I hate shaving. Chances are, I’m not alone on this. It’s a daily (or weekly, depending on the temperature) ritual that everyone hates. I could definitely do without it!
That’s why my interest was piqued when I saw a commercial for Smooth Away. This product guarantees smooth legs with minimal effort and no pain. When my friend Mary Beth came back from Thanksgiving break with a pack of them, I knew I had to try them for myself!
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Smooth Away: My Experience
The kit comes with two sizes: A body-sized applicator that’s three inches long and two inches wide, and a smaller applicator for facial hair that’s two inches long and half an inch wide. Along with the Smooth Away applicators, the kit also comes with four refill pads. All of this conveniently comes in a small travel pouch.
After a day of growth, I was ready to finally try this “miracle” product. The instructions say to buff three times clockwise, and three times counterclockwise. Using the body-sized applicator, I did this for about five minutes, or the time it would take me to shave my entire leg. To my horror, I looked down to find my entire leg covered in what looked like white chalk.
Smooth Away Results
I really, really, really wanted to like this product. Honestly, it seemed like the answer to all of my problems: I’d stop wasting all that money on razor blades (site note: why are they so expensive?!) and I would save my skin from the nicks I still sometimes get.
I expected my skin to be 100% smooth after this product, but instead my legs felt as if I’d shaved 12 hours ago. Smooth-ish, but with a little growth. The more delicate areas of my legs, like my ankles, were especially hard to work. At one point, I had to rub so hard that I got something that resembled razor burn on my shins that burned for hours. A male friend of mine tried it on his chest, and experienced the same kind of pain that I did. Not only was it painful, but the “crystals” seem to dull after a few uses!
Smooth Away – My Overall Review:
The fact that Smooth Away turned my legs to chalk, caused me the pain of shaving with a dull razor, took a much longer time and didn’t even give me smooth legs prompts me to tell you guys not to buy this! The only reason I can think of that you’d need this product is if you’d need to be clean-shaven as you’re getting off an airplane. Save your $10 and buy some mascara instead!
What do you guys think?
Have you ever used this product? What was your experience? Do you know of any other as-seen-on-TV products that didn’t live up to your expectations? Tell me in the comments!
I tried the Smooth Away and it was nice after I first used the elbow grease. The key is to not apply pressure when you use it or you’ll definately get the razor burn feel. And the chalk that you get isn’t from the paper but actually your sloughed off dead skin cells. The tutorial videos they circulate and the instructions say just to brush it off and to add lotion. When you do you really get this better than baby skin softness. I probably won’t use it again unless it is when I need my legs to be the softest but I have to say that the feel of my skin afterwards, when it comes out right, is better than anything I’ve experienced. But the pads do run out waaay too fast.
iv tried shaving,waxing and the removal cream(no painful lazer treatment 4 me)…………………..what is the best option????? y do we have body hair???? i hate it!!!
I wish I had read this review before I bought Smooth Away!
For me, basically, it sucked. It exfoliated my skin, but I had to rub it in one place for at least twenty seconds to get any results. Plus, this made me look kind of…ashy? It was way too much work and the crystals stopped working after a use or two.
Agree with this review! i suckered into this too and OMG it actually “gently” scratches ur skin and I was left with small cuts! WTH not worth it AT ALLL
My friend said it worked well on her arms.
I remember buying the Mary Kate and Ashley fan club kit with my own money from my bank account when I was 6. I was very disappointed in the product because it was just a poster. :).
Thanks for trying this out!
I didn’t think it would be too effective, like other posters have said it’d be like rubbing sand paper on your leg
i love the trying stuff out posts, more please 🙂
I think it works better for people with fine leg hair. But for people like brunettes where you get stubble about 6 hours after shaving it doesn’t work so well.
I like it for after-shaving exfoliating of my legs, but it does not do a good job of removing hair at all
have never heard of it!!! probably because i don’t live in the states. however i love reviews, especially when they are this honest!! So please make more, i am really easily tricked by comertials, and products
Thanks so much for reviewing this, I will def stay away! I would love to see a post comparing different hair removal techniques (shaving, creams, waxing, laser). I would especially love to hear from people that have done the laser hair removal. I am considering it but I have no close friends that have done it.
i tried this and yes exactly the same as you, razor burns etc, and it would take forever to get my whole leg smooth!!
I have however found a great alternative to shaving! I use veet in the shower cream. put it on for about 3-6 mins, you can shower as normal then use the special sponge they provide to rub away the cream, tada, hairless!! xxx
The “tiny microscopic crystals” that they claim do the smoothing away seem like nothing more but very very fine sandpaper. I found myself wasting so much time (around 15 minutes!) trying to rub off all the hair, and it wasn’t smooth or even. Such a waste of time. Stick with razors.
i wish i had seen this sooner! i had the same experience as you and i definitely wasted that $10
I think this company became Rich off a million people trying these ONCE. I tried these 3 or 4 times while watching TV, relaxed, not in a hurry. I did my arms and legs. IF they actually kept regrowth to a minmum or extended the time between shavings, they would be worth it. But they didn’t. AND with 46 years of shaving practice, and the newer gels(Satin Care the best) and razors available now, it is Way faster to just shave at the end of my shower in the nice steamy environment. Suggestion: Unless you expect someone to be gliding their hands over your legs, you don’t need to shave all the time. I know they’re not so much in style anymore, but pantyhose can camoflage leg hair for a couple days. Fishnet hose, sheer tights, Spray Tan products…….they all can cut out 1 or 2 days before you have to shave again.
I’ve got to disagree. I’ve been using a $1 knock-off of this product from the Dollar Tree for over a year now, and I can’t be happier about it. It leaves my skin smooth (meaning hairless AND exfoliated!) The “hideous” chalkiness you get from this product is actually beneficial, as it is just the result of exfoliating the skin, which makes them younger-looking in the long run. Using lotion direcly after using this product eliminates any chalkiness. I love that it’s cheap and I get constant compliments on my nick- and scar-free legs. The only downside to this product is the amount of time you have to spend to get it to work. For perfect legs, it takes about an hour every day. However, I simply use this hour to multitask: I just catch up on my favorite TV shows when I use it. Every girl who hears me rave about this product thinks I’m crazy, but you won’t hear my boyfriend complaining. He just loves my easy-to-achieve smooth legs!
OMG!!!! I DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT recommend this product! I saw this in the store and thought “Hey, what a GREAT idea!!! Just a magical glove where I just RUB the hair off my legs. I could wash, exfoliate and shave my legs in ONE EASY STEP!” What can I say? I was sold! So I try it out at home. And yeah, I got the same chalky film and the cruel thing is, it doesn’t hurt right away. So I just continue rubbing this stupid pink glove over my legs LIKE A SUCKER! I do both legs, from hip to ankle and once I finish, the pain starts. FML, my legs started turning bright red due to inflammation of every single hair follicle on my legs! Ya, sure, there was no hair on my legs…… BECAUSE THERE WAS BARELY ANY SKIN LEFT ON MY LEGS!!!! I basically sanded my legs down with very, very fine grain hot pink sandpaper!!! It was the middle of winter and all I could do was dance around in short shorts like a dumbass for hours. I couldn’t sit, I couldn’t pull pants on. I ended up putting the rest of the pink sandpaper in with the other sandpaper in the toolbox. Needless to say, if i wanted to use this again, I would save money next time and buy it from the hardware store!