I don't know about you but I enjoy a good spa day. Taking time out of our busy schedule to take care of our self. Enjoying a pampering massage, relaxing in thermal waters, enjoying a facial and having your nails done. Perfection!
But, due to Covid-19 having a spa day outside of one's home is a thing of an unknown future date. So I have been choosing a day of the week when I pamper myself. All from face masks, to grooming (yes, women have hair, yes we need to remove it every so often) to doing my nails, enjoying a full body scrub, a body and hair mask and even some fake tan.
So let's start with the hair. On my designated spa day, usually a Friday, because I can continue doing a spa day on a Friday once we are back at work. Having a routine in place and a special day for it makes it much more likely for me to actually stick to it.
Hair. The hair on my head gets full conditioning by using coconut oil. Why coconut oil? Because coconut oil stimulates hair growth, promotes a healthy scalp, moisturizes dry hair, adds lustre, shine and softness to the hair, prevents hair breakage and split ends and slows down hair loss. There are so many types of hair care and hair masks out there that contain the miracle of coconut oil, but I just buy one from the food aisle. Organic raw coconut oil. Melt half a teaspoon in my hands and apply it to my dry hair. I leave it in for about 4 hours.
After the 4 hours have passed, and I am ready to have a shower, I use a homemade scalp scrub made from coffee grounds, virgin olive oil, and tea tree oil to give my scalp and hair a good scrub and remove impurities from all the products I use and from the pollution in the air. The coffee scrub stimulates hair growth and removes the dead skin cells from your scalp, aka dandruff and tea tree oil is an antibacterial which fights any infections on your scalp and helps prevent and remove dandruff. First time I tried this scrub, my hair was so squeaky clean.
I have my own coffee grounds, as we have a bean to cup machine, so I just take a teaspoon of grounds mixed with virgin olive oil and add 4 drops of tea tree oil. Scrub it in before you get your hair wet, and then shampoo as you usually do. Yes, it is kind of hard to remove the coffee grounds from longer hair I would imagine, but it is worth a try. Word of caution, if you never used a coffee scrub, well, you will need to give your bath/shower a good clean after.
I have been doing this routine now for over 4 weeks. I have noticed new hair growth, and my hair feels healthier and cleaner and less heavy. I do not add any conditioner, but just some heat protector when I dry my hair.
Face. My face gets a mask as well. I have about three different masks I use depending on what I need at that particular moment. I also like to always try new masks out. So I either use a brightening mask, a blemish rescue mask and a pink clay mask.
The brightening mask I use is from L'Oreal Paris and it cleanses deep into the pores to absorb oil and buff away dead skin cells. The blemish rescue mask is a L'Oreal Paris one too and it unclogs blackheads and clears imperfections. And finally the last one, by an Australian company called Sukin, the pink clay mask, helps restore and replenish skin with moisture, draw out impurities, and lightly exfoliates the skin.
Body. My body gets a good scrub, a mask and some hydration as well. Now I kept seeing ads from a company called Coco & Eve, mainly for fake tan but also for coconut hair masks. Recently they brought out something that's called Glow figure. Slightly on the expensive side, but I decided to treat myself, why not?
So, I bought a Bali bod bundle, which included a full body scrub, a body mask, a full-body cream, a scrub mitt and a scoop for the mask.
They all have a beautiful lychee and dragonfruit scent. The entire house smelled of coconut and dragonfruit. It was wonderful. I felt absolutely amazing after using it.
First, you scrub every inch of your body with the pink body sugar scrub. Next, you put the body mask on your cellulite ridden parts, booty and legs and leave to soak in for 10 minutes. That was the hardest part, just waiting in the shower for the time to pass can be a bit boring.
Once you are all nicely dry finish off with the body moisture whip. Devine smell included.
My skin never felt better. I use the Coco & Eve glow figure only once a month as a special treat. On a weekly basis, I use a coffee scrub enriched with Vitamin E and a silicone massage brush from The Body Shop to give my cellulite areas a good scrub to improve circulation. I also use a Nivea 48h moisturizing cream, because it's important to keep that skin nice and elastic.
Fake tan. I never really was a fan of fake tan, and never really understood why girls were so avid in using it. Especially since a lot of the time, they ended up looking orange. I once tried gradual tanning from Garnier and ended up orange and streaky and my hands ended up being stained. I had to hide my legs for at least a fortnight.
But, I do live in the UK and while this year has been amazing and I could soak up some sun and get some tan, mostly it is rainy, dark and cold. I also found out recently that I am allergic to the sunscreen I have been using, which meant I would erupt in hives and pustules. Even using one that was specific for sensitive skin. So, I have to now try and see which sunscreen does not give me hives so I can get that beautiful tan without shelling out a lot of money for a sunny holiday anywhere else.
Fake tan it is. For the first time ever, I tried an actual self-tan yesterday. I must say, it doesn't look too bad and I never had such tanned legs, ever. So woho! I am rather patchy in certain areas, as I am new at applying and it wasn't very bright in the bathroom last evening. But at least I can now wear shorts or dresses without anyone thinking of shouting "The beacons of Gondor are lit".
I used a tanning oil by Bondi Sands and a tanning mitt to rub it all in and make sure my skin is all covered. I obviously missed some bits.
The tan has a nice coconut smell and dried fairly quickly. My sheets and my white tank top remained nice and white. The only problem is, it is really difficult to tell if you missed a spot. So, next time I shall try the mousse. All in all, 5 stars for not looking orange.
The first picture of my legs is without the tan, the second one is this morning after the tan had time to develop. Not sure if you can tell the difference, but I can. I look much more tanned than I ever did on my legs.
I think that it is very important to take time off and take care of ourselves. Spending time taking care of our bodies helps with our mood and makes us feel better. I know it makes me feel like a new woman, attractive, sexy and ready to take on the world. Wellbeing is all wrapped into one, mind, body and soul. So, if you do anything else today, plan a day just for you, where you pamper yourself from head to toe. Spend money on yourself. Ask your family to give you some downtime, where you can focus on yourself.
Let's get pampered ladies and gents!
I am not affiliated and do not receive any commission from the brands I talked about. They are the ones I use because I enjoy them.
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