Diving In – The Ingredients and the Resin
Happy New Year everyone!
I wanted to start the new year by diving into our resin. My hope is that in doing so I will answer some of your questions and help to debunk any misunderstandings some of you may have regarding our waxes. I do listen to your questions and your concerns, and I have gone ahead and done the homework, so you guys don’t have to.
Alright, so let’s back it up first – before Caronlab, I did not know a whole lot about wax ingredients let alone know what resin my wax was made of. I am sure a lot of you are the same way when it comes to picking a wax…price is always first and then maybe its scent and coloring that draws you in. When I came across Caronlab, I had zero knowledge of why it felt so good on the skin, why it hurt way less and why my skin seemed to react less than the other waxes I have used. It wasn’t until I started watching the Caronlab educational webinars that I began to understand why ingredients, especially the resin used in wax, are so important when it comes to hair removal. In today’s blog, I am going to share with you in detail about Caronlab’s synthetic hydrocarbon resin.
PINE RESIN
Before I talk about our resin, we need to talk about Natural Resin, also known as Pine Rosin or Colophonium. This can be found in majority of the waxes in the market because it is much cheaper to use in production. If it is cheaper to produce, then how much quality assurance do you think there is for each batch of wax that is made? To cut costs even further, the pine resin extracted from the trees are unrefined and therefore there is no product stability. Have you ever thought, “Wow this wax fragrance smells so heavily fragranced,” or “Look at this vibrant color!” I have thought these things and I was a sucker for beautiful colors! Well, the reason why some wax companies reason as to why you may have clients who are telling you that they cannot wax, why your clients may leave with excessive redness and histamine reactions, and why so many clients believe that waxing has to be super painful. To add insult to injury, colophonium is also the third highest cause of Occupational Asthma including itchy, runny eyes and fatigue. Studies show that between 3.6% in Europe, 4.6% in the USA and up to 7% of people in Canada are all allergic to colophonium and these numbers are GROWING! Remember that natural is not always better. We get sucked into thinking natural is the best, but it really isn’t when it comes to hair removal. In fact, the more unnatural the better when it comes to waxing!
SYNTHETIC RESINSynthetic resins are going to be more consistent from batch to batch because it is a man-made substance. Synthetic resins are usually known as a hydrocarbon resin or polycyclopentadiene.
To spare some of you guys the scientific mumbo jumbo, if you want to hear me talk about polycyclopentadienes, then please feel free to play my quick 2 minute video explaining all of this:
I want you guys to understand when it comes to resins, Hydrocarbon resin is a safe product to use. Look at the ingredient concerns and where they rank in safety:
I took these stats off of a site that gave me ratings on how safe ingredients are considered. I’ve had clients tell me how they cannot wax, their skin gets super red, they get bumps and need to take an anti-histamine after a wax appointment. As you can see from the chart, a colophonium based wax may tick off a good amount of boxes, but allergies and immune-toxicity is considered moderate. Do we want something that could be moderately harmful for our clients? I think not!
Be aware that synthetic resins can also vary in quality and poor quality synthetic resins can pose the same amount of issues as with pine resin.
If you guys already know me, then you would know how much I love and refer to Brilliance Hard Wax “my baby!” So, what is the big deal about it and why am I head over heels for it? Brilliance Hard Wax is flexible, pliable, and moldable and won’t go brittle on you. Because it is made from a high-quality synthetic resin it is more consistent in production from batch to batch and it is easier and safer to work with. The waxes have a fresh and clean appearance. What a high quality synthetic resin should look like is a clear, translucent pale yellow. A pure white wax like Brilliance Hard Wax can only be created by the best synthetic resin available on the market and the reason why it is white is because of the added Titanium Oxide – that’s it. Nothing additional is in there to make it that creamy white color. At Caronlab, quality control is of utmost importance and is the key to creating a high quality and luxurious wax and that is why Brilliance Hard Wax is “my baby.”
THE VERDICT
The takeaway from all of this is to really understand what the main base ingredient your wax is made of and and what that means to you and your clients. I am telling you, switching over to Caronlab’s high quality synthetic resin waxes and using the Lilliane Caron signature techniques has made my clients happy and my job much easier. The most important thing to remember when it comes to hair removal, we are not trying to treat the skin but trying to remove the hairs. Let your pre and post ancillaries worry about being all natural and good for the skin. The wax should be as far from natural as possible.
Next month, I will be answering another ingredient question that I have received and it will be about paraffin wax. Why do we have it? What is the purpose? How does it differ from paraffin that is carcinogenic?
If there is a topic or question you would like me to cover, please feel free to message or email us!
Also make sure you follow us on our social media so you know when my next post is available: