Mia's Review: Brazillian VPL at Pretty 360

Just earlier this week I went for an appointment at Pretty 360 (located at Singapore Shopping Centre) with the intention of redeeming my streetdeal voucher (worth only $118) for 1 year unlimited, unlimited shots Brazillian IPL with them. Didn't take any photos (except for the bed in the treatment room) while I was there but they simply came across as just a very small nail parlour to me when I first arrived. Only when they lead me to another shop unit located around the corner did I realise they not only do hair removal treatment, but also facial spas.
And because I was immediately led into the treatment room and asked to change and lie down on the bed, I immediately put my heart to rest, thinking, "Great, no hardselling! Do it and go!"

How wrong I was! Not just hardselling, but hard-smoking too.

After I changed into the treatment gown and my undies removed, both the consultant and therapist came into the tiny treatment room and started scrutinising my hair growth at the brazillian area, giving a really eye-rolling comment: Oh, your brazillian area is very pretty! (Like WHAT???)
But the ultimatum came soon after that. "But your hair is very thick and it curls inwards, you cannot do IPL." Not only that, the consultant further added on, "Not everyone can do IPL, must see hair growth."

Googled. Nothing similar came up. Obviously smoked me. And I got cheated.

Next up was a blur of quick mumblings about bacteria growth, the direction of my hair growth, bacteria will go into my womb, IPL is not safe, cannot do the inner region but VPL can because they're safer.
And that's yet another lie because after checking with an acquaintance who did brazillian IPL at Strips, you can go till the butt hole.
And lastly, she said VPL just gives you warming sensation, there's NO PAIN.
This worked like a snap of the finger for me, and I immediately asked, "So how much do I have to top up?"
Cheaters always cheat and liars always lie, don't they? For the consultant immediately replied that their packages are very cheap, 1k plus 2k only... Which obviously isn't true.
It took not much longer for the truth to be revealed. With my horribly coarse hair growth (so bad that I CANNOT do IPL), I will need 12 sessions to guarantee reduction to visibly lesser, 'few baby hair' type of growth...
Oh wait, is my hair really the King Kong equivalent in the hair world or is their VPL actually that sucky?
And guess how much I was quoted? A whopping $6880 for that, GST is not included. But they were very nice to give a 50% discount, plus the consultant (Lydia) very generously used her staff voucher on me and cut my package to just $3000.
Now that I dug up my invoice to blog about this scam, I realised they didn't even refund me the amount I've paid streetdeal for the IPL voucher. WTF.

But oh well, what's done is done. Let's get on to the treatment. My therapist, Carol, soon came in with all the necessary tools, namely scissors, disposable shaver (didn't see it, but I do hope they don't recycle their shavers) and baby wipes. After placing a sheet of plastic/paper napkin below my butt, she started trimming away my hair, which was quite a scary experience for me, for at times I can feel the hold metal of the scissors against my skin as she trimmed. After trimming me down, she started shaving. OMG, pain. T.T Let's just say she isn't very light handed to begin with (and I'm not sure if I'll prefer her to go light either... #awkwardmoment) and with all the tugging, and forcing of the shaving blade across coarse hairs....
But oh well, I kept repeating to myself. "It's okay, there'll be no pain during VPL." And with that, I re-confirmed it with Carol, to which she replied in Mandarin, "Yeah, VPL is just warm-warm lor."

Finally, the shaving is done and Carol applied a layer of gel to my entire brazillian region, supposedly to remove bacteria. After a while, she then removed the gel with more baby wipes before returning with the VPL machine and cooling gel. As heard from an acquaintance who is doing brazillian IPL with Strips, the cooling gel they use is simply f*cking cold (quoting her) so much so that it numbs the entire area. So even if the IPL shots did inflict pain, she couldn't feel them. HA HA HA!
But for Pretty 360, their cooling gel really isn't that cold at all. Plus, Carol applied the gel and then started the machine and we gotta wait for the machine to warm up for quite a while, during which the cooling gel has started to get warm from my body heat. When the machine is finally ready, she reached for a towel and place it over my eyes. I was totally thinking, "Huh, earning so much from such expensive packages they can't even afford those glasses?"
And then, came the moment of truth. First VPL shot and I yelped. I felt as if she has flicked an elastic band at me, no joke. So what's with all the lies about VPL being painless, warm-warm sensation only, unlike IPL?
Needless to say, I complained about the pain and Carol apparently tried to tune the machine down for the subsequent pulses but the pain per shot never dulled. No choice, I've paid the money and I can only grit my teeth and tolerate the pain for that roughly 8 shots (can't remember) she fired... and for the next 11 sessions to come.

After all shots were fired, she wiped off the gel with baby wipes again and applied the complimentary whitening mask and left me resting for a while more before giving me a final wipe-down.
And there you have it, first treatment done!

The skin was smooth and nice immediately after the session and frankly speaking I was pretty impressed. But came 2nd day, the hair all started to grow and my skin turned red and blotchy. On the 3rd day, I also developed an uncomfortable itch (perhaps due to the growing hair, as preempted by Carol) and the red blotchiness didn't go away. I remembered about the FOC roller gel they gave me, which they called it a depilever or something, and applied it on the 3rd and 4th night. And now on the 5th day, the itch and redness/blotchiness has gone away. But from the looks of the stubble growth, the first treatment didn't seem to work very well.
But I shall monitor the subsequent sessions and update the progress as we go along.
For more information, visit their FB HERE

Till then,
Mia