First, the good news: These pads actually do "buff" away unwanted hair. The pads look like pink plastic thingies with a strap on one side that secures your hand, and something that resembles very fine sandpaper on the other side. As the salesperson demonstrated, you make super fast, super small rotations with the pad in one direction about 5 or 6 times while applying moderate pressure to your skin, then reverse direction and repeat. Skin look ashy, as do the pads (similar to when you're filing your nails.) When you brush away the dead skin, you notice your skin is extremely smooth and indeed, hair free! There is absolutely no irritation and the exfoliation that goes on with those pads left my legs smoother than they had ever felt. Unlike after shaving, I was able to apply lotion immediately following the hair removal without any stinging or discomfort.

Now, the not so good news: The process I just described above must be repeated hundreds of times to adequately remove hair from an entire leg. It took me 20 minutes per leg to remove all the hair! Granted, it took me a while just to get the hang of it, and I was continuously experimenting and tweaking my motions to see if I could perfect the process. But as far as I'm concerned, you can't really perfect it. It's tedious and tricky to get the back of your legs just because of the angle at which the pads must be held in order for them to be effective.

The pads also seem to lose their abrasiveness after a while. What I did notice is that if you wash the pads under water and let them dry completely, they work as good as new. But again, this makes the whole process more time consuming and I can't say for sure how long the pads will ultimately last.

Another thing is that your legs must be completely clean and bone dry (no lotion whatsoever or the pads won't work). Fine.

Finally, my hair began to grow back after about 5 days, which is what typically happens for me after I shave. They told me 6 weeks! Oh, how what a fool I was. But ya know, I can deal with 5 days. Not the end of the world as my hair is very fine and very blond, so it's hardly noticeable when it's stubble.

Which brings me to my next point: These pads did not work whatsoever on my armpits or bikini line. No way, no how. It actually hurt in those areas, but I was ruthless in my attempts (hey, I had to do a thorough investigation). This makes me wonder whether the pads would work on those with coarse hair anywhere on their body.

In conclusion, the Smooth Away pads (or Smooooth Legs, I think it's the same product, different names) are not the panacea I had hoped for, but they do work and I plan on using them on my legs because A) they provide pain-free hair removal, B) leave legs incredibly smooth and soft, and C) I loathe shaving. I can also use these pads anywhere, like in a car (don't pretend like you've never tried to shave in a moving vehicle). However, I'm definitely going to need to plan ahead, as this process is not quick. And in those moments, I'll probably resort to my good ol' Mach 3.

P.S. I don't know if the hair inhibitor cream works because I only applied it once, then started to worry about the so-called natural botanicals in the cream that actually inhibit hair growth and the potential side effects of said chemicals. I'm weird like that.

Have you tried Smooth Away? Did it work for you?