Ok... I'm intrigued now. I *hate* shaving my 'pits! Aaand I have an Amazon Prime subscription so I think I'll surf around over there. =)

Thanks for this post!! I've been really curious about epilators but was also too scared to even try them out. LOL. Maybe I'll look into them. They sound really handy.

i'm intrigued but epilators scare me! o_O

This is interesting! I have never tried an epilator before, but I did see a YT video of a guy testing one out... and he was screaming like a little girl XD

I also have pretty much no underarm hair! haha! I barely shave my legs either because the hair is super fine too. Even my arms. I shaved them a couple times and now the hair grows back uber slow and super fine. Sorry if THAT was TMI, lol :P

i was looking at epilators today too because of the hautelook sale! pursebuzz talks about how she loves the emjoi soft caress epilator if you want to go check out her yt video!

urmm. I just wax my legs and arms. No epilating, but I might try one day :) a bit expensive for me though

AHHH! whattt the heck! >< i'm so sad...i spent almost $60 on my emjoi epilator and now hautelook is selling it for practically $10 less T_T
oh well..i still love my epilator! <3

the caress light blue one hurts!! but it does work. you just have to go over the skin a couple of times

Thanks so much for your honesty! This post was super helpful, I think I might check this out!

Actually, this one made me LOL, "...but I was reduced to tweezing the hairs with tweezers which gave me headaches from trying to stare at my own armpit."

I've heard from a friend that she does that and I'm honestly a bit :O at the idea of it.

I'll look into these things sometime. xD Although the idea of it still scares me, haha.

yay~~~~ good thing that i didn't buy the UD from its own website... I hope hautelook has a bigger sale xD

Haha these things does look interesting but i think i will just stick to shaving LOL. I can't take pain very well haha =/ I totally know what you mean about getting a headache from trying to stare at your armpits though ><

LOL omg I laughed out loud when I read the part about your pits cause I thought I was the only one getting a headache from trying to stare at my own pits and trying to pluck all the little hairs out. anyways I'll try this out! thanks Jen :)

OMG...I've been stressing over buying an epilator for months! Thanks for posting about your experience. Good to hear they're tolerable pain wise, although I'm quite a bit fuzzier than you, so may have a slightly different experience. =P

this is off topic but... how often do you get a haircut/trim?
your hair's so long and nice >.<
my hair sadly never seems to grow..probably cuz it's so damaged and all =(

i've been using the Braun one since high school, i really love how fast it removes hair. but when i first got it it was pretty painful but the more i use it the more i am use to the pain.

I definitely get headaches too from staring at my armpits :( Tweezing is no fun at all because it's hit or miss x_x

I've always wanted to try epilator too ... they're expensive though.

i prefer waxing over epilators. it also has an exfoliating feel to it afterwards, and one 'rip' does it. i like gigi honey from sally's beauty. i tried epilady (yea, old i know) in the past on my legs and i get ingrown hair, and inflammed skin. also i miss some hair too. sorry, tmi! ;) i will never use epilators , no-no (scent of burnt hair, eeek!), hair disolvers (stinky), etc ever again.

I have an emjoi and used it for years ... Until I finally shelled out for laser hair removal! Im very hairy for an Asian so the epilator was not so painless and I frequently pinched my skin, but I still prefered it over shaving!

I'm currently on my 2nd emjoi epilator. I use it solely for my arms and it doesn't hurt at all. Feels like little tickles! My first one "died" because I didn't tie my hair back and it got sucked into the epilator. It was horrible, had to cut my hair off since it wouldn't come out completely from the little machine and the machine was totally tangled in it too. Boo on that.
I love epilators though <3

one i started to learn to shave, i never stopped.

me three! i do the staring-at-my-armpits-while-attempting-to-tweeze. it's about 10x worse when you need glasses but are out of contacts. XD

Thanks Jen! After reading your post, I immediately went and ordered the Emjoi Gently Silken Epilator from HauteLook. I'm super excited and I hope it works out. :)

Hey Jen! I actually purchased an emjoi epislim 3 or 4 years ago so my review may be outdated. The epislim is a travel friendly one so it unfortunately, runs on batteries. They probably make one that is rechargeable by now (or i should hope so!).
The epislim one itself didn't work too well for me. I tested it on my arm hairs first. My arm hairs are very thin and fine so it wasn't able to pick those up. Then I used it on my underarm area and it picked up a good portion of my hairs, but missed quite a few. This may or may not be due to the fact that this is just the travel sized version meant to bring on travels for "touch ups" *shrugs* Still though, it totally beats shaving my under arm area because I HATE SHAVING. I am very prone to ingrown hairs, razor bumps and burns.. Not to mention the fact that I am EXTREMELY clumsy so cutting myself is highly probable. I still use my emjoi epislim though!

hahaha You got me interested about this product. When I was reading your blog post, I got a good laugh about the staring at your armpits part while tweezing... it gives me a headache too (but I'd rather do that than shave). The product itself, I'm quite interested in. I've heard about them before but never got around to trying it. Although, after reading your post about the epilators, I think I should give it a try. Finishing up in 20 seconds? That sounds SO much more convenient!

This post is very interesting. You make epilators seem better than what most people imagine. I actually might try it too.

Thanks for sharing! :)

I have used the Braun one.
Painful and doesn't work for that area.

It just breaks the hair. You will have to go in with real tweezers to get rid of them. It can be more painful if the thing just tries to pull that hair out but just keeps breaking it.

Tweezerman tweezers...not braun for sure.

like you, i used to tweeze the few sparse pit hairs i had. it would seriously cramp and hurt my neck, and i'd get the worst headaches! sometimes, i would just stand closely to the mirror and that would be helpful; it just took a long time to get every single hair out! way longer than 20 seconds.

does anyone have experience using the epilator on their bikini line? just curious...feedback will be much appreciated!

thanks

I purchased the Braun Silk-Epil Xpressive Epilator 7781 in Canada for about $100CDN. I think it is cheaper in the US. I hate using the epilator..I try to wait as long as possible..but the longer I wait..the more it hurts. But the results?? AMAZING!!! Like you, I'm not very hairy..but hairy enough that I will need to do my underarms every 3 months. I dont think there will ever be a epilator that doesnt hurt..but I love my machine. I prefer waxing..but I just dont have the time. I highly recommend my machine because it hurts less then others but still a pain! =)

it's nice to know i'm not the only one that plucks the under arms XD I ordered the purple emjoi yesterday ^^ i saw some braun epilators at my mall but the prices were nearly doubled :S

I have the Braun epilator you have pictured in your post. I've been using it for nearly a year.

The first time I used it it was amazing, making my skin smooth. The pain didn't bother me at all, and felt like tiny pricks at most. I've always had to touch up every few days though, because it misses quite a lot of hairs. It does pinch in more sensitive areas such as the armpit.

Honestly, I have to say the epilator has caused my skin to look horrible. I frequently get ingrown hairs and inflamed bumps that are very noticeable. I have many spots where I have scarring from removing the ingrown hair. The hair follicles are darker and more visible as well.

It works the best on the fine hair on my forearms. I don't know if it's actually plucking or just breaking it off, but my arms are super smooth after.

i use the emjoi corded one, and its quite awesome. my pain tolerance is quite high since i used to wax (it's way less messier than waxing!)

horror story? no real one, but sometimes, in the back of my knee, i dont pull the skin taunt, and it gets eaten by the epilator, but no burns or cuts. lol.

you're so lucky not to be hairy :p I used to use epilators but it was just too long to remove the hairs and sooo loud (not very discreet when you're at bf's!)so i just use a razor now.

I love epilating, or at least the after effects. I hate the process, since it takes forever and a day (I do my legs, too). For fair skinned people with dark hair, epilating is a wonderful option, since there's no "shadow" from the hair under your skin, since you pulled the whole thing out.

I agree, you need one that you plug in. My Braun is still going, and I've had it for years. Think of how many razors I saved, and how much money. $60 is nothing when it lasts as long as mine has.

Sorry for the double comment, I just saw this, and thought I would reply:

Anonymous:
"does anyone have experience using the epilator on their bikini line? just curious...feedback will be much appreciated!"

Actually, I do use mine there (after a bath, so I'm clean, sheesh people). I actually think it hurts way less than waxing, but you have to make sure you really pull your skin taunt. I think it works really well there, actually, since you can easily go back over the area, there's no wax and cloth to mess with, fewer ingrowns than shaving, and no stubble.

hahaha, I also pluck my pits. I dont have a lot of hair so it's quick for me. and I'm too cheap to go get them waxed. plucking leaves me smoother longer.

I've always been interested in trying one of these but the price turned me off a lil.

Also I'd be worried about the pain o.O I normally just shave my legs but I wax my legs occasionally too which is pretty painless but I've never gotten the nerve to wax my underarms so I'm not sure I'd be happy about using an epilator there either!

I know I'd pinch myself way too much! XP But they do sound handy, minus the noise issue.

Thanks! I just signed up and purchased the Soft Caress one =)

Yeah I saw it on HauteLook too and I was thinking about buying it but wasn't too sure if I should. And then I saw this post and decided why not! :D

Thanks so much for the review!

I've been curious about those things!

I purchased the Emjoi Soft Caress Gold Cordless Rechargeable Hair Removal System from BeautyChoice.com last spring for $77 (with tax). BeautyChoice ships orders over $50 for free. They also send out 15-20% coupon codes on a regular basis. I had to follow up on my return with three phone calls before it was credited to my account and they do charge a restocking 15% fee. I've heard mixed reviews on their GHD flat irons (in regards to their authenticity)--so beware. They do carry quite an extensive range of epilators but good luck on returns!

I love the epilator for my legs. My sister uses it for her legs and arms. We use it on dry skin though. The noise it's too bad at all. It feels like lots of pinches as the tweezers roll the hairs off--kind of like the game of strawberry patch. All the friction though makes my skin very dry/flaky so moisturizing right after is important. Sometimes, my pores look a little irritated right after for a couple hours. I hate the epilator for my underarms though. It causes ingrowns for me. This is most likely caused by the back and forth rolling motion. For the bikini line, it's way too painful. If you have very fair skin and thick dark hairs, the epilator does remove the hair and follicle, so this may cause visible little black spots.

Waxing my eyebrow fuzz, lips, underarm and bikini area produces the best results. Professional waxing services add up really quickly. So I had my best friend's mom (nail technician/aesthetician) teach me. I invested in a waxing kit (warmer, wax, paper rings, muslin strips, popsicle sticks, wax remover, aloe vera cooling gel, baby powder & TendSkin = $100) and do my own face. I get my sisters to do my armpits, stomach and bikini line. In my experience, honey wax/soft wax is much less painful than hard wax (the kind they rip off after it hardens). However, the results make the pain entirely worth it.

I've been epilating for 3 years now and I still maintain it's the best investment ever. Mine's the Emjoi BodyBareGo with the 24ct gold tweezers. I agree it it gets rids of armpit hairs amazingly and it doesn't come back for a week.

I'm curious to try to Emjoi that we sell at my drug store now.. it's only $19.99 though, so I wonder if the quality is still good. It's the Emjoi Slim. Would you try it?

I have both the Braun and an older emjoi model. The Braun does pinch when I'm not careful. In terms of performance I think the emjoi is better. I use the Braun for my pits and legs. The legs take about 15 mins each and it doesn't get the ingrown well. I have used the emjoi on the most "sensitive area" and it hurts of course but it does the job well.

Hey guys! use a numbing spray before you do any hair removal..it works great..and before you tattoo or pierce anything..you can get it at sallys or cvs or maybe walmart..good luck!!

Does this epilator work as a leg or face shaver?

I have the Braun one (got it as a gift from one of my girl friend ;D We so understand each other's pain) and it was really really well too. I'm glad this gadget was invented because waxing didn't work too well and left me with so many ingrown hairs.

Def a friend :D

I've just purchased the Braun Silk Epil Xpressive (it has changeable heads for different areas & a shaver/trimmer attachment (which I haven't used yet) this epilator can be used in wet & dry, the sales lady said it is a good option as using it when wet means the folical is more open to releasing the hair.

I used it straight away on my legs & in hindsight it was totally fine, I went slowly & got quicker when I realised it did hurt that much. Then I moved onto my bikini line... WOW, the pain was fairly full on, I was sweating & had to stop a few times, I didnt get the whole thing done & the area is VERY irritated (sore to touch) now. I've been reading online that this is common for some people, so I am going to stick with it as long as the irritation goes away first.

I also tried my underams, this hurts less than the bikini but I did accidentaly pinch my skin on both my underarm & on my bikini line, my fault, I didnt hold the skin taught.

I tried the area between my eyebrows & it worked a treat, painless & only a little redness for about an hour.

I am kind of scared of my epilator now but I think I owe it to myself to persist as people say it gets easier!

Thank you sooooo much for this post. I always wondered about the eficiency of these epilators, and when I read your post, I bought one, and it works perfect!!!!!!!!!!!

how can i open it and change the battery

those are some great epilators :) thank you for the review!!

i think epilators are much better than epilators

We've just been testing the Philips Satinelle.

We tested on it on my assistant (lasered my hair off years ago!), and were both quite surprised at how it worked.
We reviewed it here http://homehairremovalreview.com/2015/05/do-epilators-work-philips-satinelle-epilator-reviewed/

They're definitely improving! My assistant is going to continue using it to see if it reduces the amount of hair that grows back long term.

Using tweezers is very painful. I hope this epilator can help me out both as tweezers and a pain reliever. Hope to find a device to test hair follicle and get hair follicle test results in next.

I personally use epilation and find it better than shaving. Emjoy and Brown are indeed one of the best models in this category. The first couple of times maybe a bit painful but after the first uses the hair gets softer and there is less pain. Here is also a nice article presenting some devices and tips.

Hi Jen
Thank you for this amazing article ! I find epilators more convincing and efficient than other hair removal methods. Epilating is more faster and with less side effects and pretty much easy to handle.

Braun silk epil 7 is my favorite epilator and as well I use the Braun's latest epilator - The silk epil 9 too.

And again thank you for this amazing article. :)

Meli

I was actually thinking of buying a new epilator. I like the idea of the Silk Epil 9 coming with an exfoliating head, that would help with ingrown hairs. Great and useful review http://www.thewritegirl.co.uk/

I personally love my Karmin ;)

I’d recommend the electric epilator Karmin.