Today I want to talk about epilators. Have you heard about them? They’re electric razor looking contraptions with rotating tweezer-like discs, and despite sounding like a military torture device, are actually awesome.

At some point I started noticing people’s underarms, specifically, other women’s underarms, which were hairless and also looked notably nicer because they just looked like bare skin and not the five o’clock shadow underarm that many razor-using women sport. This is achieved by essentially removing the hair, so the underarm lacks the hair follicle which makes it appear dark under the skin.

Enter The Epilator. No idea where I first discovered them, but I do remember watching countless youtube videos of girls demonstrating and touting the benefits of this holy grail product. After reading every last review on every epilator available (it’s what I do), I eventually ordered the Panasonic Wet/Dry Two Speed Epilator with Three Heads (that’s a mouthful (that’s what she said)), because I figured using it in the shower with steam and body wash sounded a lot less scary than dry ripping hair out of my armpit, and also because if I wasn’t woman enough for this operation after all, at least I could use it as an electric razor.

It turns out that I am woman enough (huzzahh!! hear me roar!), and I use it religiously. It works like this: the tiny discs (see below) rotate and grab your hair like tweezers, except there are a lot of discs, so it’s like 20 tweezers at once. I read over and over that as long as you pull your skin taut, it won’t get caught in the discs, but I’ve never put any particular effort into it. Just holding my arm up in the hair seems to do the trick, and I’ve never once had my skin caught.

The first time you use it, there is a definite ouch factor, but if you can bare it for 30 seconds, your armpit becomes pretty numb to the pain. Subsequent uses are even less painful because 1. you get used to it, and 2. there is less hair. The epilator I purchased has a little guard that goes over it for beginners, which keeps it from getting as much hair at once, but I ripped it off after 10 seconds because I would rather just get it over with.

The results? Smooth, smooth skin. Like baby butt smooth. I went around having various family members feel my armpits because OMG HOW SMOOTH ARE THEY?? SO SMOOTH. Now I no longer shave my armpits (ever), and use the epilator no more than once a week to get the few hairs that have grown (which also appear lighter and thinner since they aren’t hacked off the way shaving your underarms does).

Have you ever epilated? If you want to try, I highly recommend the one I have, but Braun and Emjoi seem to be popular as well. If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them in the comments.

I’ve been wanting to start a new series on Estate, mostly beauty/fashion related, because I tend to be trying new products/techniques all the time, and want to share what I learn. Usually I search the entire internet for every last review on a product, and once I’ve used it for myself, find that there were things unmentioned that I would have been interested in beforehand. So, here’s my first girl secret:

I have crazy sensitive eyes. Like, I’m pulling cat hair and dust and debris out of them all day long. I’ve used hypoallergenic mascara exclusively for the past few years, but still would end up with irritated eyes if I wasn’t careful about getting every last bit of mascara off. Even when I do get it off my eyelashes, the mascara often flakes into my eyes and I just feel like a mess.

I’m not even sure where I first heard of tubing mascara, but it caught my attention because the science behind it is that it basically creates a tube around your eyelash that only comes off with warm water and your fingers to pull the tubes off. The big brand of tubing mascara seems to be Blink which costs around $25, but after some aggressive youtubing I found that L’Oreal had a less expensive version (currently $4.99 on Amazon!), and it comes with the primer (Blink’s primer is sold separately). So I ordered it and two days later: LOVE.

The mascara comes off so easily and doesn’t leave the usual raccoon smudges that most mascaras leave me with (bonus!), plus no need for makeup remover, which also irritates my eyes (super bonus!). I usually shower in the evenings so I just gently pull them off about halfway through the shower. At that point the steam has loosened the tubes really well, and they literally just glide off with my fingers. This is what it looks like:

My eyes have been so much happier and I would highly (HIGHLY!) recommend this for anyone with sensitive eyes. I do find that the mascara comes off smoother when I use the primer, which I most always do. I don’t love primer in general because of how you have to really cover it to hide all the white, so I usually run my fingers over the primer before I put on the mascara to thin it out a bit. The only other thing is that my lashes don’t tend to be super soft like they were with my last mascara (Bare Minerals), but it definitely gives a bigger look and I am a fan of that.

If you’ve used tubing mascara, please share! I’m surprised I had never heard of it before.