A Hairy Tale

Meet Cat Smith, our founder, a PCOS warrior who's been battling the beard since she was sixteen.

For nearly two decades, Cat tried every fix the beauty aisle promised. Strip wax kits that ripped skin instead of hair. Tweezing sessions that ate her mornings. Electric razors that left a five o'clock shadow by lunch. Painful, expensive laser packages that promised permanence and delivered patchy regrowth six months later.

By her thirties she was burned out, broke from chasing the latest hair removal trend, and tired of an industry that treated facial and body hair as a punchline instead of a real condition affecting millions of women.

Meet Cat Smith

Catherine 'Cat' Smith, Founder & CEO

Cat built Crybaby Wax in Los Angeles in August 2023 after 15+ years leading consumer insights and brand strategy in beauty and CPG. Before founding Crybaby Wax, she developed and managed product lines at Therabody, Dr. Zenovia Skincare, Harry Josh Pro Tools, the Dermstore Collection, and HatchBeauty, where she ran seven brands across mass and prestige retail.

That résumé shapes every Crybaby Wax decision. The formulas meet the same retailer standards she once required at Sephora and Dermstore. The claims are written by someone who used to commission Mintel and Circana research for a living. The brand voice belongs to a real person who has lived inside this category for half her life and refuses to let it stay broken.

Cat holds a BA in Journalism (Honors) with a minor in Corporate Communications from Baylor University, and she has been quoted as Crybaby Wax founder by Makeup.com and BeautyMatter.

But the Sob Story Ends Here

Cat refused to accept defeat.

She knew the at-home waxing category was overdue for someone who actually understood it. Drugstore strip wax used rosin and beeswax that tugged at skin without gripping fine hair. Professional salon hard wax existed, but no one was packaging it for real people at home with clear instructions, sensitive-skin formulas, and a brand voice that didn't shame the customer for needing it.

So she built it. Crybaby Wax launched in August 2023 with a single mission: a professional-grade, vegan, low-pain hard wax system that performs at the salon level but lives on your bathroom shelf. Pre-care that primes the skin. Hard wax that grips coarse and fine hair on the first pass. Post-care that calms instead of stinging. Aftercare that actually works.

Made in Italy, Patented in the USA

Our wax is manufactured in Italy.

Italy is where modern hard wax was invented and where some of the strictest cosmetic-manufacturing rules in the world are written. We chose an Italian partner because the heritage and the standards both matched the bar we set: vegan ingredients, professional-grade pull, low-temperature formulas that don't scorch sensitive skin, and the kind of consistency you only get when wax has been refined for decades on the same equipment.

Our innovations are patented in the United States. Crybaby Wax holds US Patent 12,611,023 B2 for the Stiff Upper Rip applicator, granted by the USPTO in April 2026. It is our first patent and a working answer to a question the waxing industry kept ignoring: how do you remove fine facial hair on PCOS skin without taking the skin with it?

Built to a Higher Bar

  • 100% vegan formulas. No beeswax. No animal-derived ingredients. Anywhere in the line.
  • Professional-grade hard wax. The same wax our licensed esthetician network uses in the treatment room is the wax in your Starter Kit.
  • Organic pre and post care. Formulated to standards we would have demanded as Sephora or Dermstore buyers.
  • Made for sensitive skin. Including PCOS, hirsutism, eczema-prone, perimenopausal, and post-laser regrowth.
  • Patented innovation. US Patent 12,611,023 B2 protects the Stiff Upper Rip applicator system.

As Seen In

See the full press archive →

Mission: Possible (and Pretty Simple)

Crybaby Wax exists to make the waxing industry better and different.

Better means raising the floor on what an at-home wax can be: pro-grade formula, ingredient transparency, real customer service, sensitive-skin engineering. Different means rejecting the parts of the category that haven't aged well: the shame around facial and body hair, the assumption that a real wax has to hurt, and the gender norms baked into the salon menu.

We serve everyone the legacy industry has been awkward about, including the PCOS, hirsutism, and perimenopausal communities who have been told for too long that their hair is a problem and a punchline.

We also serve the pros. Licensed estheticians and wax-bar operators use Crybaby Wax inside their treatment rooms because the formula performs at salon level on every skin type they see. The same wax in your kit is the wax in their warmer. No tier, no compromise.

Join the Sob Squad

Over 7,000 Sob Squad members are already in.

The Sob Squad is the Crybaby Wax community: customers, PCOS sisters, licensed estheticians, and pros who get an extra layer of rewards, early access to new launches, and the satisfaction of being part of a brand that decided to fix this category on purpose.

If you have been waiting for a wax that finally takes you seriously, this is your sign.