The Sugar Show
If you’re building a business as a cosmetologist, esthetician, or wax professional, chances are you LOVE helping people feel beautiful in their own skin. But at the same time, you find yourself lying awake at night worrying where your next client will come from, wondering if you’ll be able to make rent this month, and wishing building a business didn’t feel so gosh-darn hard.Lucky for you, you’re in the right place.Your host and body sugaring expert Shannon O’Brien has taken her own skincare business from zero to multiple six figures simply by adding sugar to her treatment menu, and has helped over 3000 students learn to do the same.As a licensed esthetician, award-winning spa owner, national speaker, and spa consultant, Shannon is here to simplify the process and connect you with the right resources and education to build a profitable, self-sustaining skincare business so you can provide better services for your clients, make more money in your business, and enjoy greater balance between your work and home life.Join us each week and get your hands on the cutting-edge education you need to turn your skincare business into a smooth operation in no time!
The Sugar Show
How We’re Building A Stronger Future For Sugaring Through Education, Community, And A New Product Line
What if your sugaring career felt as smooth and controlled as your best mold and flick? We’re opening the door to our next era with a five‑pillar approach that blends smarter education, thoughtful products, real community, and a future‑focused plan you can actually follow. From a revamped basic certification to a hands‑on method that finally syncs your brain and your hand, you’ll hear how we’re simplifying technique, boosting confidence, and turning consistency into client loyalty and revenue.
We talk candidly about what’s buzzing across the industry—why SugarCon left us energized, the power of collaboration over competition, and how intimate retreats sharpen both skill and mindset. You’ll learn how seasonality and humidity guide paste selection, why a calming duo can rescue reactive skin, and where our new Love2Sugar Collection fits: pastes for control and flow, plus a clean pre‑ and post‑care lineup with soothing and ingrown solutions designed for predictable, gentler results. It’s brand‑agnostic on purpose, so you can test, compare, and build a backbar that works for your climate and clientele.
Most importantly, we map a path you can personalize: a six‑month commitment to skill building, a clear target for 2026, and a “sweet 16” vision that shapes your legacy—whether that means mentoring, opening a second location, or simply owning your city’s sugaring scene. We’re also sharing how we’re handing off our shop to create more room for teaching across California, Colorado, and beyond, with opportunities to train, travel, and even join our educator team. Ready to stop juggling and start focusing on the work that moves the needle? Hit play, grab a notebook, and design the career you’ll be proud of.
If this conversation sparked ideas, subscribe, share it with a sugar pro who needs a boost, and leave a quick review to help more pros find us. Your next six months start now—what will you commit to?
If you’ve connected with or been inspired by this episode in any way, leave us a review and let us know your biggest takeaway - I’d love to hear how you embrace Sugaring For All!! And while you've got your phone out, make sure to follow us on Instagram @Love2Sugar.
If you are interested in our business planner you can find the SugarBoss Planner here --->https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/love2sugar
The link to our Monthly SugarBiz Blueprint: https://www.love2sugar.com/offers/cMhp76LA/checkout
Cheers to your Sweet Success!
Hey Sugar Tribe, Shannon here. In this launch episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on our biggest upgrade yet. A smarter, clearer, basic certification, and the brand new Love to Sugar collection. I'll share why I built this product line, how the Love to Sugar method delivers a precise control and gentler, smoother results, and the simple moves to grow your confidence, rebookings, and revenue. So if you're ready for the next chapter of your sugaring career, stick around and listen to this latest episode. Let's make it sweet. Hello, sugar tribe. Welcome back to this episode of the Sugar Show. I am really thrilled to be sharing with you kind of some things that are going on in the industry. What's the latest buzz that I'm hearing? Some really cool stuff that's happened and will be happening for 2026. And to let you in on a little bit about our new era here at Love to Sugar. So I want to just celebrate all things that are sweet, strategic, of course, and seriously powerful in this beautiful industry of ours. So a few things. I'm still kind of writing high on June's SugarCon event. It was the first ever industry convention just for us. The energy, the laughter, the breakthroughs, it was really everything. It um I watched people just become invigorated. I watched uh booths of sugar company owners come together and get to know each other. There were really wonderful classes. Um, Sarah Herbst, I've given a shout-out to her a hundred times already, and I will do it again. She has put together the best conference in our industry, the only one in our industry. And I just really want to give a shout out to you, Sarah, because um, again, because you really have taken the best of everything and brought it together. So if you have not purchased your ticket for SugarCon for next year, it is in August in uh beautiful Cleveland. And you know, it's funny. Let's talk about Cleveland for a minute because at first I was like, why are you having this in Cleveland? That's a random place. Uh, but I was pleasantly surprised, and so was my team, at how beautiful it's right by the water. It's um sunny and um there's so much to do that I didn't realize. I'd been to a Cleveland Browns game uh years ago and uh watched, you know, was able to watch football um on a personal trip. And I loved it. I love the downtown, there's cool restaurants, and I'm really glad that it's gonna be there again. And I just am really looking forward to um being again uh surrounded by the most amazing sugar pros, um industry leaders that have walked alongside me all of these years and really are bringing the best of the best to you. And so it is really the ultimate uh kind of um culmination of our year where we can get together and um exchange ideas, work on business tactics, like get to know each other better. Um, our entire team is gonna be there in this coming year, 2026, to help you with technique, talk to you about ideas to do in your shop to use in your shop. And so really coming together as an industry is is pretty, pretty special. So I am looking forward to seeing you all again at SugarCon. And I hope you had FOMO if you weren't there and that you will not sit on the opportunity to get some some tickets and to bring a colleague as well. So um that is my my shout out to SugarCon. Shout out as well to the Sweet Talk Sugar Retreat that was in Canada, our neighbors to the north. Um, Sugar Smack put on a beautiful event. Billy Joe Hamilton and Jason Doss and that crew put on an amazing um conference as well for Canada. And as you know, uh sugar is very popular in Canada. And so shout out to our Canadians that um were a part of that. And if you have not thought about coming to that again, um, you might want to think twice because um I hear I wasn't there, but I hear it was a really great, very intimate um experience as well. And uh, and I really um my hat is off to um Billy Joe and Jason for putting that together. Um, I also do want to point out a really cool partnership. Um, as you know, I love me some Hale and Hush. And way back in the day, we had promoted their duo, their Hale and Hush duo, which is the relief biopowder and the Hale and Hush mask, hydrate mask, that is delicious. And uh so Kiko has put together a relationship with Chris Campbell at Hale and Hush, which is really a great marriage because they're two really, really bright um uh product formulators, and I am glad that they are working together. I will tell you that in hair removal, and actually in skincare in general, the combination of those two products for any sort of um just kind of response the skin is having, uh, that duo is top of the line. And Kiko has put together a little partnership with Halen Hush to make sure that you have access to that. So keep your eye open for that duo. And no matter what you do in your treatment room, you should always have those two products on hand because they um they really just they change the skin. If your the skin is warm or um to the touch or a little angry or starting a histamine reaction, any sort of response that the skid has had in any sort of a kind of an angry way, uh, that duo of the relief powder and the um the hydrate mask just takes it away. And it really is your your duo, your partner in crime in the treatment room. So I've been shouting it from the rooftops for years, and I'm glad that uh Kika was able to formulate um or to actually put together a partnership with that formulation. So cheers to you, Jarrett and Chris, for uh coming together to make that happen. Um, and then we have an announcement that I'm gonna wait until the end of this podcast to share with you. Some of you already know, and we'll talk about how that came to fruition. Um, but I want to go back really quick because y'all had homework that were at SugarCon. And for those of you that weren't at SugarCon, I'm gonna recap um my speech that I was um honored to be able to give. Um, it was called The Secret to Sweet Success: The Future of Sugaring and Your Role in It. And I wanted to like kind of keep get you up to speed if you weren't there and also call you out on your homework if you were there and remind you about what it was about. So, you know, I've been in this industry a really long time and thinking about what's next is always something that I've been really um passionate about because, you know, we're all sugaring now, which is great, and was one of my biggest um uh dreams for our industry was for these companies to get together and push the passion of sugar. Um, we're not in competition, as you know, with each other. We are in collaboration with each other. But the knowledge that we're spreading to the skincare industry is hey, let's put down that hot wax and those sticks and strips and all that, and let's put a sugar ball on our hand. And we're really achieving that. Um, thank you, social media, for helping us to spread the word. So what's next, right? And and that's what um that my speech was really all about at SugarCon was, you know, what's what's next in this industry? Um, and so 16 years ago was when I started to sugar. And so I kind of used that sweet 16 um, you know, kind of a shtick, that lingo, um, and asked you where you want to be in the next 16 years, because I think that as entrepreneurs and savvy boss babes, whether you are in a spa or you're an employee of a of a facility or you have your own business, we are all boss babes of our career. And really asking yourself, where do you want to be in 16 years? I have a good chuckle about that because I actually in 16 years will be very old and hopefully uh looking back on my career and my life and what we were able to accomplish here. But for you, what does 16 years look like? And, you know, I ask you, you know, will you still be behind the table? I'll be 70. I hope I'm drinking a margarita somewhere on the beach, you know, raising a glass to all the sugar babes that are killing it. Um, but I ask you, um, you know, first of all, number one, how old will you be? Because I'll be 70, but how old will you all be in 16 years? And what do you want to look back on of what you've accomplished in this career? Like it's one thing to grind away and try to get as many clients as possible, right? But then it's another thing to really look at your career as a whole and ask yourself, how much longer do I want to be doing this? And where do I want to be? That's 2041. And 16 years ago, if you were like, where will you be in 2025? That felt like the Jetson's space age conversation, right? And so I ask you, like, really to take a look at what the next years are going to be for you. Will you be mentoring and educating, like I love to do? Will you be launching your own product line? Do you really, really love the table and you really want to be behind the table still? What does that look like? Does it look like you have cornered the market in your town with all of the sugaring business? Does it mean that you've opened a second location? Um, does it mean that you solely focus on sugar or are you heavy into facials and equipment and you do some sugaring? Like, what does that look like? You know, are you retired like me and sipping on something sparkly in uh in like saloom or something, you know? Proud of what you've built. I at the end of this, I want you to be proud of what you built. I want you to look back and say, wow, that really did support my lifestyle. And because I was able to add sugaring, it was it was the way that I fed my family, it was the way that I got out of debt, whatever it is, insert that thing here, right? And and really ask yourself, like, not only financially, but in the treatment room as well, like how much change has I've have I been able to make in my client's skin? Have I started an oncology aesthetics program as a result? And now I sugar uh with these products, you know, like really ask yourself, where where am I going with all of this? Otherwise, it's just a grind. And and my wish for you, my hope for you is that you don't just grind away in these treatment rooms. That feels like more like a little jail cell. I want you to ask yourself, like, why did I come to this career in the first place? It was probably because you love people and you love skin or the science of skin. It's probably a little bit that you wanted to make some money for your family and have your dreams come true. But it's that passion that we have, right? And, you know, I want to remind you that your next 16 years don't happen by chance. They're gonna be shaped by the decisions that you make, starting right now or starting five years ago. What does your story sound like? You know, for those of you that have heard me over these years and look back on some of the episodes about how sugaring saved my life, I had no idea that sugaring would save my life. And that would be a thing for me. I started out as an esthetician who was very content doing what I was doing. And then life happened, and I'm so thankful that sugaring is now. I mean, if you would have told me back in the day that I was going to start sugaring, I'd be like, I don't even know what that is, right? So, what do the next 16 years hold for you? I mean, even in the last two years, the world has changed. We have AI now, and we have a whole um program on helping you with AI. So reach out to us if you would like some information on that. Um, but the idea is how can we build our social media, build our AI, but how can we be smart about how we're aligning ourselves? Because I think what happens, especially with sugar, with with skincare aestheticians, um, cosmetologists, beauty people, we have all of these lofty dreams, right? Like we want to do all of these things, but if we don't just focus on our lane and really hone in on our skills, we're gonna be doing a little bit of all things and not really amazing at one. So I challenge you to sit down. If you haven't already, because those of you that were at SugarCon should have, and that and came to my um my speech, it was a packed room, which was really cool. But then for those of you that were there, I'm bringing this back up again for you to revisit it. And if you would like me to chat with you about your next 16 years, you know, send me a DM, send me an email, and I'm happy to chat with you about what your dreams are in 16 years, what your dreams are in five years. I'm happy to have that conversation with you because I think it's really, really critical to realize that life is short. It's already the holidays. And, you know, what have you done with your career? What have you done with 2025? What will you do with 26 and 27 and 28 and 29? Um, you know, when I first started this 16 years ago, my children were four and seven, eight. And I had different dreams then than I have now. And now my dream is to continue to trailblaze in this industry, to continue to support you and love on you, take our education team to the next level so that we can continue this mission, this manifesto, if you will. And my job is to make sure that all of, well, is my passion is to make sure that all of you really take this to the next level in the next 16 years for you. And that I hope that my legacy is that I have really affected your lives like mine was affected back in the day by sugar, but that we gave you the resources and that we're able to leave a legacy. And that is really, really exciting stuff for me, for my team, hopefully for you. Um, so take a moment after this podcast, or even as you're jotting notes down, take a moment to really stop and say, okay, I'm gonna do some homework. Where do I see myself in 16 years? How old will my children be? I mean, in 16 years, my youngest will be 36 years old. That means probably some grandbabies are along the way. Maybe a move out of California. I don't know, but how am I gonna parallel my career to that? And so I hope to be retired in the next five years, say, and pass all of this legacy and wisdom on to all of you. So be ready, because the next five years I'm gonna be packing it all in, my loves. Um and so this is this is really what has been a core for me. And and I really want to ask you as well what you see. If you have a beautiful location like I do, are you gonna expand and have two or three? Or do you just want to pack the one that you have? Now I will tell you a little um tidbit is that in uh in 2026, I am actually in the process of handing my shop over to one of my colleagues who is going to take this. I'm I'm basically like the pitcher that that started out the baseball game and I'm handing the ball over to the next pitcher to be the relief pitcher. And she is gonna take this physical space that I'm in to the next level. I'm still gonna be here, but she's gonna take it to the next level so that I can travel and teach all of you and really make a difference in the grand scheme of things and put my hands on all of you. So stay tuned for classes that we are gonna be doing, uh, actually that we're already doing, but that you'll see me at. I'll be in Denver and uh Burlingame, California a lot because of our new partnership, which is the reveal that I'm gonna talk to you about right now without further ado. So it is my honor to tell you that we are making some changes here at Love to Sugar because it's all about growth, right? And about identifying what's important. I wanted to make sure that my message and my company and my educators were proud of what they stand behind. And I am I'm really honored to say that we are making some adjustments and we have created a full service five-pillar uh program with Love to Sugar now. You know, we had Love to Sugar University and we have, of course, the podcast, and uh we have an education team now, and we wanted to kind of tie that all together. The piece we were missing was the Love to Sugar Collection. And so you will be seeing a new product line. Let's see, the powder here. Um, we have our new product line, which is the Love to Sugar Collection. And it is a line of paste that we'll be able to, our educators will be able to train with. You can purchase if you like. I love lots of sugar companies in this industry, professional sugar companies. Um, I love Kiko, I love Tapira, I love sugar smack, I love Tamaras, like I love all of them. Um, but I really wanted to have something that my educators could um, I could play with this lid all day long, um, this powder lid, but I really wanted to have something that um was representative of my team and of us. And it is going to ebb and flow and grow um into just products that we love to have in our hands. Um and it is not in any competition in any way with those companies that I mentioned that I do love. It is really just a way for us to round out our branding because, as you know, as strong, smart business owners, um, we need to make sure that our brand is tight. And so I've been doing some research on that. So we decided it was really important to have our own brand that locks in with um the education that we have. So we are an education company, as you know, and moving forward, we are going to be enhancing that education piece. So no matter what sugar company that you love, I hope you're you know playing with lots of them. Um, you might love one paste for your humid summer months, and you might like a different paste in your drier months and your cooler months. You might really, really love a soothing serum from one company, but the cleanser and the hydration maybe from a different one really make your heart happy. So this is where you have full autonomy and control over who it is that you go with. And because we have uh resources like sugarcon now, you have the ability to play and test um all of them. And so our education is um has always been, you know, I didn't start out, in fact, for a lot of years, I said I don't want to make sugar, I want to support the education piece. And it's still true. I never wanted to make sugar, and so I am not making the sugar. We have an amazing formulator here in the US that is creating our uh sugar paste. And we also have an amazing um group of companies that I've um put together uh for the pre and post. So we have a cleanser, we have the powder that you saw, of course, we have the pastes, we have a soothing serum and a hydration um uh body lotion. And then we also have um hydroclear, which is our ingrown serum and ingrown uh pads uh for home care at the moment. That's always that's gonna grow, mostly just for the needs of the people that are using my products and love what we do, which is great, but again, not competition. Because if you see a hands-on class in your area that any one of my educators is teaching or I'm teaching, um we want you to join us because very much like SugarCon, we want to be teaching people the right way to sugar, maybe some alternative little tips and tricks. And we want to help our sisters and brothers out in this community to be the best sugar pro they can be. And so that is our mission is to spread the passion of sugar always first. Number one, the passion of professional sugar, the passion of purchasing products that are from professional lines and to not compete, but to collaborate. And, you know, this has really been years in the making. Um, we want to support your growth every step of the way, from the cleanser to the hydration to the home care to the method with which we teach. Um, and that's pretty exciting. Some of you may or may not know that we have been, we were the first online um, and I'm not tooting my horn. I just want to make sure that it's very clear. We were the first online uh basic certification school. And I'm very proud of that. I'm very proud that there's been other companies that have come on along the way that have kind of taken our model and used it to help their company grow as well. Um, and because again, it's about, you know, making sure that we're all doing the right, the right thing. Um, but it's also really important for you to understand what we're doing with the education piece, right? So you're listening to the podcast, you're hearing about the new collection that we have again, um, with all the products. Um, but really education is our core. And so what you may not know is that I am actually a credential teacher. And I got my bachelor's of science in education. And so my dream in the beginning of my life coming out of college was to teach and to build curriculums that make sense so that the brain understands the knowledge. And but now, because we're doing it with a service that your brain and your hand know what to do. So, for those of you that are sugaring now, you definitely know that learning to sugar is not easy. It is not something you just, you know, pull it out of the jar and you're able to just do a Brazilian right away, right? There are steps. And so I designed um this new method called the Love to Sugar method. And it is a way for you that are new, or for those of you that are really struggling with the mold and flick, the love to sugar method is the way that I have figured out the right curriculum because I watch you all learn. Um, and in the classes that I've been teaching with all of you, I've tweaked the way that we teach so that you can really understand from just using one finger all the way to your whole hand how to sugar properly, right? Because I think what happens sometimes is, you know, you have an educator that's like, oh, it's easy, just throw your hand in the jar, it'll be fine, right? And then you get that ball of paste out and it's all over your glove and you don't understand it, and it gets very frustrating. And that's why a lot of people put this down, is because they just they don't get it. Their brain and their hand are not clicking and they don't get it. I was one of them in the very beginning. I was terrible. My brain is smart, my hand, not so much. My hand was not doing what my brain wanted it to. And so I've crafted this method. So again, if you're struggling with the molded flick, come back and join us, no matter what company that you've been using, no matter what education you had in the beginning, and um spend some time in the love to sugar method because it is rooted in the proper curriculum to get your hand to do what it needs to do. So if you're struggling with that, we got you. Uh, and so for those of you that are brand new and have no idea what I'm talking about, we got you too. And for those of you that have been sugaring a really long time, there might be a couple of tweaks that you might not even realize that we can help you with. So that is going to be our next era is making sure that you all have access to the training that you need, not just online. Like we've been for, let's see, we've been doing this since 2014. So I guess that's 11 years now, 12 years coming up in January. And my dream has been to make sure that you all have an easier time than I did with it in the very beginning. So uh take a look at that, those education pieces there, because um really, you know, the idea is that the more that we can make you a well-rounded sugar pro, the better this whole industry does. So there we go. Um, you know, and and let's be honest, you know, the next 16 years aren't just about sugar paste, um, which I love that we have a collection. It's awesome. You'll be able to learn with it. Um, you'll be able to grow. Um, but really I want to have you take a look at then the industry to take a look at the big picture is what is it that you're going to do with your time? And how are you going to leave a legacy for your children if you don't have children for your partner or for your family or just for yourself and your own satisfaction? Um, and so I want you to be really good at AI. I want you to be really good at budgeting for your business. So we're going to work on those things in our education uh library, in our advanced library. And and, you know, making sure that you hone in on the things that make your heart happy in this treatment room will help your longevity in this career. And so if you're burned out and you're just like, eh, I just don't, I'm not feeling it, Shan, send me a message. I'm happy to give you a little inspiration. Or send your educator a message. They're happy to give you inspiration. Um, but really, you know, the idea is to make sure that we help each other and lift each other up. And so, you know, if you're if you're struggling at all, feel free to give us a message. So, what I want you to do is I want you to grab a notebook and if you don't already, or open your notes app and I want you to ask yourself a few things. So, sugar con folks, you should already have this done. But if you don't, I'm nudging you again. And for those of you that didn't get a chance to hear my speech, um, this is for you as well. What can you commit to in the next six months? Please write that down. What can you commit to? Is it more education? Is it perfecting your skills? Is it understanding what ingredients do? Is it learning how to, you know, um market yourself better, learning AI, whatever it is. What can you commit to doing in baby steps steps in the next six months? And what is your 2026 look like? What do you want 2026 to look like? You know, we the holidays come up and it's kind of crazy. So maybe start now about what 2026 looks like and then revisit it again at the end of the year when we all do our, you know, start the year off right, New Year's resolutions, right? You'll already be a step ahead. And then ask yourself, okay, in 2026, I want to do this. What do I want in the next five years? I would like to be close to retirement. If you just started in your 20, what do you want 25 to look like? And what do you want to feel like at the end of your career? What do you want to, what do you want to feel? I want to feel accomplished. I want to feel like all of you love sugar as much as I do. I want to feel like we opened some eyes in this industry. And for you, you might feel like you want all of your town to look to you to be the sugar guru of your area, right? Like, what is that thing that is going to do it for you? Is it the money? Is it um some charitable stuff? Is it education? What is it for you? That is the mark of success. Not your bank account, not the car you drive. The mark of success is is put together by you in your dreams. And that's what we're going to really work on in this next year. So, what I would love for you to do, and I really honestly mean this, email me, DM me, let me hold you accountable, you know. Um better yet, like grab some resources and, you know, like let me know that they've helped you. Um, I read all your messages and I really want you to um build a future, a sweet future, uh, and allow us to be a part of it or any of my education team. So um you are the reason why sugar is surviving. Uh, you are you are the reason why your room is doing well or not. So if you've been waiting for a sign to go all in, you know, this is it. Let's collaborate together, let's compete less. Um, we're gonna elevate you, we're gonna educate you, and we are going to sugar with more purpose and products than ever before. And really, the future about sugaring is is bold and it's inclusive and it's powerful. And above all else, it's a sweet, sweet life that we can live by doing this. And we are going to do it that way together. So I love that you are, you know, engaging in this podcast. It can only better you. Please listen to the other episodes. Um, have you trademarked your business? How are you marketing your business? Um, you know, uh, are you ready for the holidays? Are you ready for the next year? You know, really go back and listen to more of these episodes because there's so much wisdom in them. And really, my goal is to make sure that you are all the not only the best sugar pros that you can be, but your heart is full and content and um just like mine is. So I look forward to seeing you all at SugarCon. And if you were there last year, you know I was given hugs galore. Uh, and we're gonna get the gloves on and we're gonna get involved and uh look forward to seeing you in August at SugarCon. Um, who knows if they're doing it in Canada, maybe I'll show up to Canada. Um I will be at some trade shows near you in these next few um little bits, but keep an eye out for that hands-on training because I would love to see you in California or Colorado or anywhere where our other educators are located in New York and Texas and Colorado and Wisconsin and in uh Southern California, Northern California, we're all over the place. Um, and if you want to be an educator, let me know. Like, let's talk about that too, because it's all about your future and making sure that you are um really just a well rounded human. So I adore you. I am so honored that you spend time with me on these podcasts. And I look forward to seeing you live and in person for a hug very, very soon.