I first bought a Braun epilator about 15 years ago, when they were a lot more basic and apparently had less "pain relief" features, but eventually it gave up the ghost and for a while I lived without an epilator (or the pain that goes with it).  About 2 1/2 years ago I was reading about the lastest versions of epilators and their new pain relief mechanisms and decided it was time to get a new one.  So I went for another Braun epilator as the old one lasted so well,  the Braun Silk-epil, along with new pain-easing features.

The Gadget
For something that inflicts severe pain it looks relatively friendly.  Its a nice unisex blue colour - no reason why guys can't try it out too!  It has a two-speed setting, fast and soft and a "smart light" which is a strong white light that shines onto the skin and lights up the hairs so its easy to check if any have been missed.  I call it the search light!  

It comes with an "efficiency pro" cap, which is basically a cap which clicks over the head of the tweezer device with rollers on which help pull the hair towards the tweezers to ease the pain.  I should mention at this point there are 40 tweezers on a rolling device hungry to pull the hairs from your legs (or other places)!

The silk-epil comes with three other caps, a shaverhead and trimmer, cap for epliating facial hair, (I haven't tried either), and a cap for underarms, which I tried once, but the pain was so excruciating I won't be trying it again.  The epilator also comes with an ice pad, to cool the skin before and after epilating, hopefully reducing the pain.

In the box there is also the plug and lead, a pouch to keep it all in and a small cleaning brush.

Using the Epilator
I am sure my pain tolerance used to be much greater, perhaps it's after having kids, but recently I have found it extremely painful to use.  I think there is a certain amount of getting used to the pain involved, and I am slightly out of practice, so if I used it more perhaps I would become more immune to the pain.  Sometimes the pain is enough to bring tears to my eyes!

It's quite an easy device to use, you just go over the skin, keeping the skin torte as it hurts less when tight and out come the hairs via the whirling tweezer device.  I find the knees are particularly painful as is the softer skin at the back of the knees.  The shins are the area which I find easiest to epilate, they are easy to get to and perhaps because they are not that freshly it doesn't hurt as much.  I do use the "efficiency pro" cap as I think it does help ease the pain a little.  I sometimes use the ice glove, however I don't like the sensation of the extreme cold on my legs, especially before epilating - after the cold can be more of a welcome relief!

Cleaning
It's a pain to clean.  All the hairs get stuck in the tweezeros and even go down into the base of the device.  Obviously you can't clean it with water, so I clean it with the little brush it comes with, which isn't easy.  The instructions suggest also cleaning with alcohol for hygiene purposes, which I do, especially if it makes my legs bleed - sometimes the tweezers tweak the skin, ouch!

Results
I do find it gets almost all the hairs, as long as I epilate systematically, ie. I have developed a routine for doing my legs.  Only a few very short hairs are left, so my legs feel quite smooth, minus any nips the tweezers have given my skin.  The hairs stay away for about 3 weeks, and, I am not sure they grow back any thinner as is sometimes stated.

Price
I paid about £45 for mine a few years ago but they seem to have gone up to around £65, which I think is quite expensive.

All in All
Not one for the faint hearted, but is useful if you are going away and don't want to have to shave your legs nearly every day.  

I'm going to give it a 3 as it doesn't give much pain relief, it claims to be more pain friendly than my old one, but in reality the pain relieving devices give little pain relief.  It also has a habit of nipping my skin regularly and it's quite expensive.