Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had never used epilator before, so this review applies to both this particular model and the epilator in general. It works much better than I expected. Make no mistake about it, it's not painless. It's often extremely painful while often little more than tickling sensation, depends on the location and the thickness of the hair. Good thing about it is that most locations which give you the most pain are hidden from the public view, so you can take as much time as you wish. If it's not for days, you can take weeks to complete. Visible parts such as arms and legs are relatively painless. If you start there first, then you may feel it painful but if you start in more painful location, you'll feel much more comfortable. The reasons I chose this particular model are: 1) Price. It was the cheapest. I didn't want to jump on top of the line while I wasn't sure if I'll like it and keep using it. It turned out I got more than I paid for. 2)Battery operated. Mobility is one thing, it lets me use it anywhere I choose without restriction of the cord length. I also had many set of rechargeable batteries for other uses. It has become my habit to look for "battery operated" gadgets instead of rechargeable or corded. A set of AAA batteries doesn't last for a long time(test result in update at the end) before it needs recharging but you won't be using it for that long because of the pain. You'll be glad it gives you the time to rest. 3) Reviews. Products made by Emjoi in general had good reviews in Amazon. What I found out after I got the product and had it run through a few uses. 1) Battery change is a bit difficult. You may want to have a small flat screw driver or something similar handy, otherwise removing them out of the compartment will be hard. 2) Cleaning is very easy. Despite its complicated looking mechanism, the hair won't get stuck inside because critical parts come out easily for the cleaning. I thought removing hair from the tweezers would be difficult but just rotating it by finger, some brushing and blowing the air makes it clean as new. You can even wash the tweezers part in the water. 3) It doesn't grab the skin and tear it. I had some fear before I actually used it for the first time but it didn't happen. The edge of the metal tweezers pieces are well rounded, that may explain it. I had used on most delicate skin but was still comfortable. It does pull the skin because when the hair get pulled, the hair pulls the skin just before it comes out and you can see the skin vibrates up and down. Tips I found out after some experiment for the people not familiar with using epilator. 1)Take your time. Don't try to make it as a 10 minutes job like shaving. If it hurts, give it a rest. Do small part at a time. First time is the hardest and takes the longest. Once you get the job done, keeping it is much easier. You may see some redness and small bumps afterward where the hair came out, but in a day or two, the skin will become baby smooth. 2) Move the epilator head in the right direction. If you see the switch of the epilator, you move it toward you. If you don't, you move it away from you. That way, the hair gets pulled upward instead of pulled down and side way. You can feel it less pain and the tweezers grab the hair more easily. Don't push the head downward, it won't make the tweezers grab more hair but the direction and the angle of it will. Just glide the head over the skin nice and slow until you feel the first sign of it grabbing the hair. When you feel the first pain, pull it back then take a deep breath. Try again the same thing, then again and again, you'll get the hang of it. *update* Photos have been posted. Continuous run time(in high setting) on full charged Eneloop(2000mah) is 2 hours 7 minutes. It's a lot longer than I thought. Running it switch on-off frequently seems to use a lot of juice out of the batteries. In real use by on-off frequently, it probably goes only half as much. *update*(7-24-11) It has become most frequently used gadget of mine. After some experiment, I found that adding sideway movement such as in small circular or zigzag motion to forward motion helps picking up more hair. This maybe different from person to person depends on what type of hair you have. I found some hair grow flat to the skin and that's hard for the tweezers to catch. Most of the time the tweezers catch the hair I can't even see. It shouldn't take hours like some reviewers say. It's more like matter of minutes if you use it regularly. If you use it regularly, most painful part will become nearly painless.