Ulike Air 10 IPL: What the First Sessions Feel Like

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Ulike sent this over to try, and my sister Shelley was the one who wanted it, so she did the testing. It’s an at-home IPL hair removal device, the kind you press against your skin and flash every other day for a few weeks.

Her first underarm session on the high setting didn’t hurt at all, and that’s the thing I wanted to know before anything else. If you’re wondering what one of these feels like to unbox, set up, and use, this is her run-through. She’s the same sister who got her first headstand at 41 on the BODY RHYTHM headstand bench.

Why the Air 10 felt different in her hands

The first thing Shelley said when she lifted it out of the box was that it reminded her of an old-school telephone handset. It has some substance to it. It’s a solid, weighted piece of hardware, and that read as quality before she’d even plugged it in.

The other difference is the size of the treatment window. It’s larger than she expected, because the Air 10 runs two lamps side by side instead of one, and the wider head covers more skin with every flash. That’s the reason a session goes quickly instead of being a slow patchwork of tiny zaps.

What’s inside the Air 10, by the numbers

• Light source: Dual lamps, an 18 percent wider treatment area than a single-lamp head
• Cooling: Sapphire ice-cooling contact surface, held below 65°F
• Modes: Fast, Normal, High, and SHR
• SHR output: 26 J per four-pulse burst
• Safety: SkinSensor reads skin tone, adjusts power, and won’t flash on skin that’s too dark to treat safely
• Power: Corded, plugs into a wall outlet

Who is the Ulike Air 10 for, and who should skip it?

This is for someone who’s been shaving the same spots for years and wants to try thinning them out at home instead of booking a clinic. Shelley’s reason was simple: she wanted to be done shaving, and she wanted to find out whether a device like this would hurt. It didn’t, so she kept going. I get the worry. My skin stings at most exfoliating toners, and these JiYu toning pads were the first ones that didn’t.

IPL works by targeting the pigment in the hair, so it needs dark hair against lighter skin. It does nothing for blonde, red, gray, or white hair, and the built-in sensor won’t fire on skin it reads as too dark to treat safely. If that’s you, no setting on this device changes it.

How does an underarm session with the Air 10 go?

Step one is shaving, because the light needs to reach the follicle and not the hair above it. Ulike includes a little wet-shave razor for this, and Shelley called it the cutest thing on the planet. Step two is plugging the power supply into the wall and clicking the cord into the handset. Step three is the UV glasses, which are optional since the device has its own eye protection built in, and she wore them.

Then you pick a mode. She started her underarms on High. You press the head flat against the skin, push the button, and it flashes. She closed her eyes for the first flash, hit the button, and felt nothing. Truly painless were her exact words. Repeat across the area and you’re done. For a larger area like a leg, she switched to manual mode, and that went fast too.

The parts that made the sessions easy

• Instant on: Hit the power button and it’s ready. There’s no warm-up cycle to wait through, which matters when you’re doing this every other day.
• Chilled contact window: The sapphire surface that touches your skin is cooled, and that’s the design reason a flash on High doesn’t sting.
• Modes on top of the handset: Fast, Normal, High, and SHR are printed right where your thumb sits, so you can see what you’re on mid-session.
• The cable ties: A small thing, but the cord comes wrapped in soft fabric ties instead of the scratchy kind that snag on everything. Shelley pointed it out on the spot, and it’s the kind of detail that says someone thought about it.

The small things Shelley liked

• The storage case is sturdy cotton, not a flimsy drawstring bag.
• The box is organized like a gift, manuals on top and every piece in its own slot.
• It was working for her. She did quite a few sessions and liked what she saw. Your results will depend on your own hair and skin, so treat hers as one person’s experience and not a promise.

What to know before you order

• It’s corded. Every session starts at a wall outlet with the cord clicked into the handset, so you’re doing this within reach of a plug, not sitting on the edge of the tub.
• You shave first, every time. It’s a real step before each session, not a suggestion.
• The schedule is the product. Ulike’s guide says every other day for the first four weeks, then once or twice a month, and those early sessions are the easiest ones to skip. If every other day is the part you’d drop, turning it into a game is how I keep a new habit going.
• Dark hair on lighter skin only. Check the skin tone and hair color chart before you buy, because the sensor will refuse to flash on skin outside its range.

Common questions about the Ulike Air 10

Other at-home IPL devices to compare

• Braun Silk-expert Pro 5 IPL: Comes with two heads, a standard one and a precision one for the face and bikini line, plus a vanity case. Its SensoAdapt sensor has a UV filter built in, so Braun says no eye protection is needed, and it runs on a two-sessions-a-month schedule for three months rather than the Air 10’s every-other-day start.
• Nood Flasher Pro IPL: Cooling on the contact surface like the Air 10, with five comfort levels instead of four modes. The extra is a swappable anti-aging lens for fine lines and dark spots, and it’s backed by a 90-day satisfaction promise.
• INNZA IPL Hair Removal with Ice Cooling: Nine energy levels and two flash modes, auto for big areas and manual for the upper lip, underarms, and bikini line, with built-in ice cooling. INNZA’s own note says it’s most effective on light to medium skin with dark hair, the same limit as the Air 10.

Would she keep going with it? She did

Shelley’s verdict was to keep it. It didn’t hurt, it was quick, and it was working for her. Passing a review product to whoever will use it most is how a lot of what I film finds a home.

If your hair and skin are in the range IPL can treat, and you can keep up the every-other-day schedule at the start, the Air 10 is an easy one to recommend. If she’d buy it again, you know it’s good.

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