My biggest worry when I was getting an epilator was that it would hurt. I'd waxed my legs and bikini line before and didn't have a problem with the pain, but everyone always goes on about how painful epilating is. What I didn't realise is that they weren't comparing it to waxing, they were comparing it to shaving. It's about the same as waxing (after all, you're doing basically the same thing) but epilators - at least, this one - come with lots of gadgets to ease the pain, whereas you don't generally get that with wax kits.

In the box you get the epilator body, two different heads, two different attachments, a plug, a brush to clean it with, an ice pack thing and a sleeve to put it in, and the instructions. The epilator itself looks quite nice and sleek. You get a silver mesh bag to keep it all in as well, which is really convenient.

The ice pack thing you put in the freezer (needs to be in there 2 hours in advance, but mine just lives in there - it doesn't take up much space) and then hold it on the area you're going to epilate to numb it before you start. The epilator itself comes with several different settings to ease you into it.

There are three different things you can change giving you a total of eight (2 x 2 x 2) different settings - or 16 if you include "with/without ice pack" as an option for each as well. Firstly you can change the head itself (the bit with the tweezers in). The "starting" head has a lot fewer tweezers to minimise the pain (less hairs being pulled) and the "regular" one has a lot more to make it more efficient ( = faster) when you have less hair to pull out. Secondly, you can change the attachment to the head. The one to start with has wire bits on with sort of beaded attachments which serve two purposes - they supposedly numb the skin slightly to ease the process, and I think they slightly raise the tweezer heads above the skin which means that the very smallest hairs don't get pulled out. The other option for the head attachment enables you to get really close to the skin for a really smooth end result.

The final thing you can change is the speed: there are two settings, again to minimise discomfort. If you're new to epilating and waxing, or you haven't done it for a while, I suggest you start with all the "beginner" settings (the head with less tweezers, the attachment that has the wire bits on, the slower speed and the ice pack) and move on when you have done it a few times and there's less hair there.

There are some other cool features of this product, for example it actually emits a light to shine on your legs (supposedly as bright as daylight) so that you can see the hairs and don't end up suddenly finding out later that you've "missed a spot"!

Now, there are also some downsides, and I'll mention them too. Firstly, this is NOISY! My dad describes it as "you chainsawing your legs" because it does kind of sound like that. So it makes you feel a bit foolish because everyone knows what you're up to, and also you can't do it in the middle of the night or anything.

Another problem is that you need to have it plugged in - it can't run on battery. This is a bit of a pain as you can't necessarily use it in the bathroom.

You should also bear in mind that, like with waxing, your legs won't be perfect after the first time you've done it - it'll take two or three times for it to be really smooth.

The adverts for waxing or epilating always claim that it will last for six weeks or something - well, this is a bit of an exaggeration. It lasts for about two - maybe three. But typically not as long as that the first few times you do it if you've been shaving. The basic reason for this and for the paragraph above is that it will hurt too much for you to do it any faster or more efficiently. But when there are less hairs it hurts less.