Remington iLIGHT Pro Hair Removal System

In short--best beauty product purchase of the year, and perhaps ever! I am a fair-skinned brunette, so I have exactly the right coloring for this device. I do not hesitate to highly recommend this product if you have similar coloring. My bikini area and underarms are dramatically improved. Pay attention to the color of the hair you want to remove, though. I've found the hair on my legs to be a little too light for this to have dramatic results. If you have freckles--no worries! I have freckles and have noticed no adverse response. All-in-all, you will be pleased. It costs less than one laser treatment, is much less painful than waxing and best of all, you can preserve your dignity and privacy by doing it yourself--again, and again, and again--as needed. I'm still on my first bulb, so not everyone has issues with that. Regardless, it is very inexpensive over the long term when compared to spa services.Below are some details of my early experience with the product.******I've only just completed my first treatment, which went flawlessly. I was surprised and pleased that there was less discomfort than anticipated. It was quite a bit less painful than epilation. I turned it up to the highest setting by the third pulse (pulsed once on the first setting, once on the third setting and then proceeded with the 5th level from there on). It is definitely best to shave as thoroughly as possible. The treatment was most uncomfortable where the most hair was visible.I will update this review as I have the opportunity to observe results. So far, my impression is entirely favorable. The unit seems to be high quality and not a torture device, as I feared!Update, 1/20/2012. Like another reviewer, I decided to use this at closer intervals than directed. Second treatment was even easier than the first. I'm not sure whether that was due to increased attention to my shaving efforts prior to treatment or if I can expect each successive treatment to be less uncomfortable due to hair reduction. Regardless, it was a breeze! Much, much, much easier than the epilator (ouch!) that I use on peach fuzz. It is also very quick--no downtime between pulses. The only challenging part can be around bony areas where it can be difficult to get both sensors pressed simultaneously to enable a pulse. Even that is no big deal--it's usually just a matter of adjusting positioning of the handpiece horizontally or vertically to get the treatment window and sensors flush to the skin. Still no obvious results, but I didn't expect any yet. Will continue to update as I use the device and note results.Update, 1/26/2012. Again, I chose to treat at a shorter time interval than instructed (only 6 days this time). Honestly, it seems like I could use this daily without problem. There are zero after effects for me--not even redness. This third treatment was also virtually painless. Just a few hot, prickly sensations where there was more hair. I have also been zapping one spot on my chin where a single rogue hair tends to pop up. I'm careful to shield my eyes and it seems totally fine. The treatments are really quick. I was reading about a competing system that isn't available in the US as far as I can tell, and the unit needs to recharge between pulses which results in a prolonged treatment session. Not the case with the iLight! You can zap as quickly as you want. It literally takes less than a minute to do my underarms and less than 2 for the bikini zone. My leg takes longer since it's significantly larger. Still no big deal, though.So far, I am really noticing results on my under arms and bikini. This morning my under arms had no noticeable hair. Bikini is more sparse and finer. I can't say I've noticed a huge difference on my legs, but I will stick with it. Even if I end up with less and finer growth, I'll consider it a partial win since I'll be less prickly.One thought for anyone who is afraid of even the minimal amount of discomfort. Perhaps a numbing cream might help? Here is a link to one I chose based on reviews.Dr. Numb Topical Anesthetic Lidocaine Numbing Cream for Pain Relief - 30 grams

Full disclosure here--I'm a dude, yes that's right, a guy. I initially shaved my legs years ago when I started wearing compression spandex. Eventually I tried IPL with another brand's product (more on that later), and eventually, moved on to the Remington i-Light.I am a pale Okinawan (Asian) with black hair. Okinawans are known as the hairier lot of the Asian ethnicities. Initially my wife (also Asian, but not Okinawan) thought it was weird that I was nuking my leg hair. But now, after having seen the full results, she really likes me hairless. Her half of the family is hairless, my half is hairy. Now my wife can't imagine me going back to being the furry ape I was.The i-Light works well and delivers as promised. It's a slow process, and you must be patient. Remington says it's for long-term hair reduction, meaning hairs will grow back more sparsely, and much thinner. It's not meant to be a permanent solution, although you may indeed experience SOME hairs that don't grow back at all. The i-Light does what it claims, and I can't ask for it to deliver any more than promised. However, in terms of outright efficiency and hair-killing potential, there is a better product out there, albeit with some risk (I'll get to that soon).One thing to note is that I always use the i-Light at maximum intensity. I can't attest to the effectiveness of the lower settings. The maximum intensity stings, especially with my thick, dark hair. However, the pain is a good indication that it's doing significant damage to the follicle. Sounds morbid, but that's essentially what it's doing. IPL uses the hair strand to conduct the pulsed energy to the follicle, where it kills or damages the cells that generate the hair structure. Lower settings may be more "comfortable," but that's because they are introducing less pulsed energy to the follicle. Less energy is less painful, but it's also not killing the follicle cells as effectively, or if you're a quick healer, you may not be killing those cells at all. That being said, the maximum intensity delivered the hair reducing results as promised.I mentioned that my first IPL was a different product, which is relevant to this review for the sake of comparison. The previous product I used was the Silk'n BellaLite. That thing PERMANENTLY killed my hairs. It hurt like hell (I used the highest setting on that as well), but as I write this 6 years later, the areas treated with the BellaLite have not regrown hair. Remarkable. The reason I stopped using it is because it literally exploded in my hand. The light bulb in the cartridge went BANG, I assume from a power spike or something. After that, the main console wouldn't even turn on. It was a bricked. This was during my fourth or fifth cartridge (yes, I used it a lot). Luckily, the glass shield on the cartridge enclosure kept the broken bulb pieces contained within the cartridge, so I was unhurt. I was very rattled, though. I returned it, pointing out the defect (this was at Costco, who is good about accepting returns, even months later; also note--Costco no longer sells the BellaLite).Since I was only about 75% done with my IPL treatments with the BellaLite, I bought the Remington i-Light on Amazon to finish up what was left. So yes, you could say my review of the i-Light is essentially based on the final 20% to 25% of my IPL treatments, after I had already removed most of the hair with the BellaLite.However, that being said, the i-Light does reduce hair growth. It delivers as promised. In comparison to the BellaLite though, the results aren't as quick or dramatic. The i-Light also takes much longer to complete a given area of skin, thanks to the tiny little pulse window on the cartridge. The BellaLite had a HUGE pulse window, and you could zap large swaths of real estate on your skin per each pulse. Less pulses per session translated into more sessions per cartridge. You could also literally feel the heat from the light. The mega light also meant more outright energy zapping those follicles--it was IPL by brute force. The i-Light feels like a small rubber band snapping against your skin. At the highest setting, the BellaLite felt like a whip! I dreaded the BellaLite sessions, but the results were worth it. The i-Light instills less dread, but the results are in much smaller increments.I will continue to use the i-Light as remedial spot treatment for now. After my main initial treatments, I have been doing this just a couple of times a year over the past few years. Since I'm a guy, I'm okay with letting the few sparse hairs grow for months without nuking them. That, and I'm lazy about upkeep. However, when my i-Light cartridges are used up, I am considering buying a Silk'n SensEpil (with some reservation) for the last remaining stubborn hairs, and finish the job once and for all. The SensEpil looks CONSPICUOUSLY like the BellaLite, only with a different color scheme. I'm hypothesizing (more like hoping) that the SensEpil is a revamped version of the BellaLite, with the exploding bulb-inducing power spikes addressed.I give the i-Light 4 stars because it does what it says, although there are other products like the BellaLite which offer a more dramatic result. The trade-off with the BellaLite is that it has potential to explode in your hand, like mine did.