Dry skin, hat hair and neglected pedicures are now ubiquitous. But with holiday extravagance still in memory -- not to mention the mountainous snow drifts -- it's not always pragmatic to head for the closest spa.
With easy-to-find, natural ingredients you can be soaking in a decadent milk bath or applying a wine and honey masque within minutes. And what better way to spend time with a loved one? The following recipes have been provided and tested by some of the country's best spas.
Homemade Talc
Halifax's Remedy Facial Bar and Spa offers a do-it-yourself facial bar and a full menu of treatments popular with party throwers.
2 cups cornstarch
2 tablespoons baking soda
2 tablespoons white clay (optional)
4 tablespoons powdered herbs of your choice
15 drops essential oil such as lavender
Mix ingredients together and put in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Leave for at least a week and keep turning jar to mix ingredients. For gift-giving, put in a pretty glass jar and include a feather applicator, a powder puff or even a big soft brush.
Remedy Facial Bar and Spa, Halifax (1-866-425-2639; http://www.remedyspa.com).
Fresh Ginger Scrub
For a decade, Victoria's Silk Road Tea Shop has popularized the health benefits of drinking tea. Now, the Silk Road Spa promotes fresh, daily remedies made with natural ingredients such as essential oils and green tea.
This scrub is an invigorating and rejuvenating treatment for the back, dry/cracked feet and heels, elbows and arms.
100 grams sea salt
5-6 tablespoons unscented oil (use a good quality cold-pressed vegetable oil such as apricot kernel, grape seed, jojoba or olive oil)
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger root
6 drops ginger essential oil
2 drops ylang-ylang essential oil
2 drops lemon essential oil
Mix ingredients in a glass or porcelain bowl. Blend until clumps disappear, ensuring that ginger is mixed evenly throughout the scrub. Store in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid.
Silk Road Spa, Victoria (250-388-6815; http://www.silkroadtea.com).
Sweet Sea Body Polish
Kingfisher Oceanside Spa has won acclaim for reinterpreting traditional spa treatments to reflect its coastal setting on Vancouver Island.
This scrub is great for polishing up winter weary skin, or for softening rough patches on feet or elbows.
½ cup pure unscented liquid soap
½ cup sweet almond and/or jojoba oils
½ cup fine sea salt
20 drops sweet orange essential oil
10 drops tangerine essential oil
Mix soap and oil in a bowl, and stir in salt. Drop in desired essential oils. If too runny, add a little more salt. Keeps for several months if covered and stored in cool location.
Kingfisher Oceanside Resort & Spa, Courtenay, B.C. (1-800-663-7929; http://www.kingfisherspa.com).
Vintherapy Pedicure
The Spa at White Oaks Resort offers deliciously decadent vintherapy treatments that use wine and grape byproducts for their antioxidants and exfoliating properties.
Soak and dry feet, then remove rough skin with a pumice stone or foot file. Rinse and dry feet again.
Add two parts honey to one part white wine, and microwave until warm. Cover legs with paste from feet to knees, then wrap in two white kitchen bags, tying them at the sides.
Wrap legs in towel, elevate feet and relax with a cool glass of lemon-scented water. After 10 minutes, rinse legs and apply moisturizer. Massage into legs and feet. This cools the feet down nicely and softens skin.
The Spa at White Oaks Resort, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. (905-688-2032 or 1-800 263-5766, ext.1502; http://www.whiteoaksresort.com).
Vata Facial Masque
The natural spa treatments at Ananda Yoga Spa are based on the ancient Indian practice of Ayurveda, in which three elements called doshas -- pitta (fire), vata (air) and kapha (earth) -- are said to co-exist within each person. Treatments aim to address imbalances and make the most of the constitution.
This first of three masques is for or mature skin.
2 tablespoons mashed avocado or ripe mashed banana
½ teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon or more of rice flour
½ teaspoon comfrey powder
½ teaspoon sandalwood powder
3 drops frankincense oil
3 drops geranium oil
Add enough fresh cream to make into a smooth paste. Apply to clean skin. Leave on for 15 minutes and rinse.
Pitta Facial Masque
For combination or sensitive skin.
2 tablespoons mashed papaya or crushed fresh pineapple
1 teaspoon aloe vera gel
1 tablespoon white clay
½ teaspoon rose petal powder
½ teaspoon comfrey powder
2 drops rosewood or rose otto oil
4 drops sandalwood oil
Add enough organic cows' milk or coconut milk to make a thin paste.
Apply to clean skin.
Leave on for 15 minutes and rinse.
Kapha Facial Masque
For oily or blemished skin.
2 tablespoons mashed strawberries or kiwi
1 teaspoon aloe vera gel
1 tablespoon green clay pinch of turmeric powder
½ teaspoon chamomile powder
½ teaspoon comfrey powder
2 drops chamomile oil
4 drops lavender oil
Add enough yogurt to make a thin paste.
Apply to clean skin.
Leave on for 15 minutes and rinse.
Ananda Yoga Spa, Codrington, Ont. (613-475-3890 or 1-888-815-9772; http://www.yogaspa.ca).