Braun Silk-Epil 5 Epilator Review

As spring approaches and the weather starts to get warmer, thoughts turn to the dreaded revealing of ones legs. Those poor, pasty white legs that have been neglected for the past few months finally see a bit of sunlight,

I will admit, when you become a parent and you are stealing a few minutes here and there for a quick shower, you often think 'oh, I'll just shave tomorrow when I've got more time', and sometimes this can go on for days.
I am particularly guilty of this, especially in the winter when my legs are covered with thick tights. I've always hated shaving anyway, it may be quick but you have to do it so frequently, and it seriously irritates my skin.
I decided enough was enough, no more shaving! While waxing is a great, long lasting way to combat hairs, I've never mastered the whole ripping it off myself thing and would rather not have to get my husband to do it, there are boundaries!

After looking about online, I decided to buy an epilator. After a few uses it would pay for itself, in terms of how much it would cost me to get waxed at the salon. I found the Braun Silk-Epil 5 on offer in Argos for £49.99

First Impressions

My first impressions were good, it arrived neatly packed, and I just couldn't wait to get it open and give it a go. It comes with 6 different attachments - the regular epilator , the shaver head, trimmer cap, sensitive area cap (for bikini/ underarm), facial cap and efficiency cap. They include a little white bag to keep the unit and all of the caps in, which is good because I'm terrible for loosing bits.

They give you a cooling pack, which you put in the freezer for at least 2 hours before you need it, and then you slide it in to the glove provided to help numb your skin and prevent irritation.


 So, I put the cooling pack in the freezer and put the unit on to the charge and waited. When the 2 hours was up I raced upstairs to give it a go. I turned it on, and nothing happened. Great, I'd been sent a broken item. I spent the next 5 minutes complaining until my husband informed me that this unit was not cordless and needed to be plugged in to be used. I'm such an idiot! I'd been looking at a cordless one before buying this and had become mixed up, and so had just spent 2 hours waiting for something that is mains operated to charge! We had a good laugh about that for a few minutes.

I need to warn anyone reading this interested in buying one, this item will only plug in to a 2 prong shaving socket and does not come with an adapter, so make sure you buy one if you wish to use it in a standard plug socket. They do not seem to mention this anywhere before you buy it.


Usage
The unit is a nice size feels comfortable in my to hold. It features a light on the front so you can see the hairs on your leg properly as you use it, which is a good feature.
It has 2 speed settings, which you control with the dial on the front.

The epilating parts looks like some sort of medieval torture device. As the head spins, its 40 tweezers pluck out the hairs on your leg. I have to admit, watching this spin when I first turned it on, almost put me off, it looks like it's going to be unbelievably painful.


I really was not looking forward to trying it. I sat with it on for at least a minute before finally putting it to my leg. The first go was painful. I would say it feels like waxing, but slower. With waxing its a quick rip and its off but with this its a long slow draw up the leg.
 The pain doesn't last long though, and actually once I'd done about half a leg it started to feel liss painful and more like a pressure feeling, really not as bad as I was expecting.

The instruction booklet reccommends speed 1 for first timers, but I didn't find any pain difference between the two speeds, so I used speed 2. It pulls out the hairs well, even shorter hairs which I really wasn't expecting. It took me about half an hour to do both legs which I thought was ok since it was my first time using it and I was being cautious!

Once finished it's really easy to clean too, you just pop off the head and give it a brush with the little brush provided. You can rinse it under the tap too.

My Verdict
It's been a week now and my legs are still almost hair free. There are some small patches of hair growing, but the issue is that I didn't epilate over those patches properly at the time. The morning after epilation my legs felt great, I didn't get any of the sensitivity I do with waxing.

It's definitely not as painful as I thought it was going to be, no more so than waxing, although I haven't yet gathered up enough courage to use it on my underarms as I think that most certainly will hurt.

I would definitely recommend this for other parents who, like me, can not be bothered to shave every day but don't want to scare the kids when you start wearing a dress in the spring. It might take a bit more effort than a quick shave, but the results are much longer lasting meaning you can forget about you legs for a few weeks.

Please note I have not been asked to write this review, I bought the item with my own money and chose to review it because I liked it.
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