Britishbeautyblogger Reader Frontline: Nads Tested By Gail.
Testing a hair removal kit was never going to be a calming experience. However as a seasoned user of hot wax, I felt no anxiety. According to the instructions, the gel is best used at “body temperature,” but let me save you some agony: You NEED to heat this in the microwave for a good 15 seconds if you want to apply a thin layer.
Initially I used the gel as recommended – and this led to a painful, and ineffective ordeal. The gel, applied with the spatula supplied, came out a stubbornly thick glob. I tried to smooth it down but to no avail. So, I simply placed the supplied cloth strip on top, rubbed it down to increase heat and perhaps thereby soften the blow… OUCH! After several excruciating attempts, it became clear that, as dictated in the instructions, one must have a hand constantly pulling the skin taut. Much more crucial than it is with my hot wax which seems to take hair off without too much exact positioning beforehand. At this point I resolved to take my jar and heat it in the microwave for 15 seconds. This step, as far as I was concerned, meant it lost much of its appeal.
The heated gel performed much better, yet still had trouble with fine hairs and gave unsatisfactory results. The 5 large cloth strips seem ridiculously inadequate. They are not as ‘reusable’ as the instructions seem to imply and it feels unhygienic to continue using a congested strip for more than three or four times. Luckily I had my own paper strips which were far better- there is no doubt that the cloth strips provided compound the gel’s inadequacy. The small face cloth strips were just as bad, and weirdly of those there are 10 (!)
By the time I got to my top lip area, I had made a fatal error: a drop of water had escaped into the jar and rendered the top layer utterly useless. I scraped to the bottom layer but in any event, the gel struggles to cope with fine hairs and I didn’t want to go over my face several times and risk red raw skin. I was severely disappointed with the gel. There was a lot left by the end, even though I had done both half-legs, yet the cloths had long run out. It seems the balance was not calculated properly in that regard. It left my skin feeling soft and even perhaps conditioned and feels like a sugaring treatment in that regard.
Before my wax, I used the enclosed cleansing wipe. That was perfectly fine, nothing fancy there, but a good extra step to have. Nads have a cycle system in place to make the gel as effective as possible and I found the steps did prep the skin very well. The Ingrow Solution was very drying, on account of having an alcohol base, but I feel it is a very good product, enriched with fruit acids to exfoliate and prevent ingrown hairs and bumps. I would say that this and the scrub were the items which saved this from being a complete disaster.
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