valentines day-for everyone!

I know that Valentine’s Day is traditionally a day for lovers to honor one another. But I like to think of it as a Day of Love for Everybody! What a great way to show all the people in your life how much you care about them!

We have to first honor those who ARE the loves of our life: Our husbands or boyfriends. One of the things I like to do is a little massage oil with essential oils that promise Love and Romance. The simplest of these is Vanilla. Studies have shown that the preferred scent to arouse a guy’s interest is vanilla; right after alcohol! That is a true story, I promise! Something about the alcohol smell must remind some guys of their college days and all those young girls drinking beer for the first time…but I digress. The second most arousing scent for men is vanilla. It is so easy to make a massage oil. You can take any oil like almond, jojoba or even olive oil and add a few drops of vanilla essential oil or extract, put it in a pretty bottle with a red ribbon and done! If you want to get real exotic, you can always do a blend of jasmine, sandalwood and ylang-ylang. These scents are very exotic and most women just love it.

On this day of love, I like to remember my friends so I mix up a little body scrub for them. A favorite of theirs is my Coffee Body Scrub. This scrub not only exfoliates the skin in a sublime way, it perks you up in the morning and smells so yummy!

Coffee Body Scrub
3/4 cups  coffee, ground
1/2 cup    corn meal
1/2 cup    salt
2 Tbsp.    oil (almond, jojoba or olive oil)
30 drops  peppermint (for extra pick-me-up) or lavender

Mix well in bowl. Store in air-tight container. Use this in the morning if you are not using decaf! Rub scrub gently over dry skin. Rinse thoroughly in a nice warm shower.

The next idea can be done FOR children or the kids can do this for their teachers. I like to make Bath Cookies shaped like hearts. This is a fun project for the kids and the cookies can be wrapped up in a plastic bag with a little ribbon. It doesn’t take long and everybody loves how unusual it is.

Bath Cookies
2 cups finely ground sea salt
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 Tbsp. light oil
1 tsp. vitamin E oil, as from capsules
2 eggs
5-6 drops essential oil (lavender is a favorite)

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients into a dough; cut out with decorative cookie cutters or roll dough in 1-inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 35o degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Do not over bake.
Allow to cool completely. Use 1 or 2 “cookies” per bath, allowing them to dissolve in bath water.

Yield: 24 cookies