In this economy, why spend $30 or more on a leg wax when you can do it yourself? I have many friends who wax their own legs and I recently discovered on a a recipe for wax on the Double X Website for women. Editor Hanna Rosin shares the recipe her family used to remove arm hair (they were hairy Sephardic Jews, according to Rosin. Watch the video). While you can buy wax kits in any drugstore, cooking your own sugar wax over the stove can save an extra few dollars on the wax itself. Here's how to make it:

• 3 tablespoons sugar
  
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  
• 1 tablespoon water
  

I love her colleague Emily Bazelon's response to learning the recipe, "That's wax? THAT'S wax?" Actually, it's a sugar wax, which is much easier to wash off then wax/wax. To make sugar wax, cook the ingredients over low heat for about 45 minutes until the sugar caramelizes, you should be left with a sticky taffy-like wax. Apply this with a plastic knife or wooden stick in the direction hair grows, then take a piece of cloth (you can tear up an old sheet or t-shirt), press down firmly and then pull off in the opposite direction of hair growth.

I'm a huge fan of my vitamin-A anti-aging regimen. Either I'm using the $20 tube of Retin-A I picked up in Mexico OTC this winter or I'm slathering on the uber-moisturizing Renova samples my dermatologist gave me. But now that I'm summering in the Hamptons like a fancy pants person, what to do? Vitamin A makes skin super-sensitive to sun but I don't want to go without for a couple months.

Then I stumbled upon an interview with skin expert Susan Perry on a Website for single women (http://singlemindedwomen.com). Perry is based in San Francisco and recommends switching to Vitamin C-based products in summer. Vitamin C helps prevent wrinkles and offers sun protection, according to Perry. I have an entire jar of Trish McEvoy's Vitamin-C cream (buy it online) that I plan to use this summer, but she recommends the pricier SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic (shop for prices online). It's still cheaper than your average Renova prescription here in the States.

If your deoderant doesn't seem to be working in the summer heat, consider how you're applying it. Never apply deodorant right out of the shower when your skin is moist and warm. The wetness somehow deactivates the active ingredient in deodorants, so it's best to wait until your skin is completely dry.

I'm in the Hamptons this weekend (yes, I am being a fancy pants this summer), and I went to the beach for the first time yesterday completely unprepared since I have never been a beach person and don't know how to be a beach person.

Picture this: Me, pale white and dressed in a bikini and black sundress (very classy, but BLACK). I have a beach bag with sunglasses (which I had sat on so they were askew) and 30 SPF sunscreen for my body and 60 SPF for my face. I have a beach towel and a picnic tablecloth that I use as a beach blanket (very posh, I know). That's it. I forgot the floppy hat, the beach chair and the umbrella. I was stuck under the hot sun for hours with little protection and no car (I'd bummed a ride with friends). And did I mention I am on Retin-A products which means I'm not supposed to expose my face to the sun?

So did I burn to a crisp? No, thank God. Turns out religiously slathering oneself with sunscreen does the trick. I somehow tanned and my face stayed white (thank you, La-Roche Posay). Sunscreen saved my weekend.