I'm so excited to finally share my experience using my Phillips Lumea SC2009/00 which I purchased at a discounted price of £349.99 directly from boots (WORTH EVERY PENNY). I'm aware that Amazon tend to go up and down on their price so it might be worth keeping an eye out if you're looking to purchase this model. I've been using it for around two to three months now, with huge gaps inbetween because working life tends to get in the way a lot. In this post I'll be giving you an idea of how I've gotten on with it so far.
WARNING: I'm no person to be shy about these things if it's going to help someone else so if you're one to get a lil uncomfortable with regards to the topic of 'down there' then do just skip that part and give the Face and Body bits a read.
So the way that IPL works is that when your hair is in it's growth stage, having removed hairs from the surface (shaving is best) it'll zap it into a sleeping phase, which in effect, slows down the regrowth cycle and causes existing hair bulbs to fall out. Done repeatedly and as instructed by the manual, you will eventually stop growing hairs all together.
I've never shaved in my life so doing it for the sake of this has been a right pain. With the benefit of mum being a beautician I've been lucky that I've always been able to wax. Shaving definitely took some getting used to, I even gave myself a huge cut on my wrist bone the first time which was all types of nasty, the scar still hasn't healed either :(
The recommened time between each session on whichever area is two weeks which I stuck by. Any sooner and I wouldn't have given the growth enough time for the treatment to be affective as there's no hairs to send into sleeping phase to begin with. On top of this, there's obviously been extensive research behind the release of this product so it's always safer to follow the recommendations in the manual.
Bikini Line
The model I chose is suitable for Face, Bikini and Body. I chose it as I felt it's important that each area has it's own head (as shown on the bottom of the box) but I do know of some people just using the body head on the bikini area and giving it a good clean after use as with the SC2007/00 model which doesn't include a bikini-specific head... whatever you prefer as there is nothing different besides from the size about them both. For me the bikini line one worked great because it's smaller than the body head so is convenient to get all areas done properly and I had peace of mind that I wasn't using it elsewhere.
As we all know how quick the growth is for this area, it's the only place I started out doing once every week. I only needed to do that for three weeks, then miss one and twice again the same way. Now it's significantly slowed down the process and there are much less hairs as well as having the most fall out I've noticed from my whole body. I'm still on my once-per-two-week phase of treatment but I'm extremely happy with the results. Less hair growth means clearer and more even looking skin too which again, I'm very pleased with.
Face
I've had a bit of a sideburn and some chin hair that I thought could do with getting rid of so did from my sideburns and whole 'beard' area including chin. I did do my upper lip once but couldn't deal with waiting two weeks for it to grow for the next session as it is the most noticeable of all and never in my life have I let it grow out, I've always threaded as soon as they were just about long enough to be pulled out by it. The facial area is the least uncomfortable to do, all I felt was warmth and have only had to do it 3 times for it to have gotten to a point i'm happy to leave it alone. That's probably because mine weren't so bad to begin with but other people may need to do it just a few more times.
Underarms
As usual this area has been done every two weeks and oh my! I hate to boast but my pits are gettin' prettier by the day - with exfoliation once a week to combat those evil ingrown hairs. I'm near enough to the point the hairs aren't growing back, only a small patch I keep missing on either side is left. With this one again, I've not had to do it more than two times to start seeing a difference, I hadn't done them almost a month before last week which was my fourth time and there was barely any hair there.
Arms and Legs
These are the areas I've been the most laziest with having only done my legs twice and my arms three times. Time is such a big problem for me, I just never get enough of it to keep up however I'm not giving up and will try to do as much as I can, so far it has slowed down the process of regrowth, my shaved arms and legs are now growing back roughly at the rate of waxing.
IPL machines aren't suitable for all skin tones and hair colours so I do recommend doing enough research into it before making the decision to purchase. Me being light-medium skin coloured with dark brown hair meant I was perfectly fine to go ahead and have had the results as mentioned. The advised stength was levels 3-4 from the options on the machine but I've generally stuck with level 3 for comfort. Initially, it might be a slightly horrible, warm sting depending on how sensitive you are but after the first time of completing an area, it's more comfortable as just a flash of warmth. Everyone's different though and the friend who recommened I get this has never felt any of the horribleness that I did.
I will try to do another update a little later down the line but up until then, you are free to ask me any questions via the comments section or email.
Take care my loves xx
