Quick Tip

When deciding where to put colour on your eyes, remember this rule: 

" LIGHT colours bring FORWARD, DARK colours push BACK. "

Feet treats

♥ A few drops of lavender oil in a warm footbath eases tension and fatigue. A plunge in cold water afterward revives them.

♥ Rub soles of aching feet with cider vinegar or lemon juice.

♥ For a soothing foot balm, stir 1 tsp malt vinegar into a small carton of natural yoghurt and rub over the feet and between toes; leave for 5 mins. then rinse off with lukewarm water.

♥ An old-fashioned mustard bath revives cold and tired feet: blend 3 tsp mustard powder to a paste with a little water and add to a bowl of hot water, soak the feet for 15 minutes.

♥ A foot bath revives tired and swollen feet. Soothe them for 5 - 10 minutes in warm water softened with Epsom salt, bath crystals, gel or aromatherapy oil, then revive them with a quick dip into cold water before drying, creaming and massaging them.

THE SIX STEPS

The Six Steps to Fabulous Feet

1. After a hard day, take off your shoes and wriggle your toes. Go barefoot - different surfaces stimulate circulation.

2. Soak your feet in warm water for about 10 minutes. Add a few drops of bubble bath or perhaps some almond or lavender oil.

Pumice stone

3. While soaking, gently remove any hard skin by exfoliating with a pumice stone. Dry the feet thoroughly, particularly between the toes.

4. Cut nails straight across, taking care not to cut them too short. Smooth sharp corners with coarse sides of an emery board.

5. Soften cuticles with a rich moisturizer or almond oil, and use an orange stick wrapped in cotton wool to push them back gently. Gently buff the nails to make them smile.

6. For a final treat, massage in a moisturizing menthol or peppermint-based lotion to cool, soothe and refresh.

NAILS

Keep an eye on your nails. They are another of the body's barometers of general health!

Flaking nails might be an indication of some far greater imbalance within. Doctors in some countries, like the UK, diagnose the nails to determine symptoms of life-threatening ailments, including heart diseases.

Healthy nails depend on a diet containing adequate proteins, vitamins, essential minerals and trace elements, notably zinc and iodine. 

Brittle nails can indicate a Vitamin A or retinol deficiency. Chlorine in swimming pools and harsh detergents can be responsible too.

Hangnails, which can be painful as the lower, sensitive dermis is exposed, may be crying out for rich moisturizing. They may also indicate a dietary deficiency of folic acid, a particularly common problem with women. Liver and green vegetables are great sources of folic acid.

Make a natural cuticle softener...

Blend together  2 tbsp pineapple juice, 2 tbsp egg yolk and 1/2 tsp cider vinegar and soak the nails in it for 30 minutes. Gently push the cuticles back with an orange stick.

and a Nail Strengthener

Lemon Juice

Cider Vinegar

Cider vinegar - and lemon juice - is good for general health and for strengthening the nails. 3 times a day drink a glass of water containig 1 tbsp of cider vinegar or pure lemon juice. Or use the mixture as a handbath.

Make your own Loofah! :-)

LOOFAH

Loofahs are vine-grown vegetables. Patola, in filipino. 

        Once these vegetables are dried, the inner fibers lend themselves to all sorts of skin scrubs, especially mitts and sponges. Although they don't hold water well, they effectively exfoliate dead skin cells and remove dirt and excess oil. They also stimulate blood circulation, which keeps skin looking fresh and healthy.


If you can find fresh loofahs, you can make your own loofah scrub. For a soft facial sponge, young loofahs are ideal. Slightly larger ones are best body scrubs, and the biggest of all are great for hard jobs such as pot scrubbing.

1. Dry the fruit for two weeks.

2. Cut off both ends of the loofah and shake out the seeds.

3. Soak the fruit overnight then peel away the skin. Soaking in boiling water for 10 minutes will make it easier to remove the outer skin and also make the sponge softer.

4. Wash out the sponge thoroughly, removing any seeds and loose tissue.

5. Leave the loofah scrub to dry slowly.`

HISTORY OF THE BATH

Early man stank in self-defense. It is thought that he smelt bad so that predators would avoid him.











Emperor Nero's queen Poppaea travelled with a train of asses to be milked for her fresh bath. Cleopatra is also said to have enjoyed the skin-cleansing, softening and whitening properties of milk.

With the rise of Christianity, bathing became associated with the pagan and godless. The early Christians took particular pride in not washing. St. Agnes died unwashed at the age 13.

The Mohammedans washed as an integral part of their religious rituals. The Arabian Nights tells of wayside stalls selling orange flower water, rose water, willow water, violet and musk-scented water, so that baths could be perfumed as one chose.





Cleanliness was a high priority for the Romans. They were so horrified by the stench of the races they conquered they set about building bath houses wherever they set up colonies.

In the folklore of India and the Orient, the scented bath has been used to attract good spirits, new lovers and to obtain and preserve happiness.

According to medical theories of the Renaissance, the body was composed of our delicately "humours". The body's balance would be thrown if exposed to too much water. So bathing was frowned upon.




In addition, public bathhouses were little more than brothels. They also had a tendency to be infested with tadpoles and frogs. No wonder Henry VIII ordered all public baths to be closed in 1500. France followed in 1538. They remained closed in England for 200 years.

Mary Queen of Scots bathed in wine, which is possibly effective as a disinfectant to kill off the parasites that infested the seldom washed flesh of the Tudor times. Her cousin Queen Elizabeth I boasted of bathing "once a month whether she needed it or no".








By the 18th century, taking too many baths was thought to be a cause of infertility and a danger to beauty. Pregnant women were warned off them altogether.

But the craze for all things classical brought a return to exotic bathing. Following trendsetter Beau Brummell, the Prince Regent installed a bathroom at the new Brighton Pavilion where aristocrats soaked for hours in baths of hot water and milk.

After bathing became accepted, baths were still hard to fill until the advent of household plumbong towards the end of the 19th century. Even then, they used so much water that inventors searched for an equally invigorating alternative. The 1883 Berlin Hygene Exhibition introduced the first hot water shower.

Japanese men and women were unabashed about bathing together until the arrival of the American Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853.

The Americans decreed that men and women should bathe seperately. By 1870 a law to that effect had been passed.

The Japanese are still champion bathers, taking one bath to cleanse the body and a second bath to relax. They love to attain the condition of yudedako or "boiled octopus".

Dry Skin

The best kind of cleansing is still the simplest - soap and water. But as soap removes grease, it also removes some of the body's natural oils. 

Battle dry skin with these reminders:

1. Massage in moisturizer while the body is still damp to counter dryness.

2. Pay special attention to your legs - they tend to be particularly dry because they have fewer sebaceous glands.

3. Use thick soaps with jojoba oil on dry skins.

Jojoba oil, pronounced as hohoba, is the liquid wax produced in the seed of the Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) plant, a shrub native to southern Arizona, southern California and northwestern Mexico. The oil makes up approximately 50% of the jojoba seed by weight.

4. Use milk and honey soaps for sensitive skins, including children's skins.

Translucent Glycerin Soaps

5. Use translucent glycerine soaps for extra mildness. These soaps have less alkaline than other soaps, they produce less lather and rinse off easily.