TRIED AND TESTED: Exactly how to shave your face at home with a $10 supermarket face razor.

Update, April 29, 2020.

Turns out, toilet paper and flour aren’t the only things people have been stocking up on since we started living in isolation. We’re also buying… face razors?

According to Revlon, sales of their $10 Face Defuzzer 2 Pack have soared, with Priceline reporting it’s been the brand’s top-selling product for the last three weeks.

Made with high-quality Japanese stainless steel as well as a protective micro-mesh guard on the blade’s edge, these disposable razors are designed to give you a clean shave and remove unwanted facial hair and peach fuzz.

It's for this reason I thought now would be an excellent time to revisit my first ever Tried and Tested beauty column about face shaving, in which I shaved half my face with another affordable face razor from MCoBeauty to see whether it could make my skin look smoother and help my makeup sit better.

If you're curious about shaving your face (also known as dermaplaning in-salon) at home, keep scrolling for everything you need to know about face shaving, including how it works, how to do it without cutting yourself and whether you'll get stubble regrowth.

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This week, I shaved half my face. Don't worry, I'm fine.

You see, I made the strategic decision to only shave half my mug for a very specific reason that'll become clear momentarily.

Face shaving - grown up name, dermaplaning - is the practice of shaving off one's peach fuzz. It's not new, but when budget beauty brand MCoBeauty recently released a $10 face razor, I was intrigued enough to give it a go.

Why are people removing their peach fuzz, you ask? While all of us have hairs on our faces and there's nothing wrong with leaving them well alone, some makeup artists and beauty influencers swear shaving them off makes their makeup look infinitely better.

Now, I hope the reason for shaving just the one side of my face is clear: I wanted to see if my makeup would actually look any different post-shave. Here's how that went.

WATCH: Here's a tutorial on how to remove acrylic nails at home if you can't get to a salon. Post continues after video.

Why shave your face?

Face shaving or in-salon dermaplaning supposedly does lots of great things for your skin. Not only can it remove the teeny, tiny, fluffy hairs on your face to help makeup glide on like soft butter over warm sourdough, but it also takes some dead skin cells off with it.

The result? A face as smooth as a baby seal and the perfect canvas for makeup.

You can hear more about face shaving on the episode of You Beauty below, post continues after audio.

The MCoBeauty Super Smooth Facial & Brow Razor and how to use it.

Before we get into how to use the MCoBeauty razor, here's a few things you should know about this pink contraption:

• This razor is designed to remove facial and brow hair for a visibly smoother complexion.
• It's made with a curved, foldable handle and a thin stainless steel blade to reach every hairy nook and cranny.
• It comes with two extra blades that click onto the handle to replace the current blade when it feels blunt.
• You can buy it online on the ModelCo website for $12 or for $10 at your local Woolworths supermarket.

Now, let's talk about how to use the thing.

I'll be honest... I watched a lot of YouTube videos before putting the razor anywhere in the vicinity of my eyeballs and what I learnt is there's an art to face shaving.

Rather than shaving on wet, lubed up skin in one long stroke like you would your legs, you want to hold a warm flannel to your face to moisten the skin before pulling the skin taut and shaving with lots of little downwards strokes. There's no need to apply any pressure as the blade is quite sharp (but not sharp enough to inflict injury) and small enough to get right into any fluffy crevices.

I find the whole process takes around 10-15 minutes and works best when you focus on one part of the face at a time. You should see tufts of peach fuzz and some dead skin bits come off into the sink as you go, but some areas of the face might need to be done more than once depending how much hair there is.

Expect a little bit of redness or skin irritation, especially if you're a sensitive lady like me. Once you're done, generously moisturise your skin before applying makeup. Personally, I turned into a tomato post-shave and my face felt quite hot and red over the cheeks for hours afterwards. I spent the rest of the day bare-faced and gave applying makeup a crack the following morning.

MCoBeauty razor review.

I'm not afraid to admit... I'm really digging my smooth, shaved face. Well, side of my face.

This razor was easy to use and surprisingly great quality for its budget price tag. I've used the Tinkle face razors from eBay before and found MCoBeauty's version easier to use and more effective, and it doesn't hurt that you can grab it from Woolies with your chicken breast and toilet paper.

Once the redness died down, the side of my face I shaved transformed into a superior canvas for serums, moisturiser, tinted moisturiser and foundation, and my makeup is sitting better throughout the day. I've been particularly impressed with my handiwork on my soft, blonde moustache, which previously was obvious when standing in direct sunlight wearing foundation.

Face shaving isn't the most dramatic of beauty treatments, so your co-workers might not compliment you on your clean shave, but friends and strangers might comment on how smooth your foundation looks or that your skin looks brighter and clearer.

One question everyone asked me post-shave was: will the hair grow back thicker?

The answer is no, you will not end up with a face full of stubble. In my experience, peach fuzz grows back slowly and covertly over time, so much so, you might not notice it's back until you catch a glimpse of it in a well lit room.

So, if you're thinking about shaving your face, my advice is not to do it the night before or on the day of an event when you want your skin to look amazing. Give yourself a two to three day buffer to allow any redness or irritation to calm the heck down.

And probably don't shave just half your face either. You'll inevitably love the result and will have to go and do it all again on the other side anyway.

This post has been updated, it was originally published in August, 2019. Feature image: Supplied/Amy Clark.

Have you tried face shaving? Tell us what you thoughts below!