Review (4/5): Pretty Good
I've only ever owned this epilator, but in the 4+ months I've had it, I've been pretty happy with it. The epilator itself is very well built, it's very sturdy, I've never had problems with the tweezing mechanisms, and it has a nice, solid feel. I chose this epilator because it was relatively well-reviewed, though I was worried by some of the negative reviews. I wanted to be able to epilate my legs and underarms, and this product performs pretty well. There are a few notes:
The light, this makes all the difference, and I never thought it would. I can see EVERY hair growing out of my legs, even if I'm in a dimly lit room.
The trimmer works fairly well, and it's nice to have a device that is so multifunctional (great for traveling).
Some have complained about the battery, but I've had no problems. Even when I was just starting and took forever trying to get every hair, it lasted till I was done.
The noise is fairly loud and menacing, but it's one of those things you get used to. Roommates may get annoyed though.
I don't have any trouble with ingrown hairs, but some people do, so be mindful of that.
I really wanted the wet/dry capability, but the wetness makes the tweezers slide off the hair, so the hair ends up getting pulled pretty hard but doesn't come out. This feature didn't help me in the least. Also, it's harder to get a good grip on the device when it's wet.
Yes, anything that takes your hair out by the root will hurt, I don't think the best epilator in the world could stop that, so don't ever expect it to feel like a massage. Everyone who is saying the first time is the worst is absolutely right - when I did my underarms the first time, I was seeing spots it hurt so bad. My legs were a little difficult but after awhile it was easy to keep going. I tried the bikini line, but couldn't get more than a few hairs out until it was unbearable. It is a good idea when you're starting to epilate to epilate every few days for a week so that all the 'cycles' of hair can be initially epilated. It got much less painful very quickly each time I'd epilate, though I still can't do the bikini (upsetting because I was planning on completely doing away with razors). Now, legs are no problem, though my underarms still hurt some. Tip: make sure you don't have any deoderant on your underarms when you epilate, it makes the hairs slick and the tweezers don't grip well.
I really love having underarms with no stubble shadow, and they feel much smoother. Even when the hairs grow back, they are tapered, so they are much softer than shaving stubble which would irritate my skin. Similarly with the legs, tapered hairs are much less visible than blunt ones, and I do think it is growing back slightly more sparsely (I've heard with routine use, you can stop a lot of growth permanently).
I also had the same issues with 1) never getting a just-shaven smoothness 2) the finer hairs do break - these are best to attack with the slower mode, which is easier on the hair 3) the hair grows back faster than I expected. I have a fair complexion with fine hair, and my hair doesn't grow particularly fast. I have to epilate my arms once a week, and my legs every other at best, so 4-6 weeks is a pretty blatant lie.
So, I'll give it four stars because it does as good a job as any epilator could, most my complaints have to do with epilating in general. One star penalty for misleading description and useless wet/dry feature.