Sally Hansen Lavender Spa Wax

I am so excited about this home-waxing kit, I am sitting here still in my panties, five minutes post-wax. A little history: I am part Greek, part Italian, which means, I'm hairy. (Joke: Why do Greek men grow mustaches? To look like their mothers.) So hairy that shaving my legs is futile; within a day, I have stubble so rough and tough, rubbing my legs together in the night wakes me up. Since age 17, I've waxed, waxed the bikini and the thighs and the calves. It's the one beauty indulgence I will not give up, to the point that when my daughter was little and we had a month so financially lean we were eating little but peanut butter on bread, I put aside the money to get waxed. So sue me.

That money, in Los Angeles, was about $40 for the whole shebang. Here in Portland, it's north of $100, and while I adore my waxer, it's a chunk of change, but more, there's the waiting four-to-six weeks for all the hair to be long enough to justify the waxing. I've twice tried home waxing kits; both times, they wound up in the trash, though only after I'd managed to ruin towels and a cordless phone and to raise welts the size of night crawlers on my inner thighs.

Perhaps because the weather is nice, or perhaps because we've having a party tonight, I decided, my hair being at the in-between growth stage, to again try home-waxing. I stopped at Walgreen's to see if there was anything new on the market, and saw that Sally Hansen has a slew of new waxing products, including Lavender Spa Wax. And boy, was this stuff easy: pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds, spread on with the wooden tongue depressor (they supply 8), affix the cloth (they supply 20), and pull. Incredible -- it worked! No drips, no pain, no half-the-hair-gone-but-what-about-the-other-half? I did wind up re-nuking the wax to keep it runny, and found you can (just as my waxer does) use each cloth three or four times and still get the hair. Total time for both legs: 40 minutes. Total cost: $9. The only drawback: I wasn't able to do the bikini area as, shall we say, deeply as my waxer, but hey, I'm spruce.

They also make a "special white chocolate recipe" Express Wax I'm going to try next time. The box says, "water rinsable." I'm not sure what that means, as to remove any little bits of leftover wax, you need to use an oil, which the Lavender wax kit provided, thereby assuring I did not, as per usual, stick to the toilet seat.

Comments

[cj]

Have you ever tried Nads home waxing kit? I think it is brilliant,efficient,painfree, and smells good. Apparently, you can even EAT it, so if you ever run into money troubles again, it will kill two birds with one stone for you.

[Harriet]

I had a similar triumph last week with the Poetic Wax kit and my upper lip.

I am in the process of letting my eyebrows fill out a bit -- my aesthetician is a lovely woman, but she's systematically trimming me down to a pair of Faye Dunaway style lines, so we're on a break.

I was afraid the whole DIY enterprise would be disastrous, but I have to say, Poetic Wax more than lived up to its reputation. I had to practice a bit on less visible body parts until I felt like I was good to go (inner wrists, then more daringly, the tops of my feet) but it worked great. And in two uses, the kit's paid for itself.

[C.]

I think that's the at-home wax kid I use as well and yes it does work well (except I do experience a little pain... but as I've found the more you wax the less painful it becomes, so since you've been waxing for a long time that's probably why it hurts less).

However, I just wanted to warn you--- the chocolate one is terrible and didn't work for me! (my hair is not even that thick.) Don't waste your money! Plus "why fix something if it ain't broke"?

Love your blog, btw, and I have a critical eye when it comes to beauty blogs. =)

[Hillary Johnson]

I have had excellent luck with Parissa Soft Gel, which is indeed washable. I am not very hairy, so don't know how it would perform on coarser hair. The nice thing about it is that you can wash and reuse the strips, which helps keep the cost down even further. My one attempt at approaching the bikini area, however, resulted in some nasty broken blood vessels, so I use these only from the knee down, and on the lip and eyebrows, too.

[nancy]

In the spirit of investigation, I tried the Sally Hansen Express Wax and have to agree with C; it is not as effective. Not terrible, but the Lavender Spa is much better.

[Andreas]

What is important to know: yes laser hair removal does hurt. But actually on every additional treatment it gets less because less hair is left to destroy. And the most important argument: after that maybe painfull treatment (really depends on the parts treated) you never need any hair removal again ;-)

[ella]

I also have hair that is more course and thick due to my background.

The chocolate wax did not work well for me at all. I'd stick with the lavender spa if that works for you. However, I really needed to wax and all I had was that chocolate stuff, so I ended up using the Sally Hansen microwaveable wax for eyebrow, upperlip, and face on my legs and outer bikini line (even though I guess it's not mean for that, so I don't know if the makers would approve). It worked much better! It removed much more hair and was less painful. Also left less bumps. My best at-home waxing experience by far. Only problem: you get less wax in the tub because it's not meant for your legs! Also, I wouldn't recommend anything more than a basic bikini wax with it since it's not meant for the area. It's probably fine, though. Use your educated judgment, I'm no wax expert.

[Jenna Marquez]

I used to pay so much for regular waxing at my salon. It got pretty expensive, so I decided to try waxing at home. I bought a kit and tried it--it was easier than I thought it would be, but it took me a couple times before I really got the hang of it.

Now that I've done it regularly, I'm a pro! And the best part is that I'm saving money. I bought this kit: http://www.salonhive.com/wax-n-waxing-32oz-kit.html and it cost me as much as ONE TRIP to the salon for a wax job of my legs, bikini area and underarms. But I can use the kit several times--so it is totally worth it.

Anyway, great blog post and I may try this brand the next time I have to buy a kit just to see how it compares to the one I've already got.