I originally came across a good review for silk'n sensepil while researching another hair removal product. I started researching the sensepil & decided to try it. I have fair skin, medium brown hair on my underarms & bikini area (blonde hair in other areas). According to instructions, I should see best results on my dark hairs, but may see some on even the lighter hairs with extra sessions.
The price seemed very high (here & on the manufacture's site), but I was able to find someone selling a unit that worked, but was no longer needed on an auction site for $200 without a lamp cartridge. I purchased 2 cartridges here. I received my auctioned unit & cartridges within one day of each other. Still not cheap, but more reasonable.
My unit did not have any limit on how high I could set it for my initial uses. For those of you that get yours new & are complaining about the limit... Press & hold the + and - buttons simultaneously until you here 2 consecutive beeps to remove or reset this feature. The instructions to do this can be found in your instruction manual & on the manufacture's website.
I started under my arms on the setting 3. I could feel it snap, but it wasn't bad (I raised the setting to 4 & 5 on future uses. I now use 5 under my arms with no problems).
I then did my bikini area. As the unit heats up from multiple snaps one right after each other, it gets a little painful here. I raised up to 4 & 5 on later uses, but 5 was too much so I went back & stayed at a 4.
I have been doing this every week to a week & a half, for about 5 times in just under 2 months). There is a small spot on my chin with light blonde hairs that I will occasionally tweeze. I zapped it too.
My underarms are noticeably better. The hair growth used to resemble an oval, now there is no hair at the top & bottom (more square shaped now). Inside the square that still has some hair, there is probably 60% less than before.
In my bikini area there is about 40% less hair. In the inner thighs where there was not much hair has almost none now. The rest of the hair (pubic area) was more dense & seems a little more stubborn. Hopefully this will improve greatly on future zaps.
On my chin, no difference. The area where I get those few hairs on my chin is small. The directions say that best results come from having multiple zaps next to each other. Since I can cover the hair there with one zap & it is blonde, I am not sure I will get any results here. I have also found reviews saying that use on the facial area of a female may stimulate hair growth (females have dormant facial hair?). Not sure if I will continue trying to zap this area now. It is one thing to use up some of the zaps without reducing the hair... it is another thing to increase the thing you are trying to eliminate. Back to tweezing when needed.
I may try to do my legs in the future, but as they are mostly blonde... I have not bothered yet. I would love for them to be hair free, but at least I am getting results from the areas that I expected. More than likely once I am done with my treatments, I will either give to a friend or resell the unit without a cartridge.
I gave 4 stars as my rating. It is unlikely to work on light hairs, but they are up front about this. Not sure how i feel knowing that it could actually cause facial hair to start growing on females The hair & skin that fits the recommended profile seems to work well. The results are similar to expensive doctor office laser treatments, but for less money & can be done at home. Room for improvement, but overall good for what it can do.