The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances (40 page)

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and store in your favorite jar. Add half-cup of the infusion to the running bathwater. To keep the essential oils from evaporating too quickly, you can add the bath salts just before getting into the tub. Sitting on undissolved bath salts can be uncomfortable (though nicely exfoliating for your bum), so make sure the salts have dissolved well before entering.

Stress-
Relieving
Fruity Bath

1 cup virgin olive oil

1 drop rose essential oil

1 drop lavender essential oil

1 drop vetiver essential oil

2 drops mandarin essential oil

5 organic unwaxed oranges, cut into quarters

Yield:
4 ounces

1. Add the essential oils to the olive oil and pour the mixture under running water into the bathtub so that the oils spread evenly without forming greasy puddles.

2. Add the oranges and let them float around. As you bathe, squeeze the oranges lightly and wipe your face with their juices.

Babassu Milk
Bath Ritual
(courtesy of Anne
Dolbeau, founder
of Inara)

2 teaspoons full-fat milk powder or buttermilk powder

2 teaspoons sea salt

1 tablespoon (15 ml) of your favorite massage oil or any lightweight unscented oil of your choice

Yield
:
4 ounces

Combine ingredients in a bowl and whisk. Be sure you use enough oil so that you thoroughly moisten the salt and the buttermilk or milk powder. Start your bath and pour the mixture directly into the running water. Get your bath to the desired temperature and enjoy!

Making Your Own Herbal Bath Blends

Dried herbs, flower petals, and herbal teas make wonderful additions to your bath. You can use many herbs from your garden or buy them already dried from health food stores and online.

You can harvest your own leafy herbs in midsummer, just before they flower. After flowering starts, the oils in the leaves are not as potent. You’ll want to harvest flowers when they are at their peak, in the middle of a dry day. Do not collect flowers when the air is damp or if they are covered in morning dew. To avoid damaging the petals, remove whole flowers with some of the stalk; discard any damaged petals. Put them in an open container; they may sweat and rot in a closed container.

To air-dry herbs and flowers, be guided by the plant. Lavender and sage may be used whole, with only roots and dry leaves removed; rose petals need to be carefully peeled off; sage, lemon balm (melissa), and thyme may be used with stems and all the leaves on the stalk, removing only roots; with chamomile and marigold, only florets can be used. Prepare the herbs, flowers, and petals by wiping off any moisture on the stems with paper towels. If drying flowers on stems, make bunches of five to ten stems, and secure them with
an elastic band. Hang the bunches upside down in a dark, well-ventilated place at a temperature of about 68°F (20°C ) until they are dry. Dry whole florets and petals on an unbleached tissue paper or cotton towel in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight. The drying time will vary from days to weeks. Store dried herbs and flowers in dark, airtight, clearly labeled glass jars.

You can also dry herbs in a conventional oven on low heat (no more than 200°F [100°C /Gas 1/2]), or even in a microwave oven. I do not recommend microwaving food, but you aren’t going to eat bath blends, are you? To use a microwave oven, wrap chopped herbs loosely in a paper towel and cook them on high for a minute at a time. Place a cup of water in the microwave; herbs do not contain much moisture.

To prepare an herbal bath blend, crush the stems or chop the leaves and florets (such as those given in the recipes that follow) and mix thoroughly in a small bowl. To use, place the mixture in an unbleached muslin or organic cotton drawstring bag. These are easily found at herbal body care shops or online, and come in many different sizes. A good size to use for herbal bath mixtures is 3 inches by 4 inches (or 3 inches by 5 inches). In Chapter 13, you can also learn how to prepare herbal bath pouches for your baby. Wou can also boil an herbal blend in a small enamel pan, sieve off the herbs, and pour the mix into your bathwater.

Winter
Soothing
Bath Blend

¼ cup dried chamomile flowers

1 cup dried lavender blossoms

1 cup dried fennel seeds

1 cup dried rose petals

Yield:
4 ounces

This blend soothes dry, wind-blasted skin and aching muscles better than a Swedish massage session! Oat bran nourishes the skin, while rose petals add a warm, luxurious touch.

The best way to use an herbal blend is to put it into a small, unbleached muslin (or organic cotton) bag and tie it with a ribbon or string. Just put the bag under running water as you prepare your bath. When you are done bathing, remove the bag, let it dry, then discard the contents and rinse the bag. It’s ready to be used again!

Bath Full
of Joy Blend

1 cup dried lemongrass

2 cups dried lemon peel

¼ cup dried peppermint leaves

¼ cup loose green tea

¼ cup bay leaves

Yield
:
4 ounces

This bath blend has a very long shelf life. It also makes a great holiday stocking stuffer. Buy a handful of fabric drawstring gift bags (they are fabulously inexpensive!) and fill them with this fragrant blend. You can also use this blend as potpourri to add a fresh aroma to your lingerie drawers or wardrobe.

Skin Rejoice
Bath Blend

1 cup Dead Sea salt

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup dried rose petals

½ cup hops flowers

½ cup dried chamomile flowers

½ cup dried calendula (marigold) flowers

Yield
:
4 ounces

This versatile bath blend can be used to soothe itchy skin, sunburns, and rashes. I used this blend to bathe my newborn daughter when she had a bit of a rash (I skipped the rose petals, though), and it seemed to work really well.

Green Scrubs and Peels

Skin exfoliation is very beneficial, no matter if you rub a creamy scrub, use mild acids, or simply brush your body with a loofah. Exfoliation helps unclog pores and improve circulation so that moisturizers and bath ingredients can penetrate better. It’s good to dry brush (see Chapter 9) or briskly scrub your body before a therapeutic herbal bath. Keep in mind, though, that no scrub or peel can remove a single dimple from your thighs. Cellulite doesn’t respond to physical exfoliation, although scrubbing can definitely help skin look smoother. Avoid scrubbing over blemishes, rashes, sunburn, or other skin irritations.

There are many wonderfully green products that effectively get rid of dead skin cells. Body scrubs are usually more coarse and thicker than facial scrubs because body skin can tolerate more aggressive friction. Good green scrubs contain plant waxes, oils, butters, and glycerin, and they exfoliate with crushed plant kernels, salt, sugar, nutshells, or seaweed. They usually contain ample amounts of essential oils, which may not benefit those of us who have sensitive skin. Topical products with alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) and salicylic acid may be an excellent option for the face, but I found that it’s quite hard to control the application in a steamy shower.

I’ve tried dozens of body scrubs, from very expensive to very basic ones, and I believe that the only way to get a really good scrub is to cook it at home. Luckily, making a great body polish is easy, costs mere pennies, and all the ingredients are usually already in your kitchen.

Making Your Own Body Polish

Here are some of my favorite body polish recipes. Most of them use sugar and other kitchen staples, so it is only natural to base them on our favorite dessert recipes. Use them, share them, make them in batches, and sell them, but please make sure to send me a thank-you note!

Key Lime
Body Scrub

2 small key limes

1 cup condensed milk

1 free-range egg yolk

1 cup brown sugar, preferably muscovado

Yield:
4 ounces

This gentle AHA-based exfoliant makes a great whitening mask if left on to work for a few minutes. This scrub can be used on your face, too. Store it in the refrigerator for up to one week. If you plan to make a large batch of this Florida state-pie scrub, skip the egg yolk and add three drops of grapefruit seed extract.

1. Squeeze the juice out of the limes and mix with the milk and egg yolk. Blend until thick.

2. Add sugar, but make sure it doesn’t dissolve completely. Apply in circular motions using light pressure. As the sugar dissolves on your skin, it will become thinner, so there’s little risk of scrubbing too hard.

Oatmeal
Cookie Scrub

½ cup baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

½ cup steel-cut oat flakes

½ cup raw brown sugar

1 cup goat milk

½ cup jojoba or grape seed oil

Yield:
4 ounces

This soft scrub combines two types of exfoliating granules:
oil-absorbing oat flakes and mildly exfoliating baking soda.

Blend all the ingredients well and store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to one week.

Zesty
Apple Rub

½ cup apple cider vinegar

½ cup fine Dead Sea salt or plain sea salt

½ cup almond meal

3 tablespoons applesauce

2 drops rosemary essential oil

1 drop lemon essential oil

3 drops grapefruit seed essential oil

Yield:
5 ounces

This is a strong exfoliant. Save the original version for your feet, elbows, and knees, but if you dilute the mix with some honey or aloe vera juice, you can use it to exfoliate the rest of your body.

Blend all the ingredients in a china bowl. Wet yourself thoroughly in the shower. Rub the scrub over your body using your hands. Rub in gentle circles, moving from your extremities toward your chest. Rinse the salt off thoroughly. You can store the scrub in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to one month.

Green Body Oils

The skin on our bodies has a surface area of around 1.5 to 2.0 square meters. This means that our exposure to harmful chemicals from a body cream will be much higher than from an eye serum. Luckily for us, there are many perfectly green, ready-made body moisturizers available at reasonable prices. Weleda, Dr. Hauschka, Avalon Organics, Burt’s Bees, Lavera, and REN make wonderful body lotions, and Lavanila and Jo Wood Organics make luxurious aromatherapeutic fragrant body mists and oils for the moments when you feel like spoiling yourself.

Pure plant oils are the ultimate skin moisturizers. Some people shun oils because they believe they make skin oilier and leave a greasy film on the skin, while lotions penetrate, or “soak” into the skin. The main difference between lotions and oils is the texture, not the way they moisturize. Lotions are oil-in-water emulsions, and when the water and alcohol evaporate, oil, possibly beeswax, and some plant extracts are left on the skin’s surface. With body oils, you are not wasting your money on water and alcohol. Wou get pure oil that can be applied lightly or heavily, depending on your preferences. There’s also “dry oil,” a lightweight oil blend that is sprayed on the skin to leave minimal greasy residue. Many cosmetic brands make “dry oil” by blending olive or jojoba oil with silicones. Dry oil sprays are incredibly versatile: you can apply them to damp skin after a shower or bath, you can spray them on your hair when it feels frizzy or dry, and you can also lightly spray it on your face for a dewy glow.

To prepare your own dry oil and moisturizing oil blends, you will need pure plant oils such as jojoba, almond, or grape seed, and a selection of your favorite essential oils. If you have sensitive skin or nose, skip stronger essential oils and add a subtle fragrance with one or two drops of chamomile or lavender oils. Most plant oils have fresh, earthy aromas of their own.

Many oil blends don’t need preservatives to stay uncontaminated, but some require a bit of a help from essential oils or antioxidant vitamins. Jojoba and coconut oils, which are technically liquid plant waxes, have a longer shelf life, but most oils have to be used up within a year. Besides, many oils originate many thousand miles away from you and may well have spent months in transit before finally arriving at your bathroom or kitchen counter. This is a good reason to buy smaller sizes of organic oils regularly. If stored properly, in a cool, dark place, or at least in dark glass bottles, most body oil blends have a safe shelf life of six to twelve months. By adding ester of vitamin C and vitamin E, as well as grapefruit and tea tree oils, you can extend shelf life, but not dramatically.

Sweet
and Spicy
Body Oil

1 ounce sweet almond oil

1 ounce apricot kernel oil

1 ounce grape seed oil

2 drops clary sage essential oil

2 drops mandarin essential oil

2 drops chamomile essential oil

1 drop ylang-ylang essential oil

1 drop lavender essential oil

Yield:
4 ounces

Pour the premeasured amounts of oils into a glass bottle and shake vigorously to blend.

Sun Glow
Dry Oil

½ ounce (15 ml) jojoba oil

½ ounce (15 ml) coconut oil

3 drops vanilla extract

2 drops sandalwood essential oil 800 IU vitamin E

1 teaspoon mineral shimmer

Yield
:
5 ounces

This is a green cross between my once-favorites NARS Body Glow and Stila Sun Shimmer Dry Oil. It adds a gorgeous natural-looking tint with a hint of shimmer. Lightweight plant oils do not form a greasy film, and they spread evenly. Ideally, you should make this oil with just a teaspoon Bare Escentuals Bare Minerals Glimmer in Tan Lines or True Gold.
However, you can substitute any less-expensive mineral shimmering powder in shades of gold or sand. Be creative and blend mineral powders as you like, but don’t use light pink or beige shimmers, even if you have pale skin. Opt for golden corals and pinks instead.