About Us
Sugar Betty - a labor of love (and fear)
The story began like a lot of my stories begin…..I found a new DIY challenge! The project was body sugaring…..from scratch. I read recipes from the internet and decided it looked like a pretty simple process, so I cooked up a batch the day before leaving on vacation to B.C., in July. I was armed with my little jar of what I thought of as “Magic Wax” – It had all the virtues of wax, and none of the drawbacks….a completely natural product for hair free skin and excellent exfoliation, with no burning, no tearing, and no weird chemical reactions! MAGIC! And, I had a very cooperative victim in mind as a test subject.
When we got to the hotel, I set him up out on the deck and proceeded to apply what I was silently applauding as the ultimate answer to hair removal. I applied a patch of sugar, and did not stop there. I molded it on a couple more times to be sure it stuck really well.
Unbeknownst to me, disaster was poised to strike. Before my first pull, I had already committed the four no’s of successful sugaring….it was extra hot out on the balcony, and the humidity was very high. I had sugar that was faaaar too soft slathered on a mans chest, he who is a human furnace. I braced myself, and that first mighty pull surprised us both…. one of us less pleasantly than the other. Not to be discouraged, I pulled again…. and again….and again. That same one of us began to find it less funny with every pull. It suddenly popped in my head that I had read the solution to the sticking problem was to repowder the area and let is sit for a bit. Powder?? …. Ah, yes. Now I
remembered also reading that the first two steps of the process were supposed to be cleansing and powdering….. note to self. OK, no problem! I still had the option of letting it rest a bit.
While I was letting that rest, my mind whirled to another idea! I would not mold the next one on, I would just apply it and pull it off immediately. I found another good spot with plenty of hair and smoothed the sugar on – only once! One, two, three….PULL! I was met with similar bewilderment as
I had experienced the first time (but with even LESS humor). I was STUCK AGAIN! A small feeling like panic stirred in me and I thought “maybe I need to pull faster”. “Faster”, I was told, apparently also meant “harder”. A discussion ensued on how the best way might be to remove said sugar. I couldn’t let him shower it off, that would be a total defeat. He did not agree at first, but his good nature over ruled his need for self preservation, and I eventually was able to release him from the sticky predicament, while, at the same time, freeing him of a lot of unnecessary hair and dead skin cells. It was enough of a small victory to motivate me to keep trying. It would take some convincing, but my victim would continue and soon become more a client as the sugar and the sugaring improved, batch by batch.
In the summer of 2016, I had developed a large quantity preparation process that consistently produced a high quality product. An accidental observation led to producing the exact same paste, that I could make light enough in color to add a little food colouring and NOT always get green or orange because of the natural yellow color of the original paste. I LOVE color, and I think it adds interest and fun. From the sugar paste, came the interest in producing complimentary products with natural ingredients that would out perform what was already on the market.