Following on from my last Wedding Preparation post where I talked about the Slendertone Face, this week I'm going to talk to you about armpits. Specifically, my armpits. I spoil you guys, I know. You see, my wedding dress has no sleeves, and I've now spent approximately two thirds of the entire wedding budget (not even nearly joking) on shrugs, boleros and other items in an attempt to hide my bingo wings, and then I remembered that I need to do something about my armpits.
You see, in winter (for I am the laziest of people) my armpits get neglected. It's a benign kind of neglect, admittedly, I keep them clean, and feed them all the deodorant they can eat, but they get tucked up in sweaters and left to ... well ... fuzz up for about four months. No chance of that this February, for, whilst I have no objection to hairy pits in general (and I don't, mostly), my fuzzy pits decidedly will not go with the official #LippieWedding colours.
Yes, we have an official colour. Shoot me. You wait till you find out we have a theme for the music. Oh. Bum.
Anyway.
Pits.
So, when Braun and Gillette got in touch about their Gillette Venus Naked Skin IPL kit, there is a small chance I discussed my dress-pit dilemma, and they agreed to let me trial the new system, which you can see above. I've had an IPL unit before, and gave up with it very quickly, as the cord between the base unit and the handset was far too short, which meant I had to use it bent double, and that got old very quickly.
No such problems with the Venus Naked Skin system, there's a good couple of feet of lead there, which is very handy. And the window for the laser is pretty big too:
So, what is an IPL system? Simply put, IPL stands for Intense Pulsed Light, and the system works by essentially exposing your hair follicles to an extremely bright light, which interrupts their growth cycle. In effect, this means that hair grows back finer, and eventually, with repeated use, the hair stops growing entirely.
The system works best when there is a big difference between the colour of your hair, and the colour of your skin, so, the darker your hair, and the paler your skin is, the better the system is likely to work for you. It doesn't work well on darker skins, but there is a colour guide on the packaging that gives examples, plus the unit comes with a skintone sensor too, which measures the melanin in your skin, and decides on the best level of light for your skintone. Hopefully this means you will never burn. On my armpits, I use level three, which is one of the lower power levels. Oddly, my armpits are darker then the rest of my arms, but I figure better safe than sorry, frankly.
To use the Gillette Venus Naked Skin system, you shave the area you wish to treat - this feels a little counterintuitive for some reason, but it is basically so the light finds its way directly to the follicle area - then apply a thick layer of the provided conductive gel onto the area (pits, in my case), but don't rub it in, it's there both to amplify the effect of the light, and cool the area down, as intense lights get hot. You then put the light sensor nearby, and press the button at the top, which tells the handset which level of power to use.
Once the system tells you it's okay (you get a steady white light on the handset), you apply it onto the first place you wish to treat, and - looking away - press the button. There will be a slightly red flash, and you'll get a warm sensation in the spot you've just treated. Give the handset a few seconds to recharge, then repeat the process right next to the last spot you blasted. Carry on till you've treated the entire area, but don't overlap spots.
And that is basically it! I treated both my armpits in less than 20 minutes and I was very impressed with how simple and easy it was. Also, it didn't hurt, which was nice. Will it keep the fuzzies away? Well, it's got ten weeks to sort those out! Hopefully, just having to use it once a fortnight won't be too onerous ... The Gillette Venus Naked Skin IPL system costs £399.99 from Boots at the moment, I'll keep you posted on how I get on.
The Fine Print: PR sample. Armpit stories all my own. You're welcome.
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