Sally Hansen is one of those stand-by drugstore brands that is reliably good quality for a reasonable price. Despite my general respect for the Sally brand, I feel obligated to report that my experience using the Sally Hansen Extra Strength All Over Smart Wax Hair Removal Kit was pretty disappointing and frustrating. And I'll tell you why.

First off, the reason I was even trying this is that my usual wax was sold out. Meanwhile, my legs keep getting more and more frightening. So it was in hairy desperation that I popped into a nearby drugstore and picked up Sally's kit. It looked to be a standard offering: microwavable wax, spatulas, cloth strips and soothing finishing oil (which for some reason, my brain always reads as "fishing oil"). The "extra strength" designation reportedly relates to its ability to eliminate hard-to-remove hair and the "smart wax" is referring to the fact that the wax is supposed to be able to discern ugly unwanted hair from nice skin. So there's that.

My biggest complaint is with the central ingredient, the wax. Obviously, wax is sticky and needs to be sticky in order to effectively remove the little hairs. However, this stuff was just absolutely beyond any sticky wax I've ever used. It was difficult to spread and cooled rapidly, requiring several more trips to the microwave than kits I've used in the past. The wax was additionally quite stringy and challenging to apply. Maybe this is the "extra strength" bit, but I don't know. The worst part, however, was the cleanup. It is a royal pain to clean this stuff up, both on yourself and on any unfortunate surfaces that it came in contact with in your bathroom. Even after rubbing the finishing oil on my newly waxed legs, there were still innumerable little bits of wax that have to be individually pulled off. I find this to be exceedingly annoying. It really made me appreciate Parissa's sugar-based waxing formula because it cleans up easily with only a bit of warm water. The Sally Extra-Strength wax laughs in the face of warm water.

In all fairness, this kit was quite effective at the stated purpose of removing hair. And maybe the ultra-sticky nature of it is required for hard-to-remove hair. Ok, I get that. But the clean up is ridiculous and, the worst insult of all, the instructions that come with the kit have exactly no information on how to clean this stuff up. No tips or suggestions on how to get rid of any lingering or spilled bits. I find this to be really inconsiderate of Sally Hansen. If the wax has to be extra sticky to be extra effective, then fine. But at least help me out by telling me how to clean it up. ugh