Rub a Dub Scrub

Redlands Daily Facts Health Section
Staff Writer

Q:: I am a girly girl and love fun stuff in the bath. Do you have any "home-grown" recipes?

Mimi:Try some of the following low cost fun treatments for a Spa at Home. Remember that just adding essential oils to any treatment makes it special. Use Lavender to soothe and lemon to brighten. Peppermint is invigorating.

BODY SCRUBS

Tropical Seas: Mash a papaya, adding 2 Tablespoons sea salt. Scrub this all over your body. The papain enzyme in the papaya will digest the dead skin, and the salt will scrub it off. You will be left with yummy-smelling, super-soft skin.

Indian invigoration: Scrub all over with corn meal mixed with cooking oil.

Salt Glow: Mix 2 Tablespoons of table salt with 1/4 Cup inexpensive shampoo and 1 Tablespoon hot water. Scrub all over your dry body, paying special attention to your knees, heels, and elbows, then shower off.

BODY RINSE
pH Rebalancing: Mix 1/4 Cup strained lemon juice or vinegar in 1 quart warm water. After showering, pour over your body. Do not rinse off:

ELEGANT ADDITIVES

Bath Teas: Make a strong infusion by steeping any of the following "teas", then add to a warm bath: chamomile, rosemary, or marjoram to relax, mint to stimulate and invigorate, or citrus to refresh. To make citrus bath tea, cut citrus rinds in little pieces. Boil and steep in water and allow to cool. Strain the "tea" and add to bath water or hair rinses for fragrance. Run the used citrus rind down the garbage disposal to sweeten it.

SOOTHING BATHS

To soothe itchy skin, try one of the following soaking baths:

Oatmeal: Put 1 cup of dry regular or quick rolled oats (NOT instant, not sugared or flavored) into the toe of an old nylon stocking. Tie a knot in the stocking just past the oats. Run warm water into the tub while holding the bag of oats in the stream of water or just toss the bag into the tub. Relax in the warm, creamy water. The nylon can be swished in the water or even used to scrub your body. DO NOT USE ANY SOAP. Do not rinse off. Do NOT open the bag and allow oats down the drain. Throw away the bag of oats into the trash when finished. Oatmeal baths have been recommended for years to calm itchy, irritated skin.

Starch away itch: Swish one cup of dry ARGO laundry starch in your bath water.

This relieves itch from measles, poison oak, nettles, and bug bits.

Grandma's laundry soap: Use Fels Naptha laundry bar soap on any area of your body that has been exposed to poison oak or poison ivy. It washes away the irritating oils.

Soda soother: To cool and refresh your hot tired body at the end of the day, add 1/2 Cup Arm and Hammer baking soda to a tepid bath. Finish with an acid rinse (see above).

Float in the Dead Sea in Israel. As the bathtub fills with warm water, scrub your body with salt to exfoliate the dead skin. Sea salt or plain table salt work best. Then add more salt to the water. Dead Sea salt, Kosher salt, Epsom Salt, coarse sea salt, rock salt or even plain table salt will all work. Adding salt to the water will make the water denser. This will give you a slight sense of weightlessness, similar to floating in the Dead Sea. This buoyancy relieves pressure on joints and gives comfort to arthritis. Do not shave your legs prior to salt treatments. Dead Sea Salts and Epsom Salt (magnesium sulfate) have the added benefit of remineralizing your body by osmosis. They help draw out impurities and add magnesium and other trace minerals to the body.

CELLULITE

Coffee Detox: Shower with hot water scrubbing all over with used coffee grounds to exfoliate the dead skin. Mix used coffee grounds with enough body cream to make a paste that will adhere to your skin. Spread out a painter's plastic drop cloth on your bed with a warm blanket or comforter under the plastic. Lie on the plastic and spread the coffee mixture onto the cellulite areas. Wrap up in the plastic and then the blanket. Rest for 30. Shower off the coffee.

ALL THE WAY FROM GERMANY

Kneipp foot treatment. Fill two buckets or dishpans with water. One very warm and the other cold. Soak your feet first in one for a few minutes and then in the other for a few minutes. After 10 minutes of alternating footbaths your feet will feel refreshed.

Mimi Barre is the owner of International Day Spa, 325 Cajon St., Redlands. Send your skin care questions to her at MimiB@INTLdayspa.com. She and her estheticians are available for personal consultations, (909) 793-9080.