The best DIY beauty treatments you can do at home

The truth is, we’ve become pros at perfecting at-home beauty treatments. From LED masks to gel nail kits, our shopping experts have tried and tested plenty of products that can be just as effective as visiting your local nail salon, booking a wax or an expensive facial.

While the many lockdowns feel like another lifetime, DIY beauty treatments are still a big part of our routine. They’re much more economical and require less time. They’re even more beneficial now that everything is increasingly more expensive, so anything we can save money on without compromising on feeling our best, we’re all here for.

From skincare treatments to hair removal, we’ve got you covered with our pick of the IndyBest-approved tools and devices that are easy to get to grips with and deliver results, whether you’re trying to master a manicure from your sofa or ditch dull, blemished skin with the help of an LED mask.

Without further ado, here are our top picks of the best at-home beauty treatments money can buy and why they’re worth the splurge.

Gel nail kits

Indulging in a fresh manicure is a treat we’d rather not go without, and thanks to the various gel nail kits available to use at home, you don’t have to.

In our guide to the best gel nail kits, we loved the Manicurist green flash kit 24 (£75, Lookfantastic.com), which comes complete with an LED lamp, base coat, your choice of nail polish, top coat, remover and five nail clips, which delivers a sleek, long-lasting manicure.

We loved the shade ‘poppy red’ when testing this vegan gel nail kit (The Independent)

Perfect for sensitive skin, all of the products are plant-based and free from methacrylate monomers, an ingredient which can cause irritation.

“We did find it takes around double the time to cure as most of the other options included in this list – two minutes for each coat – and the lamp isn’t activated by movement, you will need to press the buttons, but the result was incredibly sleek and lasted us around 10 days. Plus, it’s incredibly easy to remove, thanks to the included solution that wipes it right off,” said our beauty writer.

LED face mask

These futuristic gadgets are not just a gimmick, trust us, we’ve put many to the test through months of use. While not essential, they have an impressive list of benefits for the skin, ranging from brightening and increasing elasticity to tackling acne and reducing wrinkles. Red light can promote collagen production, blue light targets excess sebum to reduce acne, while yellow and purple lights can minimise redness and fight inflammation.

While masks don’t come cheap, they are much more affordable than even just one in-clinic LED treatment. One that we believe is well worth your money from our guide to the best LED masks is the Sensse Professional LED face mask (£139.99, Lookfantastic.com), which was found to be the multi-use LED face mask by our tester.

Start with 10-minute regular LED treatments on a weekly basis to start seeing results to dull, blemished skin (The Independent)

It offers four different types of LED light (red, blue, yellow and purple), thanks to its 90 bulbs that can do everything from boost lymphatic flow, battle blemishes and even skin tone with regular 10-minute treatments.

Results arrived swiftly, too. Our tester noticed that their face puffiness almost immediately reduced. “After using it every other day for around four weeks, acne marks started to fade and a more even skin tone was achieved,” they said.

Intense pulsed light technology (IPL)

Hair removal is one of the easiest treatments to incorporate into your beauty regime at home and one of the most effective, long-term solutions is through intense pulsed light technology, better known as IPL.

In a nutshell, IPL destroys hair roots with energy produced by light waves. With consistent use, typically over 12 weeks, it is proven to reduce hair growth and often prevents it from growing back.

Our top IPL tool is the Silk’n Infinity 400k Hair Removal (£295, Lookfantastic.com) which earned a spot in our guide to the best IPL machines and laser hair removal devices. The corded model was ranked highly for its ease of use and clever colour sensor that scans your skin before use to determine the optimal energy setting.

This painless device is the secret to silky smooth skin (The Independent)

“We found the device really easy to use, with the pulse and glide method helping to guide our treatment and an app to connect to for your treatment plan,” noted our tester. “We noticed a difference in hair thickness and a lack of regrowth between weeks four and five, with the process being relatively painless, too.”

Waxing kits

One of the most traditional, and widely used, forms of hair removal is of course waxing. It may not be the most painless, but it’s quick, inexpensive and offers precise, long-lasting results. There’s no shortage of waxing options to choose from spanning strips, pens, melting pearls and even sugar paste.

If you don’t know where to start, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with our review of the best home waxing kits, where we put plenty to the test.

Delivering salon-quality results for our tester was the Mylee coconut and arnica stripless wax kit (£57.99, Lookfantastic.com), a hot wax that can be used on all skin types. Described by our tester as “the full package”, it comes with a wax heater, beads, spatulas, pre-wax, post-wax and cleaning gels.

This Mylee kit is safe to use all over the body, even intimate areas (The Independent)

“One of the trickiest things about hot wax is making sure the temperature isn’t too hot (or it will burn) or too cool (or it won’t melt across the skin properly). Handily Mylee’s temperature control gauges take all the guesswork out of this,” she said.

“As the melted pearl beads harden quickly once on the skin, we found this kit one of the least-messy options of the lot, with not so much as a spec of sticky residue left on the body,” our tester added.

“Yes, it takes some getting used to, but after one treatment, we felt like waxing pros, and the result was a bump-free, smooth finish.”

Hair removal cream

Arguably the most affordable and painless option for smooth, hair-free skin is a removal cream, also known as a depilatory cream.

Hair removal brand Veet explained in our guide to the best hair removal creams that they “contain certain alkaline chemicals that safely react with the hair on your body. They break down the keratin (the protein structure of your hair), causing it to weaken and dissolve. This leaves the hair in a jelly-like state, which can be easily wiped away with the cream.”

Depending on the product, these creams can often be used for the face and body, so you can remove hair everywhere from your bikini line to your upper lip.

Taking the top spot in our guide to the best hair removal creams was the Woo Woo tame it! vegan in-shower hair removal (£6.99, Lookfantastic.com) which left our tester impressed with how speedy it got to work – leave on for three to six minutes and the jojoba and aloe vera-rich formula will leave skin silky smooth.

Keep things simple with a hair removal cream that takes just minutes to leave skin soft and hair free (The Independent)

“Included is a small spatula for easy application, and the best thing about it is it can be used in the shower, cutting down the time you have to stand in that awkward wide-leg naked pose in the bathroom. Just be careful that the water isn’t too hot, so you don’t irritate the skin,” they said.