Here’s a little secret. I’ve been plucking a hair on my chin for several years now and it just won’t go away. I recently discovered my mother has the same hair in the same place so obviously I need to blame this on her. No but really, how many of us have hair in unwanted places? The chin hair is annoying and I have to always carry a tweezers with me because at even the slightest poking of a hair through the skin it is plucked out and away as though it never existed. But it does exist and it keeps growing back! So this is where looking into at-home IPL solutions started.
Another unwanted hair story of mine started a long time ago in middle school when I swore I was starting to get a mustache. Trust me, it was definitely NOT a mustache, more of just normal peach fuzz on the upper lip and not even remotely noticeable. But as an impressionable young girl I saw an advertisement in a magazine for a hair removal cream for the face and thought I had to have it. How I got this I still don’t know (I must have saved my babysitting money and bought it myself) but I managed to get my hands on a bottle of it and try it out myself. It took away the hair for sure but the hair for me grew back even worse so then I felt I actually had a problem. Since that day I’ve had to either wax my upper lip or use an epilator to remove the hair. Again, probably not that noticeable to anyone but me however annoying still the same.
Therefore, I was very pleased to recently attend the launch of the latest Philips Lumea Prestige device which is an at-home IPL system that stops unwanted hair growth after just a few sessions. I was kindly given one to test out and I have to admit that at the start I wasn’t sure because I’m pretty useless sometimes when it comes to complicated devices. However, this is a super-easy device to use! I was looking for something that was easy to use, painless and also was quick and efficient. I also like that it’s a time saver. Going to a clinic and getting treated with IPL takes a lot of time and a lot of money. The Philips Lumea Prestige is a super easy-to-use device you can simply use once every two weeks and within a few sessions (4 to 5 but this can vary per person) your hair is gone – voilà!
The Philips Lumea Prestige at-home IPL device comes with three attachments – one for the body, one for the face and one for precision areas such as the armpit and the bikini line. As I said, I’m time-poor so don’t have the patience to learn how to use complicated devices so I was really pleased at how easy this was to use. The device is cordless (or you can use it corded as well when it needs to charge) so therefore you can use it when you watch TV (very convenient for those Netflix binge sessions – Love Island anyone?).
All you have to do to start using the device is to press the power button and press the device to the area of skin that you want to treat. The device has a smart sensor that will actually calculate at what intensity of pulsed light it will then deliver to the skin. Mine switched between level 2 and 3 depending on the area but it goes all the way up to level 5. Therefore, you know that you are getting exactly the amount of pulsed light that you need – not too much and not too little. Getting too much can cause skin irritations so it’s such a clever device that it does the thinking for you. Hence why at-home IPL is now so easy.
Once the sensor has picked up your level of intensity the back of the device will flash ‘ready’. When it does you simply press once on the trigger on the handle of the device and the light will flash, delivering the IPL to the area.
You need to use the Philips Lumea Prestige on dry, clean skin as well to start and also skin that is not tanned or has fake tan on it. If you do have fake tan you need to wait until this fades to start using the device properly. Also to note you should not treat the same area more than once during a session because it doesn’t increase the effectiveness of the treatment, but only increases the risk of skin reactions.
And also what is Intense Pulsed Light exactly and how does it stop hair growth? The Philips Lumea Prestige uses gentle pulses of light that then get absorbed by the root of the hair and those pulses of light stimulate the hair follicle into a resting phase. The hair then sheds and regrowth is prevented. IPL only works on hair that is going through a growing phase, hence why you have to have several sessions so you make sure that all the hair is then gone. Once you complete your 4/5 sessions (at two weeks apart) you can then do touch ups every 4-8 weeks, only when you see hairs growing back. After the first treatment, it can take 1-2 weeks for the first hairs to fall out.
You also need to use this on areas that are shaved – i.e. if you are doing your legs you need to shave your legs before using as this will be more effective. This allows the light to be absorbed by the hairs below the surface of the skin for maximum results.
Lots of people asked me if this hurts and I’m happy to say that the device is totally pain-free. There are two treatment modes to treat the skin – stamp and flash or slide and flash. You can use the stamp and flash mode to treat curvy areas like the knees and the slide and flash for smoother areas such as the legs and thighs.
All in all, I’ve been SO pleased with my at-home IPL experience with the Philips Lumea Prestige. Let me know if you have tried at-home IPL or considering it?
Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram @beautyrocksblog for all my beauty posts.
*Philips Lumea Prestige kindly gifted by the brand with no obligation to write this post. All words and opinions are my own.
