My Thoughts on the Philips Lumea Prestige

Let me start off with, Dad,  if you decided to be nice and open today’s Sparkles & Shoes email (though you probably did not because you pick which ones based on the title) you can stop reading now, trust me, this is not going to be the post for you. And now that we’ve covered that off, here we go:

I am going to start by taking you back two years to  Black Friday 2018 when I was extremely sad that I was not home with my family for Thanksgiving and having gone on a business trip to Germany the previous day (Turkey Day) I did a lot of unnecessary shopping from my office. One of these impulse purchases from amazon was the Philips Lumea Prestige IPL Cordless Hair Removal Device. I just double checked it was the one I got and I am certain because when I got the product page Amazon asked me if I wanted to buy it again! Currently it is priced at £325 (around $415) down from the list price of £475 (about $632) but I am certain I paid far less. 

Even though I was in a buying state the biggest selling point to me was that most people saw 92% hair removed in three treatments. And with this big claim – which has nothing to do with why my review has taken two years – yes, it works.   After rediscovering this tool during lockdown I have now done a handful of treatments and while the hair is not 92% gone it is likely because I have missed spots not because the data is wrong. The tool has five energy settings on while on my first day I thought three was far too high but I have now worked my way up to ten.   After a few months it now takes less than 10 minutes to do both legs (when plugged in, it is half speed when you do it cordless as the light takes longer to recharge).   

I also did a bunch of research around this and I will give you the info straight from the experts.  I liked this  quote from dermatologist Josh Zeichner, MD in a quote from Marie Claire article considers at-home lasers a safe alternative. “Lasers work by emitting a beam of light that is absorbed by a specific target in the skin. In this case, the light is absorbed by pigment in the hair follicle to heat it up and destroy it, so the hair does not grow back.”   He also went on to say “Each treatment causes some degree of damage to the hair follicle resulting in thinner hair, and it often takes multiple treatments to completely remove hair. For this reason, the term laser hair removal is a bit of misnomer, and it should probably be called laser hair reduction.”) Now that I have seen good results I am going to make it a priority to use it on a more consistent basis especially as you are supposed to do it when you do not have a tan so Winter time is perfect.  Besides the fact that it is working I would be very excited to essentially stop shaving my legs because I find it an annoying chore and waxes are expensive.  

Take a look at the Philips Lumea Prestige for size context as well as a few shots where you can see the Intense Pulsed Light in action: 

I was quite hesitant before I purchased so I am happy to answer any question you might have whether price, pain, regrowth, or anything else!