Holy S***, DIY Sugar Waxing

Damn, DIY Sugar Waxing... You've directed over 300,000 people here in the last few days. I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been 'on a break' like Lindsay Lohan's on a break from acting... meaning I wasn't sure when I was going to return, if ever.

I had NO IDEA people were that interested in ripping out their own hair with what essentially is hard candy in the soft ball stage. Welcome one, welcome all. 

We've had more comments than we can field so here's a list of answers for your curious minds, ladies (and brave lone man):

1. You use your fingers to both apply and remove this stuff. No cloth necessary. If you want to use a spoon or something to get the sugar wax out of the pan or jar in which you store it (so that you don't have to put you bacteria-harvesting fingers in it) that's cool. 

2. You apply the wax with your fingers (I use index and middle (in an inadvertent f*** you to my b*tch-ass hairs... they're going down!) in the opposite direction of the way the hair grows. So basically do exactly the opposite of what the sturdy Russian lady does for you at the waxing salon and you're golden.

2a. You CAN apply it with strips (as the pic I borrowed in original post from Etsy would indicate), as some people do, but the traditional way is fingers. Okay, I don't know if that's true, but that's the way I learned, so my family tradition of 1 year is with fingers. I would assume that you have to heat/make your sugar wax slightly differently for strips? If you're keen, there's a recipe on Instructables for a how-to sugar wax with strips here > http://bit.ly/uR0PY3

3. As per point 1, this stuff can be stored. For how long, I do not know because I use it (and maybe taste it... many times) too quickly to ever see if it spoils or grows a forest of funghi or something. I would store it in a mason jar or other like glass jar with a wide mouth (for ease of extraction) and a lid. This way you can pop it right in a pan of hot water to soften and use. Don't do that with a plastic container unless you want the plastic container to become one with your sugar wax or don't think you're already getting enough BPA as part of your well-balanced diet.

4. I've never used pre-packaged lemon juice (because it's. just. so. easy. to use a real lemon), but I don't see why you couldn't. I'm pretty sure it's just used for the acidic properties, which the packaged stuff still has. Although it's lame.

5. Don't apply the sh*t if it BURNS. Meaning, people, like with regular wax, you let it cool to a temperature where you can apply it WITHOUT removing your top layer of skin. Sheesh. 

5a. CARAMALIZED SUGAR, WHICH IS WHAT YOU ARE MAKING, IS REALLY REALLY HOT UNLESS YOU COOOOOL IT BEFORE USING. Seriously. Lady on Instructables said it right. This stuff is like Napalm if you apply it right away and will just melt your skin away. Be forewarned or risk becoming a minor burn victim by your own hand.

6. To that end, this stuff goes from light orangey-amber lovely sugar wax to dark and burnt-smelling stuff that's almost hard-as-a-rock in the pan and brittle (and useless at pulling out hairs) in the blink of a eye. So wait until your wax is done cooking before you go ferret out that bottle of wine and wrestle with the cork for 5 minutes. 

7. Re: cooking it. I can't give an exact time, but I can give an exact(ish) temperature. You want this stuff to be like what candymakers (do they still exist? I want that job) call the 'soft ball' (minds out of the gutter, ladies) stage. That's when the stuff hits 235 degrees Farenheit. Maybe you can even nudge into Firm Ball territory too (up to lke 250F), but once you go Hard Ball and Soft Crack, you're f***ed. Get that stuff off the flame when your candy thermometer says that temp and you should have a good virgin wax to work with.

7a. Get a candy thermometer if you're crap at eyeballing it.

7b. What the hell is it with candymakers and their naughty double entendres? Clearly work bores them just as much as the rest of us.

7c. Use a good pan. It should be heavy enough to cause damage if you swing it at someone's head. None of these $1 IKEA numbers that feel like teflon-coated air. Heat distribution will be BAD in a cheap-ass pan and your wax will cook unevenly. At the very least, use something like an All-Clad. And don't worry about washing it out of your nice pans (if you've been saving them for more noble cooking pursuits). The stuff comes right off (unlike regular wax) because it's just sugar and water. Even if you burn a batch. I know because I've done it. Many. Times.

8. You can go over the same area more than once and there is, even when repeat waxing, less irritation than regular waxing, or so I've found. Surely it's different for everyone. Probably don't sugar wax your face if it gives you a rash that looks like angry teenage acne.

9. This isn't an answer to anyone's question but just a friendly reminder that the tauter you can pull the skin, the cleaner the wax! So if you're doing the jiggly bit of the back of the calf and you just let it hang all loose in the wind, it won't work as well as when you use the idle hand to corral some of that loose flesh impeding your hair removal.

10. Probably you'll mess it up the first time you try. And maybe the second. Quite possibly the third. But eventually, you will get it. Promise. Just don't give up on it because you  balls it up a few times. I mean, it's just a few cents of sugar and a squeeze of lemon. Don't let it defeat you. 

11. Do not stir the mixture after you start heating it up or it'll crystalize and be useless, even as caramel syrup (because the same rules apply to making caramel to eat too).

And I think that's about it. Holla if you have further questions. I'm liable to shut this sucker down again at any moment to keep on keeping on with my attempt at a re-design.

Over and out. 

[pic cred]

EXPERT SECRETS | DIY Sugar Wax

{Image from this etsy shop where you can buy sugar wax if you don't want to make it. We are not affiliated. I just like the way they look. Let me know if you buy the wax!}

Hello lovely reader. If you have questions after reading this post, see my follow up post on DIY Sugar Waxing with answers to the most common questions asked... leave a comment if you have more questions... we'll answer it!AND We'll be putting together a video for you as well so you can see it in action! Stay tuned. We'll post here when the video is live on the site.

DO YOU ever make your own beauty products? I do, when the mood strikes or I'm bored out of my skull and don't have anything else to do (not often)... hair oil, greek yogurt and avocado face mask, calendula toner (with flowers from my garden, natch), lavender water, baking soda and coconut oil facial exfoliant... 

My favorite, though, is homemade sugar wax or DIY sugaring (whatever you cal it).

It's so quick and easy, dirt cheap (you have all the ingredients stocked in your pantry already, swear), non-toxic, hurts less than both strip and hard wax, and rinses clean off, so you don't have sticky spots on your skin when finished; it doesn't clog your pores (Hello?! It dissolves in hot water), and if you have a spill, it's super easy to get off the floor/carpet/clothes (unlike regular wax).

My little sister (the boxer-nail tech-college student) gave me this recipe after a moment of insipration struck while watching the movie Caramel.

Sugar Wax Ingredients

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup lemon juice

Seriously. That's it.  [I'm as liable to drizzle it over a slice of cake as I am to use it as a depilator.]

MAKE IT

Simmer all ingredients in sauce pan on medium-high heat until amber, but don't scorch.

Cool until you can handle the wax without it being too runny or sticky.

USE IT

• Clean yer skin where you're planning to wax. For real. Unless you want infections or spots or any number of things.
• When the sugar wax has cooled to the non-runny/sticky point, scoop about an 1/8 of a cup out of the pan and start to work it between your fingers until it has a bit of a pearly sheen to it and a texture like taffy (you'll know what I mean when you do it). This makes it pliable and easy to work with, which you need since you use the same piece repeatedly.  
• Rinse off hand you're not using to wax (you'll need that to hold your glass).
• Take a sip of wine/beer (you poured yourself a drink, right?) and make sure you've got the TV tuned to 30 Rock. 
• Get comfy on the couch with your sugar wax in one hand, drink in the other. 
• Load sugar wax onto thumb or index finger on non-drink hand.
• Next, apply the wad of sugar wax directly to hair, smoothing and smooshing it away from you in a bit of a ribbon in the opposite direction of hair growth (unlike traditional wax products).
• Then quickly (no sitting around) pull the sugar wax off your skin in direction hair grows. Be sure to work closely to the skin, not pulling the wax up and away from the skin.
• Keep doing the same thing all over using the same ball of sugar wax. This amount works for one full arm or one half leg (depending on how hirsute you are, sister).
• Take sip break.
• If necessary, repeate waxing in the same area (unlike with regular wax, this stuff doesn't irritate or pull off your skin).
• Sit back and marvel at your amazingly smooth skin.
• Decide what you're going to do with the $50 you saved on that salon leg wax.
• Pour a second drink to celebrate your clever DIY skills.

Frankly, that sounds like a better night, to me, than a night on the tiles... 

My age is showing, isn't it?

TRIED&TESTED | Philips Lumea for the hair down there

This week, fearless Ali Taylor tries at-home laser hair removal for the pages of beautywoome.com. Find out if you can fry your follicles while having a cuppa in your kitchen or if, indeed, it's best done under a doctor's supervision!

SO, PHILIPS LUMEA is a home laser hair removal device. I tested it over an eight-week period – one session per fortnight - under the supervision of the lovely Philips people. The way it works? Well, it’s startlingly simple. There is a screen – like a mini TV screen - which houses the Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) technology at the end of the curvaceous L-shaped hand-held. You press the screen against your skin and work your way through the affected area bit by bit, zapping as you go.  It feels a little hot, or like the feeling of an elastic band pinging against your skin, but not what you’d call painful. And let’s face it, when it comes to hair removal; no pain no gain, eh?

We were instructed to shave before the first session so that you can apply the laser to a clean area. I wasn’t too happy about this – through bitter experience I’m a waxer when it comes to the bikini area; shaving is rash central for me. I went ahead though and was excited to see the results. It took less than ten minutes to do my bikini line. You pick a setting according to your skin and hair colour (there are five settings) and can adjust them as you go depending on how sensitive the area is. You literally press ONE button before moving onto the next bit. It’s unbelievably easy and, of course, mess free.

I inspected the area closely over the next week and sure enough the hair started to grow back pretty much as normal but this is usual, apparently. Between session two and three, though, there was a massive difference. I had very patchy re-growth and nowhere near the discomfort you usually experience from shaving ‘down there’. It was amazing – I was excited... Is that sad?

By the last session, week four, there was virtually no re-growth and I used my final fling to really give that sucker a good going over. It’s not stayed completely hair free in the past four weeks but the re-growth has been minimal and not an, erm, patch on what it would normally be like. I reckon two more sessions would see the back of it for good. Now that is really something – and just in time for holiday season.

Hair removal nirvana, needless to say, doesn’t come cheap. It’ll set you back £399 (buy at Boots, John Lewis or Amazon) but compare this to the amount spent on waxing over the years and how much it would cost for a similar treatment in a salon, it’s not bad at all.

For more info on how it stops the hair from growing, see British Beauty Blogger's review in The Telegraph here.

I will be investing.