Technorati Tags bath and body works, BBW, Home Spa, pedicure, true blue spa, youtube

Ok so the buzz word about town (at least here in Porter Ranch) is “Chinese Foot Massage” which is referring to the new herbal foot spa treatment that is at a few locations - which I intend on hunting down in the near future - for an hour for $20 bucks. What?? Must investigate!

Technorati Tags chinese herbal foot massage, foot spa, spa

It’s up and coming, it’s old and happening in India, but Sugaring is new to me and supposedly it eliminates the breakouts associated with waxing (hello, miracle!). Courtney sent this link for an Eco Spa in Granada Hills called Naya Fresh Body Spa (which looks like a winner). I’m going to be making a visit within the next couple of weeks, so I’ll keep you posted. I did a bit of google research on it and there’s tons of home recipes, reviews, products and chitter chatter on sugaring, but as with everything else, not everything is for every body.

Technorati Tags body sugaring, eco friendly spa, green-spa, naya fresh body spa

Just a friendly reminder that July 1st brings about a new law to all you drivers and cell phone talkers that you must be hands-free on the road. On that note, I’d like to mention that most of the times, people don’t pay enough attention to how important lovely hands are, and that they need just as much attention as your face! Remember when Nicole Richie was struggling with zombie hands? That’s super not-cute.

Anyway, there are a bunch of ways to keep your hands looking youthful. Here is a quick list of mine:

* Lotion them up every time you wash your hands. If you’re like me, you are washing your hands many times per day…which isn’t a good thing, can cause extra drying. Keep a bottle of lotion next to your hand-soap for quick moisturizing.

* Put some extra-moisturizing stuff on them at night as part of your night-time beauty regimen. I like Burt’s Bee’s Hand Salve.

* Keep your cuticles moisturized. Crusty cuticles aren’t fly. I swear by Burt’s Bee’s Lemon Cuticle Cream. It’s cheap and will keep your nails looking neat.

* DO NOT EVER WALK OUT OF THE HOUSE WITH CHIPPED NAIL POLISH. Ok, so this totally doesn’t have anything to do with keeping your hands youthful, but it’s just so f’in gross to walk around with chipped fingernail polish. If you are in dire need of a mani and out of time, take your polish off, scrub up your natural nails and oil up your cuticles. TRUST me, it’s better than walking around with crusty nail polish. ew.

* Do a hot-towel treatment at least 2 times per month. Put a bunch of vaseline, hand salve, or whatever deep hand cream conditioning treatment on your mitts, then wrap them up in wet, hot towels to let the stuff soak. Do this at least 1x per month.

* Buy some cheap oil/sugar scrub stuff at your local drug store, or indulge in the $$ ones, but sugar scrubs are great for hands! Your skin will feel velvety smooth afterwards. I do mine at least 1 time per week to keep them at peak performance

And there you have it. No more excuses to walk around with man-hands. You heard it here. Word up.

Technorati Tags burt' s bees hand salve, cuticle cream, hand treatment, man-hands, sugar-scrubs, zombie hands

I’ve finished my month’s run of Bath & Body Works True Blue Spa line, and I’ve got to say overall, it’s some pretty good stuff. Here’s the rundown of the products I tried, and a quickie review for each:

Heel of Approval - Cracked Heel Treatment
I don’t have cracked heels, but the cream smells lovely, feels silky and isn’t too heavy. I usually use it at night, and only a couple of times per week.

Shea it Isn’t So - Shea Butter Foot Cream
OMG this is my absolute FAVORITE product ever - I use it as a leg & hand softener too, every single night. I wake up with silky smooth limbs and am SO in love with the scent…it’s not too heavy, refreshing and botanical, kind of like the lemon sage Bliss lotion, but half or even 1/3 of the price. I’ll probably never buy Bliss again, because this stuff is way cheaper and just as good!

Acrylic Foot File
At 8 bucks, I’d rather buy a cheapie one from Rite Aide for the same outcome. Probably won’t buy again.

Look Ma, New Hands! - Softening Hand Lotion with Paraffin
I am a hand-lotion obsessive, but this one just felt a bit too waxy for my personal taste probably due to the paraffin in it. Kind of on the pricey side too - for not being something I absolutely love @ $18.50

Just a Minute™ 60-Second Manicure Scrub
A great scrub, but again, at $12.00, I’m not loving it. Walmart has one for less than $4 with equal results.

Suddenly Sauna for Hands - 15 minute thermal hand pampering kit
I’ve got to do a youtube review for these to show you how they work, but it’s pretty cool, much easier than warm towels and would make a good gift! Stay tuned for that one.

The final word…I’m a fan of the True Blue Spa from Bath & Body Works, and am pretty excited to see that they have lots of sales where you can get 2 or 3 for $20 depending on what promo is going on at that time. Right now, the website is doing a 2 for 20 special, but at the store, I picked up 3 for $20, just an fyi.

Technorati Tags bath and body works, BBW, bliss, cracked heel treatment, foot cream, hand treatments, pedicure, true blue spa

Ok - this month my personal space plan is going to be to create a peaceful and beautiful powder room upstairs. We’ve been here over 4 years and it is still a hot mess. I’ve gotten the downstairs bath to have a nice zen-type vibe and include some basic essentials to give me the spa-lifestyle here at home:

* Clean rolled white handtowels

* Essential Oils to drop in the shower & steam

* Foot pumice stone in the shower

* All white high threadcount towels

Technorati Tags bath, Clean, downstairs, handtowelsEssential, home, mess, month, Personal, plan, powder, room, SPAce, steamFoot, upstairs, vibe

Ok, so I finally got around to getting a few good uses of the new MAC Volcanic Ash exfoliator stuff, and although I probably won’t run back and get it (since it’s available for a limited time only) I WILL give it a good review, because it cleaned the hell out of my face, shoulders, neck and anywhere else that I put it on.

It was a bit too much for my face, but as a body exfoliator, it pretty much owns over any other scrub I have used - and is almost as good as a trip to the Korean style day spa, minus the buckets of water being splashed on you during the rinse cycle. One word of caution - be sure you have LOTS of moisturizing agents because this stuff will wipe out any and everything from your face. I have pretty balanced skin, so I can’t say if it works well for either oily prone or extra dry prone skin, but it will give you a blank canvas to start all over with.

Technorati Tags exfoliation, MAC volcanic ash exfoliator, MAC-makeup, scrubs

The other night I was stuck in a hopeless situation…visiting my parent’s house, a bunch of mascara & makeup & no makeup remover. No soap, no vaseline or lotion either. What’s a 30-something skin obsessed person to do? Log online…that’s what!

After a random few searches, I stumbled across the ‘oil cleansing method‘ which I assumed was going to be at least worth a shot in the dark, as it couldn’t possibly been worse than sleeping with Dior’s gunky mascara smearing all over my face and pillows all night. Since I didn’t have the recommended castor oil, or any of the other oils except for some EVOO, I decided to give it a try. I poured some right from the kitchen bottle onto a paper towel and blotted the makeup off…and it came off, not totally easily, but for whatever reason I was too scared to actually touch the oil, so I ended up just kind of blotting it away. Once the makeup had been removed, I soaked a washcloth in some hot water and whoaaaa the makeup just wiped right up, no tugging, not smearing, no rubbing at all! I was kind of perplexed, which lead to some major research on the whole organic oil cleansing method that is hot like fire online.

Most of the pages are dedicated to it being an age old treatment for oily skin, with the belief that the castor oil actually draws the naturally occurring oils that the face produces and gets stuck in your pores causing congestion & minor breakouts, and then the other oil (sesame seed, grapeseed oil, jojoba, others) kind of balance out the mixture because too much castor oil will actually dry your skin out in too large amounts.

With skincare prices going absolutely through the roof these days, I am totally willing to make my own and save some cash! Unfortunately, Trader Joe’s didn’t have any oils, but I will be hitting Whole Foods in a bit to mix my own skincare potion, hopefully under 15 bucks!

Here is to finding some new/old skincare secrets!

Technorati Tags castor, Cleansing, didn, face, Joe, kind, makeup, mascara, Method, night, OCM, oil, oil cleansing method, online, situation, Skin, skincare, using oil to clean your face

There’s no denying it: when it comes to keeping things fresh, the diaper pail is one place that deserves a little extra attention. Caldrea’s Sweet Pea Diaper Pail Freshener eliminates odors with a combination of baking soda and vegetable protein extracts that’s both non-toxic and biodegradable.

Simply spray it directly into the diaper pail and enjoy the essential oil fragrances of Geranium, Orange, Jasmine, Coriander, Rose and Bergamot.

Technorati Tags attention, Bergamot, boutique baby, Caldrea, chemical free cleaning products, combination, Diaper, Freshener, Jasmine, oil, organic baby products, organic eco friendly cleaning, pail, Pea, place, protein, Rose, soda, spray, Stinky, Sweet, vegetable

I’ve been a long time fan of the bee stuff from Burt’s Bees, and was wondering if the recent (fall of 07) buyout by the Chlorox company was going to hinder the organic ingredients at all, so I checked out some online articles like this one, this one and this one. Some sites like TreeHugger.com are asking it’s readers if they consider the sale a sell-out by big money corporations, while others seem to like the availability of the product.

In case you haven’t noticed, Burt’s Bees is readily available everywhere now…from your local grocery store in the aisle for strategic impulse purchasing to the super walmart, and including it’s original limited base availability like Whole Foods or other naturally-inclined destinations.

My favorite product in this line is the lip balm and cuticle cream. Not too crazy about the coconut foot creme because it kind of like smearing cold bacon grease on your heels, but the body lotion smells and feels heavenly.

I don’t consider Burt’s Bees a sell out, and am more than glad to have much more availability of the product, but I can’t help but hold a teeny tiny bit of reservation about the ingredient quality and hope that it only gets better with the big machine. In the meantime, I will continue to love the cuticle cream!

Technorati Tags Burts-Bees, cuticle cream, Manicure, pedicure

Lavender oil promotes healing of burns, wounds, bites, etc.; fights infection; eases muscle pain; eases headaches; calms; promotes sleep; reduces inflammation; repels insects. Grab a bottle of this essentail oil at your local Whole Foods or other Aromatherapy supply site (I haven’t had good luck with oils on ebay, they are usually old and yuck).

Here’s a list of links for different essential oil recipes that you can make at home with ranges from home made lip balm, hand cream, bath salts to cold remedies & other healing property recipes:

Lavender recipes for insomnia & calming nerves
Lavender Sugar Scrub
Control pet oder at home with Lavender aromatic spray
Organic treatment for acne control or blemishes
Sweet dreams Pillow Spray

Remember…make sure you make time to relax, it is the BEST beauty secret one can obtain! xo!!

Technorati Tags anxiety, apothocary, beauty secrets, lavender, organic home remedies, pillow spray, relaxation, sugar-scrub

I was a late bloomer to the whole concept of high thread count sheets/linens, but seriously, the thread count number completely changed my life. Honest! I’ve noticed that the temperature of my body regulation is much more comfortable, those weird creases that I used to get in the morning are gone, and every time the sheets are laundered, they actually get softer. Go Figure.

I think I must have been in my last year in college when one of my best buddies B’s mom Sharon schooled me on the whole thread count phenom, and I just recently introduced a younger friend of mine to the major importance of investing in at least 2 good sets.

Here’s the best part though - you can find super great deals on 600+ count sheets online, as well as offline at places like Marshall’s, TJMaxx or maybe Ross if you are lucky. Tuesday Morning also has some really good deals on luxury linens for a fraction of a price - I recently came up on a pair of Kate Spade European sham covers for less than 2 bucks each! I also buy my linens from Overstock.com and sometimes SmartBargains.com for under $40 per set.

Technorati Tags beauty sleep, body, Kate Spade, Marshal, morning, Ross, temperature, thread count

I love LA! Reality show and international plastic surgeon to the nelson ratings imposter Dr. Ray is handing out rx weed cards. Now you can book a lipo appointment after indulging in marijuana induced munchi binges at a one stop shop…puff puff pass homie! (news clipping in the ventura county star edition)

Technorati Tags dr 90210, liposuction, medical marijuana

sigh…insomnia has horrific pitfalls, as if not being able to sleep is difficult enough, I am being tempted by infomercials at night too! My latest obsession of ‘must haves’ was the ped-egg. you know which one I’m talking about. I was super mad when I got it though (got it through amazon.com). It’s not any more effective or different from your run of the mill slougher that you can get at Target. blah. I suppose that it does have the ‘egg’ feature that catches all your dusty gross dead skin, but unless you are going to hold it upright to file your feet, the ash crumbles all over your leg because it’s being held upside down when trying to get under your heel. dude. gross.

Technorati Tags beauty sleep, ped-egg

Grub on some wild salmon the next time you are out at a nice restaurant and don’t know what to order, or out to lunch with friends. The omega 3 fatty oils will aid in making your hair lustrous, your skin glow, plus it will help your joints, heart and cholesterol. There’s nothing worse than spending a pretty penny at Nordstrom’s on some Creme de La Mer and then eating a greasy beef hamburger and fries for lunch - I mean why bother?

WebMD.com states “Omega-3s are most prevalent in fatty, cold-water fish: Look for wild (not farmed) salmon, herring, sardines, and mackerel. Aim for two-to-three servings a week. Other forms of omega 3s are available in fortified eggs, flax seed, and walnuts. These superfoods have the added benefit of being high in monounsaturated fats, which can lower cholesterol.” Also containing omega 3 are dark green leafy veggies.

Eating 3 servings a week of omega 3’s will help target Vericose Veins, Hair loss/ hair thickness & regrowth, moisturized skin, regulation of blood pressure, mood fluctuations
arthritis, depression and anxiety. Let’s get good ya heard?

Technorati Tags eco, flaxseed-oil, GreenSpa, omega-3, superfoods, thinning-hair, vericose-veins, wellness