I Tried A Face Epilator & My Skin Has Never Looked So Good
As a professional makeup artist, I'm constantly in search of smoother skin. I'm not particularly hairy, which does allow me to spend less time and money on waxing appointments (bless), but I know even the tiniest bit of peach fuzz can cause extremely uneven texture when applying makeup. I decided to test a face epilator from Amazon for the first time, to see if the hair-annihilating device is worth the smooth AF skin hype.
Peach fuzz can be makeup's worst nightmare. If you have peach fuzz, you might have experienced foundation and other complexion products clumping up around your otherwise invisible hair, creating noticeable roughness that wasn't on your face pre-glam application. When dealing with peach fuzz, foundation generally needs to be applied flat brush in a downward motion, slicking the peach fuzz flat against the skin, which can be extremely annoying when you're in a rush to GTFO out of your house in the morning. So what if we just removed the peach fuzz all together and made life much easier? That's where epilation comes in.
I was recently watching a Jenna Marbles video (as any YouTube addict is wont to do). Every once in a while, Marbles uploads an episode of "Jenna's Ratchet Salon," during which she tries crazy beauty feats that should only be tackled by a professional. More often than not, the results are less than desirable. However, in one of the recent episodes, Marbles shaves her entire face and winds up with shockingly smooth results.
Seriously, Marbles is shook by how soft and supple her skin is post shave. Now, the mere thought of shaving my face freaks me out. I know Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor both did it, but it's just not for me. I'm mostly afraid of accidentally cutting my face Sweeney Todd-style and ending up with a bloody mess all over my bathroom. Plus, shaving doesn't remove the hair from the root, which means it will grow back faster than tweezing or waxing.
Gillette Venus Face Perfection, $32, Amazon
Enter epilation. Before this experiment, I only knew that old-school epilators were rumored to hurt like hell as they ripped the baby hairs right out of your skin. Through my research (aka Google), I quickly learned that epilators basically contain a series of tweezers on a spinning head that remove you hairs as you glide it across your skin. It may sound like something out of Saw, but I promise, it's not as scary as it sounds.
I trusted the new Gillette Venus Face Perfection to do the job without plucking my actual face off. Most of the epilators I have seen are gigantic, but this one has a tiny, precise tip, which made me less afraid of accidentally ripping an eyebrow off. The spinner goes in two directions. Basically, the only rule here is that you want to go against the direction of the hair growth.
Before putting it against my face, I tried it against the back of my hand to get a feel for how badly it would hurt. I am a gigantic baby and have a very low pain tolerance, so I winced as I gently pressed it against my skin. However, it didn't hurt a bit.
I started with my upper lip area, which I think might have been a mistake. I quickly found out that epilating does sting at first, when you're using it in a hair-dense area. I have the most sensitive skin of all time, so I probably should've started somewhere less fuzzy.
My cheeks were a much easier area to epilate, and didn't really hurt. Plus, by this point, I was becoming a little numb/addicted to the pain. It reminded me of getting my tattoos. After a certain amount of time, you start to build up a tolerance to the process.
Through trial and error, I learned that pulling the facial skin taut helped to alleviate the stinging sensation, because my skin wasn't being tugged as much. Learn from my mistakes and save yourself a world of hurt, OK?
I could tell the epilator was actually working because I could see all my tiny little dark face hairs against the white tip. After completing my jawline and my cheeks, I also did a little hair removal from my temples and forehead. I knew I had totally completed an area when it stopped hurting as I glided the epilator across my skin. With no more hairs to jettison, there was no more sensation.
Gillette Venus Face Perfection, $32, Amazon
I'm glad I did this at nighttime because my redness-prone skin was turning scarlet. To calm my skin down, I applied Algenist Genius Liquid Collagen Serum ($115; Sephora) and Ren Evercalm Global Protection Day Cream ($45; Sephora). These two products seriously did the trick to calm down my inflammation, sensitivity, and redness.
After I got the irritation under control, I was able to appreciate just how smooth my skin was! I ended up with the softest skin of my entire life. Seriously, my face felt/still feels like buttah. PS, the below photo was not blurred in away way. That's just how smooth the epilator made my skin look.
When I applied my makeup the next morning, it went on so ridiculously smooth. I also had this natural glow that was beaming through my ten pounds of makeup beat. I did the same complexion routine I always do, yet my skin was about ten times more luminous.
So here's the tea: if I wasn't epilating as a beauty experiment, I probably would have chickened out like the giant pain-intolerant baby that I am. However, I am so stupidly glad I stuck through it, because the results are overwhelmingly worth the work. The smoothness is supposed to last four weeks, and I'm already excited to epilate again in a month.
As a seasoned expert.
