Travertine Spa Linen Spray

A few posts back, I suggested some ways on how you can sleep better. I mentioned trying to sleep to the scent of lavender oil as studies have shown that the scent of lavender can induce sleepiness and a better rest. The good news is that every night, you can actually enhance the lavender scent in your sleeping area by spritzing your bed linens with a great scented linen spray like the Travertine Spa Linen Spray in lavender. For just $12.00, you not only enhance your slumber, you can also add a lot of a romance to your bedroom!

This linen spray is part of Travertine’s extravagant Spa Essentials collection. For more information you can check out their site at www.travertinespa.com.

What is Aromatherapy?

 

Someone asked me about aromatherapy and as I went into my long winded discussion about the benefits, I decided writing about it would be a good way to get information. Aromatherapy is a form of alternative medicine using scents and essential oils to affect a person’s mood and health. Many people find aromatherapy helpful in massage practices, medicines, fresheners, and topical applications.

Aromatherapy has been around for over 6000 years. It has many ways it can be used aerial diffusion, direct inhalation, and topically. Aromatherapy can also be used to treat some illness and infection. It is ideal in the treatment of some infections. I found it quite surprising to know that aromatherapy can have such a powerful physical impact on your body. Before, I would never have thought that aromatherapy could be used for anything other than just making the home smell nice. It’s nice to find it can be used for so many wonderful uses. The effects of aromatherapy are so vast and widely used that you can find them just about everywhere. From essential oils to room fragrances you can always find a functional use for aromatherapy. If you really want to learn more great information in more detail you can check out some of these sites Aromaweb, Wikipedia, and Aromatherapy. These sites a full of helpful information.

Home Made Beauty Recipes

Homemade feet remedies
For smooth skin and beautiful feet here is an easy feet wash.
Ingredients: 1 cup of lemon juice, cinnamon (can be replaced with any other scent, spice, perfume or flower petals such as roses), 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1/4 cup of milk and warm water.
Preparation: Add all the ingredients to a desired amount of warm water, put it in a tub where you can soak your feet. Leave it there for a few minutes. When you are done you can dry your feet and rinse then with clear water and a mild soap.
You’ll notice that after a few weeks of doing this wash your skin will be very smooth.
Homemade nails remedies
If you want to whiten your nails, here’s a formula you can try:
Remedy 1: Use common whitening toothpaste. Scrub your nails with Pearl Drops. This will take away any stains and shine up your nails.
Remedy 2: Soak your nails in water with lemon juice or lemon slices. The lemon should act as an astringent and will strip away stains. Once the hands are dry, you need to put a couple of coats of a clear topcoat and that should be enough for white nails.
Homemade skin remedies
For a good deep cleansing treatment you should try giving your face a home sauna. This treatment should be especially useful for congested skin.
Ingredients: A bowl with near boiling water and four drops of essential oil according to your skin type
Normal: mandarin and lavender
Oily: lemon and eucalyptus
Dry: rose and camomile
Preparation: Mix all the essential oil with the near boiling water, place a towel over your head and hold it over the bowl from a distance of about 30 cm, keep it like this for about two minutes. This treatment should open the pores and prepare your face for a facial mask (check my previous posts about homemade facial masks).
Caution: You should not use this face sauna if you have sensitive skin, are pregnant of suffer from asthma.

I hope you enjoy this little easy home made treats that are ideal for a low budget or for very busy house wives that don’t have that much time to go to a salon or spa.
Do you know any other homemade remedies?

Home Made Body Scrub

As I’ve said many times in my previous posts, I love creating things, I love making and creating new hair and face masks, creating scents. Today I’m going to give a home made body scrub recipe.

I love this recipe because is very easy to make and you can find de ingredients all over your house.

Brown Sugar Body Scrub

You’ll need: small bowl to mix, brown sugar, white sugar, coarse salt, avocado oil, liquid soap of your choice and essential oil of your choice.

Preparation is very easy:

Step 1: Mix 1/2 cup with 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup of coarse salt together in a bowl.

Step 2: Add 1/4 cup of a liquid soap of your choice, 2 tablespoon of avocado oil and 2 tablespoon of the essential oil of your choice.

Step 3: Mix everything together; use your hands for better results (wear gloves if you don’t want the smell to stay in your hands)

Aromatherapy

In my previous post about aromatherapy I promised to keep writing about all the different uses of aromatherapy. The one I found more appealing is without doubts, the use of Essential Oils for Emotional support. One of my favorite essential oils of the bunch, is Lavender. My mom suffers from severe migraine, and we found out that Lavender essential oil is very useful in those situations too.
Use only pure essential lavender oil to treat a migraine. If you too have migraine, you can feel some relieve by applying two drops of the oil directly to any of these areas: the temples, forehead or the base of the neck. That way the oil will penetrate directly to the selected points of migraine pain. Migraine patients usually can’t tolerate lights, sounds or movements once the pain begins, you should retire to a quiet dark room immediately after applying the lavender essential oil. For better results you can also add two to three drops of the pure Lavender essential oil to the pillowcase before lying down, and to a diffuser so the therapeutic scent moves all over the place. After this you can lie down and relax, take deep breaths and feel the scent going into your lungs and relaxing your whole body. When you exhale you can imagine all the pain going away from your head.

Under very strong migraine attacks, it might be a little bit hard to concentrate on this relaxing technique, but most migraine patients can recognize the migraine triggers and first almost unnoticed signals of a migraine attack, so as I always say, you don’t need to wait until you are sick to treat the pain, prepare your room as fast as possible and relax, the lighter the pain is, the faster an easier will be to eliminate it.

I hope this post is useful and in next posts I can introduce you to every different essential oil separately.

What’s your favorite essential oil? Which one have you used already? What are your experiences with aromatherapy?

Need a pick me up?

I have worked off and on as a massage therapist for many years and one thing I can not live without is the wonderful effects of essential oils. We all feel down or moody at times and want to try anything to get in a better mood. I have woken up in the morning and just been in a bad mood for no reason. A quick and natural mood lifter can be found in using aromatherapy. To start off on the right track and lift your spirits try smelling citrus pine or any lemony/orangey scent. It balances and lifts your mood regenerating a sluggish mood. These scents are great at inducing clarity, also. So next time you are paying bills, in Wal-Mart, or just mad at the world try spraying or just smelling some of these scents.

So now you are all uplifted and feeling great, what do you do to relax? Some great essential oils to use are Ylang Ylang, Chamomile, Sage, and Lavender. Ylang Ylang has a fresh floral scent and can do a number of things in your aromatherapy regiment. It helps relax the mind and the body, a great anti-depressant and stress relief. A little goes a long way with this one, so doesn’t overuse or you could be more stressed from a headache! We have all heard that Chamomile tea is great to drink at night to relax but it is also good for aching muscles or tension. Stock up on this as an essential oil it is great to keep handy. Lavender is a common perfume fragrance, used a lot in air fresheners. It has an uplifting, relaxing effect. It is also good for your skin, has a toning and lifting effect.

These are all great essential oils but there are a lot more out there. These oils can also be added into lotions, oils and creams you use. However, I wouldn’t use Ylang Ylang this way. These are some common essentials oils you can pick up at most places that sell incense. Try them out for yourself and see how much you like them!!

Free Stuff!

Hey guys, a friend of mine dropped off a box on front steps, no kittens or puppies in there, but a TON of product samples of everything ranging from wrinkle filler to aromatherapy.  They are all brand new, she is moving out of the country and was trying to clear everything out of her place and she thought since I am this beauty whore, I would indulge in them…but there are waaaay too many for me to use alone in one lifetime.  So me being me, I will share them with all of you! All you have to do is let me know you want some and I will mail them to you, totally free of charge.

Ciao!

Home Aromatherapy

As I was walking through a local retailer that sells home goods, I noticed a row of pretty bottles sitting along a shelf that all smelled amazing. There were atomizers, diffusers, vaporizers, and essential oils and a ton of other off the beaten path product names. Basically they all performed the same function….making your environment smell better. While these products ranged in price from $4.99 to $24.99, I decided to go home and do some research. Having three dogs (yes I know I am nuts and 3 kids!), I figured my house can use a little freshening up.I always knew that different scents had different uses or functions, so to speak. Some scents purify, some heal, some invigorate and some relax. I figured I could use some purifying since I had not been home for several hours and one of my dogs greeted me by running directly to her bed. This is usually a sure signal that she did something in my house that she knows she should not have done. This time I admit it was my fault for having been gone for 3 hours.The herbs I chose for blending are:

Eucalyptus: Improves breathing and oxygenation, it originate typically from Tasmania. People should avoid Eucalyptus they are epileptic. It is wonderful if you have a cold as it promotes mucus discharge, however it can be too drying if used too often when not sick. It helps lessen a cough associated with a cold. It is a natural anti-septic and a diuretic. It can even help if you suffer from hemorroids!

Pine: Refreshing and cleansing. This herb is commonly found in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. Pine is also quite helpful for treatment of lung disorders such as bronchitis, tuberculosis, and pneumonia. It too has an anti-septic property and is a disinfectant. A pine tonic is helpful in recovery from illness, it is fresh and uplifting.

Helichrysum: Clears congestion. This is not just a fresh, clean scent but it also is considered anti-inflammatory, tissue regenerating and a cicatrisant (scar reducing).I blended all of these oils together just by combining them in a small glass cylinder. I then covered the bottle and shook it up a couple times. I opened the bottle and placed 6 small reeds into the top (they were the size of coffee stirrers) and I let them soak up the liquid. After about 24 hours, I took the reeds and flipped them over letting the opposite side soak.I have to tell you, the result was a fresh clean scent wafting through my house. You could hardly tell I had any animals in the house! It’s great, a homepathic method for deodorizing my house. I don’t have to run to Costco for GladePlug ins anymore. Gotta run the dogs need to go out. 🙂