Overview
Pricey spa treatments shouldn’t be available only to the elite who can afford a day of pampering and relaxation. You can create an at-home spa for you and your girlfriends to enjoy. Because some spa treatments are simply impossible to do yourself, an at-home spa is an ideal party idea. Gather your friends for a day of pampering at each others’ hands, and instead of spending a day with strangers at an overpriced spa, you’ll be spending the day with close friends, pampering one another in the comfort of your home.
Step 1
Set the mood by preparing the spa areas in your bathroom and bedroom. Light candles and play soothing music or nature sounds. Dim the lights and light a few sticks of incense to diffuse calming scents of lavender and sandalwood throughout your home.
Step 2
Tell any guests to bring along favorite moisturizers and nail polish colors. After the guests arrive, offer robes for everyone, or instruct your friends to bring their own from home.
Step 3
Start the spa day with a steam treatment in your own steam room. Place a padded bench and towel-draped folding chairs in the bathroom. Fill the bathtub with a couple of inches of hot water, and add a few drops of essential oils to fill the room with fragrant steam. Lavender promotes relaxation, orange is for well-being, and mint helps promote energy. Then, relax in the bathroom with a hot shower running and the doors closed as you chat and breathe in the steam.
Step 4
Mix up a batch of facials for everyone. Add 1 cup of brown sugar to 1 cup of olive oil and 1 cup of oatmeal, suggests “Glamour” magazine. Use it as a facial scrub and take turns exfoliating over the sink. Follow this with a moisturizing facial mask made of 1 avocado mixed with 1 tbsp. of olive oil for each guest. Leave the mask on the skin for 20 minutes before rinsing away with warm water.
Step 5
Give each other spa-quality pedicures by filling the bathtub with a couple of inches of warm water and sitting on the side of the tub to let your feet soak in the water. After five minutes, take turns filing down each others’ nails and using a pumice stone to smooth out the skin, suggests “Ladies’ Home Journal.” If you have leftover brown sugar scrub, it’s ideal for feet as well. Then, dry the feet off, moisturize, and paint with your favorite nail polishes.
Step 6
Rest with pillows on your couch or bed as you take turns giving massages. If with a friend, you might try foot, hand, or neck massages. If doing the spa with a partner, you may consider full body massages. Stack cushions and pillows on the floor, bed, and couch so that the environment is comfortable and relaxing, and you and your guests can rest with your feet up as part of the spa experience. .
Step 7
Finish your at-home spa day with refreshing drinks and light salads, just as you would at a world-class spa. Mimosas or water chilled with cucumber and mint are light and can add to the festive atmosphere. Prepare the salad ingredients in advance and put them together just before serving.
About this Author
Jae Ireland specializes in keyword research and internet marketing. Getting her start with a small internet marketing firm in 2005, she has since designed and written for well over twenty commercial and informational websites. Her areas of interest and expertise include fashion, parenting, home improvement and health and fitness.
