MAKE-IT BLOG SHARE: Homemade Leg Wax

Posted by Ethne~

As I referenced in Friday’s post here, Whit and I made our own leg wax this weekend and tried it out on ourselves.  The timing worked out perfectly because one of Lor’s and my fave blogs here (our fifth house) is having a blog sharing party and the theme is “make it”.  So here was my stab at making something.

Is it leg wax or is it maple syrup?  Read and find out.

Yeah right.

Whit works at a beauty store and one of her customers told her about this recipe and said she’d been waxing her legs this way for 40 years.  Okee-dokey.  Here’s what she said to do, and we trusted her COMPLETELY, I guarantee.

Mix one cup sugar with two cups lemon juice, bring it just to a rolling boil, stirring frequently, then turn the temperature down to simmer and cook for 30 minutes, still stirring regularly.  I would’ve stirred regularly anyway, just to check for no mishaps since one time I heated up official eyebrow wax in high school because my Grandma W and I were going to wax our eye brows and we forgot about the wax on the stove burner and it burned to a crisp and there was floating char all over half of our house.  Most of the time I did it just right and waxed all of my friends’ eyebrows.  This is all true.

So we did it all EXACTLY as we were instructed.  The ‘wax’ turned a chocolate brown color, just like it was supposed to, but it didn’t really thicken.  Red flag.  So, conveniently, it was freezing outside, so we put the pot out on my deck for about 20 minutes to thicken.

After over 30 minutes, you're a tad bit runny

So outside you go.  See the snow in the upper left for proof it's cold out.

This is the other stuff we needed.

In the meantime, we heated up official leg wax since we decided we would do a ‘control’ leg; and also because I had spent a long time growing out my leg hair and if the homemade leg wax was a bust, I would’ve been ticked that my hard work would’ve been for naught.

It's a lovely bubble gum color.

Here are fun shots of me getting my control leg waxed.  It worked like it should and my leg is nice and smooth.  Even when I shiver – no stubble!  Sorry my legs look like nasty, baby-powder-covered chicken skin (the baby powder prevents us from ripping our skin off with the wax – fun) – you know how I feel about my purple people eater legs from this post here.  And it didn’t hurt AT ALL.  Joking.  It hurt a little.  And Whit almost gave me a black eye which would’ve totally been worth it in the name of science.

No more explanation needed to my sweet hubby when I told him the hair was for a blog test.

 

 

Look at the hair in there!!!

 

It is rather sticky.

Then to my homemade wax leg.  After it had thickened outside and was down to a nice warm temperature, we discovered it was NOT THICKER AT ALL.  But, we were determined to test this through to the end.  I smoothed on nicely, albeit sketchily more nicely than the official pink stuff, which is kinda like smearing liquid bubble gum down your legs.

 

One more time so you don't have to scroll back up: yes, maple syrup it is - do not try this at home.

Whit rubbed on the fabricky-paper strip.  Rip.  Nope.  Nothing.  It was as though she were pulling off an application of maple syrup because that would’ve been the EXACT SAME THING, only maybe not even as sticky.  I don’t even have an after picture to show you because there’s nothing.

So we waxed my other leg with the real wax and that’s nice-looking chicken skin now too.

Craft fail, my lovelies, craft fail.

We did let it cool for another couple hours and tried it on Whit’s arm and it was the same result.  I was personally hoping it worked that time because one, she could’ve screamed out “Kelly Clarkson” from the pain (see the movie 40-year-old Virgin if you don’t know what I’m talking about) and two, it would’ve been in an awful spot to have one bald patch.