'd (skim) read the instructions, I was a little bemused at what was going on, so I flipped the off switch and consulted the book.  A-ha.  I needed to 'unlock' the machine by waving the area you want to treat over the skin colour sensor.  If my skin was too dark, the machine wouldn't unlock, so I couldn't burn myself.  Clever little safety feature, I like it, and once you're aware of it, it's a quick step.

There are 5 intensity levels, which I figured meant the higher the level, the more powerful/effective the pulse would be.  The wimp in me concluded the higher the level, the more uncomfortable the treatment would be.  I had no idea what IPL would feel like, so I opted to start with a conservative level 2.

You simply position the head of the device onto your skin, ensure the two sensors either side of the treatment window are flush to your skin and wait for a YES beep.  Push the zap button (my name for it, not theirs!) on the top and that's it.

There's a flash of red light (it's bright!), a pop and a tiny kind of ping feeling.  That's it.  

Alrighty, the wimp in me appeased, I whacked that baby up to level 3.  And then 4.  And then 5.  Do you have a hair tie around your wrist?  Pull it tight and let it go.  That flick?  It's worse than the highest level of the i-LIGHT.  ANYONE can handle this!  

Things you need to know, Jon.

• Once unlocked, there are two types of beep to listen for.  The 'yes' beep, and the slightly more grumpy 'no' beep.  If the sensors either side of the head aren't flush to the skin and you try to push the zap button, you'll get the grumpy beep and the machine won't pulse.  
• You don't have to constantly press and depress the zap button.  You can hold it down and just glide the unit to the next position.  Every three seconds the machine will pulse.  
• If you zap an area with a stray hair, it smells like burned hair.  But it doesn't burst into flames.  Still - make sure you have a real close shave before each session.
• Your skin feels hot and a bit tingly after, but this soon fades.

Break it down Nat - do you likey?

There is a bit of a learning curve to this.  To start I was getting the grumpy beep a lot, but that was just me getting the positioning wrong.   Once I actually paid attention to that it became a case of muscle memory and I found I could easily multi task and watch Westworld at the same time.  

The cord that attaches the hand unit to the base is a fab length, so it doesn't get in the way, I really liked that. (It's not fully unwound in the below picture).  The unit is easy to hold in either hand, and feels solid and a great quality product.

I love that you can just plug it in and away you go, no waiting for wax to heat up for example.  It's also a clean treatment, so you're not confined to the bathroom, you can sit on your sofa or bed, have the telly on and zap away.

I really, really like the fact that even though my skin felt hot after use, it wasn't red and bumpy like with waxing or epilating.  I didn't feel like I'd experienced any trauma at all. 

Most of all?  I love that it didn't hurt anywhere near what I thought (feared) it would.  It is not comparable to the torturous device that is an epilator, and it's no where near as painful as waxing.  So there you go, zapping your follicles is not as painful as ripping them out.  Who knew.

Is it for the time-poor / lazy bums?

For some reason IPL is linked to being time consuming, probably because usually it's done in a salon, and there's always some faffing around in a salon environment.  Forms to fill in, small talk to be had.  I was expecting my i-LIGHT session to take ages.  I confess, I put it off until I had a chunk of a couple of hours.  All up, to do FULL legs (you know what I'm talkin about) and my underarms it took about an hour.  Which means theoretically, in just 3 hours total, my legs and pits will be up to 94% hair free.  Well that's not bad is it?!

Well where's the results then?

Ah, well, we won't see those until the next session in 2 weeks time.  You see what happens now is the hair follicles will push themselves out.  Apparently it'll look like my leg hairs are growing as usual, but they won't keep on growing, they'll reach a certain point and fall out.  Hair follicle disabled.  Permanently.  Bring it!

So I'll take comparison photos for y'all in a fortnight, and I'll also shoot a video so you can see it in action.  Note to self start with the gradual tanner now.

So there we have it.  The hair removal wimp found at-home IPL comfortable and easy to do.  She even got to sneak in an episode of Westworld on work time!  Have you tried at-home IPL?  Do you have any questions you want Nat to answer about her experience so far?  Would you like her to test the facial attachment? Get chatting to us below!

Images: Chelsea Anderson Photography & Design

The Remington i-LIGHT® Pro+ Face & Body was given to Natalie to try out.  No compensation for Natalie's opinions was given, as always, her thoughts are her own.