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You've tucked away your sandals and gotten out your favorite trusty scarf, at once chic and warm, but you could still use a bit of sprucing up—a nice new something to enter the season all aglow. Oh, a trip to the spa—that's it! Forget your shrinking wallet, you've probably got everything you need to be ab-fab right now, at home.
There's great stuff in that silver box in the kitchen and that cabinet above the stove. But for all the comforts of high fat cheese or pumpkin pie...or whatever else is your caloric pleasure, it might not have the glamorous allure of, say, the makeup counter at Macy's.
Today, however, we're going to begin to explore your cabinet in another way and see it for what it really is—your own personal spa—au naturale—on the cheap and super effective—best of all you won't gain an ounce using the ingredients this way. This is the first in a series of natural do-it-yourself spa-quality beauty treatments from kitchen goodies. Today I'll show you a milk bath option that will blow your winter blues away in an hour or less, and cost you under fifty cents! Believe me, you will actually see and feel tangible results from this one.
Today we only need dried milk and corse salt, but, If you don't have a well stocked pantry, you may want to drop these items in your cart next time you're at the store, if we don't use them in today's recipe post, I'll tell you more next week:
Beauty Grocery Shopping List
dry milk packets
olive oil (organic if possible)
corn starch
cucumber
chunky sea salt
tea bags
plain rolled oats (oatmeal)
honey
vinegar
Spa Bath: Cleopatra's Skin Softening Milk Bath
Dry weather makes for a tough layer of dry tired skin. No one knew that better than the Queen of the Nile, Cleopatra. Legend tells us she is the originator of the luxurious milk bath. As decadent as that sounds you don't need a lot to make it work for you, too. Milk has a protein that nourishes the skin while lactic acid gently nudges dry dead cells to release their hold on their younger more hydrated underlings.
1. Run a medium hot bath.
2. When the water is 3/4 full turn off the tap and put in 2 packets of dry milk. If your skin is super-dry, use whole milk packets, if you tend toward oily chose skim.
3. Have about 1/4 cup of rough salt nearby.
4. Pin your hair up and pop in. Have a good soak, about 20 minutes.
5. Check rough patch areas like heels, knees and elbows. Scoop out some of the salt into the palm of your hand and rub off the dead skin with it.
6. Still soaking, begin to drain the bath. Hop up and put on the shower to rinse any remaining milk and salt—if you're brave opt for a cool rinse to really seal in the milk nutrients.
7. Take tremendous pride in your beautiful skin, exit the bath and enter the world to rule your kingdom—uhh, I mean enjoy your day.
Lynda Fassa is Planet Green's babies and family expert. She's the founder of Green Babies organic cotton baby clothes and the author of Green Babies, Sage Moms: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Baby,and the forthcoming Green Kids, Sage Families: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Family, both from Penguin NAL. Read her previous posts here. Green Babies is a registered trademark of Green Babies, Inc.
