Until recently there was no way that I would have been writing a review about a waxing product, but here I am. So why the change of heart? Read on.

BACKGROUND:

For a long time I couldn't entertain the thought of hairs being ripped from my body. I mean, why? All that pain when shaving got pretty much the same result. However, a few months ago I was starting to get really annoyed by having to shave my bikini line as I was getting really bad ingrowing hairs and the area was getting painful. My friends kept on insisting that waxing really wasn't that bad. It took a while but eventually I decided to book myself in at a salon.

My first wax was.....painful, I'm not going to lie, but it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was going to be (to be fair, I had taken some painkillers before the appointment!). I was really impressed with the results and although I was still getting ingrowing hairs, there weren't as many and obviously the waxing didn't have to be done nearly as often as shaving or a cream. There was another painful part to this waxing, however, and that was the price. It cost me £25 a go for a brazilian which was draining my bank balance rather rapidly, as I was having to go every 4-5 weeks. I didn't think there was really any way round this. I knew that there were home waxing kits available but I'd heard stories of how painful and fiddly they were. While having lunch with a friend she said she used them all the time and that once you'd had a few waxes in a salon the home ones weren't too bad because your hairs are that little bit weaker. So feeling brave, I picked up these from Veet on my next visit to Tesco.

WHERE TO BUY:

I bought the shea butter and berry variety of the strips from Tesco where they were on offer at the time. You can also pick these up in other supermarkets and pharmacies, including Boots and Superdrug. While they may not all stock the shea butter and berry ones they all seem to stock at least one variety and they all seem to do the same job.

PRICE:

The price depends on when you buy them from but generally is between £6 and £7. They do seem to be on offer quite a bit as well.

EXPERIENCE:

Ok, I've bought the strips and I'm ready. I've managed to get plastered in preparation for the pain of doing this myself (I don't really drink but this had me seriously thinking about it!). On opening the box I'm confronted with 20 strips, four perfect finish wipes which come in their own foil packets and an instruction leaflet.

The instructions tell you to test a patch on your skin with these strips 24 hours before you plan to use them. My skin has never been sensitive to anything so I do have a tendency to ignore these warnings (I know, on my head be it!) but if you were sensitive at all then I would recommend you do this.

Right, no more putting it off, I've taken some paracetamol and I'm ready to go. A good tip which I picked up on a beauty website was to put some talc on the area to be waxed as it stops the wax sticking to the skin as much. Well, if I'm stupid enough to inflict pain on myself I want it to be as little as possible!

You take the strip and rub it between your hands to make it easier to pull apart. The strip consists of two strips of material with wax sticking them together. If you don't rub them to warm them up slightly they don't come apart as easily and you can get left with lots of wax on one and bare patches on the other. Once you've separated the two sides make sure you place the one you're not using somewhere carefully or like me you'll find that it has rolled up and is unusable!

Each side has a rectangle of wax which is pink in colour and which does have a nice berry smell to it. There is also space around the rectangle so that you can use the strips without getting it all over your fingers. You then spread the strip along the direction of hair growth, hold the skin taught with one hand and pull the strip off with the other in one quick movement, and....

ARGH!!!!!

Ok, so maybe I exaggerate just a little. It was painful, I'm not going to lie, but it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be. I managed to get through waxing the whole area without too much trauma.

The strips did pull out a fair amount of hairs out. I wasn't expecting a completely smooth bikini line as even when I went to the salon she always had to use the tweezers afterwards as my hairs were 'stubborn little bu**ers'! After getting as many hairs out as possible with the wax I did have to spend a few minutes with the tweezers getting rid of the stragglers but I honestly did not mind this.

I used one of the perfect finish wipes which are oily and so designed to get rid of any excess wax which is left on the skin. These are really effective and I was left wax free after use.

The area did look red after using the wax but to be honest no more than it did after the professional wax. The redness faded after a day or so leaving me smooth. I did get some ingrowing hairs but to be honest I think the person who invents the product that prevents these for me will be a millionaire!

I only tried these on my bikini line so I'm not sure how effective they would be on other, finer hairs.

CONCLUSION:

Would I buy these again? Well no, but that's only because I've discovered that the warm wax is better as it gets more of the hairs out. However, I would still recommend these strips. They get rid of enough hairs to make it worthwhile using them. Once you've got the hang of them I think they're really easy to use. Compared to the amount that I was paying in the salon these are a huge bargain. The box lasted me for three bikini waxing sessions (brazilian) which would have cost me a whopping £75 in the salon, but cost me less than a fiver with the strips being on offer! Even if they had been rubbish my bank balance told me that they were worth a punt! I'm not entirely sure of the 'shea butter and berry' benefits in comparison to the regular strips as they're not in contact with my skin for that long but they did smell nice. Overall, recommended for anyone prepared to read the instructions and be able to do it properly and who wants to save a few pennies.