Sugar waxing honestly was a game-changer for me when it comes to body hair removal. It’s natural, cheap, super effective, and eventually almost pain-free over time. Skip to the middle of this post if you want to go straight to the ingredients and instructions. There are only THREE ingredients you need to cook: sugar, water, lemon juice. Amazing!

There are two ways you can use sugar wax paste: either warm & liquidy or hardened & room temperature.

Sugar Wax

Warm & liquidy is very easy to spread onto the skin. Using a cloth strip in order to remove the wax is a must and it is the only way you can use the liquid wax. I find using the sugar paste as a warm liquid is a great way to remove especially thick hair such as bikini line hair. You can easily buy cloth strips online (or in the store) or even use an old T-shirt (which is totally washable since the sugar paste is water soluble and breaks down with warm soap water).

Speaking of water soluble, this is great for easy clean up! If you wipe down with a warm towel, the residue is removed very easily. Quite a pleasant experience compared to using baby oil in order to remove hard wax residue.

Effective Hair Removal

We discussed warm & liquidy wax but what about hardened & room temp wax? When the sugar wax is at room temperature, it should be rather difficult to scoop up from your container. As you spread it onto the skin, it will warm up from your body heat and be easier to work with. You will not need cloth strips to remove the wax, and can use your fingers or an object with a smooth surface (such as a butter knife, an old credit card, or a popsicle stick). By using an object instead of your fingers, the wax won’t heat up as quickly and you’ll actually be able to re-use it for quite a while before you’ll need to get a new scoop of wax.

Ingredients for making sugar wax:

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup water
  • A food thermometer

Combine the sugar, lemon juice, and water ingredients in a medium sized pot. Boil mixture. There is no need to stir the ingredients while boiling. Remove pot from heat once it reaches the desired temperature. There are 3 ranges of temperatures (the higher the temp, the more firm your wax will be).

Soft ball stage: 235-240 Fahrenheit
Firm ball stage: 245-250 Fahrenheit
Hard Ball Stage: 250-265 Fahrenheit

That’s it! Store in an airtight container. Make sure the wax is cool enough before you use it, otherwise you will burn your skin (eek!).

It is important to note that when you use sugar wax, the direction of application and removal is the complete opposite of traditional wax. You will apply AGAINST THE DIRECTION OF HAIR GROWTH and then remove ALONG THE DIRECTION OF HAIR GROWTH. This is great because it prevents ingrown hairs when you’re removing along the direction of hair growth.

Sugar Wax Tips:

  • Make sure you use a pot that is not too small and not too shallow when cooking your wax. Many of us have learned the hard way and it leads to the mixture boiling over into a sticky mess.
  • The warmer and more humid your area is, the higher the temperature you’ll likely want to cook your sugar wax. I live in southern California where it’s usually pretty warm and I have to cook a hard ball mixture. Otherwise, it quickly turns into a liquidy mess. You’re going to have to experiment and see what temp works best for your area.
  • I recommend cooking up your sugar wax in advance before using it. That way you can have the perfect temperature of wax. If you plan to use the wax as a warm liquid paste, all you need to do is microwave the wax in quick increments (I recommend maybe 10-15 second increments). That way, you will not burn yourself. If you’re planning to use the room temperature sugar wax, obviously it’s good to go any time after you’ve already made the wax and let it cool.
  • After you’ve been using the same chunk of wax for a while, it will eventually become very gummy and hard to use. You’ll be able to revive it for a few more uses by adding a fresh chunk of wax, or you can use a cloth strip to remove it from your skin and then throw it away before using a fresh portion of wax.
  • Make sure to pull your skin very taut before applying wax and removing wax. Do a quick flicking motion (flick it parallel to your skin rather than straight upwards). This will ensure as little pain as possible and any bruising of your skin.
  • If you do not have a food thermometer, it will be a lot of guessing work. You could try judging by color (a deep amber color) but from my experience, it was always a hit or a miss. Measuring temperature is the best method. If you still want to just “eyeball” it, I would say it can still work very well if you can be satisfied with using the wax as a liquidy/warm paste only, as temperature must be exact in order for the harder paste to work.

Seriously, sugar waxing is so wonderful. I feel it helps exfoliate your skin without actually ripping off so many layers of your skin. The sugar wax mainly adheres to the hair rather than skin. Prepping the sugar mixture and storing it beforehand also makes it a breeze to wax or touch up your body hair as needed. I am a huge fan and love spreading the word about it! If anyone has any questions, shoot them my way and I would be happy to try and help.