Remington IPL5000 i-LIGHT Hair Removal System Review
The Remington IPL5000 i-Light arrived back in January, and we were very much put off by the comprehensive list of Don'ts in the manual. Eventually, my pair of brave young volunteers tried the Dos and after a couple of months, they have agreed that, yes, it does exactly what it claims. But it is not painless.
The effect when zapped is like receiving an instant hot sunburn, almost (but not quite) like an electric shock; this is on light skin, between 1 and 2 on the Fitzpatrick scale. However the unpleasant sensation and red mark soon fades and the skin looks normal again a few minutes later. One gets used to the burning hair smell. After a few weeks of trying to recover and re-grow, the cooked hair is significantly less strong than before, and is easily shaved back to prepare for the next treatment. Two months have passed, and for two of our family, the brave young volunteers, three sessions later there is very little hair still trying to show in the areas zapped.
It requires care and expertise to make sure one does not double-zap the same place in a session, or miss a bit, since it is hard to see what one is doing. It is a toss-up whether to move steadily along in the auto-zap mode or use manual single-step. My volunteer couple found that it was easier to work on each other than on themselves, and the rest of us heard sounds of much laughter from behind closed doors, so perhaps it was not as painful as they claimed. And they have persisted with it.
The Amazon product description is accurate, and the numerous warnings about dark skin colour, moles, any blemishes, any thin skin, the eyes, all MUST be heeded very carefully. It will be less effective on fair hair, since the pigment is required to absorb the heat from the flash before it can be effective. If you are in any doubt about using it, do not buy it. If you are confident it really is for you, then by all means give it ago.
It arrived in a neat and compact package, with a total of three flash-bulbs, which are necessary since the expected life is only 1500 flashes and they are expensive to replace, see Remington SIPL i-LIGHT Bulb for i-LIGHT Hair Removal System. However after three treatments each on two people we are still on the first bulb. Replacement of the bulb is very easy. Unlike the current offering there was no DVD included, so we cannot comment on that. The whole unit is very well made, and has a comfortably reassuring solid feel to it.
In summary. It is less painful than waxing or an epilator, but still not pleasant. It is not suitable for all people, and requires skill and patience in operation. However, it does work well, and after three treatments in two months, the hair growth is much weaker than before. Hence it gets four stars.
Remington IPL5000 i-LIGHT Hair Removal System Feature
- Unisex, convenient hair removal in your home, 2 year guarantee
- Fast, painless way to remove hair for up to 12 weeks
- Offers long term hair reduction, targets larger areas than laser
- IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) Technology -used in professional hair removal clinics
- Multi-flash mode makes it one of the fastest IPL systems
Available at Amazon Check Price Now!
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Customer Reviews
Be careful - IPL user - United Kingdom
This item is only for use on larger body parts really but not face or neck. Boots have their own version which can be used everywhere, but obviously then takes longer on larger areas such as legs - but is possibly more practical in the long run.
IPL does hurt! Despite claims. I have had professional IPL treatment before - where you have to wear goggles to not see the light flash although for this product and the Boots one they claim that's not needed because of the different design.
If you have sensitive skin like me you are likely to react with some redness, swelling and soreness - but it does go down eventually just don't go out for a few hours! Aloe vera gel and cool compress is recommended.
In the salon they use a gel conductor - which comes with the Boots version but doesn't seem to be needed with this product which is interesting. I've yet to try either but the salon IPL feels akin to a quick sting - much worse on sensitive places like upper lip but not unbearable. Other people with less sensitive skin may not be affected as much.
However it does work! In a salon you go back over months so i'm keen to see how weekly treatments would work - i've never had permanent removal yet but def reduced, and finer - then when i had to stop treatments it grew back coarser etc. So i'm still a bit skeptical over permanent claims but salon IPL is very pricey so this is more cost effective for more regular treatments and hopefully therefore better results.
If you suffer from embarrassing or excess hair in certain areas it's the only way forward without damaging your skin permanently. But it isn't as magic a cure as they say - unless IPL has improved much in the last couple of years.
I agree with issues about using it yourself and knowing where you have been - esp if it hurts. That's the bonus of using a salon. But it may depend on the area you need to treat, and it's prob worth a go anyway. Esp as IPL isn't available for everyone in easy access across the UK.
Not so much a product review but an IPL review from personal experience which I hope is useful to people thinking of buying this product but who have not received this treatment in a salon before.
Review Carefully Before You Buy - Michael Mooney - Glasgow United Kingdom
One to do your research on - there are a host of "advisory" notices against using the device if you are too light skinned, about what parts of the body you should use it on, and about when it shouldn't be used. Nothing too surprising, and you should be able to get all the information you need from the product description and other reviews here.
Seems ok, but... - Peter Lee - Manchester ,United Kingdom
Before I begin, this is an interim review of sorts - a device such as this needs to be tried and tried over a period of time (several months, maybe even a year or so) before one can truly appreciate its qualities. Hopefully I'll come back at some stage and add more to this review.
There's always a razor perched on the side of our bath at home, left there so my girlfriend can shave her legs and armpits whenever she feels the need. She's had her legs and bikini line waxed before, but the hassle of booking and travelling to & from the appointments soon saw these fizzle out, so some kind of home treatment seemed ideal, and hopefully one which didn't smell quite as bad as Veet or be as messy.
The device comes in a surprisingly small box. Inside there is the system itself, spare bulbs (about £25 each on Amazon), and a small instruction book. The device is smaller than I'd expected but is still bulky - an oval base a few inches thick, with a fat cable wrapped around its edge leading to the handset used to operate the unit. If you're thinking of getting this and popping it into your hand luggage before going on holiday, forget it. It's not heavy, just big. The base has a few buttons used to set such things as the intensity of the flash, and the handset has a single button which, when pressed, causes the bulb to flash and - hopefully - work its magic.
The instruction booklet is terrifying. Page after page of "do not"s makes one wonder if this is really safe to use, and it took my girlfriend a good few days to pluck up the courage to try it! Immediate no-nos are that you cannot use the device on black, brown, or sunburnt skin, nor can you use it on moles or birthmarks, and it shouldn't be used on anything other than brown or black hair. It also shouldn't be used on anywhere above the shoulders (so no trying it on your face, chaps) or the genitals. You're advised to shave the area to be treated too, so don't expect to be able to do it on anywhere hairy, give it a quick zap, and see clumps fall away as if by magic.
So, once everything has been set up and the unit switched on, the process is simple: place the flash window flat on the area to be treated, press the button on the handset, and then move on to the next area. There's a bit of trial and error involved, and although it doesn't exactly hurt I'm told it felt a bit prickly to do (the words "pinpricks" and "electric shock" were used), and took maybe twenty minutes or so to do a single leg. The handset has a kind of safety feature built in as you can only activate the flash when the window is flat against the skin, so you can't pretend it is a laser gun or use it as a torch :-) A good job really as the bulbs cost so much, and each lasts for 1500 flashes according to the manual, which isn't that many when you consider how many flashes you could use on your legs etc. If you go over the same area twice or more it becomes more painful, and can redden. There is a selector on the base unit where you can set an intensity of the flash, so you may wish to start low and gradually increase it until you find a setting which works well and is tolerable.
A few days later it looks as though it has worked well enough, but it's like anything else of this ilk in that a true impression can't be gained until it has been tried and retried. I personally have had electric shavers which have seemed awful at the first use but after a few days of trying it everything seems to improve, and suddenly it's the best I've had. But this is where the problem lies. This is an expensive gizmo, its parts cost a fair bit too, and it seems a bit too much of a faff on the whole. Granted, shaving every few days seems bothersome, but my girlfriend does her legs in the shower rather than as a separate job, so it's just a part of the routine. When you consider that this requires you to shave and *then* use this, it seems a little excessive. Sure, the results may last for a few weeks, but waxing also lasts a while - costs less than this too and is quicker - and treatments using devices like this one can also be done professionally, again more quickly, and usually with better results.
So, on the whole it seems to work but needs more investigation over time, hurts a little so I'm told, and doesn't eliminate the need to shave, just makes it less of a regular event. Not entirely convinced then, hence the three stars - but this may increase. If my girlfriend continues to experiment with it, I'll update the review.
