Eucalyptus Steam-Room Hack

Allergies and sinus-infections are rampant right now, and lately at the gym, all I really want to do is hit the eucalyptus steam room. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how to do an hourlong detox bath ritual, but when you've only got a few minutes to spare, this refreshing and sinus-clearing eucalyptus shower is a great sub. Not to mention, it wakes you right the hell up. See DIY instructions below.

Buy a bunch of eucalytpus; flower shops and floral departments at grocery stores keep them behind the counter as filler; a bunch is $5-$8. Mount it somewhere around your shower (using floral twine if you've got it; rubber bands or string otherwise). Sprinkle 15-20 drops of eucalyptus and any other of the essential oils listed below on the sides of the tub. Turn the shower on hot, close the door, wait for five minutes and return to your own personal spa/steam room. Breathe deeply. 

Supplies: 

Fresh eucalyptus
Eucalyptus essential oil
(Opt) Peppermint essential oil
(Opt) Rosemary essential oil

How to Take a (Deluxe and Healing) Detox Bath

Along with almost everyone else I know, I’ve got a bad cold right now. To cope, I'm planning on spending an exciting Friday night in my bathtub. I realized that with all my years of reviewing spa treatments and learning about handcrafting body products, herbalism, and self-care rituals, I’ve got a lot of accumulated knowledge, so I’m sharing tips about taking an detoxifying bath at home. This type of bath is particularly helpful if you’re sick, because it can help you clear your sinuses (see eucalyptus mention below), sweat out toxins, and just cleanse the lymphatic system. And it's much less weird and extreme than the (INVASIVE) Calistoga mineral mud baths or "meditation color-therapy" baths I've written about in the past. 

I always emerge from my detox baths renewed and I hope this helps you, too!

Ingredients:

Epsom salt
Baking soda
Essential oils (whatever your favorites are; I like neroli, rose, lavender)
Body brush (with stiff bristles)
Moisturizer (I recommend jojoba or shea butter)
(If desired) Ground ginger
(If desired) Himalayan or sea salt
(If desired) Dried herbs like rose, lavender, rosemary
(If desired) Muslin bag for dried herbs
(If desired) Badedas Classic Bubble Bath has fresh, woodsy scent notes like chestnut, cedarwood, and light patchouli, and basically makes me feel like I'm taking a bath in the middle of the forest
(If desired) Kneipp Sweet Dreams Herbal Bath with Valerian and Hops has sleep-inducing valerian infused in the ix. It turns the water a disturbing shade of blue but does seem to help me sleep

How-To: 

1. Set aside 45-60 minutes so you’re not rushing, and defeating the purpose.

2. Get a huge bottle of purified water to drink while you soak.

3. Set the tone: i.e., light candles; dim lights.

4. Put on some chill music. Lately, I like Solange, Cecilia Bartoli (Italian opera singer), Charlie Haden (jazz bassist), Cesaria Evora (Cape Verdean ballad singer), Paco de Lucia (flamenco), Lhasa De Sela (Mexican-American chanteuse), and Jose Gonzalez. But you know what relaxes you best: If it’s Enya, Sinatra, or Massive Attack, godspeed.* Alternatively, listen to a guided meditation or 45-minute meditation talk by Tara Brach, Washington, DC-based Buddhist teacher and therapist. They are 45 minutes and filled with insights, funny/goofy stories, and Brach’s trademark empathy.

5. Start filling the tub with warm (not super-hot) water.

6. Dry brush your skin while you’re waiting for tub to fill: If you’ve never done this, find out more here. The most important thing to remember is to start at your feet and hands and use long strokes, sweeping towards your heart. The idea is to help your body shed dead skin layers and help the lymphatic system eliminate waste.

7. Add Epsom salt to water (recommended amount for adults is 2 cups; when I’m stressed or achy I do more like 5 cups).

8. Add 1-2 cups baking soda; (it softens skin).

9. Add a handful of Himalayan or sea salt (the cheaper alternative). 

10. Add your favorite essential oils and/or bubble bath. To de-stress, I use neroli/lavender/rose/ylang-ylang. To clear sinuses, eucalyptus and rosemary are helpful. Dry herbs like rose, mint, lavender, or rosemary are nice too—just put them in a porous bag like this muslin one, so they don’t leave a mess in your tub.

11. (Optional) Add a small amount of ginger (1-2 Tbsp) to help you sweat out toxins.

12. Swirl the water around to dissolve the salts.

13. Soak for 20-45 minutes.

14. Brush your skin again (in the same motion, from the outer limbs towards your heart), with the dry brush or just your hands.

15. Apply a moisturizing lotion like shea butter or jojoba. (Or, for deluxe moisturization that also can be kind of messy, rub a mixture of olive and castor oils all over; stand there for two minutes, and then shower it off.)

16. Drink lots of water—with lemon if you’ve got it. 

17. Sleep like baby.

Summer Perfume & Aromatherapy for Mosquito Magnets

Any other mosquito magnets out there? I've been researching what scents repel mosquitoes (apart from citronella). Turns out the varmints love florals but hate "green" smells, citrus, lavender, cedar. (They also hate bananas, so I'm taking blueberries in my cereal until October.) Since I love good smells so much, nixing perfume--or wearing Deep Woods OFF--all summer isn't an option for me, and I've been investigating non-floral scents, opting for woody/cedar-y, green, citrus, and lavender smells instead. Based on some internet research, I snagged appropriate samples from Nordstrom, along with some lemon oil and lavender body wipes. So far, this INCREDIBLE Aqua Di Parma scent makes me feel like I'm on the Italian Meditteranean with the Clooneys, and does seem to keep the critters at bay with its basil, cedar, and myrtle. The other two samples are Guerlain’s slightly more flowery Aqua Allegoria Herba Fresca, hearkening an English garden with notes of lemon, spearmint, green tea, and cyclamen, and Guerlain's strong, fresh, Aqua Allegoria "Pamplelune" Eau de Toilette, with vibrant notes of citrus (grapefruit, bergamot, neroli, and with a base of vanilla and patchouli). 

And, for quick/easy application of lavender, I'm stocking great-smelling Herban Essentials towelletes in all my purses. 

I'll also be making an essential oil blend this week, using knowledge from my natural botanical perfumery class. Herbal blends are less effective and have to be applied more often, but it's worth it to not smell like the strong DEET repellents. If all of this sounds extreme, keep in mind that the critters throw a party when I step in the vicinity and start swaming around me immediately. If any other mosquito-magnets wanna try out my home-blend, let me know & I'll send a sample!

Instagramming Israel

I just took a big trip to Israel with 12 other writters/bloggers. I was the only Chicago writer and will be doing some stories about the visit in the months to come. In the meantime, I captioned my trip pretty thoroughly on Instagram, so here's that link. 

Booty from Jaffa markets in Tel Aviv

Last week in Tel Aviv, I explored the markets in Old Jaffa. The olives and dried fruit made me drool, but it was overwhelming with so many to choose from. So, I confined my purchases to an olive sampling and some irresistable dried roses--that cost mere pennies--pictured below. They smelled divine, and now that they're smuggled home (Tel Aviv security either didn't see them rolled up in my t-shirt, or decided not to care), I'm not sure what to do with them, apart from making sachets for my lingerie, sock, and sweater drawers. I'm taking ideas!

Custom Perfumer in Tel Aviv

I'm in Tel Aviv for a travel story, and went to this Jaffa perfumerie, Zielinski & Rozen, that offers custom-blended perfums based on not only your scent preferences, but also one's own personal scent and lifestyle--exactly the way I like to pick out scent. It's tucked away on a side street, (and basically doesn't advertise), so going inside feels like discovering a secret. The owner, Erez Rozen, compares building an individual scent to building a pyramid, using the traditional concepts of high, middle, and base notes. Apart from the Dead Sea and the desert fortress Masada, this was probably my favorite experience in Israel. 

Mud Baths in Calistoga, CA

Photo from http://www.drwilkinson.com

I love spa treatments, and over the course of my life I've done a lot of unusual ones: Aromatherapy "color baths" with light lasers, a gong bath, cupping, a facial with a "tesla wand," high-end seaweed wrap, no-touch reiki massage, etc. But immersing in a 4-foot tub of volcanic-ash mud last week in Calistoga, CA was by far the oddest treatment I've ever undergone. Dr. Wilkinson's has been around for over 60 years, and the retro look and feel of the buildings and locker rooms doesn't hide this fact. 

Here's the procedure: You lock up your things, grab a bathrobe and are escorted by attendants (of your gender) into a large tiled room that has two large, rectangular tiled baths, mounted a few feet above floor level. They're filled with sulfuric-smelling "volcanic-ash" mud. THIS IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH. You strip down and the attendants assist you into the oozing, bubbling, stinky tubs, while reciting some science-y factoids to try and convince you that this is not the most disgusting thing that has ever happened to you.

 Sinking into the mud is not as easy as it sounds: It's very thick (and did I mention BUBBLING), and it takes about a minute to get yourself fully immersed, up to your neck. If you're me, this is where some mild panic sets in, (AS THE MUD SINKS INTO EVERY CORNER OF YOUR BODY). Your attendant then gives you a pillow to rest your head on, and places cucumbers over your eyes, and instructs you to relax for ten minutes (easy for her to say). Once the time is up, you are escorted out of the tub and proceed to take the most complete shower of your life. Next is the wet-sauna (the attedants hand you glasses of cucumber water through a little window), for another ten minutes. Then, you head to an old-fashioned clawfoot bathtub behind a curtain (in the same room), which is being pumped full of hot-spring water. Last, the attendants have you shower one last time, and lead you to a relaxation cube, where you're wrapped loosely in towels for ten more minutes, while your body temperature returns to normal. 

You can't take pics inside the spa of course, but my pal and I stayed in one of the cottages Dr. Wilkinson offers, and hit the outdoor tub later that night. And if you're curious about what the tubs look like, you can see images here.

The below pic is of a late-night moonlit tub, which we welcomed with some local CA bubbly. 

Natural Botanical Perfumery class at Chicago Botanic Gardens

I've taken soap- and candle-making classes at various organizations including Abbey Brown, and I'm also very interested in natural botanical perfumemaking. A year ago, I read a wonderful book about the history of NBP, Essence and Alchemy, by perfumer Mandy Aftelier. Among other things, it goes into the "primal" nature of scent, the history of perfume and why she chooses not to use synthetics (a unique perfumery choice.) 

Today's natural botanical perfumery class at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, taught by the talented and generous Jessica Hannah, (who has studied with Mandy and is influenced by her). I learned so much, and love the vetiver-heavy custom perfume I made today.  Jessica spoke passionately and emotionally about the proper and sustainable use of essential oils, and got me even more excited about delving into this world of NBP.  Now, I feel ready to make some blends of my own; starting with a mosquito-repelling blend (using things like cedar, lavender, citrus--all proven to repel the pests).