Guest blog: What’s the BUZZ? Annie’s Bee Natural Massage Wax

Guest blog by Rie Franklin

One day I had a new follow and it was @annieswax. Mindful of who is part of my flock and what will appear on my feed I always look at the Bios of new followers a means to determine whether I follow back. Obviously a promotional account I replied: Are you a real person? Massage wax really? No way, Wax? Following till I figure out this wax thing. I am not interested in clogging my feed with promos from large companies. But I will follow if there is an actual person on the other side who interests me. Guess what! Annie is a real person and her reply was very sweet, just like honey. Not only did she tweet back but also offered to send me a sample of her massage wax. WOW!

Now I am not a massage therapist. But I am a massage and somatics promoter. I offer CE workshops for massage therapists which help them attend to their ‘self-care’ through postural insights and the application of biomechanics. I am most assuredly a massage connoisseur, getting a weekly massage and constantly tweeting about massage and etc.

So as soon as I heard from Annie I started asking people I know who work in the field of massage. First my good friend, who is a massage therapist, and then many of the massage peeps I have connected with on twitter. I asked: Have you ever heard of massage wax? Have you ever tried it? The answer was a unilateral NO! But everyone also was curious enough to request a report of my experience with this new product.

That made me more curious and more excited to receive Annie’s sample of her Massage Wax! Now I was not only fulfilling my own curiosity but also offering my findings to friends who value my opinion. WOW! What could this stuff be like? My mind kept cycling back to the thought that this is wax used for massage! In my mind the two just don’t work together. When I think of Bee’s wax I think of candles, or those horrible sugar drink candies from Halloween back in the 80’s. I was very thrilled to receive Annie’s Massage Wax sample in the mail the following week (She is in Europe and I am in the US).

I received the Nut free, fragrance free sample. Opening the lid I sniffed- nothing offensive there. Attentively poking a finger at the somewhat honey colored substance; I found it to be soft, not hard like candle wax. Rubbing a bit between my fingers it was slick. Then I rubbed that tiny bit into my skin and looked forward to my two upcoming massage appointments scheduled specifically to experiment with this product. Then life happened and I promptly forgot all about the bit I rubbed into my skin. This in itself is telling. The bit of product rubbed on to my skin was not some alien like thing which distracted me, it was more like a soothing lotion which once applied escaped my notice.

Eagerly I took the sample and my massage loving body to my friend’s house. I was totally relying on her expertise and knowledge of massage in discerning the worth of this product. First came my feet. Honestly with in the first 30 seconds I forgot the whole plan of analyzing and reviewing the product. My friend’s hands are from heaven! I do recall a few of her phrases reacting to Annie’s Massage Wax. They went something like; “Smooth, nice glide, it is going farther than I thought it would, um kind of greasy.”

Eventually as Kathy moved onto my legs my brain returned to task and I noticed that the feel of the wax was ‘velvety’. This was in comparison to the lotions typically used when I receive a massage. Also I noticed my friend was able to wear a dollop of the product on her forearm for easy access, that seemed cool to me! I am not sure that is possible with other creams or lotions. The next thing I noticed was that I have knots. This is not a new thing but what was different was the amount of awareness brought to this aspect of my body structure. Throwing that aside as an effect of not having a treatment from Kathy in a number of months I then noticed then something else: her hands were hotter. I asked Kathy if she noticed how hot her hands were and to her they did not seem any different, but to me they were definitely gliding hand sized heating pads of pleasure!

In my mind one try does not a test make, and since I still had more than half of the container left to experiment with I took my sample of Massage Wax to Tevin for my weekly massage. I was pleased to find out that he was game for trying a new product. These were his comments.

“Nice glide”. But after a time the glide turned more “tacky”, and offered a “good grip”. When he used the product on my thighs he noted that the product did not last as long. Then his overall comment at the end was that it reminded him of hair grease. OK. I thought. That was the second grease comment, and in my understanding ‘grease’ in relation to skin has a negative connotation. I am not sure why. Grease offers itself to create a ‘well-oiled machine’. (I know I am not the Norm in my opinions, but) In my mind that sounds like a very attractive prospect. The idea of having a body which is well oiled like a machine means I have a free range of soothe movement. This way of thinking immediately deleted the connotations involved in the ‘greasy’ description.

Now that I have had two experiences with this product I can better relay my personal views on Annie’s Bee Natural Massage Wax. The intensity of the massage went way up on the massage meter! The velvety glide was coupled by an extra ability for my MT’s to zero in on every single knot/adhesion in my body. Usually with the slick conditions provided by the massage lotions, my knots have the ability to run away and hide. There was no hiding hiding while using the Massage Wax and I had to figure out how to deal (hense the intensity!). I had to breathe and actually talk to my MT and offer guidance towards the release of my muscular tension. (I have extreme respect for things which facilitate participation!) The experience felt like both of these MT’s suddenly had the ability to reach through the layers of skin, fascia and muscle and hone right into the hidden recesses of the most minute and concealed pieces of my anxiety. (Yes again intense!) This type of intensity is not always a goal in receiving massage. But what an ability! The Massage Wax was a wonderful conductor of heat, the hot hands of pleasure existed in both trials of the product. I can imagine great benefits for athletes and sports massage and other very directed massage treatments.

There is a whole different way of looking at this product as well, and that is how would my overly sensitive skin react to it? To make sure I had a good sense of how the product worked I was sure to NOT use my daily ministrations of skin oils and lotions. I wanted to see how I reacted to the product, not how it would mix with the other products I use on my skin. After my friend Kathy’s greasy remark I washed immediately. But after my massage with Tevin I decided to be a bit more bold. My skin actually absorbed the product. This was why the product did not last as long on my dry thighs. Cool! While my arms and shoulders were not as greedy in their need for moisture the slick after leavings were no more shinny or annoying and just as pleasant as the body oil I use on a daily basis. I left the product on my skin for 4 hours before washing and did not suffer any stinging, redness or break outs. The product was a bit more difficult to wash away, meaning I did have to use soap and a wash cloth and unlike the massage lotions it did not just rinse away with water. For me that was a non-issue. The real test laid in my overly long, fine easy to tangle hair. Would it wash out. I was determined not to give it an extra scrub even though I was sporting the super-greasy-haired-medusa look right before my shower. One shampoo treatment and I thought the product could still be felt – but I continued on (I am not a shampoo rinse and repeat person unless I have been to the pool, beach or met up with a skunk). Here is the hair report. Once my hair dried fully and I brushed it out, it was quite soft, non tangly/frizzy and looks like my hair. This time of year my hair takes on a bit of a frizz with the added humidity in the air, that was non-existent. I felt like I had an extra conditioning treatment along with my scalp massage.

So after all of this experiencing and experimenting I decided, hey I think I will take a look at Annie’s website. http://www.anniesmassagewax.com/

Lo and behold, all of these things I experienced were right there in the description of the product. I am over the paradox that this stuff is wax and actually now I am impressed with the fact that this stuff is Bee’s Wax. I mean it is cool, hip, and natural and if more people use it they will probably become more concerned with ecology and earths environment; Super plus in my mind!

Thank You Annie for the wonderful opportunity to experiment with your product. I do and will recommend it to others. I found you as a person to be very kind and as a business entrepreneur to be generous and patient. I will continue to follow @annieswax and hope that we develop a grand twitter-ship [translation: friendship via twitter].

 

Rie Franklin FME, RYT500

DesignsforBodyandMind.com