Updated to add: Flamingo gave us a code! Take 10% off sitewide with code GRACE
Ahhh quarantine. If you’d told me a few months ago that I’d basically be waxing my whole body on my own, I would have laughed. Waxing is painful enough – to inflict it upon myself? Yeah, right. But these are interesting times and we are all pretty much becoming at-home aestheticians.
But here we are, nearly three months in and not knowing when spas will open again, let alone when we will feel safe going to spas, so I have (literally) taken matters into my own hands. Besides, NOW is the time to teach yourself this stuff or try something new; if you mess up, you don’t exactly have anywhere to be, right? Haha.
Body hair is funny. Everyone has their take. Personally I just don’t like it and want it gone. I wish I felt differently, it would be much easier! I am a big fan of Flamingo. I use their razor too. And I use all three of their waxing kits. This isn’t sponsored and I will caveat that I haven’t tried any other at-home waxing products for a DIY wax (like hot wax, which intimidates me a bit!) but I love these as they make it really really easy, there isn’t any mess, and the pain level is pretty minimal. I personally like that the strips are just ready to go. No heating them up or any of that… which is nice as I a) don’t like mess and b) don’t have a microwave!
At-Home Waxing Guide
First of all, the pain isn’t bad. At all. I get so many DM’s about this and don’t really know what to say. It depends on the body part but it’s really not bad, especially as you get used to it. If you’ve never waxed anything before, it will be a shock at first but I promise you, it isn’t terrible!
My best advice is to pull the wax strip off FAST. This removes the hair the most efficiently (and hurts less). I think I was already accustomed to the pain level after getting bikini waxes for so long: I kinda just emulated what the aesthetician does: the faster you pull, the less painful it is. The second thing is hair length: you want it to be about the length of a grain of rice or the wax won’t catch it!
Flamingo Wax Strips Review
I am living for Flamingo’s wax strips. It started with my legs. I bought them on a whim after seeing Katie Sturino talk about them (her leg waxing stories are so funny!) The body strips, I use SO MUCH. I wax my legs with the full strip. This is very easy and doesn’t require much direction. Applying the wax is simple. Put the strip down on your leg, press firmly (in the direction of hair growth), and then remove the wax but quickly pulling the strip off, going against the direction of hair growth.
This might sound a little messed up but this is a great stress release. I definitely stress wax my legs. I will say that the legs are definitely the easiest area to do. Pain is minimal, it really isn’t bad at all. Each strip typically lasts me two or three pulls. You’ll know when it is time to switch to a new strip as it won’t hurt/pull anything out anymore.
I will add that I like to use the face strips on harder to reach areas (my ankles!). The full size strips won’t get your ankle hairs (or maybe they will, we’re all different!) so I like to spot treat with the facial hair strips. I also use the face strips in between my brows (more on that in my eyebrow shaping + tinting tutorial) and on my big toes. Weird, I have just a few annoying hairs that grow on my big toes, but the face strips are PERFECT for your toes, if you also have this problem.
Waxing your underarms at home.
For my underarms, I cut the leg strips into quarters (cutting them in half once vertically and once horizontally). There was definitely more of a learning curve with armpits. Initially I put the whole body wax strip into my underarm and it was a hot mess… wax everywhere… sticky and messy! I DO NOT RECOMMEND. I have learned that any curved area requires a bit of nuance. Cutting the strips into quarters was the solution for me. I wax my armpit in small sections, doing the pulls in both directions because your armpit hair (or at least my armpit hair lol!) is a little more unwieldy, growing in both directions. Again, remove the strip as quickly as possible! It will be less painful and more effective.
Waxing your bikini line at home.
More recently the brand launched a pubic hair kit. Prior to them launching this, I would use a mix of the small face strips (these are great for a small area!) and the cut up large strips. This kit is definitely the better solution; it removes the hair of your bikini line perfectly. I love that the kit has 3 different sizes – it’s really thoughtfully designed. And yes, waxing your own bikini line definitely takes a bit of finesse and it does hurt, but it’s nothing terrible.
Be sure to hold the skin taut with your other hand as you pull… I didn’t do this the first time and had some bruising (nothing terrible). Holding the skin taut prevents this from happening.
Waxing Post-Care
All of the kits come with post wax cloths, so once you’re done and hair free, run the cloth over the area you just waxed to soothe and remove any extra wax! Aloe Vera is also really nice for post-care. Don’t exercise or have sex or do anything strenuous for 24 hours. If you get an ingrown hairs, Flamingo has a really nice ingrown hair treatment too.
At home waxing definitely isn’t perfect. I miss going to the salon for sugaring (more on waxing vs. sugaring in this post) but this is a great short-term solution and I will definitely keep doing my legs and maybe even underarms on my own after this. There’s plenty of user error. I regularly find patches of hair on my legs that I’ve missed. But then I just go back and get it the next day. That’s the beauty of being able to do it at home vs. going back to the salon. And it is a little messy (especially if you cut the strips up) but I really really like the post-wax cloths for that!
There you have it! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments!
Thanks for this Grace….you have a great knack for knowing exactly where/what your readers are struggling with (your brow tinting post ) and helping us solution without having to do a bunch of research ourselves.
Thanks for continuing to be a bright spot in my quarantine days
K
Haha, I try! 😉 xo
This is awesome. I’m going to try the bikini kit. And quite possibly my arm pits. I Nair my legs. I’d love to wax, but I don’t have the patience to let it grow out in between. Thanks for the idea!
You’re welcome! Let me know how it goes!
Such a great post and needed! I’ve seen Katie waxing her legs on calls and I’m like ummm ouch 🙂 for cutting the stripes do you use a dedicated fabric scissors since I’m assuming they get wax on them? Excited to try it out, thank you!
It really doesn’t hurt. No I don’t use separate scissors, I’m just careful and if I do get any wax on the scissors, I wipe them down with the post wax cloth which gets off any wax in a pinch!
You convinced me to try this, just ordered two kits!
Oh good! Let me know how it goes!
I always wanted to try at home waxing… thank you!
Lisa | lisaautumn.com
I’ve never tried any type of waxing at home – at this point, I’ve just given up, haha! I’m lucky because my legs aren’t too hairy naturally so I look okay without doing anything! 😛
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
It’s totally a matter of personal pref!
I got these to try because you posted about them just as I decided that it was time, lol. They were pretty easy to use but I couldn’t get the armpit quite right, so I’ll be trying your idea of cutting the strips into quarters the next time. Thanks for the recommendation!
YES! That was the key. Let me know how it goers!
I ordered the Flamingo leg strips on your rec but was disappointed that they didn’t seem to remove that much hair but I feel like I just wasn’t being patient enough! Idk if I was doing something wrong but after using almost half the kit on half of my right leg I still had so much left (and I don’t think I’m particularly hairy ahah)
Hmm! It’s hard to say as there definitely is a learning curve! You definitely need to go over each area a couple times but you can use the same strip! I find that one kit lasts me two leg waxes.
I just picked up the flamingo bikini kit from Target after already trying the flamingo face strips between my brows and on my lip, after reading your post about doing your eyebrows at home. The face strips worked so well and I’m so glad to see that you liked the bikini strips as well! Thanks for your post!!
Yay I am so happy to hear that!!!!
Great idea! I’ve never tried waxing as I just shave, but I’m willing to give it a go. About how long does it seem to last between waxes? I’m curious if there is much of a benefit over shaving. Thank you!
It lasts about 4 weeks, though I find that other hairs grow back so I tend to wax mine every two weeks!
Thanks for this Grace, was looking for an in home option, Just ordered them, can’t wait to try them out!
Oh good! Let me know how it goes!
Hi! I ordered these after you mentioned them last week – I got face, bikini and body. They came really quickly. My legs were easy enough but I felt I missed SO many spots…there were so many patches. User error maybe? My armpits were impossible!!! Maybe I let them grow out too much. I am a devoted bikini waxer but after my terrible armpit experience I am scared to give it a go!
Hi Margi!
It’s definitely not perfect and my best advice is that practice makes perfect! I have been doing my legs like every week as they are patchy, but now I only have a stray hair or two! Armpits are harder than bikini IMO… I think it’s the angle. Cutting the strips made a HUGE difference for me, as did pulling from both directions (top top to bottom and bottom to top!) Hope that helps!!!!
I’m so surprised by how cheap these kits are! Just bought 2 of the bikini line ones because F it, what else am I going to do during quarantine?! I realize it’s probably not going to be perfect, but considering that I usually pay around $75 for waxing, this seems like it could be useful in a pinch even after salons open back up.
Also, after getting my legs waxed once in a salon and leaving before they were done because it was so painful I CRIED (I have a pretty high pain tolerance, too!), I’m shocked that you do your legs your own. Color me impressed, haha!
Right? It’s pretty amazing. I will say that it’s not as perfect as going to the salon but it’s been a GREAT fix for short-term.
And that’s so funny re: pain threshold. I consider myself a WIMP but my legs are really fine!!!!! Armpits and bikini si much more painful.
I was so happy when you recommended this I was looking for an at-home bikini wax kit! But I just want to say I did not have too much luck with it. My hairs tend to be a tad thick and unfortunately the strips just did not catch them as much as I want them to, I think because there is not that much wax on them? Thank you any for the rec, if you discover any more waxing brands please share!
Oh no! I’m sad it didn’t work for you. It definitely took me a few tries to get good at it, but now that I have done it a few times, it’s gotten much easier. I would definitely either contact their customer service team (I have never felt like there isn’t much wax on mine, so maybe you got a bad kit!) or b) give it another go!!!
I know I’m behind on the 8-ball on this post (only was introduced to this page today by my favourite Mrs. Ashley Spivey) but for those having trouble with the wax strips catching all the hair – you need to adjust based on your skin. I tried to wax my legs years ago and it was an epic failure, and I didn’t know why…. it was because my skin was so dry that the wax strips basically just exfoliated my dry legs. Make sure you exfoliate with a strong scrub and wax asap before your skin dries out again – or – I would sometimes exfoliate with an oil-based body wash (on a loofah) at night and then wax in the morning. Pre-made strips don’t have the same power as hot wax so you gotta help them out a bit, but you will be successful!
Oh this is all great advice, thank you!