Veet Facial Easy to Use Cold Wax Strips

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MY VERDICT:
Veet (formerly known as Immac) Face and bikini ready to use cold wax strips are abolutely, totally useless.
They didn't remove even 1 single hair from my face and the 4.79£
I paid for them were a complete waste of money.
As the instruction is vague about the time that is needed to heat the wax strips before usage and they even indicate themselves that there are circumstances in which the strips might ...
...or
Veet Consumer Services
PO Box 118
Clevedon, BS21 7ZH

I tried none of the above as I had decided that I've wasted enough time on a product the obviously is not working.


Thanks for staying put until the end and reading all of this. Sandra   ... more

It was about 10 years ago, on a bright and sunny morning, that one of my worst nightmares came true. I checked the mirror and spotted something small, dark and slightly curly sitting, prominently placed, in the middle of my chin : A hair !

What would have been a rather pleasant surprise for a 12 year old boy was for me more like a desaster as I was neither 12 (more like 27 at that time) nor a boy, but a woman.
The last thing I needed was a beard and this hasn't changed until today.
Well, I got myself some tweezers, eliminated the little bugger by the roots and forgot about the whole incident until it appeared back on my chin several days later. That was when I realized, that this hair was going to stay with me and I decided to call it "Nasty" - and the tweezers becamea firm fixture in my bathroom.
Unfortunately "Nasty" was lonely and managed to get some friends over the years. It's not that I would say that I really have a beard in my face, my last count summed up 4 hairs in total, but that's bad enough.
It was by the end of 2005 when two things happened that made me decide that it was maybe time for a change in the way that I fought the stubble on my chin:
First: One of Nasties friends had decided to give in to the pressures of time and turned grey. When I thought that having facial hair is bad, well, having grey facial hair certainly was worse...
Second: I misplaced my tweezers.

So I ended up in Boots, already holding a packet with my trusted tweezers in my hand, when I got the glorious idea, to check what else was on the market.
I spotted a bright yellow packet on which was written "Veet (formerly known as Immac)- Face and Bikini ready to use cold wax strips". And more importantly even "Results last up to 4 weeks", which made me finally buy the stuff, even they were quite expensive.
On the package was also written that these strips would be effective on short hair, contained a salon quality formula and could be used also for bikini line, underarms and touch-ups.
Each packet contains 20 strips and 2 perfect finish wipes.
On the back of the packet the product promises to be "a convenient and easy way to ensure effective and long-lasting hair removal"
It also states to be:
- very easy and quick to use as the strips are easy to apply, adhere well to the hair and are removed immediately
- Ideal for small body parts as due to their small size they would be particularly suitable for face, underarms and bikini-line, but also for touch - ups
-long lasting as in just minutes you can have soft and perfectly smooth skin, so you don't need to depilate for up to 4 weeks
The included 2 perfect finish wipes promise to remove all traces of wax residues, leaving your skin soft and smooth .
After this follows a rather longish list of do's and don'ts , some of them rather useful ( like not suitable for the elderly and diabetics) some of them rather obvious ( don't swallow).

Full of anticipation I rushed home, went straight into the bathroom and opened my little yellow box that promised me so believable to rid me of Nasty and his friends for a wonderful 4 long weeks.
Inside I found 20 see-through strips ( 2 inch in width and 5 inch in length) with a turquoise gel-like substance inside which must be that wax, and 2 baby-blue sachets with perfect finish wipes. These sachets have to be cut and cannot be resealed and, assuming that the result of the wax strips really lasts for 1 month and the strips can even be cut in smaller pieces if applied on a small area, then I do not think that these 2 wipes willl go very far - definately not until the end of the packet.
The instruction told me later on that the wipes could also be replaced by cotton-wool impregnated with oil if needed.Here we go...

I am usually not a big friend of instructions, they don't go so well with my rather impatient nature, and I normaly only read them when everything starts to go wrong, but this was about my face and I took the time to inform myself how to get on with it. The step-by-step instruction itself was very easy to understand and accompanied by some pictures to the right side of the written text which insure that the whole thing is fool-proof.

This is how it works:

1. HOW TO PREPARE THE WAX
- if using on a vrey small area, cut strips to size
- warm the wax strip between your hands
- slowly peel the strips apart
2.HOW TO APPLY AND REMOVE THE WAX
- apply on o f the wax strips onto the skin and smooth firmly with your hands for 10 seconds in the directionm of hair growth ( depending on the body part, please refer to appropriate section below)
- Immediately hold the skin taut with one hand and with the other hand, grip the bottom of the strip. In one swift and decisive movement, remove the strip against the direction of hair growth . Never lift the strip upwards, but keep it as close to the skin as possible. To relieve discomfort, apply pressure on your skin with your hands.
- the same strip can be used several times. To re-use, place two used wax strips together so that the wax is in contact, rub the strips between your hands for 5 seconds and slowly peel the strips apart. Repeat hair removal as necessary.
AFTER WAXING:
- to remove any remaining traces of wax left on the skin, dab them with the back of used strip
- once all hair has been removed, gently wipe the skin with the perfect finish wipes to remove any reamining wax residues.
- never use water,soap or alcohol to wipe away any traves of wax. If needed, use cotton wool impregnated with oil

This is followed by an instructuon on how to treat the various body-parts. As I have only tried it on the chin I will omit the other areas here and only repeat which information is given about the chin : Hair on the chin usually grows sideways or downwards. Smooth on the strips and pull back in the opposite direction of hair growth.

Well, this sounded easy enough. I set to work and cut my wax-strip to size.
They have a really clinical smell which reminded me of the cream my grandma used for her arthritis - not very pleasant, especially if used very close to the nose !
Then I warmed it up in between my hands, although I wasn't quite sure for how long as it isn't mentioned in the instruction.
I applied the strip, rubbed it for the requested 10 seconds and ripped it off, which wasn't as painful as I expected it to be.

THE RESULT :
None. Neither Nasty nor his friends seemed impressed by Veets
Wax strips and looked as strong and happy as before.
As I wasn't sure, if I' d done everyhing right, I repeated the process several times, altering the procedure each time a little bit.
I rubbed the wax a little bit less, a little bit longer, not at all - no changes, the hairs were still happily assembled on my chin.

By checking the instruction again and again I found a point called "HELPFUL HINTS". Here they try to give you some assistance if things shouldn't go quite as well as expected. It says:
-WAX IS NOT EFFECTIVE:
Your hair might be too short: it should be between 2 to 5 mm long, or the strip was not smoothed enough onto the skin. Try again by smoothing it for longer (20 seconds)

Well, I thought, that's it. Left it on a bit longer - no result. And again a bit longer ( the longest I left it was for about 1 1/2 minutes) - still nothing.
I decided, that my hairs must be too short then and to wait until the next day, which was probably the wisest thing to do anyway as my skin started to look slightly inflamed.
I tried it again the next day...
...and the day after...
...and the day after the day after...
Result: Have a guess !!!

In the meantime the hairs were probably too long and I had the feeling that everybody was staring at me when I left the house.
My husband was starting to make jokes wether he should lend me his shaving kit and that's exactly what I did in the end - I took hubbies razor and shaved them off.

MY VERDICT:
Veet (formerly known as Immac) Face and bikini ready to use cold wax strips are abolutely, totally useless.
They didn't remove even 1 single hair from my face and the 4.79£
I paid for them were a complete waste of money.
As the instruction is vague about the time that is needed to heat the wax strips before usage and they even indicate themselves that there are circumstances in which the strips might not be effective, I put my poor skin through a treatment that cannot be described as a pleasant one even if the result was be satisfying. I wouldn't recommend this product to anyone although I never tried it on any other body-part and therefore cannot comment on wether it is working there or not. Although I would be quite surprised to hear so...
In the end I did what I should have done from the start : I started to save money for laser treatment and bought myself new tweezers, which are made out of stainless steel, whereas the wax strips contain :
Triethylene glycol rosinate, glyceryl rosinate,silica, parfum, isopropyl myristate, bha, mentha piperita leaf extract.

For these of you who would like to know what is in the wipes:
Paraffinum liquidum, hexyldecyl stearate, coco-caprylate/ caprate, isohexadecane, tocopheryl acetate, isopropyl myristate, Isopropylparaben, butylparaben, isobutylparaben, bisabolol,bha, mentha piperita leaf extract, parfum, hexyl cinnamal, butylphenyl methylpropional, alpha-isomethyl ionone, luinalool,farnesol, ci61565.

Veet-Face and bikini ready to use cold wax strips are made by Reckit Benkiser.
For help and advice they can be contacted through :

www.veet.co.uk
or
Tel UK: 0845 769 7079
Tel ROI: 01 661 7318
or
Veet Consumer Services
PO Box 118
Clevedon, BS21 7ZH

I tried none of the above as I had decided that I've wasted enough time on a product the obviously is not working.

Thanks for staying put until the end and reading all of this. Sandra  

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