Philips HP 6492 Satinelle ICE

Phillips Satinelle Ice Premium – Epilator

I have been really intrigued by epilators recently, and have been thinking about buying one for a while now. After looking at loads of reviews on them, talking to friends and trying to find a good one to buy, I decided upon one that was on offer at Boots that looked like it was meant to be a good one. I’d seen this Ice epilator advertised an awful lot, and although I couldn’t fathom how you ...
...concept); I thought I’d give it a go.

I bought the Satinelle Ice Premium about two months ago now; however I only actually plucked up the courage to use it a couple of weeks ago. I had been waxing my legs for a while before this and wasn’t sure how my skin would react to something new, so I just got a good waxing before I went off on holiday, shortly after I had bought the epilator (I didn’t want to have nasty legs poking out of my ... more

Phillips Satinelle Ice Premium – Epilator

I have been really intrigued by epilators recently, and have been thinking about buying one for a while now. After looking at loads of reviews on them, talking to friends and trying to find a good one to buy, I decided upon one that was on offer at Boots that looked like it was meant to be a good one. I’d seen this Ice epilator advertised an awful lot, and although I couldn’t fathom how you put ice into an epilator (not quite understanding the whole concept); I thought I’d give it a go.

I bought the Satinelle Ice Premium about two months ago now; however I only actually plucked up the courage to use it a couple of weeks ago. I had been waxing my legs for a while before this and wasn’t sure how my skin would react to something new, so I just got a good waxing before I went off on holiday, shortly after I had bought the epilator (I didn’t want to have nasty legs poking out of my shorts now did I?…the whiteness of them was bad enough!!!).

** What is an epilator?

Well lets get back to the basics, I’m sure there are a few people out there who don’t know what an epilator really is, I keep gibbering on to some of my friends all about this product and then find out they have no idea what I’m even talking about.

An epilator is a little handheld machine that yanks the hairs out from the roots…okay okay it sounds much worse than it is. It looks like a little electric razor; however the effects are more like waxing, as instead of cutting the hair from the tips, it pulls hairs out. When it does pull the hairs out, it can also get the roots – this means that the hair doesn’t grow back again and therefore the more often you use it, the less often you have to!

**What comes in the package?

• Mains charger
You can use the epilator without having it plugged into the wall. Apparently it’s meant to last for about 20 minutes; however I don’t find that it is. Granted, I can’t really be bothered leaving it to charge fully after I use it, so that probably doesn’t help, but it seems to lose power after about 10 or 15 minutes and when I push on my leg, it slows down. I think it has so much more power when it’s plugged in that it works better, so I just stick to that.

• Ice Pack (“skin cooler”)
I couldn’t really understand why an ice pack would help. I thought it would make your hairs stand upright a bit more as they were cold, meaning that the grip would be better; or maybe that it numbs you so that you don’t feel your hairs getting yanked out one by one. However, the ice gets run along your leg after the hairs have been pulled out, and it actually really does soothe your legs a bit – making them feel less stingy afterwards. I tried it without the ice pack on random hairs before using it properly, and I couldn’t understand how I was going to be able to do a whole leg with this, however after bunging the cold icey niceness on it, it was much easier.

There is also an extra one of these ice packs designed for your bikini line and underarms which cools the skin over a larger area to make skin less sensitive and painful.

• Body Puff
These little puffs are meant to help exfoliate your skin. I never realised that this is what they were meant for before; I thought that they just got the shower gel really lathery and nicer. I’m not sure how good this would be – I tend to use either an exfoliating glove, or exfoliating shower gel stuff.

• Shaving head
There is a whole new head that is designed for shaving. You just unclip the epilator head and pop on the shaving head, which then makes it turn magically into a normal electric shaver…this can be used when you chicken out of the whole ripping thing.

• Cleaning Brush
Because you’re not meant to wash the little machine, there is a cute little brush for you to brush off all the loose hairs that get caught.

**Questions:
When I have told people I bought one of these I get bombarded with questions. Everyone seems to like the advantages of them, but are too scared to try them, or just don’t quite understand how they work, so I’ll try and answer some of the questions that I’ve had…

- Does it hurt?
The most frequently asked question I’ve come across so far, and the reason that some people are too frightened to try them. I’d say that yeah it does hurt, but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be, and no – I didn’t scream out with pain. I kept testing it out on the odd hair and I thought that it stung quite a bit, but once you get really going, you get used to it quite quickly.

I haven’t tried it on my underarms as I haven’t plucked up the courage for that yet…it’s best if you pull the skin so it’s a bit tight and I can’t do that on my underarms unless I grow another arm, so when I finally manage to do it, I think I might just have to deal with the pain and hope it gets easier too. I gave it a quick go on a bit of my bikini line just for the craic, which wasn’t too bad – but again I could keep the skin tight there too.
Also – it helps if your hair isn’t too long, otherwise it hurts more too.

There are two speeds on the epilator, which can help for sensitivity (it’s actually designed - the slower for finer hairs and the faster for thicker hairs), however I like to just whack it into the fastest speed and get it over and done with…apparently the slower speeds help in the more sensitive areas and make it less painful. The whole thing also vibrates, which helps to massage the skin, which seems to be the popular way of soothing the skin too.

- Doesn’t it cause ingrown hairs?
I suffer from ingrown hairs quite often, which I get from waxing too. The best way to combat this is to exfoliate regularly. I thought exfoliating once every now and again would be ok, but I think it should be done at least once every second day for safe measure if you suffer from these.

Waxing and exfoliating pulls the hairs out; if it doesn’t pull them out by the root then it definitely weakens the hair. This means that when the hair reaches the surface of your skin, it’s not got the strength to push through and gets forced back down again – this sometimes causes the hair to show through your skin but you cant get to it, or it can be as bad a big red spot that you can squeeze to get the hair out (gross eh?). Anyway, if you don’t want to get boils then get exfoliating!!

Also, I would recommend slapping on some moisturiser after using it too, as I often feel like my legs get a bit dried out.

- How long does it take before the hairs grow back again?
Some of the hairs won’t grow back at all, as they will have been removed from the root, however the others can grow back quite fast if they have the inclination. I’d say that for the first wee while you’d have to do it about once a week, and then after that it gets less – I believe around four weeks after a few months. I was speaking to someone who has had an epilator for about three years now, and she hardly has to do it anymore at all – just sometimes to pick up a few stray hairs whose roots aren’t budging.

** Price:

I managed to get this on offer when I went into Boots one day, and it only set me back £32.50 (however I actually cunningly got it free by using the Boots points that I’ve been saving up!!). Prices vary, but I think that this is quite reasonable and seems to be one of the best on the market – it comes with loads of things, and it will save on getting waxed each month!!

**Opinion

I think that so far, my epilator is going well. Apparently around 95% of hairs get pulled out by the roots in one stroke, which I’m not too convinced about, but I can definitely see patches where the hair isn’t coming back. Without the ice pack, my legs did feel a bit stingy afterwards and I had red blotches, but apparently this is quite common and shouldn’t be worried about. If you keep using it, it should calm down as you get used to it. It’s not expensive, especially if you go and get waxed at the moment, and would save money in the long term, so I think that’s another advantage.

I’m pleased I’ve bought one, and this one does seem to be one of the better ones out there. I haven’t had the pleasure of using any others (!!), but I would definitely recommend this one; especially after talking to other people and having read other reviews from various sources. 

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