I'm the type of girl who relaxes in a hot bubble bath, candles and a glass of wine, I don't know about you but with 5 kids in one house, one bathtub/shower, those dreams are a thing of the past for me. Just getting a hot bath is a dream come true in my house, or a bath without someone knocking on the door (eyes roll). But I do like to pamper myself at least once a week, if even for 30 minutes.
Once a week I make a 'date' with myself, a hot bath with sea salts, a hair mask and a face mask, and a glass of wine (tee hee). With todays hectic and stressful times sometimes taking just 30 minutes a week and pampering yourself in your own in home 'mini-spa' is enough to relieve stress, lower your blood pressure and ease your tension. You can create your own in home mini spa for very little cost and you will feel better about it, because you control the ingredients. You can change up your weekly spa with different essential oils, change up your facial mask (because as the seasons change so does the demands on our skin), to fit you! It's a lot of fun!
Look at your local farmers market for locally grown fruits and vegetables as pampering agents both for you internally and externally!
AVOCADO'S - Not only have the rich oils that are good for us on the inside, the oils are so rich they work wonderfully in a mask for your hair. I like to combine jojoba oil with mashed avocado's, along with a few drops of peppermint essential oil, massage into my scalp and let it sit on my hair for 20-30 minutes, rinse hair, use a sulfate free shampoo and condition.. Your hair will be shiney and vibrant without driness associated with 'fly-away'.
BAKING SODA- One of the best ingredients for a bath! Softens and soothes the skin turns your bath into a silky soft experience. If you can't afford sea salts, a box of baking soda will leave you feeling invogorated and revived. A cheap pamper bath can be created using equal parts (1/2 cup each) epsom salts and baking soda, a few drops of Lavender Essential oil, heaven on your skin and for your soul.
EPSOM SALTS - These salts will relieve sore muscles, help with achey feet, and will also aid with you are sick and suffering from flu symptoms. Not only do Epsom Salts help to relax you by soothing your muscles, give it a try in a nice relaxing foot bath, about 10 drops of Peppermint Essential oil and 5 drops of Tea Tree Essential oil, will leave your toesies feeling clean, refreshed, and invigorated.
GREEK YOGURT - Now I'm talking about the plain, unflavored kind of Greek yogurt. Now yogurt in general has active live cultures that create results similar to using Alpha Hydroxy skin peels. So it eats away the dead skin cells and that in return stimulates and generates new and healthy skin growth within the top layers of skin. Creating skin that has less wrinkles and is more vibrant. I Love to use greek yogurt, avocado's, a cucumber, and kaolin clay in a facial mask, talk about soothing and skin of glass.
KAOLIN CLAY- Kaolin Clay helps to absorb excess oils, pull toxins out of our skin, open up the pores, aid with acne, and is an incredible clay to use for most all skin types, including sensitive skin. And it's easy to come by in your local drug store, inexpensive and a good ingredient to have around for many many uses.
CUCUMBERS- Cucumbers reduce puffiness around the eyes and helps to relieve the broken capillaries under the eye that creates those dreaded dark under eye rings, the first sign that you stayed up a little too late. I also like to add a peeled cucumber in the blender as an ingredient in some of my facial masks. Cucumber makes a really cool and soothing ingredient if your face gets a little too much sun and you get burnt, some alo gel (or better yet pull some off that aloe plant in your kitchen and squeeze the gel insides into the blender with your cucumber, blend, pour into a bowl and mix in some oatmeal or kaolin clay to thicken the mask and whella your skin went from the desert to a soothing cooling rainforest of skin soothing heaven.
LAVENDER ESSENTIAL OIL- I start with lavender essential oil for one reason, it's very versital and it's very harmless, but it is also one of the widest known essential oils and can work in nearly any kind of skin soothing bath, lotion, hair care, mask, almost anything! AND it's rather easy to find in your local drug store.
EGGS- Yes, I said put egg on your face.... If you have oily skin add egg yolks to your facial mask. If your have dry skin add the egg whites to your mask.
SEA SALT- You can get this at your local grocery store, but now you are starting to see items like 'Pink Hymalayin Salts', which I love to use in both my cooking and in the bath tub, it has a high mineral count and will leave you feeling amazing!
FLAX SEEDS- Flax Seeds are natures bounty when it comes to skin and body healing oils like the full Omega's Family. Flax seeds also get slimmy when you mix them with water or any liquid, it's gel like and it's AMAZING for your hair! Now there are 2 ways you can do it, I prefer the alcohol free method, but if you like to make a weeks worth at a time then I think using alcohol would be best to use. I take a 1/4 cup of whole flax seeds, put them through an old coffee grinder, line a wire mesh strainer with a piece of unbleached muslin, put the freshly ground flax seeds in the center of the muslin in the strainer, Pour warm distilled water over the top of the flax seeds and strain, for a thicker gel type feel, wrap up the flax seeds with the muslin piece and allow it to soak in the warm water, strain in the wire mesh strainer, squeeze the flax seed in the muslin bag till the 'water/gel' doesn't come out anymore. Allow to cool, stir well, add a drop or two of your favorite essential oil, and scoop out a small amount on your hand and rub into clean wet hair, this works as a great hair gel that helps boost shine and feelds your hair vital oils to help rebuild your hair.
This list is by no means finished, I could go on and on, so instead of continuing right now, I am going to go tinker around with the numerous ideas in my head. I will be continuing in my blog here a large variety of different ingredients to use for some self papmering, along with recipes and ideas for you to create your own 'mini spa' in your own bathroom!
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