The clever people who made the Veet VTSH8907UK Touchably Smooth Epilator made sure that it doesn’t so much land in your possession as saunter into it. Were it a person it would be Marilyn Monroe, all doe eyes, lip gloss smiles and giggles, blinding you with the pink and white of candy stripes, candy floss and bubblegum. However, surely only Marilyn types, God bless them, would allow the fuzzy pink haze to eclipse their knowledge/fear of the 42 tweezers waiting to suddenly and violently take all of your bodily hairs hostage? Not so – as Veet have also provided a little bottle of pre-epilation numbing spray, which is basically a vial of Vicks Vaporub in its purest form. Whether it works as a placebo, or because the green menthol haze dominates your eyes&nose to the extent that you forget your other senses (i.e touch) is still a mystery, but nevertheless, it works. The only people who disagree are those who expect the spray to magically render the epilation a completely painless procedure, and there really is only one hair colour for them. There is no way around it – epilation is at best an uncomfortable experience, it’s just the level of discomfort that is negotiable, and it’s a short term discomfort for a few weeks of happy skirt-wearing. The best attitude to take is the one I had – trepidation. And, ‘cleverly’ decide to tackle your underarms first – pace up and down the room, take a deep breath, grit your teeth, anticipate a pain akin to childbirth, and you will be pleasantly surprised.

I’m not a fan of pink, but I appreciate the effort the Veet designers have gone to, to entice me to buy it, by essentially making it a more pleasant experience to buy and use. Like Ms Monroe, it is curvy, but not so much so that you can’t get your hand round it, and it has a soft, rubbery type feel which is literally a nice touch.
The Veet offers you a choice of two speeds. As if anyone actually needs a choice – would you like your hairs to be dragged out of your skin slowly or quickly? If you answered to the former, I suggest you refund the Veet and invest the £50 in a session on a reputable doctor’s sofa. On a serious note, those with finer body hair may not require the second speed, which is easily obtained by just clicking the power button twice, instead of once.

It also comes with a head attachment which makes the epilation area narrower, which is a bit lost on me to be honest, if I find a use for it I will post an update, but this far, nada. What was useful however, was the little brush provided, for sweeping out hairs which collect or get caught in the tweezers, and of course, maintenance of this sort is important for prolonging the life of mechanical devices.

The one thing about the Veet that really lets it down is that although it is cordless (mains rechargeable) it takes 14 hours to charge it for 40mins of cordless useage. You also can’t use it wet, but how life changing is that really?

The average price of this little package is £59.99, (Argos, Boots etc) though a brief, superficial search found it on Amazon for £34.60 and an independent website for £77.95. Compare that to the cost of waxing, and assuming that (as most humans do), you have at least two legs, two underarms and a bikini line to epilate; Cost of waxing = approx £60 every fortnight/month, Cost of epilation = £60 once, until the device breaks! Everyone loves a bargain. Another brilliant advantage to waxing is that with the epilator you can tend to your bodily foliage as and when it appears, without waiting for beauticians’ availability and forking out extra money for ‘in-between’ appointments. It is also the quickest and most convenient way to tackle that sudden realisation, halfway out the door to a hot date, that you haven’t done your bikini line...(ahem). What may not be cheap though is replacing the numbing spray – at a cost of £5.99 per tiny bottle - but it’s not essential, and all depends on how much you use, I can’t see it disappearing before the first few months at least, even in the most liberal of hands, so epilation with the spray is still cost effective compared to waxing, and more beneficial than shaving. In a nutshell, the Veet is my new best garishly pink friend.

RRP: £78.99 Available online from www.boots.com [half price offer at time of review] or from Boots stores nationwide, along with other online & high street retailers.