Got hair? - II

After weeks of research the hair removal devices that are available in the market these days, I choose Silk'n Flash and Go.

The machine is very compact: it's only this "pistol" and the cable, nothing else. The design is very good; the anatomic shape makes it easy to hold and the size of the frame is quite big but not too big that would make it hard to use in small/bonny areas. The menu is easy and intuitive. The device seems strong, it doesn't feel like a toy.

The instructions recommend to start from the weakest level of light power. But... Whadahell! I went for full power.

I started from the legs. Half leg to be honest, cause I don't have hair on my thighs. I felt no pain. Depending on the area I would feel nothing more than a tingle. Behind the legs, it was a bit more sensitive, and surprising the knees were the most sensitive areas! There I felt like a gentle rubber band snap.

The device was smartly designed to leave the frame mark on the skin for some minutes after you use it. It's a good idea to put pressure on it, cause this marks help A LOT to avoid lacking areas or overlapping them. On my first leg I wasn't careful enough and I ended up overlapping a couple of times. Only after some time I felt the burning. It wasn't painful, but it wasn't nice. Those burnings left dark marks all over, and it took weeks to disappear (but it did!).

Treating my legs might have taken some 10-15 min. I'm not sure, I forgot to check. Anyway, it was quite fast. The machine was ready for the next zap in 2-3 secs, as promised.

Then I tried the armpits. Again, it felt like a gentle rubber band, not more than that. Each armpit might have taken one minute.

Last I tried on my face, cause to be honest I was a little afraid. Funny but it wasn't as sensitive as the knee! Only the stop right under the nose felt like a rubber band. But it was one zap only. The others were quite easy.

During the treatment: It smells like burnt hair. But, who cares? Let the motherfather burn!!!

During the next hours; The treated skin continued a bit red. The overlapped areas in my leg became brown.

During the next couple of days: The brown spots started to peel. The hair can be felt on the surface, but unlike shaved hair, it's quite soft.

Got hair?

They say Indigenous peoples in Brazil pluck their body hair with their fingers. Mix their culture with Portuguese hairy DNA, and what you get is a contemporary hair madness.

I'm Brazilian. That means I wax since God knows when.

Thought Portuguese descendent, I don't have much body hair really, but I hate each one I have with a passion. I have dedicated many hours of my life trying to destroy the little bastards, but they always managed to comeback after 2-3 weeks.

I've tried everything. Warm wax, cold wax, depilatory creams, epilators of all kind. Warm wax is what worked better for me, but doing that on yourself is fairly dangerous. I got trapped more times than I would like to admit. Not to count the times when I was too busy to wax, then I would try depilatory creams, and end up full of ingrown hair. Ewww!



Last time I waxed at a beauty salon in Brazil, the waxing professional observed that I have so little body hair that if I'd try laser hair removal I would see results in no time. I can't spend time enough in Brazil to be able to have the whole treatment, and this treatment in Finland is absurdly expensive, so when I saw the first home laser/IPL hair removal devices I thought my prayers have been answered.

I started researching about this devices, and I couldn't be more confused. It's impossible to find a clear advice of which device is better. There are far too bought reviews, published and re-published to exhaustion on forums and blogs. Beware!


That's why I decided to write down everything I could find out about the devices available in the market
And why should you believe ME? Well, just like you, nobody is giving me anything for free, and I'm concerned about wasting hundreds of euros on a nice looking toy that just won't work. 


Let's go through parts:



Laser diode x Intense Pulsed Light (IPL)
They are not the same thing. IPL is not laser, it's just a strong light pulse. Both work the same way - they burn the hair follicle, and if you are lucky enough and you catch the hair on a growing phase, you manage to kill it for good.

Some say laser diode is more efficient, but I couldn't find any user review guarantying that. The brands themselves boots their devices, but researchers say there might be no difference.

The only thing that can be a differential is the fact that (if I understood correctly) IPL bulbs have a short lifetime. They are said to last from 750 pulses (Silk'n) to 40.000 (Rio IPL 8000 --- Really?!) , while laser diode doesn't need to be changed (Rio 60x --- I have a feeling Rio boosts itself a bit too much)





Is it permanent?
It might be too early to say. Some claim it is. Some say it's just temporary. Others say these treatments only reduce the hair amount. However, it still seems better than waxing, shaving or any other option available until now.



Does it hurt?
It seems that depends on the user's resistance to pain. Some say it hurts like "the flick of an elastic band", some don't feel anything. But they still say it hurts less than waxing.
Oh, and one weird thing: you'll have to shave before using the device to avoid the hair to burn and hurt your skin.



Skin type
This kind of treatment doesn't work on dark skin nor light hair. That's because the light uses the hair dark color to "travel" to the hair's follicle. When the hair is light blond or gray, it's unable to absorb the light. When the skin is dark (type 5 and 6) the concentrated mount of melanin tends to absorb more light than average, increasing the chance of burning, blistering and skin discoloration. 

How long does it take?
The treatment's endurance depends on two things: the window size, and the pause between the flashes. The bigger the window, the larger the area treated. The faster the pause, the faster you can move to the next spot.







Let's compare some of the most popular Intense pulsed light (IPL) and Diode Laser home devices:

Philips Lumea

Type: IPL

Price ~ 455 €

Window size: 3cm²

Lamp lifetime: 40.000 flashes (no lamp replacement)

Flash pause: 3-5s

Permanent? No

Can be used on face? No

Can be used by men? No

Gel required? No

Pros: Looks nice, doesn't it?

Cons: 
Philips Lumea is simply a "photo epilation". The light energy is not intended to be strong enough to disable the fair follicle completely.
The lamp can't be replaced, which means after 40.000 flashes you can through the whole thing away. OUCH!
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Remington i-Light

Type: IPL

Price ~320 €

Window size: 2cm²

Lamp lifetime: 1.500 flashes (comes with 3 spare lamps), ~ 26 €/lamp

Flash pause: 2s 

Permanent? No

Can be used on face? No

Can be used by men? Yes

Gel required? No

Pros: It has a multi flash mode which allows continuous movement and thus faster treatment sessions.

Cons: Zaps are not fully even, so you end up overlapping some areas and missing others. It feels quite weak and cheap.
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Boots Smooth Skin

Type: IPL

Price ~ 377 €

Window size: 3cm²

Lamp lifetime: 10.000 flashes (190 €/spare lamp)

Flash pause: 6s 

Permanent? Yes

Can be used on face? Yes

Can be used by men? Yes

Gel required? Yes (3,42 €)

Pros: Good reviews (Like this one: http://www.beautyscribbler.com/2009/12/boots-smooth-skin-ipl-hair-reduction.html)

Cons: The device is very expensive, the lamps are quite expensive (ok, they also last quite long), it requires a gel and as far as I know you can only get it from UK.
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Boots Smooth Skin iPulse PLUS

Type: IPL

Price ~ 455 €

Window size: 12mm X 25mm

Lamp lifetime: 20.000 flashes (no lamp replacement)

Flash pause: 3-6s 

Permanent? Yes

Can be used on face? Yes

Can be used by men? Yes

Gel required? Yes (3,42 €)

Pros: Good reviews 

Cons: The device is very expensive, it requires a gel that as far as I know you can only get it from UK and again, after 20.000 flashes it goes to the trash. OUCH! OUCH!

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Rio IPL 8000

Type: IPL

Price ~ 400 €

Window size: 14mm X 35mm

Lamp lifetime: 40.000 flashes (99€/ spare lamp) - Actually it will depend on what level you're suing it. 40.000 flashes if you're working with weaker levels, because if you work with levels 4 and 5, the lamp's lifetime is 10.000 flashes!

Flash pause: 5s 

Permanent? Yes

Can be used on face? Yes

Can be used by men? Yes

Gel required? No

Pros: Sounds good

Cons: Bad reviews. I don't know if it's the product that isn't good, of if it's the advertising. Somehow it seemed the few positive reviews were bought. Like the one from Katherine (KathEv), and the one from Paul B (-pb-). They are everywehere. The "enthusiastic users" are always telling how perfectly the machines work, they give links to websites that sell it, telling how fast they deliver, how sweet the sellers are... Hmmm... 

PS: Rio, if you're reading this and you'd like some proper review, I'm at your service!!!
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Rio Scanning x60

Type: Laser diode

Price ~ 500 €

Window size: 14mm X 21mm

Lamp lifetime: Forever?

Flash pause: a few (?)

Permanent? Yes

Can be used on face? Yes

Can be used by men? Yes

Gel required? No

Pros: Sounds good also. And if it's true what they say, laser diode should have faster results than IPL. 

Cons: Angry reviews. They too could be bought reviews (counterpropaganda) but somehow they are more convincing than the positive ones.
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Silk'n SensEpil

Type: IPL

Price ~ 294 €

Window size: 6 cm² 

Lamp lifetime: 750 flashes (41 €/ spare lamp)

Flash pause: 3,5s

Permanent? Yes

Can be used on face? Yes

Can be used by men? Yes

Gel required? No

Pros: It's the device with most reviews on Internet. And many positive reviews are clueless, which seems to me they are simple people writing from their hearts <3

The window is quite big. It's cheap... This could be a good one, if it wasn't for:

Cons: 750 flashes/ lamp makes it the shortest lifetime among all lamps!!!
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Silk'n Flash n'go or Flash & Go or Flash and Go

Type: IPL

Price ~ 230 €

Window size: 4 cm² 

Lamp lifetime: 1000 flashes (comes with 1 spare lamp, ~ 31 €/ spare lamp)

Flash pause: 3,5s

Permanent? Yes

Can be used on face? Yes

Can be used by men? Yes

Gel required? No

Pros: Seems to be as good as Silk'n SensEpil, but more anatomic and cheaper. The lamps last a tiny little bit longer. 

Cons: The window is smaller than Silk'n SensEpil. Each lamp only lasts 1000 flashes.

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Now, to be honest, there's not a clear best option. If Rio could prove that their devices do what they promise, theirs would be the best ones; but the costumers reviews made me quite skeptical.
I think I prefer Silk'n Flash and Go because of the good reviews on Silk'n and because of the price of the device, and the anatomic shape. I'm not happy about the lamp lifetime though. It's a tough decision...

Hey, Rio! Why don't you just send me one of your devices to test?! It would make everybody's life much easier!!!

Just when you think you've seen everything: Sweater for earphone

This is "Untangled", a pattern by Samira Qureshi published in SamQ Ravelry Downloads. It's a cover for earplugs.

Yeah, yeah, I know… Who in the world would knit such a thing? That’s what I first thought.

But then I had a very stressful day, and I totally needed to knit. And I needed to see results. Some smoke, some take pills… I use my (knitting) needles.

So I took my old earphones and started knitting. I didn’t even read the whole pattern. Just knitted the i-cord with 3 stitches, doubled the number or stitches (kfb) went it came to the pivoting point where right and left ear bud come together. Then continued one side with 3st and left 3st to make the other side later. Oh, and I didn’t cover the microphone/control.

The project turned out to be a bit slower than what I expected. Taking the earphone cable out of the way after every 3rd stitch sucks. 

I'm happy with the result. It feels good, it looks cool. My husband says it looks like a shoelace, and that's what I like about it. It looks a bit surreal.

I always have the problem that my earphone’s cables freeze in the winter, and I think this may help a little bit, but I'm not sure. At least it’s true what they said, the cables don’t tangle anymore!

"Untangle your earbuds, knit this cover, then never untangle them again!"

I might make another one for my airplane earplugs ;)

Brazil is...

Sob medida

Mulheres (tricoteiras) brasileiras eis a melhor coisa que já nos aconteceu desde ______________ (espaço para a última melhor coisa que te aconteceu): "Waist Shaping Calculator", o calculador de cintura.

Pra quem é como eu, em que a blusa fica frouxa na cintura e apertado no busto – ou seja lá que formato você tenha, as receitas nunca assentam como devia – esta é a nossa redenção. Você põe as medidas de tensão, circunferência do quadril, cintura, busto, comprimento e voilà: uma receita sob medida pra você.

Esta vale um link permanente na barra da direita =)

As voltas que o mundo dá

Uma coisa bizarra aconteceu comigo ontem...


Há um certo site chamado Garnstudio, que é uma loucura. O site é da Drops, uma marca de lã norueguesa, cheia de receitas fabulosas 100% grátis. Como escreveu uma finlandesa, aquele não é um site inspirador, é um site obsessivo. Sério... A medida que você vai passando pelas fotos, a frase começa a fazer sentido. Por tanto, se estiver sem tempo, cheia de trabalho e precisando escrever uma maldita tese sobre Documentário Animado, fique longe do Garnstudio, da Drops.


Infelizmente, ninguém me avisou. Estou viciada há um tempão :-/

Eu comecei a fazer uma receita da Drops, de uma pantufa bonitinha de verão. Pode parecer bizarro "pantufa de verão", mas é que aqui na Finlândia não se usa sapatos dentro de casa. Aí se você vai visitar alguém, e está mais bem vestida, com uma meia-calça e tal, tem que tirar o sapato. Ficar de pezão no chão, e ainda por cima acabar com a meia. Solução: ter umas pantufas na bolsa.


Pra falar a verdade, eu acho que o nome certo é sapatilha, mas a receita em português chama de pantufa, então eu também chamo de pantufa.


As receitas estão em noruguês, sueco, dinamarquês, finlandês, inglês, alemão, holandês, francês, espanhol e português. O problema com o português e o espanhol, é que há menos receitas nessas línguas. Então, devido à minha preguiça lingüística noturna, fui pro inglês mesmo.


Estava tudo indo bem, até que chegou numa parte que dizia "Work GARTER ST – see above – for 8-8-9 cm / 3 1/8"-3 1/8"-3½", cut the thread and slip sts on a stitch holder. Cast on 18-20-23 sts (= towards mid front), work in sts from stitch holder and cast on 15-16-18 sts (= towards mid back) = a total of 41-44-50 sts." E eu: Hmmm? O.o


Fui ver se tinha em português. "Tricotar em PONTO JARRETEIRA – ver acima – durante 8-8-9 cm, cortar o fio e colocar as ms/pts em espera num alfinete de ms/pts. Montar 18-20-23 ms/pts (= lado do meio da frente), tricotar as ms/pts em espera e montar 15-16-18 ms/pts (= lado do meio da parte de trás) = um total de 41-44-50 ms/pts." Eu eu: AHHHHHHH!!! O.O


Oh, meu Deus, o que eu faço agora? Finlandês: "AINAOIKEAA (ks. selitys yllä). Katkaise lanka ja siirrä s:t apulangalle. Luo 18-20-23 s (= keskietu), ota apulangalla odottavat s:t työhön ja luo lopuksi 15-16-18 s (= keskitaka) = yht. 41-44-50 s." E eu: Ah, tá! Por que não disse antes?! ^.^


Acho que caiu um tijolo da Torre de Babel na minha cabeça.

Chai Latte

Já experimentou Chai? Chai é um chá indiano com especiarias, muito, muuuito bom. Eu experimentei uma vez numa cafeteria e me arrependi. Isso porque eu viciei mas não queria pagar 3,50€ por xícara.


Mas as receitas são fáceis de achar pela Internet. E são todas praticamente iguais. Diferem normalmente na proporção água/leite. Bom, eu peguei algumas receitas, fiz umas adaptações, e estou satisfeitíssima! Esta é a minha receita:

Chai Latte

• 600 ml de água
• 2 saquinhos de chá preto (cada saquinho de Tetley equivale por 2, então se usar Tetley, um saquinho basta)
• 1 pauzinho de canela
• 1 pedaço de gengibre seco (se quiser pode usar fresco, mas precisa ralar)
• 4 cravos
• 1 pitada de cardamomo em pó
• 300 ml de leite

Ferva 600ml de água. Adicione o chá e os temperos, baixe o fogo e deixe ferver por 6 minutos. Então adicione o leite, e deixe o esquentar (mas não ferver!). Coe, e sirva quente. Adoce a gosto.

Móito bom!