8 best laser hair-removal and IPL machines to use at home

One of the more affordable models on the IPL market is this Bondi laser handset, created by Trish Coulton, who has more than two decades of experience in hair removal. The protective sunglasses are a nice touch, especially as the flash is quite bright, and many of the more-expensive devices we tried didn’t include a pair.

It has eight intensity settings and a simple setup process: plug it in, pick your setting, press the head flat on the skin and press the black button to zap the hairs. Suitable for sensitive skin, it’s also designed to target light brown, medium brown, dark brown and black hair, and while it’s completely painless, it emits a slight warmth with no discomfort.

This device is recommended for use once or twice weekly for 12 weeks. After three weeks, our reviewer began to see sparser hair regrowth on their legs and under their arms – the speediest we’ve ever experienced with an IPL machine. This is perfect if you’re keen to enjoy the long-lasting, painless results of IPL without the lengthy wait to see hair becoming sparser, shorter and slower to grow.

Read the full Bondi laser hair removal handset review

The setup for this machine is simple: plug it in, press the on button on the head and take your pick from five intensity settings. It’s surprisingly lightweight and, despite being corded, isn’t restrictive to reach trickier areas, such as the back of your legs. To efficiently treat each area, it needs to sit flat on the skin before it flashes, and there’s a handy white light on the back of the device that indicates when it’s working.

It’s almost painless, delivering a slight warm sensation between settings one to four, but by five, there is a pinch, though not so strong we had to stop. The head that comes attached is perfect for gliding over larger areas, such as the upper and lower legs, but for underarms the precision head is ideal – just stamp it, wait for it to flash, then lift. It’s efficient but not built for speed, so you’ll need about 30 minutes to treat legs.

As the flash is very bright, we would have liked a pair of protective glasses included for the price. Lastly, it requires use every fortnight for the first four treatments, then a touch up every four weeks. That big gap in between means it can be easy to forget when you next need to treat body hair, so we’d recommend setting a reminder in your calendar to stay on top of it.

That said, we saw our hair begin to decrease in density and thickness after three treatments, which is faster than most of the devices we tried.

Read the full Philips lumea BRI/923 review

Sensica’s device is much larger than many on our list and a tad bulky, balanced out by its cordless design, which helps to target harder-to-reach areas and enables the freedom to use it in any room, rather than having to sit by a plug socket.

As soon as it landed on our doorstep, it was ready to be used straightaway, with a skin tone detection option and six energy settings to use. There’s two heads to pick between, a large treatment window and a precise head, which combined can be used on legs, arms, stomach, back, shoulders, bikini area, underarms and face.

For the most effective treatment with every use, the machine head needs to be flat on the skin, and there’s a handy pulse and glide mode, which enables you to slide it across skin without needing to continuously press the button – perfect for larger areas, such as legs. Simply press the button down for three consecutive pulses. For smaller sections, such as underarms, Sensica recommends using a stamp motion, pressing the button each time.

Despite its large size, it’s not difficult to use or manoeuvre around the thighs, shins or contours of your underarms. Within four weeks, we saw our hair becoming less dense with slower regrowth, with each treatment being painless.

Read the full Sensica sensilight pro IPL hair removal device review

This chic black-and-gold corded design won top marks for its compactness, fitting perfectly in the palm and being easy to store. The accompanying instruction booklet is easy to follow and perfect if you’re a first-time user of IPL and are keen to get it right.

To use, press the button at the centre of the device until it flashes white, then place it flat on the skin. It will flash red if it’s not laying flat, so you are always aware when it’s working or if you need to readjust the position. With each treatment, it gets easier, and we loved using this while watching Netflix, as there was a little warmth, but besides that, no painful sensation at all.

Our reviewer found when treating the underarms, the best way to effectively treat the area is with a stamping motion rather than gliding it across skin, which works better on the legs. After two treatments, our hair was growing back thinner, and by week three, it grew back but seemed unable to get longer than the initial prickle a few days after shaving. By the time week six rolled around, hair regrowth had dramatically dwindled.

Read the full SmoothSkin bare+ ultrafast IPL hair removal device review

This corded device comes in a padded protective box, which makes it easy to store when not in use. The simple design is lightweight enough to operate with one hand, pressing down continuously on the large button.

While there are five intensity settings with the machine, they can be customised using the Silk’n infinity app. It also enables you to set reminders for your next treatment, a feature we loved, as it’s easy to forget.

Surprisingly, when placed flat on the skin, the flash is not so bright that it hurts your eyes, but if you have sensitive eyes, we’d recommend using it during the day. Silk’n uses eHPL, a mix of galvanic and optical energy, which widens your pores and lets the light reach hair follicles without any irritation.

By week four, we saw underarm hair thinning, and after treatment five, regrowth was minimal. It’s totally painless and reasonably priced for its fast results.

Read the full Silk’n infinity permanent hair remover review

This is one of the chicest devices we tried, arriving in a soft suede, zipped, compartmentalised pouch, making it easy to store and one of the less bulky devices we tried. It’s incredibly lightweight with slick gold detailing, and a lengthy cable, so, while it isn’t cordless, it’s not restrictive. It also has an accompanying blue-and-green Venus razor – an ideal added touch for ensuring your skin is smooth before use, which is vital to see the best results.

It’s very easy to use, with just three settings, and while it’s a tad noisy, it’s extremely reactive, taking us only 15 minutes to glide across top and lower legs, underarms and face. There’s a precision head that you can switch out (it clicks on and off with ease) when treating smaller areas, such as the face or armpits. As pleased as we were with it, we would have liked to have seen a pair of protective glasses included.

Progress was slow and subtle but, if you stick with it, we found hair regrowth was sparser and thinner, particularly on our underarms by week five.

This newer IPL device from Philips is much larger than the lumea BRI/923 we tried, more expensive and comes with greater versatility. There are specific detachable heads designed for the face, legs, bikini and body – each head comes with a helpful diagram, so you always use the right one. There’s also a quilted bag included for easy storage (although fitting it all in was a tight squeeze).

The biggest difference is the size – this design is a third bigger, but not hugely heavier, with double the amount of detachable heads. Secondly, this one can be used both corded and cordless – ideal if you want the best of both worlds. The skintone sensor is a clever feature, being able to recommend the best intensity setting out of the five available, depending on skin tone. The interface is more detailed than any other we tried, but not overly complicated. At the back of the head of the device, there’s a light strip that will flash white when it has full contact with skin, and orange if your skin is too dark to treat.

While we found this effective at reducing hair regrowth, it did take six treatments before we noticed a real difference, slightly longer than the others on our list. We did enjoy using the Lumea app to schedule treatments and set reminders, making it easy to stay on top of scheduling its next use. As useful as the cordless offering is, we did find using it corded worked better, as the flashes emitted faster, speeding up the treatments, although we did love having both as an option.

This cordless laser device is another big design with a fast setup and it took our reviewer less than 30 seconds to get zapping. To start, turn it on and hold the red light at the base (the skin sensor) on the area you want to treat. Once it’s beeped twice, it’s safe for use. There’s five intensity settings, which can be adjusted by pressing the pink button, and Tria recommends placing the laser head across the skin in overlapping circles. The head is a small circle, which does take some patience when treating your legs and underarms, and diligence is key to avoiding varying hair growth.

In terms of sensation, this one was painful, delivering a hot sensation on level three, and by level five, it had increased to a pinching, sharp sting that was less painful than waxing but painful nonetheless. With frequent use, this did subside slightly, as there’s less hair to zap with each treatment.

You’ll know you’re using it correctly when it beeps (it needs to be sitting flat on the skin), and it emits a different sound if it’s not placed properly. The LED display will also tell you when you’ve stamped each area and will keep a tally. We began to see results by our sixth treatment, with fewer, thinner and sparser hairs. Our only gripe is that it recommends using it with Tria’s calm soothing gel (£39, Triabeauty.co.uk), which, despite the cost of the machine, doesn’t come included.

Read the full Tria hair removal laser 4X review