Do you love those Gillette three-bladed razors yet wince at the thought of supporting a cruel company like Gillette, which is owned by Procter and Gamble (hiss! hiss!)? (Actually, even if you do own a Gillette Mach3 razor I won’t hold it against you — I don’t think razors are tested on animals. I hope not anyway.)

Well, you need have no fear — Hoke2 has come out with a few models of CCIC-approved-100%-animal-testing-free razors, one of which is three-bladed.

I picked up Hoke2’s “Wally” razor at the store the other day. The Wally razor suctions to the wall, has three blades (and you can buy replacement cartridges for it), comes in translucent green or clear, has a curved shape, has a “nonslip wetgrip handle that is molded out of solid rubber,” and is included in the Smithsonian’s Permanent Design Collection and is the recipient of Germany’s “Design Plus Award.” (Really. I am not kidding. It’s an award-winning design.)

So, not only is the Wally razor kinder to animals than any other three-bladed razor, but it’s also much, much prettier!

The Wally razor is suctioned to my shower wall right now, and I’ve used it a few times, and I just love it. I highly recommend it. It looks beautiful in my shower (very mod!), and it’s just as nice as any other three-bladed razor — only psychologically much easier for me to buy. I usually switch off between waxing and shaving my legs, and I’ve already started shaving more often than waxing now that I’ve got this razor. It’s just so easy to use, and it doesn’t give me razor burn — I’m very happy about it.

Hoke2 looks like a great company — cruelty-free, with a great design sense. I do plan to try their other razors in the future — probably not the Spike razor, which only has 2 blades but also looks cute, but definitely the Squeeze’n Shave Travel razor, which is very clever — it has a tube of shaving gel as the handle of the razor, so it’s very convenient for travel:

Apparently the Squeeze’n Shave Travel razor won the “Most Innovative Tube of the Year” award by the American Tube Council. (I’m very surprised there is an American Tube Council — who knew?) Hoke2 also carries some shaving creams, which I shall probably also try out some time in the future.

I did a quick price comparison, and the Wally razor appears to be similarly priced to the Mach3. The Gillette Mach3 is $8.99 for one razor plus two cartridges whereas the Hoke2 is $6.00 but comes with no spare cartridges, but the Gillette cartridges appear to be $24 for a pack of 12, whereas the Hoke2 cartridges are $8.00 for a pack of 5, so they sort of even out — the Hoke2 actually ends up being less expensive if you never replace the handle and just keep buying new replacement cartridges). However, if you usually buy three-bladed non-brandname razors, I assume the Wally razor cartridges might be more of an expense to you.

Hoke2’s Wally Razor is available for $6.00 from Ebubbles through Amazon. (It’s replacement cartridges are available for $8.00 for a pack of five.)

ETA: 04/30/08 I just saw the Hoke2 razor at Whole Foods.  So now you don’t have to buy it online!

Tags : hoke2, razor, wally

I picked up a container of Parissa Strip free Hot Wax a few weeks ago and have used it a few times, and I have to say it’s great stuff. You heat it a little on the stove till it becomes gooey, smear it on with the tongue depressor, wait till it’s mostly dry, and rip it off. I tried it, and all my hair was removed instantaneously. It’s pretty amazing how well it works without using linen strips or anything. I actually wish it would remove less hair — it really, really hurts to have every single hair removed at once. But then I had absolutely no hair whatsoever for weeks. It’s fantastic! And much more effective than the Parissa cold wax strips. Also, the azulene oil it comes with is nice for removing remnants of wax.

Unfortunately, while Parissa wax is not tested on animals and is made from all natural ingredients, it is not certified vegan or organic. This doesn’t bother me, but I know some people only like to buy organic and/or vegan products, so if you’re looking for that, Parissa isn’t for you. (Though I’m a little confused — Parissa claims its products are “made from natural ingredients,” and for the most part they contain natural ingredients like resin or beeswax, but one of the ingredients in this wax is paraffin — isn’t paraffin an oil by-product and therefore not natural? Maybe this is one product of Parissa’s that isn’t all natural?)

I only had a few problems with the wax that were so minor I decided not to remove a star from them. The first minor problem is that heating up wax is always messy and time consuming — it’s much less prep work to just shave. But that’s true of all waxing products. The second minor problem I had with the Parissa wax was that it’s green, so when it drips on something (which of course it does the way all wax products do) it leaves green wax that’s very obvious on the stove, on my tee shirt, etc. The green stain on my tee shirt is never going to come out — luckily I don’t care about that tee shirt, but still, it’s annoying. If I had used nongreen wax, of course that wax wouldn’t come out either, but it wouldn’t be so obvious. The third minor problem I had was that I don’t care for the metal tin you heat up to melt the wax. I don’t have a special wax melting kit, so I ended up having to heat it on low on the stove. I much prefer microwaving little plastic bottles of wax — they don’t drip wax that catches fire and causes flare ups and nasty black burnt wax spills on my stovetop, and it’s easier to control the temperature — sometimes it’s hard to watch the stove to make sure the wax isn’t getting too hot and boiling over or fallen over and spilling wax everywhere because the little metal tin is unstable. However, I’m sure this is perfect for people who hate microwaves or have a special wax melting kit. Plus I had an old surgi-wax plastic bottle that I put the Parissa wax into and microwaved after a few messy wax spills on the stovetop, and that works perfectly.

Parissa Strip Free Hot Wax is available for $8.00 at the Parissa online store, and many natural groceries/drugstores.

Ingredients: Wax: Gum Resin, Beeswax, Paraffin, Azulene Oil: IPM, Vitamin E, Azulene (chamomile extract), Menthol

I alternate between shaving my legs and waxing them — I hate shaving because it’s a very short term solution, a lot of razors are made by Proctor & Gamble or Johnson & Johnson — 2 companies that own a lot of companies that test on animals — and I get razor burn. However, it’s a lot quicker, less trouble, and less painful than waxing. Waxing, on the other hand, I also dislike because it’s time-consuming and messy to heat up wax, and wax spills are awful to remove — and then waxing itself is painful. But I have to admit waxing works — no razor burn, no stubble, and I don’t have leg hair for a month! Also, if I rip off the wax really quickly, it’s only painful for half a second, which isn’t too bad.

So I finally broke down and bought some cold wax strips, which I’ve heard don’t work very well but I could not resist because of their promised lack of trouble — no heating! no messy wax spills everywhere! Luckily, I found a cruelty-free company that makes all kinds of waxing products — it’s Parissa. All Parissa formulas are gentle, natural, and available at many natural stores.

So I ordered a box of Parissa Quick and Easy Wax Strips and tried them out. They are amazingly convenient — no heating, just pull apart, press on, rip off. They create no wax spills, and they come with a bottle of oil which really removes any stray wax residue very well — I’d never thought of using oil to remove wax, it makes so much sense! Also, I really like the ingredients — there are no petroleum products — the wax strips appear to be made from pine resin, canola oil, and beeswax.

Unfortunately, the Quick and Easy Wax Strips did not remove much of my hair, which is why I’m giving them 1/5 stars. I think the main problem with the weird sticky consistency (probably from the pine resin?) of the cold wax– if they just made microwaveable normal strips of canola oil and beeswax, those would probably work a lot better, and still be a lot more convenient than microwaving a little bottle of wax. (A lot of people seem to actually like these strips however — check out the product reviews at Parissa.com.)

Parissa Quick and Easy Wax Strips are available from drugstore.com and many natural stores for $10.99 (for 16 strips).

Ingredients:
Wax: Pine Resin, Canola Oil, Beeswax, Azulene Oil: IPM, Vitamin E, Azulene (chamomile extract), Menthol