A Look At: How Sugar & Co. Body Sugaring Pastes were Created

Hi Sugars! Welcome to 2018!

We know it’s been a while since our last post, and if you’ve been keeping up with our social media you might have seen that 2017 was a big year for us! We endured lots of successes and hardships, and grew so much as a business and as individuals. In this new year, we hope to continue to provide practitioners and consumers with high quality sustainable beauty products.

To kick off 2018, we wanted to start by filling in all of our wonderful practitioners and followers more about who we are, and everything we know about body sugaring! So get cozy, grab a cup of coffee or tea, and let me tell you how everything started.

To be honest, the first time I heard about body sugaring was when I began to work with Sara and Samantha in the spring of 2015. I had no idea of what sugaring was! I mean,  I was familiar with waxing and all of the at-home waxing kits available at the drugstore – I had even tried a few (with varying success) myself. I had no idea that body sugaring was a completely different method of hair removal compared to waxing.

So, if you are like me and are unsure of what body sugaring is, let me tell you some of the interesting facts I have learned!

Waxing vs. Sugaring

 Waxing

Body hair removal by waxing is still one of the most common methods used today.  Commercially available waxes can be found in a soft or hard consistency, and often, require the use of strips to remove the hair. These waxes are made with petroleum based resins, and other harsh chemicals that can cause skin irritations, burning of the skin, as well as ingrown hairs. If you use wax often, you might notice that the sticky residue left on the skin is not water soluble, which means that you will need the help of oils or harsh solvents to remove it – and we know that the last thing you want to do after waxing is to put an alcohol based cleanser on your tender skin – OUCH!

Body Sugaring

Body sugaring originated in the Middle East, where is still commonly used, and it has many notable advantages when compared to waxing:

1. The sugaring paste is non-toxic and made with simple every day ingredients: lemon juice, water, and sugar.
2. Traditionally, Middle Eastern women prepared the sugaring pastes by heating a mixture of sugar, lemon juice, and water for a period of time and then let it cool into a putty-like consistency.
3. The body sugaring paste is water soluble which means that if you have any sticky residue left, you do not need any harsh solvents or oils to remove it, just use water!
4. The body sugaring paste is 100% natural and it works as a natural exfoliant helping reduce the appearance of clogged pores and ingrown hairs.

After discovering these facts, my mind was burning with questions; if sugaring is SO MUCH BETTER, why isn’t it the method of choice for hair removal? If it is only three simple ingredients, why can’t I just make it at home? Why are body sugaring products on the market so limited?

The problem:

So now that I had a good understanding of what body sugaring was, as a chemist, I had to look at the chemical composition of the sugaring pastes available on the market. I chose to really focus on the ingredients being incorporated, the quality of the product, and their effectiveness in removing hair. My results were shockingly not good.

• One of the key issues that I first encountered was that many of the body sugaring pastes on the market were not consistent. What that meant was that month to month, as new jars of sugaring pastes were used, the consistency from one batch to the other were completely different. This issue caused practitioners a lot of grief, as well as a loss of income.
• Another red flag was the fact that some of the products in the market, targeted for body sugaring, contained petroleum based chemicals, resins, and other additives to extend the shelf life of the product. This could cause skin irritations, skin abrasions, etc., to the clients.
• Another issue that I encountered, especially when speaking to the professional practitioners at Sugarbush Spa, was the fact that the sugaring products would:
• Breakdown upon changes in room temperature and high humidity levels resulting in ineffective removal of the hair.
• Harden too quickly – this issue caused practitioners to put a lot of strain on their working hands, resulting in a painful arm at the end of the day.

Criteria for an effective body sugaring paste

Knowing all of these issues with the sugaring products on the market, the next step was to innovate an effective product that would:

1. Be 100% natural – no harsh chemicals.
2. Perform effectively upon changes to room temperature and humidity levels.
3. Have an enhanced elasticity to allow practitioners use less product and relieve some of the strain on their arms.

One of the first things that we did before experimenting with ratios and conditions to make the sugar paste, was by breaking down the components of the sugaring pastes and focusing on each of the ingredients chemical properties and how they would behave when mixed together. I won’t get into the details of the chemistry of cosmetics, but if this is a topic that interests you, leave us a comment and we will be happy to write another blog post on that topic!

To make a long story short, the development of our products was no easy task. We had to change our formula countless of times, and after two and a half years, we finally innovated two amazing body sugaring pastes: Soft and Firm.

Both products are 100% natural, non-comedogenic, hypoallergenic, non-abrasive, cruelty free, vegan, gluten free, and help reduce the appearance of ingrown hairs. Soft and Firm perform effectively upon changes to room temperature and humidity levels and we were able to enhance the elastic properties of the products to ease the work of practitioners.

So now that I have given you a bit of a glance on how everything went down, are you curious to try body sugaring?  Please let us know in the comments below if you have tried body sugaring or if you have any questions.

You can also contact Sugarbush Spa if you are looking to book a sugaring appointment! Feel free to contact Sugar & Co. Canada if you are a certified practitioner interested in using our products.

Until next time!

xoxo

Joanne – The Sugar Dr.

Oh! And don’t forget to connect with us on social media!