You might have noticed that I’ve got a Countdown To Launch running in the sidebar for the newest version of Philips Lumea, the Precision Plus. The reason this is exciting is because with the Precision Plus IPL you can safely tackle facial hair, one of the most misery-causing beauty issues I know of. Pretty much every woman has to tackle the ‘tash issue’ at some point in their lives; whether you’ve naturally got dark and abundant hair, or whether it is a hormonal issue (such as menopause, maybe), we’ve all stared at those painful wax strips and hated them. But for some women, it isn’t just the downy hair on the upper lip (which I might say is perfectly natural) but an issue of far more facial hair than they feel comfortable or happy with.
I need to say straight away that there are some skin types and hair types that aren’t suitable for Precision Plus – grey, red or white-blonde for example, and nor is it suitable for black skin or very dark brown skin. Dark brown is fine, but if your tone veers over to extremely dark brown and beyond, it isn’t suitable. So if you aren’t in any of those categories, the Precision Plus can treat the upper lip, chin and sideburns. In the instruction booklet it says ‘it may be used on other sensitive areas on the body, such as underarms and bikini area or hard-to-reach areas.’ Hmmm. Hard-to-reach areas? Once you’ve eliminated the bikini area, underarms, the face, the entire body, I think what the booklet coyly calls a hard-to-reach area is the bum. Isn’t it? No idea, but that’s my best guess.
Philips suggest that within a couple of months you should see significant signs that hairgrowth is reduced, but you will need to carry on every couple of weeks or so to ensure it stays that way – that’s not a big ask for facial hair because it won’t take long. I was pleased with my last Philips Lumea experience; bringing this kind of hair removal technology to home use is pretty cool and although I didn’t keep up with the treatment since I didn’t have a unit at home, now I do, so I will definintely be giving it a go, especially as it is 30% quicker than last time around. That said, the improvement in time for use is greatly helped by the fact that you can pull the device over the skin and not have to keep stopping and starting for it to flash. In terms of use, you charge it up, place the ‘window’ against the skin, let it flash, then move to the next area and repeat, until you’ve done the entire area. For legs, this goes on a long time, but for face and underarms it is really pretty quick. Yes, a little pin-prick of pain is there, but perfectly bearable.
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A word of warning – never use this if you are sunburned, and check that you have a skin tone or hair tone that this machine can work with before you splash out the £450 that it costs.
Lumea Precision Plus is £450 and launches on 25th July (this Wednesday) at John Lewis and Amazon. (earlier info was incorrect.. my fault!)
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