Soon it will be summer, filled with days of colorful sundresses and casual tees. Now is the perfect time to think about how to get those smooth arms and legs, free of unwanted hair. [Oh, and of course, most hair removal places are closed because what’s going on in the world!] Yes, you can shave. But shaving doesn’t get to the roots of your hair and you gotta do it pretty frequently to keep the stubble at bay. You can head to a salon for a waxing session, but that takes time, money and planning. [Well, not a likely option now.] Way too much effort for a busy mom. My solution? Sugaring at home. I give myself a DIY hair removal session when my bug is taking a nap or has gone to sleep for the night.

So what exactly is sugaring? It’s a way to remove hair using sugar. Yes, that’s right. Sugar! You know, those white tiny crystals that you add to your coffee and homemade sugary treats. Sugar has been used for hair removal for a long time. It’s rumored that Cleopatra herself relied on sugaring to rid of unwanted hair. There are essentially 2 types of sugaring. One is soft sugaring, and the other is hard sugaring. Soft sugaring uses a sugar mixture that has the consistency of honey and that requires you to use a cotton muslin strip to pull the hair off. Hard sugaring uses a sugar mixture that has a much thicker consistency, close to a caramel candy consistency, and that doesn’t require the use of a cotton muslin strip to pull the hair off. The recipe below can be used for both soft and hard sugaring, depending on the temperature of the sugar mixture.

Sugaring at Home, Using 3 All Natural Ingredients

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1. White Sugar – 1 cup (Domino Sugar works).
2. Lemon Juice – 1/4 cup (Lemon Juice from a bottle works). I use fresh lemon juice from one medium size fresh lemon.
3. Water – 1/4 cup.

You probably have all these ingredients in your kitchen right now. That’s the beauty of sugaring at home. It uses a super easy recipe to make a sugar mixture that can be used to remove hair.

Making the Sugar Mixture for Sugaring at Home

1. Mix sugar, lemon juice and water in a cooking pot.
2. Use medium heat to incorporate your ingredients and melt your sugar.
3. Stir continuously and allow your sugar mixture to boil gently for about 10-15 minutes.
4. When your sugar mixture turns to a caramel color and has a honey-thick consistency, you are done heating it.
5. Pour your sugar mixture into a glass container. Be careful, the sugar mixture is super hot. NOTE: It’s a good idea to run warm water on the glass container before pouring the sugar mixture into it. This should prevent the glass container from shattering due to sudden increase in temperature.
6. Let sugar mixture cool for at least 20 minutes before use.

How to Sugaring at Home, Soft Sugaring

1. Make sure that the sugar mixture is warm, but not hot. You don’t want the sugar mixture to burn your skin.
2. Apply the sugar mixture on your skin using a table knife or a wooden tongue depressor. Spread the sugar mixture on your skin in the opposite direction of hair growth.
3. Press a cotton muslin strip over the sugaring wax. You can buy cotton muslin strips, or cut up an old cotton shirt. You can use any cotton fabric that DOES NOT stretch.
4. In one quick motion, pull the cotton muslin strip off your skin in the direction of hair growth.
5. Repeat until you are free of unwanted hair. You can use each cotton muslin strip multiple times (around 4 or 5 times). Each time you use it, an additional layer of sugar mixture will be attached to the cotton muslin strip.

Cotton muslin strips are also reusable. You can wash and dry them to use them for your next sugaring at home session.

How to Sugaring at Home, Hard Sugaring

1. When the sugar mixture is completely cooled at room temperature, it can be used for hard sugaring.
2. Gather some hard sugar mixture in your hand, and roll it in your hands until you have a ball of sugar mixture.
3. Put the ball of sugar mixture on your skin, using your fingers to spread it in the opposite direction of hair grow.
4. In one quick motion, pull the sugar mixture off your skin in the direction of hair growth.
5. Repeat until you are free of unwanted hair. You can use the same ball of sugar mixture multiple times (around 5 or 6 times). Each time you pull it off your skin, roll it into a ball again for its next use. Throw the sugaring ball away after 5 or 6 uses.

Tips on Sugaring at Home

• Before sugaring at home, it’s a good idea to exfoliate your skin using a sugar scrub or a salt scrub. You want to get rid of any impurity that might prevent the sugar mixture from grabbing on to your unwanted hair. You also want your skin to be as clean as possible to minimize the possibility of getting a rash or breakout after sugaring. I’ve never experienced such problems after sugaring at home though.
• Some people apply a dusting of baby powder or corn starch on their skin before applying the sugar mixture. This is said to avoid the sugaring from sticking to the skin too much, which could minimize pain when pulling the sugar mixture off. I haven’t found this step to be necessary, nor have I found sugaring at home to be painful.
• When sugaring at home, I usually start with soft sugaring (and use cotton muslin strips) because it’s more effective in getting rid of a larger area of unwanted hair. I use hard sugaring for touchups and for getting rid of hair that soft sugaring missed.
• If the sugar mixture becomes too hard to work with, you can warm it up in the microwave or over the stove to make it pliable again.
• I rinse my skin after sugaring at home. I usually also apply Calendula Oil to calm my skin.

That’s it! These are the step-by-step instructions on sugaring at home, using simple and all natural ingredients. Will you be sugaring at home soon? If you like this post, be sure to share it or pin it!