Soft Caress Rechargeable Epilator

Purchased July 2012 as my first epilator. Even after doing a fair bit of research and comparison, I was still hesitant about purchasing, but four years later, I am very glad I made the selection. I would say I am a fairly averagely hairy person with average pain tolerance.Before this epilator:I had always shaved previously, and wanted a way to remove hair that lasted longer. I tried buying "ready to use" wax strips (the kind you rub between your hands to warm up) and it was disastrous. Not only did it hurt a lot, it didn't even remove half the hair! My skin was red, bleeding, sore and the skin/remaining hair was also covered in wax. I surmised I was probably doing something wrong, so I tried a couple of different brands/products, in different areas... in sum it was a nightmare. I ended up using tweezers to remove the remaining hairs. (Very tedious, I can assure you.) As a very broke college student, I also couldn't justify spending the extra money to go get myself professionally waxed every month. The problem with shaving armpit hair is that it grows back really quickly and would irritate/itch. It also looked very unsightly. I even tried tweezing it all (I actually did this for a while). Needless to say, I needed a better way to remove hair!Using this Emjoi epilator:How does it work? This epilator is effectively many tweezers pulling your hairs out repeatedly. When the head spins, the gold plates are pushed together as it goes down, and any hairs it catches gets pulled out.Does it hurt? It hurts just as much or as little as tweezing your hairs out. Buy a tweezer and try on yourself in the area you're thinking of hair removal. Of course this would be a lot of hair pulling out at one time, so the small pain is multiplied by the amount of hairs plucked. But that's the point of the product!Purchase comes with (see picture): a quite durable carrying bag (as you can see, mine has survived the abuse of travel and such fairly well), two "heads" that can be popped on and off (for cleaning), a "lid", a little cleaning brush, charger with a very long range, and a loofa (unfortunately this does not last for many years, but while it did, I really liked it! I actually wasn't able to find one I liked as much as it). The "lid" only fits on the pink head. The purple "head" has massaging "teeth," which supposedly helps lessen the pain. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I definitely like it because it helps "guide" your hair removal (see tips below). The epilator has two speeds, one for "finer" hair and another for "coarser" hair.To maximize efficiency, I would suggest:- if your hair is full length, shave it first, and let it grow back a bit, so the hairs stick out from your body and can easily be picked up by the epilator (a length you would be able to tweeze yourself)- keep the skin for the area as taunt as possible, otherwise your skin can get caught. (don't worry, it doesn't hurt too much, the epilator will just stop and you just turn it off and reposition before resuming)- try tweezing your own hair first to see which area hurts the least for you. some people say legs, others armpits, etc. first use the epilator on the area that hurts least for you, so you can get used to it- when epilating, you should be running the device upwards against hair growth (just like shaving). If I were to do my lower leg, using the purple attachment/"head", I would hold the device teeth side down, start from my ankle, holding the epilator perpendicular, or at a 90 degree angle towards my leg, and run upwards. The purple teeth follow the area the hair was just removed from, supposedly giving you a nice "massage" to relieve the pain your skin just experienced as the hair was tore out of the pores. The purple teeth ensure you are at the right angle! (if the teeth are touching you, then it's right, trust me)- when starting out, try using the lower speed ("1") on finer, smaller areas to test if the pain is manageable. Just turn it on, and put it against the area so only the hairs there can be tweezed.- unlike shaving, your movement of the device has no effect on the hair being removed! Move it up the area slowly, as the revolutions of the head pick up the hair- the removed hair either falls out of the head (I would suggest epilating over something, so afterwards you can easily sweep the fallen hairs into the trash) or sits inside the pink/purple "attachment." Take it off and use the white brush to brush the hair into a receptacle!- repeat until finished!Compared to shaving:Shaving is definitely faster, as one quick motion slices the hairs, and also leaves a nice smooth finish. Epilating takes a little longer, since you can't move over the area as quickly, and you might need to repeat if you didn't get all the hairs in the first "stroke." However, shaving needs to be repeated very often, while epilating generally the hair is completely removed and needs to grow back. Sometimes, say if you're doing the underarm, you need to touch-up with tweezers, but even so, adding up the amount of time required to shave many times, epilating once is less time and effort.In sum:Cost-wise, this easily makes up for itself over time. Add up those disposable razors/razor heads and shaving creams, over the course of years, and this ~$60 investment turns into cost savings! (When I bought it in 2012 it was $46)There are more expensive ones with more tweezer heads, but I find this one is sufficient and does the trick.Even after four years it works just as well as when I first bought it. I will say that perhaps the battery life is not as good as before (I never really timed it, perhaps I'm just forgetting to charge it) but the cord is very long so there hasn't been any issues there.

So I've waited a bit before writing this review. First a couple of things you should know about me. 1. I'm an esthetician/waxer. 2. I have super fine hair which means it's easy to wax/epilate. I've been waxing my own body hair/getting it waxed where I can't reach or see (under arms, nether region) for about two years now. Waxing doesn't hurt me as much as some folks because I have fine hair. (That's sometimes where the pain comes from... if you have thick, coarse hair, it hurts more to rip it from the root).Recently I've gotten tired of waxing my own legs and underarms. Legs are just too messy, the knees never turn out right and my underarms, well, let's just say that I've hurt myself more than I'd like to admit because the angle is weird and I'm pulling with the wrong hand. I usually trade waxing with a friend of mine who is an amazing waxer here in Los Angeles. But I'll be honest, I couldn't get to her as often as I'd like to remove hair. I also get frustrated that you have to wait so long to wax. My waxer friend suggested I buy the Emjoi. I was skeptical because of bad experiences in the 80s with the Epilator. So I sat down and started Emjoining with lots of fear. Now I'm an Emjoi addict. I Emjoi once a week, instead of getting waxed once a month. The reason I like Emjoing over waxing is that it grabs the hair when it is shorter (0.5mm vs. 1mm)Here are my thoughts on the Emjoi.1. Try to get any part of your body that you want to Emjoi waxed for at least a year if you can before starting with the Emjoi. Part of the reason that Emjoing is such a delight for me is because I've been waxing for a while and I don't really have that much hair left on my legs, etc. If you are worried about cost, talk with your waxer about getting you on an all-you can wax plan for a year. Usually they will be happy to have a loyal customer!2. Then use the Emjoi for touch-ups about once a week.3. Make sure that you put baby powder on your skin before Emjoiing. That helps dry all the wetness off of the top of the skin. If your skin is moist it can hurt how effective the Emjoi is and also make it hurt more. You wanna Emjoi on as dry a palette as possible.4. I use the Emjoi on my legs, underarms, arms and bikini. On the legs, it hurts like little rubber bands snapping on your skin, but it's not crazy painful. On the underarms and bikini (where you have more delicate skin) it definitely hurts more but it's still not a deal breaker. I DON'T use the Emjoi for a Brazilian. The skin down there is too sensitive and at a weird angle, so there is too much of a possibility that I could hurt myself. Plus let's be honest, it's not that easy to see. So if you need a Brazilian, I'd still go to a professional. I do use the Emjoi on my arms, doesn't hurt really at all. Where it hurts me too much to use is on my face. That's because the skin there is very delicate. I tried Emjoing my sideburns and lip. Never again. I'll just wax it and be done with it.5. Going to a professional waxer is still way easier. I just know that it isn't in the cards for everyone (money & time). So if you have done your budget and you have money allocated to spend on waxing, then I would definitely do that over the Emjoi. For me it's not just about the money, it's about time. I don't have the time to get to my waxer as often as I want to rip hair out by the root. So that's why the Emjoi is perfect. You can use it where ever and whenever. Now the one thing I'll say is that if you are sensitive to pain, waxing is still way better because it is quicker. I can wax my legs in 10 minutes. Emjoing them took 30 minutes. So the pain is prolonged. BUT like I said at the top of the post, hair removal doesn't really hurt that much for me (except my lip oh Jesus the pain there is crazy!!!). So that's why I don't care if it takes a little longer to Emjoi.6. The little sucker is loud. Just be prepared.7. I spurlged and spent extra money on the light. It doesn't really do all that much for me. I have a little light that I keep near my wax station at home and that helps me see the hairs way better than the little light. But you might like it. I think the light is a personal preference.

So, I've been wanting to get one of these for a long time.First off, I have a pretty high pain tolerance but a fairy good judge for these things.It doesn't feel great ar first but it's easy to get used to and much nicer than waxing.It's clean and efficient but yes, it feels like your hairs are being ripped out, there is no way to get around that unless you use a numbing agent but I didn't bother with that.Make sure you exfoliate before using and shower, and then use an ingrown hair product (I use tendskin) afterwards.After my first try, the hair started growing back a week later.But I was told the growth slows to about 4-6 weeks (like waxing) the more you use it.The little vibrating nubbie things don't really do much, but the travel bag and cleaning brush are very conveniet. I am infinately please with this product. It saves me a lot of time, money and effort, AND makes my skin look great.I also have very sensitive skin, there was very little irritation (only the hair ripping part)

If you used to wax, or is not afraid of pain then buy this!save you soooo much more time and money! I used to just wax and pluck on my own, never cleaned and takes forever. professional waxing--> super costly and doesn't last long. I'm not even gonna lie cause this IS gonna hurt for the first couple of times, and once you're used to it, it hurts less and less. In fact all the ways I've tried hurt(never tried shaving cause it's not as clean) never tried in shower but with massaging attachment, it does helps a little. Works awesome!! Don't force it, average strokes and repeat couple of times you'll be (boom!) hairless in minutes.The size of it is so nice, as it is not too small to hold in hand but not big at all to bring around.The pouch is so useful too. I bring this on trips and I never anymore have to worry about hair growing out and I have to stay in washroom for hours to wax. Loving it!!!

The delivered item is not the Soft Caress epilator, it is the eRase epilator, It does NOT have gold plated tweezers, it is NOT cordless and it most certainly does NOT work. Tested on long, short, fine & coarse hair and it did nothing.

This was my first epilator ever, so even though I don't have anything to compare to it I still love it! I don't think I'll go back to shaving anytime soon. Epilating is painful but not unbareable. It'll cost you less than shaving in the long run, and it's more eco-friendly.The only reason I didn't give it five stars was because even though it claims to be cordless, I found that it is more powerful when plugged in.

Works well but I recently bought the Braun Silk 5280 and that one is so much better! This one is super heavy and it doesnt come with a built in light. But it does do its job so it is worth it