diff --git a/doc/source/utils.rst b/doc/source/utils.rst
index 22a27089..d8da6c0c 100644
--- a/doc/source/utils.rst
+++ b/doc/source/utils.rst
@@ -38,6 +38,11 @@ Miscellaneous
 
 .. automodule:: taskflow.utils.misc
 
+Mixins
+~~~~~~
+
+.. automodule:: taskflow.utils.mixins
+
 Persistence
 ~~~~~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/taskflow/exceptions.py b/taskflow/exceptions.py
index 2f22b4f7..857d6634 100644
--- a/taskflow/exceptions.py
+++ b/taskflow/exceptions.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import traceback
 from oslo_utils import excutils
 from oslo_utils import reflection
 import six
+from taskflow.utils import mixins
 
 
 def raise_with_cause(exc_cls, message, *args, **kwargs):
@@ -231,7 +232,7 @@ class NotImplementedError(NotImplementedError):
     """
 
 
-class WrappedFailure(Exception):
+class WrappedFailure(mixins.StrMixin, Exception):
     """Wraps one or several failure objects.
 
     When exception/s cannot be re-raised (for example, because the value and
@@ -284,20 +285,18 @@ class WrappedFailure(Exception):
                 return result
         return None
 
-    def __str__(self):
-        causes = [exception_message(cause) for cause in self._causes]
-        return 'WrappedFailure: %s' % causes
+    def __bytes__(self):
+        buf = six.BytesIO()
+        buf.write(b'WrappedFailure: [')
+        causes_gen = (six.binary_type(cause) for cause in self._causes)
+        buf.write(b", ".join(causes_gen))
+        buf.write(b']')
+        return buf.getvalue()
 
-
-def exception_message(exc):
-    """Return the string representation of exception.
-
-    :param exc: exception object to get a string representation of.
-    """
-    # NOTE(imelnikov): Dealing with non-ascii data in python is difficult:
-    # https://bugs.launchpad.net/taskflow/+bug/1275895
-    # https://bugs.launchpad.net/taskflow/+bug/1276053
-    try:
-        return six.text_type(exc)
-    except UnicodeError:
-        return str(exc)
+    def __unicode__(self):
+        buf = six.StringIO()
+        buf.write(u'WrappedFailure: [')
+        causes_gen = (six.text_type(cause) for cause in self._causes)
+        buf.write(u", ".join(causes_gen))
+        buf.write(u']')
+        return buf.getvalue()
diff --git a/taskflow/tests/unit/test_failure.py b/taskflow/tests/unit/test_failure.py
index fab9cb9a..9e5b4f79 100644
--- a/taskflow/tests/unit/test_failure.py
+++ b/taskflow/tests/unit/test_failure.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 import sys
 
+from oslo_utils import encodeutils
 import six
 from six.moves import cPickle as pickle
 import testtools
@@ -301,9 +302,19 @@ class NonAsciiExceptionsTestCase(test.TestCase):
 
     def test_exception_with_non_ascii_str(self):
         bad_string = chr(200)
-        fail = failure.Failure.from_exception(ValueError(bad_string))
-        self.assertEqual(fail.exception_str, bad_string)
-        self.assertEqual(str(fail), 'Failure: ValueError: %s' % bad_string)
+        excp = ValueError(bad_string)
+        fail = failure.Failure.from_exception(excp)
+        self.assertEqual(fail.exception_str,
+                         encodeutils.exception_to_unicode(excp))
+        # This is slightly different on py2 vs py3... due to how
+        # __str__ or __unicode__ is called and what is expected from
+        # both...
+        if six.PY2:
+            msg = encodeutils.exception_to_unicode(excp)
+            expected = 'Failure: ValueError: %s' % msg.encode('utf-8')
+        else:
+            expected = u'Failure: ValueError: \xc8'
+        self.assertEqual(str(fail), expected)
 
     def test_exception_non_ascii_unicode(self):
         hi_ru = u'привет'
@@ -316,18 +327,11 @@ class NonAsciiExceptionsTestCase(test.TestCase):
     def test_wrapped_failure_non_ascii_unicode(self):
         hi_cn = u'嗨'
         fail = ValueError(hi_cn)
-        self.assertEqual(hi_cn, exceptions.exception_message(fail))
+        self.assertEqual(hi_cn, encodeutils.exception_to_unicode(fail))
         fail = failure.Failure.from_exception(fail)
         wrapped_fail = exceptions.WrappedFailure([fail])
-        if six.PY2:
-            # Python 2.x will unicode escape it, while python 3.3+ will not,
-            # so we sadly have to differentiate between these two...
-            expected_result = (u"WrappedFailure: "
-                               "[u'Failure: ValueError: %s']"
-                               % (hi_cn.encode("unicode-escape")))
-        else:
-            expected_result = (u"WrappedFailure: "
-                               "['Failure: ValueError: %s']" % (hi_cn))
+        expected_result = (u"WrappedFailure: "
+                           "[Failure: ValueError: %s]" % (hi_cn))
         self.assertEqual(expected_result, six.text_type(wrapped_fail))
 
     def test_failure_equality_with_non_ascii_str(self):
diff --git a/taskflow/types/failure.py b/taskflow/types/failure.py
index dafe73e6..a0084bb8 100644
--- a/taskflow/types/failure.py
+++ b/taskflow/types/failure.py
@@ -19,12 +19,16 @@ import os
 import sys
 import traceback
 
+from oslo_utils import encodeutils
 from oslo_utils import reflection
 import six
 
 from taskflow import exceptions as exc
+from taskflow.utils import mixins
 from taskflow.utils import schema_utils as su
 
+_exception_message = encodeutils.exception_to_unicode
+
 
 def _copy_exc_info(exc_info):
     if exc_info is None:
@@ -65,7 +69,7 @@ def _are_equal_exc_info_tuples(ei1, ei2):
     if ei1[0] is not ei2[0]:
         return False
     if not all((type(ei1[1]) == type(ei2[1]),
-                exc.exception_message(ei1[1]) == exc.exception_message(ei2[1]),
+                _exception_message(ei1[1]) == _exception_message(ei2[1]),
                 repr(ei1[1]) == repr(ei2[1]))):
         return False
     if ei1[2] == ei2[2]:
@@ -75,7 +79,7 @@ def _are_equal_exc_info_tuples(ei1, ei2):
     return tb1 == tb2
 
 
-class Failure(object):
+class Failure(mixins.StrMixin):
     """An immutable object that represents failure.
 
     Failure objects encapsulate exception information so that they can be
@@ -191,7 +195,7 @@ class Failure(object):
             if not self._exc_type_names:
                 raise TypeError("Invalid exception type '%s' (%s)"
                                 % (exc_info[0], type(exc_info[0])))
-            self._exception_str = exc.exception_message(self._exc_info[1])
+            self._exception_str = _exception_message(self._exc_info[1])
             self._traceback_str = ''.join(
                 traceback.format_tb(self._exc_info[2]))
             self._causes = kwargs.pop('causes', None)
@@ -389,7 +393,7 @@ class Failure(object):
             self._causes = tuple(self._extract_causes_iter(self.exception))
             return self._causes
 
-    def __str__(self):
+    def __unicode__(self):
         return self.pformat()
 
     def pformat(self, traceback=False):
diff --git a/taskflow/utils/mixins.py b/taskflow/utils/mixins.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5bb0fa47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/taskflow/utils/mixins.py
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+#    Copyright (C) 2015 Yahoo! Inc. All Rights Reserved.
+#
+#    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+#    not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+#    a copy of the License at
+#
+#         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+#    WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+#    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+#    under the License.
+
+import six
+
+
+class StrMixin(object):
+    """Mixin that helps deal with the PY2 and PY3 method differences.
+
+    http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2011/1/22/forwards-compatible-python/ explains
+    why this is quite useful...
+    """
+
+    if six.PY2:
+        def __str__(self):
+            try:
+                return self.__bytes__()
+            except AttributeError:
+                return self.__unicode__().encode('utf-8')
+    else:
+        def __str__(self):
+            return self.__unicode__()