I was curious about epilation after reading a bit about it online - it seemed like a better alternative to shaving as results were supposed to last up to 4 weeks, so certainly less time consuming. Also, while some epilators could be quite expensive I managed to get this one for around £30 and figured that it would 'pay for itself' over time considering I would be spending less money on pricey razor blades.

The epilator has two speed setting so that those new to it can use the slower setting and it also uses massaging motions to help to reduce the pain of epilation. It also comes with an ice pack to use prior to the epilation in order to numb the area and make the process easier. Given the horror stories I had heard about the pain of epilation this was quite a factor in the choice to purchase this one!

The epilator runs on the mains and it is fairly noisy - in fact I found it quite intimidating when I plugged it in and it proceeded to make a massive racket as all the little tweezers started rotating - not encouraging! As for the 'pain factor' it was fairly painful on the legs, more like slight 'nips' rather than terrible pain but I found by just getting on with it I got both legs done without too much hassle... or so I thought. I noticed the epilator didn't remove the hairs very easily and so this resulted in me going over the same areas two or sometimes three times, then finding more bits than had been missed! As a result I found it very time consuming.

Afterwards my legs were sore and had red bumps for about a day - this is a normal side effect of epilation which does mean you have to plan ahead when you're going to do it if you don't want to go on a night out with red bumpy legs! I was disapointed however that the epilation did in no way create the 'silky smooth' effect of shaving, in fact my legs felt quite stubbly in places.

On the plus side the hair wasn't very visible and it was about a week before it began to become visible - so quite a bit earlier than the claimed four weeks! Given how long it took to do the first time and how the epilator seemed to struggle to pick up the smaller hairs this was extremely annoying as I had originally got the epilator in order to save time!

I have since used it a couple more times and while the hair does seem to take longer to grow back and appears less noticable it's still less than 2 weeks before it's visible and the process is still very time consuming. Plus I just don't like the fact that you don't get the 'smoothness' of shaving and have in fact switched back to using razors as in terms of time and effort it's easier for me just to do that than suffer through epilation once a week for mediocre results.

It's hard to say if I'd recommend it - if you like the idea of only having to remove hair about once a week then it would be suitable, provided you have a reasonable pain threshold. However don't go in expecting a quick process or smooth legs - it won't happen.