Just how silky is this silky mitt? (Silkymit)

Member Name: Brown_eyes1984

Product:	Silkymit
Date:	07/02/05 (5369 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: leaves skin extremely smooth

Disadvantages: time consuming, hard to reach back of leg, leaves some patches

Hair removal is such a pain, especially when you have a fear of shavers! Luckily for me there are creams and sprays available that all offer a pain free hair removal experience. So after years of using Veet (originally known as Immac) spray and having nice, soft, hairless results I was distraught when I suddenly noticed my legs were really painful after use and I looked like I had scratches all over them. Strange really when you're using a sponge to remove the spray isn't it? I didn't have a clue what I was going to do. Creams are messy and really smell but the only other option was either shaving or waxing, both of which I am too chicken to do! So imagine my relief when I was browsing the internet and I found a review on the silky mitt. A mitt that promised pain free, easy hair removal. I was a little skeptical but at that moment in time I was willing to give any alternative to shaving a go!

*** The Silky Mitt ***

Now the name is quite misleading because it leads us to believe that the thing you use is actually a mitt. A mitt to me is something cotton with little sections for my fingers and perhaps because this one was going to remove hair, it would have a little bit at the front where the palm of the hand would be behind, that would be especially designed to remove hair. Wrong!

The silky mitt is actually not very silky at all. It resembles sandpaper more than a mitt and it is navy blue on both sides. As well as offering pain free, easy hair removal, it also claims to remove dead skin cells and gently exfoliates as you use it, leaving skin silky soft. So the silky part of it's name refers to the results more than the feel of the mitt itself! This particular mitt is designed especially for the legs though so I wouldn't try using it under your arms or on your face. I believe there is a special facial one but I haven't seen or heard of one for the underarm area so you may have to stick to shaving there or using a cream.

The mitt itself isn't very large. It's around 7cm long and 7cm high and there is a gap in the middle to put your hand through making it easier to use and I suppose that is where the mitt part of the name comes from although I still don't reckon it is much of one!

*** My opinion ***

I was a little wary about using this at first because even though I'd read several reviews praising it and saying how great it was, the thought of rubbing something that felt like sandpaper on my leg was a little frightening. How can it not cut you or scratch you? But I overcame my fears and finally got the guts to try it and although it irritated a little at first, after around a minute I was used to the feeling and it no longer bothered me.

I followed the directions which were as follows:

1) Make sure legs are dry

No problems here. I hadn't had a bath or a shower for a good six hours so my legs were as dry as they were going to be.

2) Rotate the glove in a gentle, circular motion.

Ok so it's gone now from a mit to a glove but anyway, it does seem to scrape the skin a little bit when you first start to do this but that is understandable with it's texture and the fact that it exfoliates as well as removes the hair.

3) Without lifting the mit from the skin surface, rub in a clockwise direction 4 times, and then anticlockwise 4 times.

Now this is where I got stuck. Do you not remove the mit the whole time you are using it or do you do 4 times clockwise, 4 times anticlockwise and then it's safe to list it up again and do a different area? Well I've tried both ways and they both seem to work the same only lifting it off a little when you've done a little section seems to be more comfortable than the other way.

4) Do rub gently and do rub in a circular motion. Don't rub up and down.

Ok seem as though the words DO and DON'T are in bold on the packaging I took this instruction really seriously. I wasn't risking anything with the texture of this mit!

5) The fine white powder that appears is natural accumulation that results from the gentle grinding action which removes the hair and exfoliates the skin.

It's true, a lot of fine white powder appeared on my legs after around a minute and it didn't really look like skin or anything so it wasn't scary to look at! It just looked like talc powder.

6) Apply a cool damp towel to the legs and then follow up with a moisturising lotion. Your legs will be silky smooth.

I did as instructed and got a nice towel ready and followed up with Nivea body lotion.

7) Wipe the mit after you have finished and put it back in it's packaging. It can be used again and again.

Ok it's wiped and in it's packet. But how are the results and will I actually want to use it again?

*Results*

As I mentioned there was some slight irritation at first but nothing major and not really painful, just uncomfortable. I did find it took a while to remove all of the hair though. I let my hair grow for around two weeks because that's generally how long it takes before the veet would work. At first I thought it wasn't working. The hair didn't seem to be going anywhere and I had been using the mit for around 2 minutes before I saw any sign of a result. The fine white powder started to mount up and it was only then I could see my legs were getting barer.

I had to go over the same area around five times in total for it to work. It was quite a time consuming process so it isn't something to use shortly before you are going out. I'd leave around 20-25 minutes altogether for this.

Getting around the back of my legs was also extremely difficult. The mit is like a hexagon shape so it isn't the easiest thing in the world to use around the back of the leg. Many attempts led to scratches from the sides of the mit which didn't look very nice after I had finished!

And it wasn't just the back of my legs that got a few scratches, the edge of the mit is quite sharp so if you aren't careful it's really easy to cut yourself!

But god were my legs smooth! At the end you really wouldn't believe the softness and the amount of hair that it removed. After using the mit twice though I would recommend using it on longer hair rather than shorter hair growth. I tried it when my hairs were quite short but still annoying and it didn't have the same results as the first time I used it. Now whether that was due to me using the same mit I used when I first used it and it had gotten blunt or whether it was because it just doesn't catch the hairs as well when they are shorter, who knows. Either way my recommendation is use on longer hair.

I found a little irritation near my ankle the day after using the mit and I assume that was due to overusing it on that particular area. It didn't last for long though and it didn't overly bother me when I had the pain but it's still something to make a note of and to be careful over.

Although a lot of the results were positive I couldn't seem to reach all of the back of my leg so I ended up with patches that can only be removed from shaving or hair remover cream. A little annoying because it works so well on the front but that's no use if you're still going to be hairy on the back of your legs.

* Does the mit really last more than once?*

It says it does and I've used the mit on both legs twice now. The first time around there were no problems whatsoever the second time around I did notice it didn't work as well as the first. As I mentioned earlier I'm not sure if that was due to the length of the hair or the fact that it was getting blunt. Either way I'm going to use another one the next time I need to. I still don't think that's bad though because they aren't expensive. You get 3 mits in a pack for around 1.99. I got mine from Ebay as I haven't seen them anywhere else.

* How long do the results last? *

I've found the results usually last just over a week. That's when you will notice you're hair getting annoyingly long. Obviously with the hairs you missed, they will be longer than the rest so it's a little aukward to know when to use the mit again.

* Would I recommend it? *

I really wish I could give this more praise as the results on the sections it actually worked on were great and my legs really were soft. However nobody wants a product that only partly works. I personally am going to keep trying with this just to see if I can perfect the technique of getting behind my leg but I'm not very hopeful so I'm going to have an hair remover cream in ready just in case. I didn't find much irritation so it wasn't bad to use, it was also easy enough but as I mentioned it is very time consuming so that is a down side. Get one of these if you are curious. After all, you might have more luck than me. Another downside is I have only seen them on Ebay. I have been informed that boots do some but I have never fancied trying ones from there, they are much cheaper online!

Aimee xxx

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