Category Archives: Skin Care

Spring Booty Camp Day SEVEN: DIY (Do It Yourself) Spa Day Recipes

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I want you all to rest today. Relax. This is NOT a “cheat day”. We’re not going to have any of those for the 30 Challenge. And, let’s face it, gang, I’ve been pretty loose with the food guidelines. Right?

Please, read through everything before you begin your spa day, to make sure you have everything ready.  Bathe or shower (this would be a nice day for a soak in the tub). Cleanse your face, wash your hair and apply your Phat Head Creamy Hot Oil, High On Coconut or Restorative Deep Conditioner. If you don’t any of these, add one beaten egg + 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to your daily conditioner and mix it together with a clean wire whisk: Pour the conditioner into a bowl, only as much as you’ll need for one treatment. If you have fine or limp hair, please omit the olive oil. Put a conditioning cap (thin shower cap). Wipe your face with toner and steam your pores, using some of your Pore Me Tres Bag or an opened bag of chamomile or peppermint tea. Click here for directions on facial steaming.(It’s at the bottom, with the Spa Ritual)

While your skin is still damp, apply one of my Pore Me masques (NOT the Pumpkin AHA one: We’ll be leaving the masque on for quite some time and that one is too strong to leave on for such a long period). If you don’t have one of my masques use:

  • Plain yogurt + a squeeze of fresh lemon + egg yolk + honey (good for dry or mature skin)
  • Ground oatmeal + honey + egg white + honey (general purpose)
  • Small amount of baking soda + ground oatmeal + 1 crushed aspirin + egg white (oily acne prone).

Now, for your pedicure you will need The Good Foot Soak, The Good Foot Dead Sea Salt Scrub, The Good Foot Balm, Handy Job Cutie On Call Cuticle Butter, a basin large and deep enough for you to soak your feet in, a large bath towel, 2 small hand towels (1 damp), nail file, clippers, pumice stone, orange stick (to push cuticles back), nail polish remover (if needed) and a pair of cotton socks or flip flops.

If you don’t have the Good Foot products: ½ cup of Epsom salts, 1 orange , 1 lemon, about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a rich hand/foot cream and a small plate.

If you’re using a Phat Head Deep Conditioning Treatment or plain olive oil as a hot oil treatment, heat up and put on your Phat Head Cordless Heat Cap. If you’re using egg yolks mixed in with your conditioner, wrap a head scarf/bandana around your head, tightly, then put on a winter cap (seriously) and then wrap a large towel around your head, tightly. This will be enough heat for the cuticles on the hair to open but not enough heat to start cooking the eggs.

Get any reading material you’re going to want, beverages, remote control, etc. Spread the large towel out on the floor. Remove your nail polish, clip your toes nails and file them (use the towel to catch the clippings, etc). Now, put your basin on top of the towel and fill it with very warm water. Add 1 tablespoon of The Good Foot Soak or your Epsom salts to the water. Peel the lemon and orange into fairly thick strips, place the strips into the water. Cut both lemon and orange in half and squeeze the juice into the water. Don’t discard them yet: Put them on the plate. Soak your feet. Chill. Relax. Be calm. Reflect.

After your foot soak, rub your heels with the halves of the lemon and then do the same with the orange. The naturally occurring alpha hydroxy acids will help loosen up the dead skin. If you used the Good Foot soak, you can skip this step, as it already has an alpha hydroxy acid (citric acid) in it.

Slough of the dead skin on your feet with the Good Foot scrub or your pumice stone. You can also use table sugar and a little olive oil. Swish your feet back in the foot bath to rinse off the dead skin, pat them dry with one of the hand towels and then wipe them with the damp hand towel. Give your feet a massage with your foot balm or cream. At this point, if you’re wearing a heat cap, take it off and let your hair cool down. Put some cuticle butter or olive oil on your cuticles and gently push them back with your orange stick. Put on your socks or flip flops.

If you used the heat cap and Phat Head Conditioner, rinse your hair in the sink with very, very cool water. If you used the DIY recipe, rinse your hair with warm water for at least 3 minutes and then rinse it with lukewarm water, followed by a vinegar rinse: Fill a large 2 quart bowl with tepid water and add the vinegar and put it near the sink before you begin rinsing your hair. After the vinegar rinse, rinse once more with cool, cool water. Remove the masque from your face by splashing it with warm water several times… even though it will probably be off after you’ve rinsed your hair.

Tone your skin once more, put on your usual facial serum, sunscreen and eye crème. Apply a leave in treatment to your hair and enjoy the rest of the day! I hope it’s a lovely one! Tomorrow, we work OUT!!!

Awesomeness: New Biodegradable Wet Washcloths!!

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Good Morning Everyone!

I hope you had a great, great weekend! I’d like to share a very short video blog with you: It’s a demo and explanation of one of our new products: Face-Off Biodegradable Wet Washcloths.

Here it is:
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Morning at Casa de Garcia

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Well, it’s early morning and I am hanging out with Mugsy, the youngest (and loudest) of our cats. I stepped outside because I saw a pair of green eyes lurking in the backyard, near “Fort Johnny” (a combination “fort”, swing, slide, robe-climbing thingy that Cas built for our son when we first bought our house in 1997).  I thought the eyes belonged to Buddy, but nooooo. It’s The Evil Opossum!!!  To be fair, he is a nocturnal creature and the sun is not yet up, so I’ll let him be.

I love this time of day.  I’m getting ready to make a bucket of foot scrub, prepare some orders and then I’ll work out.  Maybe.  I got a pretty nasty headache a few days ago. Instead of just resting, I tried to do the “mind over matter” thing. You know? Ignore it and maybe it’ll go away. I should have just rested when it first struck, but I didn’t.  Now, my body is SCREAMING at me, telling me to chill out and I am gonna listen to it…. after I make some foot scrub, of course. And some body butter…

Yesterday, I got out of the shower and reached for my geranium Silk Sheets Body Butter… only to find an EMPTY JAR! I guess I’ll have to order a refill, huh?  Before I started making my own products, my son and husband weren’t interested in any of my various jars of creams, scrubs, etc. that filled our bathroom.  But, it didn’t take long for them to learn what joy a little sugar scrub can bring to a morning shower! I LOVE hearing their individual regimens and no-holds barred reviews.  Do the men in your life use your skin and hair care products? If so, what do they use?

Cas and Johnny both LOVE Phat Head Clarifying Conditioner.  Johnny has been using it for a couple of months now. Cas, however,  just “discovered” it yesterday and when I asked why he liked it, he thought about it for a few seconds and then said “Well… it’s all… black”.  Now, how cute is THAT?I love that man!

Please: MAKE Time For The Things That Are Important!

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You can’t fake good health.  Makeup, hair styles/accessories, under garments and clothing can change your outward appearance, but the results are temporary.

Healthy skin is the result of a DAILY regimen that addresses your skins specific needs & requirements.  I used to spend quite a bit of time every morning applying mineral foundation to cover my acne scars.  Weekly AHA peels, Glowshine Anti Acne & Skin Lightening Lotion mixed with Vitamin C + Koljic Acid, twice daily and Burnout Clean and Clear sunscreen, got rid of my darkest, oldest spots and scars. It took 3 months for the newest scars and about 8 months for the oldest scars to fade. My cleansing, toning and masque regimen  kept (and continues to keep!) new pimples from forming:  This was my biggest challenge, as I am a reformed pimple popper. I stopped wearing foundation over a year ago because I no longer had to cover up hyperpigmentation.  YIPPEE! Now, I just use a long wear Maybelline Super Stay in Wine (this stuff really STAYS on ALL DAY), eye liner, mascara and a little eyeshadow.

Every one, all ages and skin types, needs to wear sunscreen every single day.  It doesn’t matter what the weather is like outside or whether or not you plan on leaving your house for the day. UV rays come in through your windows (in your home AND your car) and they can and will damage your skin if it’s unprotected.  Sunscreen is especially important for skin that has hyper-pigmentation issues or if you use any alpha hydroxy acid products on skin that’s exposed to the sun (AHAs increase your skin’s sensitivity to the sun). Without the adequate protection provided by sunscreen, UV rays can and most likely will darken existing acne scars. Unprotected skin is also more likely to develop dark spots sometimes referred to as “sun spots”. Make sunscreen part of your daily routine. Make sure that your children, spouses, etc. are also applying sunscreen each and every day.

The same preventative measures apply to hair care. It only takes about 30 minutes to deep condition your hair. The WONDERFUL results are WELL worth half an hour, once a week. Healthy hair “behaves” better, looks fabulous and requires less styling products because you don’t need to mask or correct anything.  With a cordless heat cap, you don’t even have to set aside a block of time to do a proper deep conditioning treatment.

On Saturdays or Sundays, I warm up my heat cap right before I’m about to go into the shower. I rest it just outside the shower and then, after cleansing my hair and applying my deep conditioner, I put the heat cap on.  It takes about 15 minutes for my hair to get thoroughly heated, so during that time I use a pumice stone or scrub on my feet, exfoliate my whole body, shave, etc.  I remove the heat cap about five minutes before the end of my shower to let my hair cool down. Right before I’m about to step out of the shower, I turn off the overhead water flow, turn off the hot water and run cold water over my hair from the bathtub faucet to completely seal the cuticles on my hair.  You don’t have to deep condition every week, but you REALLY should do it twice a month.

EXERCISE. You’ve got to work out. I know it’s difficult to find time for exercise: work, family commitments, etc. all require precious time.  If you absolutely have no time to work out, use the time you do have to “squeeze in” some exercise: You can do sit ups, leg raises, push ups or upper body exercises using dumbbells or canned vegetables as you watch TV.  If you have a stationary bike, treadmill, etc. you can get on it as you catch up on your reading. Put ankle weights on and do rear leg lifts as you wash the dishes. Use your imagination and please, share your tips…  right HERE!

I have a very small window of time to exercise in the mornings, so I double up my lower body and upper body weight lifting exercises to speed things along.  It works out WONDERFULLY because I’m able to get & keep my heart rate in it’s target range as I do my strength training: This cuts down on the amount of time I have to spend on “straight up” cardio work (on my bike or elliptical machine).   Thanks to my Accumen Heart Rate monitor, I can monitor my cardio workout from start to finish.

For a healthy heart, everyone needs to do at least 20 minutes of aerobics (cardio vascular exercise that causes your heart to beat within its target range) 4 days a week.  Aerobic exercise will also force your body to burn fat for energy. In addition, your body will continue to burn fat for several hours after your workout is over. Here’s more good news about exercise: Working out with weights build lean muscle. When you increase your muscle mass and decrease your body fat percentage, your body burn calories (fat) even when you’re not working out! Please know that increased muscle mass does NOT mean you’ll get bigger or become muscle bound. It’s actually the opposite: Muscle takes up less room than fat, so there’s a good chance that you’ll see a decrease in your overall size (your weight will most likely stay the same & could possibly increase).

Making time every day for proper skin & hair care will have many benefits; much more than I can even list!  Find the time to take care of yourself and the rewards will be well worth the effort!