TRIED&TESTED | Philips Lumea for the hair down there

This week, fearless Ali Taylor tries at-home laser hair removal for the pages of beautywoome.com. Find out if you can fry your follicles while having a cuppa in your kitchen or if, indeed, it's best done under a doctor's supervision!

SO, PHILIPS LUMEA is a home laser hair removal device. I tested it over an eight-week period – one session per fortnight - under the supervision of the lovely Philips people. The way it works? Well, it’s startlingly simple. There is a screen – like a mini TV screen - which houses the Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) technology at the end of the curvaceous L-shaped hand-held. You press the screen against your skin and work your way through the affected area bit by bit, zapping as you go.  It feels a little hot, or like the feeling of an elastic band pinging against your skin, but not what you’d call painful. And let’s face it, when it comes to hair removal; no pain no gain, eh?

We were instructed to shave before the first session so that you can apply the laser to a clean area. I wasn’t too happy about this – through bitter experience I’m a waxer when it comes to the bikini area; shaving is rash central for me. I went ahead though and was excited to see the results. It took less than ten minutes to do my bikini line. You pick a setting according to your skin and hair colour (there are five settings) and can adjust them as you go depending on how sensitive the area is. You literally press ONE button before moving onto the next bit. It’s unbelievably easy and, of course, mess free.

I inspected the area closely over the next week and sure enough the hair started to grow back pretty much as normal but this is usual, apparently. Between session two and three, though, there was a massive difference. I had very patchy re-growth and nowhere near the discomfort you usually experience from shaving ‘down there’. It was amazing – I was excited... Is that sad?

By the last session, week four, there was virtually no re-growth and I used my final fling to really give that sucker a good going over. It’s not stayed completely hair free in the past four weeks but the re-growth has been minimal and not an, erm, patch on what it would normally be like. I reckon two more sessions would see the back of it for good. Now that is really something – and just in time for holiday season.

Hair removal nirvana, needless to say, doesn’t come cheap. It’ll set you back £399 (buy at Boots, John Lewis or Amazon) but compare this to the amount spent on waxing over the years and how much it would cost for a similar treatment in a salon, it’s not bad at all.

For more info on how it stops the hair from growing, see British Beauty Blogger's review in The Telegraph here.

I will be investing.

TREND MILL | Topshop Make Up revealed

"YESTERDAY I swung by Victoria House in Holborn to check out the new Topshop Make Up range – a collaboration between the Topshop design team and makeup artist Hannah Murray. First impressions?

Wow, great packaging (thanks to Topshop’s Sarah Thorne and her graphic design team). Loving the monochrome polka dots and stripes. Very cute and just the kind of thing I’d be happy to whip out on a Friday night to lend to a pal. First off, I tried the black eyeliner. Soft, smudgy and thick. I put on a small line beneath my lower lash and the rest of the day I had that rock-chick smudgy eye thing going on – this is a look I’m happy to rock at all times not being a prim and proper suit-wearing kinda girl, but maybe not be so great for the office – this is definitely a party time eyeliner. I then opened a bright blue mascara, then brown before I found my beloved black. The wand is pretty standard, however, the consistency is good, not clumpy. Although you’d definitely need a couple of layers to give good lash.

Next I picked up one of the pinky-red blushers with an inviting creamy texture, but managed to mess it up with my black eye-linered finger, so I quickly moved on to the crayons and lipsticks. Nice range of light, bright colours and hugely creamy on the skin. “Juicy” said the girl next to me, who I have to say was looking very fab in one of the pink lip colours. Very cute little pots of lip balm, watermelon and rose, which I’m dying to get my hands on and there was also a tube of foundation which I must admit I didn’t try – sorry, girls.

But this range is really all about the lip and eye colours. And the prices! The Core range is priced £4-£10 and the smaller Spring-Summer Limited Edition Trend range, which is all glam-evening and disco colours, is £5 to £15.

The core range available this May at select Topshop stores and www.topshop.com. The Limited Edition Trend range available late May via the same outlets."

Written for beautywoome.com by Julia Rebaudo. Check out her new blog Planet707.

EXPERT SECRETS | Alice Hart-Davis shares 3 top tips for great teen skin

BRITISH BEAUTY expert Alice Hart-Davis recently penned a beauty bible for teens with no other than her teen daughter, called Be Beautiful: Every girl's guide to hair, skin and make-up and shared a few tips on how to keep teen skin (and, let's face it, adult skin too) looking great... She says:

1. Keep it clean and moisturised: all skin needs moisture, even if it’s oily. Water and oil are two different things and however much you are trying to minimize oil production in your skin, you want to give it moisture to keep it hydrated. There are plenty of oil-free moisturisers out there."

2. "Keep it protected from ultra-violet light. That means sun-screen, worn every day. It’s not just hot sunshine that can damage the skin, it’s the slow build-up of damage done by everyday exposure to daylight. Get into the habit of wearing cream with an SPF, then you won’t have to worry so much about future wrinkles."

3. "If you suffer with acne, get professional help. Your doctor should be able to prescribe antibiotics that may help, or can refer you to a dermatologist. To docs and derms, spots are a condition that can be treated, not a rite-of-passage that you have to endure!"

Be Beautiful, by Alice Hart-Davis and Molly Hindhaugh, Walker Books, £9.99.