Student Style: Parissa Body Sugar and Wax Strips Come up Trumps

I must confess, I am a queer fish in the world of beauty. Here’s the lowdown: my absolute fave obsession, more than gel eyeliners or foundation primers or anything turquoise, is hair removal.

Oh yes! There is little in terms of cosmetics that is more satisfying to me than smooth skin and the processes involved in attaining it, a topic which is particularly relevant when togs and tan are on the cards. I haven’t shaved my legs in years, but I always have a trusty Gillette Venus on hand for emergency underarm topiary. Time and moolah permitting, however, I prefer to wax, so I tried out a few home waxing kits in the hopes of saving a bit of both. (Note: I made sure to exfoliate before using any of these.)

Veet Bikini and Underarm Ready to Use Wax Strips were disappointing. They pulled out a few hairs on my underarms, but really hurt my skin and I didn’t want to risk damaging it by going back over the same area. Thus, I was left with the patchy look and that annoying instance where you feel as though you’ve waxed, so you raise your arms … only to realise you have spider legs a-plenty waving at the world. Not pleasant.

Available at Boots, Parissa Chamomile Body Sugar for Legs, Body and Face, €16.89, on the other hand, blew me away. The decent sized pot of water-soluble sugar was easy to heat and came with wooden spatulas, millions of re-usable strips and soothing oil. It zipped through my legs in no time and was gentle on my brows.

Thoroughly impressed with these performances, I did something I have never before done myself and waxed my bikini line. It hurt like nobody’s business so I cried uncle halfway through, but it worked as well as any professional hot wax I’ve tried. If you’re ruthless enough, this is an effective and affordable way of keeping the lady garden pruned to Chelsea Show standards.

Last up were Parissa’s Wax Strips for Underarm, Bikini and Face, €14.29, which blew the the Veet strips out of the water. They came in three sizes and the wax was really as strong as you could expect ready-made strips to be. I was also able to use each side twice. Although I definitely preferred the body sugar, these were great on the only area I tried, which was my underarms. I kinda ran out of hair then, to be honest.