Getting rid of body or facial hair often comes with trade-offs. Razors and hair-removal creams are inexpensive, but they won’t keep skin smooth for very long. Waxing lasts longer but requires having a high pain tolerance. And professional laser hair removal is costly and time-consuming. A happy compromise? At-home IPL (intense pulsed light) devices. These gadgets emit light flashes that damage follicles, causing the hairs to shed. After repeated treatments, hair typically grows thinner and more slowly, and in some cases, it stops growing altogether. (Just be cautious: These devices don’t work for everyone.) To find the smoothest operator, we zapped our legs, armpits, groins, backs, faces, and even feet with five popular IPL machines. After three months of testing, we’ve arrived at just one pick: an IPL device that’s intuitive and easy to handle — and that packs serious hair-removing power.