At-home sugaring - not for the weak!

After hearing wonderful reviews of Parissa Body Sugar at-home kit (mainly that sugaring wasn't as painful as waxing), I decided this was the newest product I had to try...right that minute.

Once the kids were in bed I ran out to buy it, eager to get started. However, like any sugaring product you have to grow out the hair a fair bit - 1/4 inch! Since I normally shave my legs, I realized this was going to take a while to use. So, much to Keith's dismay, I had hairy legs for weeks (by the way, summer is not the best time to embark on growing out your leg hair).

I do realize that since I normally shave my legs, that waxing/body sugaring may not show optimal results the first few times because the hair is different lengths, more coarse, and not used to being yanked out by the root. I have had professional waxes in the past, but haven't really tried it at home before. I really hate the maintenance involved in shaving though - so I thought wax/body sugar may help me by stretching out my leg maintenance by a few more weeks (lazy, I know!)

A few weeks later, I deemed my legs hairy enough, so I heated up the sugar kit, plunked myself down in front of a movie and prepared to experience this product.

First, I won't lie - it takes a strong woman to not only get waxed/sugared - but to do it to yourself! After the first strip, I was reminded why I don't regularly wax. Every subsequent strip removed required many deep breaths and a fearful hand. I don't know why I really was swayed into thinking sugaring would hurt less than waxing - the end result is the same! You are still yanking hair out of your legs by the root! That will always hurt!

After I finished one leg, I was too chicken to do another. Keith suggested I shave the other to use as a comparison for how the hair grew out.

Here is my overall review of the product:

Pro's:

• The kit strips are washable. So, as gross as I found it to wash off my leg hair clinging to the sugaring solution - they rinsed off easily and looked like new with minimal effort (I contemplated just throwing them in the washing machine - but realized that may get the sticky solution all over the machine and instead opted to rinse them in the sink)
• The sugar solution is water soluble (which is better than wax, where if you chicken out partway through, you can't wash it off!)
• The results of my one waxed leg really did last a long time. It was at least a month until I needed to shave them and probably would have been about 6 weeks before the hair was long enough to repeat (as the product claims). Since it was only my first time, I suspect that had something to do with it. The hair was just as coarse as the shaved leg.
• The Azulene oil was delightful and really did soothe my legs after sugaring
• Extremely minimal ingrown hairs afterwards, which is a risk with waxing/sugaring. I think I had only one on the whole leg!

Con's:

• It hurt like hell. I have a pretty good threshold for pain - I mean, I birthed my kids (one of which was back labour without a working epidural!). Thus, it takes a lot of strength to pull your own hair out. I would prefer having a professional do it where you don't have time to think before they pull it off!
• I did ensure I was using proper technique (which I do recommend reading up on if you haven't done sugaring yourself), yet I still bruised on my shin bone and my leg felt very tender for a few days.
• It was a bit messy for a novice. In this case though, sugar kits are good because any spills clean up nicely
• I was a bit slow and the solution needed to be reheated mid-leg (but I am too lazy to go down to my microwave again!)

I won't say I hated the product, because that would be far from the truth. I really did like the results and the kit was easy to use and cleaned up nicely. The water soluble aspect alone was enough to sell me on sugaring over waxing. Now, a big issue of mine is saying I love/hate a product before I use it more than twice. I always find that a sample gives great results, but when you actually use the product a few more times, you realize how you really feel about it. While I kept the kit in my bathroom, I have to apologize because this is one product I am not sure I can try again. I will stick to the painless, but more tedious, shaving protocol!

World's best hand creme!

A few years ago, Noah got a stomach bug. Being paranoid about catching it myself, I washed my hands as any good nurse would. In the process, I severely damaged my hands. I am serious: my hands and arms were two different colours! It looked almost like I had worn a long-sleeved shirt and sat in the sun for hours so that my hands were deeply tanned. Not only were my hands a different shade, they were very dry, cracked and occassionally bleeding. They just couldn't heal because I wash my hands a lot and use hand sanitizer to the extreme.

That was two years ago and they still aren't healed! I have literally tried every.single.lotion available on store shelves. Of course, everyone has a suggestion for lotions to try, and I tried them all to no avail. I have tried aveeno, vaseline, Burts bees, neutrogena, nivea, dove, glysomed, etc etc etc. While all of these were perfectly lovely lotions, they are intended for less severe cases of dry hands. In fact, I even bought an "As seen on tv" lotion that was meant for chapped hands.

I would use the lotion in the morning and try to remember to use it during the day (but forgot most of the time). So I would end up just slathering it on at night and go to bed with little white gloves on my hands (which make me look like Mickey Mouse) or, if those were missing I would put Keith's sports socks on my hands.

I would usually find that for the first day or two I would be very impressed with various lotions, and then they would just seem to stop working or fail to totally heal my hands.

However, today I can report that my hands are healing!!!! I have found the lotion of all lotions! If you have hands that are as severely destroyed as mine were, give this a try!

It is Eucerin, Dry skin repair hand creme (10$ for 75ml). The bottle states it has 5% Urea (a compound that is used to soften thick, rough or dry skin). It states it 'smoothes rough and chapped hands". It is fragrance-free and contains no fragrance or colorants so it won't further irritate skin.

http://www.eucerin.ca/en/Products/Details/repair-hand-creme-5/

I only use it about 2x a day (morning and night) and honestly, my hands are becoming the same colour as my arms after only a week of use. I noticed a difference immediately! I only wish I thought to take before and after pictures!

I don't know that I would use this for my day-to-day lotion use once my hands are back to normal, but if you have seriously dry hands, I would pick this up. It is available at any drug store or pharmacy with the other hand lotions.

New Blog Site!

So I decided that I should have a seperate blog site dedicated to beauty!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love and adore all things related to beauty products. My sisters love to tell the story about moving me from my house with four huge boxes just of beauty products!

I have used some great (and some not so great) products so I figured I would share what I have learned! I suppose the posts may not be terribly frequent as I have to use up one product before trying another, but I am going to try to do my best!

Hope you enjoy!