Nair Exfoliating Hair Removal Cream: Daycent Enough Stuff

I must be an advertising exec's wet dream. Because even though I should really know better, even though I always take the promises wonder products make with a here-comes-the-coronary dose of salt, even though I roll my eyes and "tssk!" cynically at most ad campaigns,  I involuntarily squeak with delight when I hear about a new-and-fabulous-sounding mascara or foot file or hair salon.

This can get pretty embarrassing on public transport, let me tell you.

I can't remember where I was when I first squeaked about Nair's new Exfoliating Hair Removal Cream, but no doubt it was upstairs on a 66X or in the middle of a packed carriage on the 1850 Heuston to Galway train or somewhere that it'd be similarly easy to be taken for a loony mad woman. Unfortunately, Nair's marketing peeps were a bit ahead of the guys in distribution: it was three weeks after I initially heard about it that I finally managed, sweaty-palmed with excitement, to hunt down a tube in Boots.

Now, I don't generally like hair removal creams. Usually, I think they should be consigned to a bottomless pit in the fiery depths of hell, along with velvet scrunchies and mushrooms. So I'm not sure what kind of craziness posessed me to set my heart on this new Nair stuff. Probably the fact that it was going to exfoliate, hair remove, and moisturise - I'm nothing if not a bit lazy. And when I saw that it was on special offer (€5.85 instead of the usual €8.79) well, sure I couldn't leave it behind me.

It’s a weeny bit pongy, but nowhere near as bad as Veet (or Immac as it’ll always be to me). It looks simple to use: smooth on, leave for 10 minutes max, wipe off with a damp cloth, and rinse. Of course, nothing’s ever that simple. There was no sign of the hair on my legs going anywhere with a damp cloth once the time was up, so I ended up using the narrow end of the tube to scrape it off (yep, classy) and then polishing off any hard-core stragglers using an exfoliating mitt.

Nair promise up to 7 days hair free with Exfoliating Hair Removal Cream, which just might hold true if you happen to be a one of those inside-out-looking hairless cats or a hard-boiled egg. I just about got three days out of it, which in fairness is much longer than I’d get with shaving, and there was none of that shadow of roots in pores effect that I’d usually be stuck with straight after a shave.