SmoothSkin bare+ ultrafast IPL hair removal device
Buy now £147, Currentbody.com
Firstly, we love the simplicity of this gadget. It’s slightly bigger than your palm and comes in a neat, compact kit containing an instruction booklet, the device, a plug cable and the power pack.
As it’s corded, you are slightly restricted when using it, but it didn’t feel any less effective. Our reviewer had never tried an IPL device before and found the booklet, with big, clear pictures and instructions helpful and easy to follow. Simply plug it in, attach the power bank and get going.
To begin, you need to press the button on the center of the device, which will flash white, then place it as flat as possible on the skin. If it’s not laying flat enough, the center will flash red and stop working. It took us a few goes to get it right on the first treatment, but it gets easier with every use. So easy in fact, by week three we were treating our leg with one hand and scrolling through TikTok on the other.
Read more: What is IPL hair removal? Differences to laser and how they both work
The legs are by far the easiest place to treat as you can hold the button down and glide it along larger areas. Whereas, with the underarms, it is slightly fiddlier to try and get it flat on the skin. So, Smoothskin recommends doing a stamp motion to treat those smaller areas of skin.
The flash is very bright, and we’d have appreciated a pair of protective sunglasses in the box, as it can be quite a strain on the eyes, especially if it's being used at night. To reduce this, we found it better to be used in daylight, especially on the underarms. and opted to wear our usual sunglasses.
The sensation is slightly warm, but it hardly feels like anything is happening with every flash, but we promise it is. We persevered, and after two treatments, we began to notice that the hair that was growing back was thinner than our usual light brown hair. By week three, hair regrowth was short, less dense and hard to spot, even when we went a few days in between shaving. It still has that spiky feel, but it seemed unable to grow longer than that.
Read more: 8 best laser hair-removal and IPL machines to use at home
Progress can feel slow at first and it can be tricky to see how your hair is regrowing as every time you need to use the device, your skin needs to be shaved, so in the beginning, it can feel like the only reason there's little hair growing back is because you’re constantly removing it. However, by weeks five and six we started to see more long-term results, and in between treatments, hair regrowth dwindled.
The verdict: SmoothSkin bare+ ultrafast IPL hair removal device
It’s unbelievably simple to use this IPL machine from Smoothskin and would be great for anyone who’s feeling lazy but still wants to enjoy the long-term results devices of this kind can deliver.
If you’re new to at-home IPL, this is the perfect choice for beginners. There’s little not to love, it is a speedy as it claims to be, and even though it’s corded, the compact size of the device and the long cable means it wasn’t restrictive at all. We were able to access harder to reach areas, such as the back of the legs with ease and it also cuts out time-consuming charging time too.
Our only advice, as it emits a continuous flash, we recommend using it in the daytime, as it reduced the brightness. Additionally, as your skin needs to be smooth during and in between treatments, we found it easiest to use the device after a shower, when we’d just shaved with our go-to Flamingo razor (£8, Boots.com).