At-home beauty devices are sold on a simple promise: buy once, stop paying the salon. This index tests that promise with arithmetic. It takes every device we have reviewed, prices it on one day, and divides by a fixed number of sessions, so the cost of an actual treatment is visible rather than the sticker price.
The headline: at-home IPL does not beat the salon in year one. Spread over twelve sessions, the five IPL devices here cost £15.00 to £50.00 a treatment. The NHS puts a course of salon laser at £40 to £400 for four to six sessions, which works out at £6.67 to £100 each. The cheapest device sits inside the salon range, not under it. What changes the sum is year two, when the device costs nothing more and the salon bills you again.
IPL hair removal devices
Priced on 30 August 2026. Year-one cost per session divides the price by twelve treatments; the three-year column assumes the device keeps working and you keep using it at the same rate, with nothing further to pay.
| Device | Price | Per session, year 1 | Per session over 3 years | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ulike Air 3 | £179.96 | £15.00 | £5.00 | Amazon → |
| Ulike Air 10 | £269.98 | £22.50 | £7.50 | Amazon → |
| Braun Silk-expert Pro 5 | £344.99 | £28.75 | £9.58 | Amazon → |
| Braun Smart IPL Skin i-Expert | £544.99 | £45.42 | £15.14 | Amazon → |
| Philips Lumea 9900 Series | £599.97 | £50.00 | £16.67 | Amazon → |
Read the last two columns together. In year one nothing here is obviously cheaper than a mid-priced salon course. By year three every device on the list has fallen to £5.00 to £16.67 a session, below the salon’s own midpoint. At-home IPL is a bet on still using the thing in three years.
LED face masks
Masks are a different economic shape because you use them far more often. This index’s standard is three ten-minute sessions a week, or 156 in a year.
| Device | Price | Per session, year 1 | Per session over 3 years | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revolution Pro Miracle | £40.00 | £0.26 | £0.09 | Amazon → |
| INIA Red Light | £84.99 | £0.54 | £0.18 | Amazon → |
| Nanoleaf Light Therapy | £126.00 | £0.81 | £0.27 | Amazon → |
| WAVLO Apollo SG | £249.95 | £1.60 | £0.53 | Amazon → |
| Shark CryoGlow | £254.00 | £1.63 | £0.54 | Amazon → |
Every mask here costs under £2 a session in its first year, and the cheapest is 26p. The frequency does the work: a £254 mask used three times a week is better value per use than a £180 IPL device used monthly. The dearest IPL device in this index costs roughly 195 times more per session in year one than the cheapest mask.
Live prices for all ten devices, updated by Amazon:
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (paid link)
The catch nobody prints on the box
The NHS states plainly that the results of laser hair removal are not permanent. They last from weeks to months, and regular sessions are needed to achieve and maintain the effect. Every “permanent hair removal” claim in this category is running against that. It also means the honest way to price an IPL device is as an ongoing commitment rather than a one-off purchase, which is exactly what the three-year column above is doing.
The same caution applies to the numbers here in the other direction. A device only reaches its three-year cost per session if it lasts three years and you keep using it. Abandoned in a drawer after four treatments, a £599.97 device cost £150 a session.
Method
Prices are the buy-box price on amazon.co.uk read through Amazon’s Creators API on the morning of 30 August 2026, for the exact devices reviewed in our LED face mask and IPL guides. Two devices from those guides are excluded because they had no price on capture day.
The session counts are our standard, not a manufacturer claim: twelve treatments a year for IPL and three ten-minute sessions a week for LED masks. They are held constant across every device so the comparison is like for like. Manufacturer schedules vary, and the treatment counts a brand quotes for its own device are not used here.
Salon figures are the NHS published range, not our survey. The NHS gives £40 to £400 for a course and says four to six sessions are typically recommended; the per-session figures in this index are that range divided by that session count.
Changes
None. This is the first edition and the table above is the baseline.
The data
Free to reuse with credit.
Show the 2026 index as CSV
category,device,asin,price_gbp,cost_per_session_year1,cost_per_session_3yr,captured IPL hair removal,"Ulike Air 3",B0DTP4STZM,179.96,15.00,5.00,2026-08-30 IPL hair removal,"Ulike Air 10",B0DV5C846F,269.98,22.50,7.50,2026-08-30 IPL hair removal,"Braun Silk-expert Pro 5",B0FZW3WWRR,344.99,28.75,9.58,2026-08-30 IPL hair removal,"Braun Smart IPL Skin i-Expert",B0FZW6XBWH,544.99,45.42,15.14,2026-08-30 IPL hair removal,"Philips Lumea 9900 Series",B0DGXNP9ZH,599.97,50.00,16.67,2026-08-30 LED face mask,"Revolution Pro Miracle",B0FN4CV6QW,40.00,0.26,0.09,2026-08-30 LED face mask,"INIA Red Light",B0F18BBHCC,84.99,0.54,0.18,2026-08-30 LED face mask,"Nanoleaf Light Therapy",B0DQSK8Y52,126.00,0.81,0.27,2026-08-30 LED face mask,"WAVLO Apollo SG",B0G64VLW7V,249.95,1.60,0.53,2026-08-30 LED face mask,"Shark CryoGlow",B0DFWZQ1TQ,254.00,1.63,0.54,2026-08-30
Questions people ask
Is at-home IPL cheaper than salon laser hair removal?
Not in the first year. Spread over 12 sessions, the devices in this index work out at £15.00 to £50.00 a session. The NHS puts a salon course at £40 to £400 for four to six sessions, which is £6.67 to £100 a session. The cheapest at-home device sits inside that range rather than below it. The saving arrives in year two, when the device costs nothing more to use and the salon charges again.
How much does an LED face mask cost per use?
Between 26p and £1.63 a session in the first year, using this index’s standard of three ten-minute sessions a week. Masks are used far more often than IPL devices, so even a £254 mask lands under £2 a session.
Does laser or IPL hair removal last forever?
No. The NHS is explicit that the results of laser hair removal are not permanent: they last from weeks to months, and regular sessions are needed to keep them up. That applies to the maintenance schedule these devices are sold on, and it is the single biggest thing missing from most at-home device marketing.
Which is better value, an LED mask or an IPL device?
They are not substitutes, they do different jobs. On cost per use the gap is enormous: the dearest IPL device in this index costs about 195 times more per session in year one than the cheapest LED mask, because you use a mask roughly thirteen times as often.
Where to go next
For the reviews behind these prices: our LED face mask guide and our IPL device guide. For what a comparable saving looks like elsewhere in the house, see the UK Running Cost Index.
Other Look Into indexes
Each of these is built the same way: a fixed basket or a fixed set of claims, captured on a stated date, with the method published and the raw data on the page.
- UK Student Kit Index 2026, a fixed 20-item basket priced against the maintenance loan.
- UK Home Security Value Index 2026, hardware priced against how burglars actually get in.
- UK Bottle Insulation Claims Audit 2026, what five brands claim, and which test conditions they state.
Sources
Salon costs, session counts and the permanence caveat: NHS, Laser hair removal, read 30 August 2026. Device prices: Amazon UK via the Amazon Creators API, 30 August 2026. The Amazon links here are affiliate links and we may earn a commission; every figure in this index is arithmetic on the captured price, and the devices were chosen before their prices were seen.