sugaring

[burntheladle.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure at least someone in this community has tried sugaring before, and I'm looking for some advice.

I'm pretty sure I get the process, but what I can't seem to do is make the stuff.

I tried the reciepe from this site:
http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/self/432

But it didn't work. I think the problem was that I have no Candy thermometer, and don't know what the "hardball candy stage" is meant to look like, and so I just sorta guessed.

It was way too thin, and would only remove the lightest of hairs if I "dabbed" at the sugar on my skin. I applied the cotton strip, waited, yanked it off and then when I tried pressing it on and pulling it off a few times it would pick up one or two thin hairs.

I gave up on that lot, and tried the recipe from here:
http://crunchyjulia.livejournal.com/6406.html

But again, too thin. And if I don't cook it until it's too thin, the sugar doesn't disolve. -_-


Could the problem be that I was using unrefined sugar? Which is heavier, and takes more cooking to disolve, and so it all goes wrong?

I don't know, both times it ended up just being like honey, and pulling the strips off tugged at the hair but didn't remove it. I left the strips for about 5 minutes (I just did one strip at a time, since I didn't want to cover myself in goop until I got it right) and it didn't seem to set at all.

So, any advice on how to get it right?