Review - Sally Hansen Insta-Smooth PODS Creme Hair Remover For Face

• Hair Removal has never been faster, easier, more convenient!
• First ever individual-use pods with built in applicator, give you precise results every time.
• Snap, smooth, go!
• No touch application, no drips and no mess! Perfect for upper lip, chin and hairline.
• Compact & convenient portable pods go wherever you do - for instant use, easy disposal.
• Great for on-the-go or last minute touch-ups.

"Whoever reviews this is going to have to admit to having hair on their face," Hillary told us when she was distributing products. This implies that having hair on one's face is something one would not want to admit. Guess what, everyone: I AM A MAMMAL. So I have hair on me. That's how we mammals work. I also have live young and feed them milk (I mean, I could if I wanted to). I'm not this lady or anything (who, by the way, looks like she would be totally fun to hang with), but yes, there are follicles on my face.

But we live in a society where ladies with mustaches are shunned to live on some remote island (Sicily, I guess), so Sally Hansen has tried to make it really easy for us ladies to get that pesky mammalian trait off our pretty faces with these PODS. I'm not sure why PODS is capitalized in the name of the product; it's not an acronym for anything. Pretty Odd Depilatory...System? That's what I'm going with. Because ladies, these PODS are odd.

Essentially, they are sort of like a ketchup packet, but for hair remover. You snap the packet in half down the middle, where there is a little strip of felt that is intended to be an "applicator" for the depilatory cream creme. The main problem I encountered first was that the depilatory cream creme did not want to ooze through the felt strip; rather, it wanted to ooze out of the sides of the packet around the felt strip. I've attempted to draw some diagrams to clarify:

 

Figure 1 shows the POD, unbent, from what we'll call the "top." In Figures 2 and 3, the POD has been rotated 90 degrees so that we are seeing it from the "side," and the "top" is now at the top of the diagram, rather than facing us. The cream creme SHOULD ooze THROUGH the felt strip, but instead went everywhere else. It is not pink, I just like that color.

The good news is that once you wrangle this cream creme on to your face, it totally works great! It does just what it says it will do - removes hair - and it doesn't smell that bad, which is nice because it's under your nose, and it doesn't make your face red or anything like that.

But the key here is that the whole purpose of the PODS is to be more convenient if you are "on-the-go" or something like that. Okay, first of all, I have literally never been in a situation where I have been like "Oh NO!! I suddenly need to remove hair from my face IMMEDIATELY but I just DON'T HAVE TIME OH NOOOOO." That's just not really a thing that happens. So if this cream creme is essentially the same product Sally Hansen sells in a little bottle, there is no reason to buy these PODS, even if they are capitalized.

Hillary says: I did say someone was going to have to admit that they have hair on their face, but I also lumped myself in there.  You'll never actually see it, but I too have hair on my face (atop my lip specifically).  I mow it down with whatever weapon is handy at the time, which is currently these pods.  I have to agree with Maven, they aren't as handy as they seem.  They do, however, keep the cream from invading my fingerprints so that I don't have to wash like 10 times to get the weird feeling off them (I feel that way about all depilatory creams).  On the down side, sometimes they squirt out the side & I end up using enough cream to remove a waxed, handlebar mustache.  Given the option, I would go with the new Odorless Sally Hansen Depilatory for faces as it comes with it's own spatula & doesn't smell 1/10th as much as a regular hair removal cream.