We all need a break from life sometimes, that’s why I shared some tips & tricks for creating your own beauty spa at home a few days ago. If you didn’t read PART 1 of this article yet, I suggest you do that first, because you have to enjoy the entire spa treatment 🙂

Your face… it needs my kisses

• Wet your face with warm water and use a brush or washcloth to scrub your face with a face polisher or scrub. Don’t scrub too hard, just rub your face gently and don’t forget your neck, nose pads and a part of your chest/shoulders.
  Tip: Don’t have a face polisher? Use brown sugar to scrub your face. It’s a natural exfoliate that works for all skin types. Mix it up with 1 tablespoon of olive oil or coconut oil.
• Clean your face with a hot-warm towel until the scrub is removed.
• Make your own facial steamer with a bowl filled with HOT HOT water. You could put mint and/or lemons in the bowl or rose petals for nice fragrance. Don’t use any oil or soaps otherwise it will hurt your eyes. Put a towel over your head and hang your face above the bowl, close your eyes and control your breathing into a nice slow pace. Relax and let it steam for 10 minutes.
  Note: Your face should be very warm during this treatment, but not uncomfortably hot. Otherwise let the water cool down before you steam or don’t put the towel over your head.
• Since your pores are open now from the facial steamer, this is the perfect time to pluck your eyebrows, remove any zits or pimples and wax your moustache 😉 To relax your face again after the waxing and plucking unwanted hair you can put ice cubes into a plastic bag, and gently rub it all over your face for a couple of minutes.
• You are ready for a home made facial masks. Get some slices of cucumber and make sure you have a brush or cotton wool to spread the facial mask on your face and neck/part shoulders. These are my favorite homemade facial masks recipes:
• Lemon facial mask
  This facial is both exfoliating and moisturizing. Mix up juice from one lemon with ¼ cup olive oil or sweet almond oil. Leave it on for 15 minutes. Rinse your face with a WARM washcloth or towel.
• Banana facial mask
  Mash up a ripe banana, mix it up with ¼ cup of plain yogurt and 2 tablespoons of honey.
  Let it sit for 10 to 20 minutes. Your face will relax, get moisturized and because of the honey you’ll get a bit of a facelift. 😉 Wash your face with WARM water.
• Avocado facial mask
  This facial mask is especially for women with dry skin. Mash up 1/2 of a very ripe/ soft avocado and stir it up with a 1/4 cup of honey. Apply to your skin and leave it on for 10 minutes. Rinse your face with a COOL washcloth.

To have the ultimate face treatment don’t forget to moisturize your face after your facial mask. You can do this with your day cream but preferably use oil. Use facial oil or almond oil. Coconut oil is good for  girls with a dry skin BUT it could lead to pimples since your pores get clogged up.

Make your body the sexiest outfit you own

• For those lucky Fit Girls amongst us who have a bathtub you can start filling it up with hot-warm water and bath oils, beads, salts, bubbles. You can also add milk and oatmeal to your bath, because these have a moisturizing effect if you have a dry skin. Or add almond oil of coconut oil for a baby-soft skin.
• Just lie in your bath like a mermaid, close your eyes and just dream away, for as long as the water is warm. You could also pour yourself a glass of wine and have a healthy snack. Whatever helps you relaxing!
• If you don’t have a bath take a nice hot-warm shower. If you are able to sit in your shower you can pretend to stand under a waterfall with your eyes closed. Try it! It’s very relaxing and good for your imagination.
• While you are in your bathtub or in the shower take the time to massage your sore muscles from your work outs. Tip: close the door of your bathroom so you will keep the heat in and create a home sauna / steam room.
• Turn off your shower or get out of your bathtub to scrub your body with one of the following homemade scrubs:

  Chocolate body scrub
  Mix up 1 cup coconut oil with a 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup with cocoa powder. Mix it well and scrub your body with a brush or washcloth. You will get a beautiful skin and smell like chocolate all day! YEAH!

• Mango body scrub
  Mix 1/2 cup raw sugar with 2 or 3 tablespoons of coconut oil. Mix it well until the sugar gets mossy. Add 1/4 cup chopped soft mango pieces and add 3 or 4 drops of orange essential oil. Mash everything together. If you don’t get a sticky substance yet, you can add more sugar or coconut oil. This body scrub will give your skin nutrition and a fruity fragrance.
• Oatmeal body scrub
  Especially for Fit Girls with a dry skin the oatmeal body scrub is prefect. Mix 1 cup brown sugar with 1 cup raw oatmeal and a 1 cup olive oil. Rub your skin with it and hit the shower. Your skin will feel like butter! Tip: When you scrub your body, do this in a circular motion, start at your feet and work your way up. The circular motion will activate your blood veins, which is good for the blood circulation in your body.

If you don’t like to scrub your skin with a body scrub, you can also try out DRY BODY BRUSHING 😀 Fit Girl Kiki explains all about this new treatment which is definitely worth trying. Read more : “Why dry body brushing is the bomb”.

• After you’ve washed off the body scrub or took a nice warm shower or bath if you treated yourself with a dry body brushing you can wash yourself with a body cream or oil. Use the towel to pat your skin dry instead of completely drying up your skin.
• If you still have rough spots on your skin you can take a freshly cut lemon and rub it gently on the rough spots, like on your elbows and knees. The acid in the lemon will soften the rough spots on your skin. Try it to believe it!
• After a body scrub, it’s time to use nourishing body lotion, body butter or a nice body oil. Take the time to cover your complete body. Put on your bathrobe and give the lotion time to absorb into your skin before you get dressed in your I-am-staying-in-and-hang-on-my-couch- pants-and-hoodie 😉

RELAX, SIT AND ENJOY YOUR BEAUTY SPA HANGOVER
After a day in a beauty spa, besides feeling completely relaxed and balanced again, I also feel a bit “hangover”. Your mind is turned off, your body feels heavy and your skin glows. The best thing about a beauty spa day at home is that you can immediately crash on your couch or into your bed and RELAX. Pour yourself (another) glass of wine, put some (healthy) snacks on the table and watch a movie, read a book, listen to music or simply fall in a long deep sleep…

CONCLUSION
Make it a priority to enjoy some relaxing time every now and then. You can either enjoy your beauty spa alone or with your BFFF. Everyone deserves a moment of peace and quiet. It’s important to relax for mental clarity, reduce stress, giving your muscles time to recover, and to take care of yourself.

Hopefully all these tips and tricks inspired you create your own beauty spa at home! 😉 ENJOY!

We all need a break from this hectic thing called life from time to time. People go into their relax mode after a work-out or while they have a romantic walk to their refrigerator, but my absolute all-time favorite spoil-your-cute-butt–thing is enjoyinging a beauty day at the spa. Since I don’t have money growing on a tree, we Fit Girls need to be creative with the budget we have and create our own beauty spa at home. Here are a few tips and tricks to get into relaxing mode on your well-deserved day OFF!

MAKE YOUR HOME INTERRUPTION-FREE

When you decide to have a beauty spa day at home, make sure you pick a day when you don’t have any interruptions or a busy schedule afterwards. Turn off your Smartphone (after you’ve posted on Instagram you have a relax day 😉 ) and pretend not to be home for the next few hours.

AT HOME SPA-TRICKS

Beauty spa’s always look flawless and have this relaxing atmosphere. Well, with these tips & tricks you can turn your home into your own private spa and set the mood for relaxation:

• Check Youtube for ‘Spa Music’ and you will find hours of relaxing music, which you can play at the background. Relaxing music not your cup a tea? Than choose any kind of music which will bring you in the relaxing mood.
• The best thing about a beauty home spa is that you can use your whole house and don’t just have to limit yourself to your bathroom. So turn your living room into the treatment centre and relaxing room where you could take a beauty nap, do your home yoga practice or finally read your pile of magazines while having your healthy smoothie. Click here for recipes of four delicious smoothies!
• Get your #FITGIRLCODE bottle or large can and fill it up with water and slices of lemon, cucumber, mint or raspberries. Make sure you prepare this “detox” water a few hours before your beauty spa day. This way it won’t just keep you hydrated but you’ll also have the benefits of antioxidants.
• Take the largest towel you can find to wrap around yourself and make sure you have plenty of clean smaller towels for all those treatments you have scheduled for yourself 😉 You can even roll these towels up like they do in a beauty spa.
• Fire up some candles and close your curtains to create a more romantic and intimate setting.
• Get out all your nail goodies, like polish, file, clipper, cuticle pusher, hand and feet creams. You probably have tons of samples of body-lotion, face cream and scrubs. You can finally try them all out!
•  And if you really want to go flamingo-crazy, decorate your home with flowers, rose petals and incense sticks or aromatherapy products. Make a bowl with fruits and a plate with veggies for the finishing touch, like strawberries, kiwi, apples, carrot, bell pepper, candy-tomatoes. Because you will get hungry while you are busy relaxing 😉

SET-UP YOUR TREATMENTS

First take a nice hot shower to release the stress and clear your mind. This could be a quick water-dip of 5 minutes but make sure you clear your face, wet your hair (don’t wash it yet) and remove your make-up. Brush your teeth and floss afterwards so you shine like a diamond. You can even brighten your smile with activated charocal like Kiki did.

Now you are ready to treat yourself for a long and relaxing day. Try out he following treatments:

Beautiful hair makes a happy head

• Strawberry hair maskBesides eating those sweet hart shaped fruits you can also use them for your own homemade hair mask. You’ll need a cup of strawberries (preferably the ones who are a little mushy to eat), one egg yolk and two tablespoons of olive oil. Mix this all together until the strawberries chunks are like juice. Rub this in your hair and use a plastic hair cap (or plastic bag ) to avoid a mess. Leave it in for 20 minutes. Rinse your hair and wash it with a mild shampoo.
• Coconut cream hair maskThis hair mask is for Fit Girls who take serious time for their spa day at home. Believe me, it’s worth every minute of your precious time. First thing you need is a hot-warm wet towel ready to wrap your hair into. You could lay your towel in hot water and wring out or WET your towel and use the microwave for 15 seconds to warm it up. Crack open the coconut (mini work-out ), take a chunk of the coconut cream and warm it up in your hands. When it’s soft enough and pliable, massage it into your hair. Repeat this until your whole hair is covered with coconut cream. Carefully wrap your hair into the warm towel and leave the hairmask in for about an hour. Rinse your hair and wash with a mild shampoo.

In the meantime you continue your treatments…

Happy Feet

• Remove your old nail polish and have a footbath. Take a tub and fill it up with hot/warm water and leave your feet there for about 10 till 15 minutes to rest. You can also put salts and oil in the water for extra soft feet.
• Relax and read your magazine or just close your eyes and listen to the relaxing music…
• Take a pumice stone to remove the rough spots on your feet and dead skin on your heels and toes. Put your feet back into a new tub of warm water to wash them one more time. Dry your feet and get ready for your pedicure.
• Trim your toenails in shape with the clippers. Make sure you round off the edges to prevent ingrown toenails. Push back your cuticles with a cuticle pusher. If you like you can also polish your toenails or just leave them natural.
• Take some body lotion or your feet cream and give yourself a short foot massage. Use a bit more cream than usual and take the time for your feet to dry up. Outcome: Happy-relaxed-beautiful -FEET!

Beautiful hands make light work

• Remove your old nail polish. It’s better to use acetone-free nail polish remover, since acetone could dry out your nails.
• Get a bowl with hot-warm water and leave your hands in them for about 5 minutes. If you want to polish your nails afterwards don’t use any oils or soap in the water. Otherwise your polish won’t adhere correctly.
• Dry your hands and use a fingernail clipper to trim your nails. You can also use scissors or a file to shape your nails. To finish this treatment push back your cuticles with a cuticle pusher like you did with your toenails. Do this gently otherwise you can cut your cuticles and get an infection.
• Time for the challenging part: polishing the nails of both your hands. Practice makes pefect! You can just polish your nails with one coat of your favorite color or you can have a full manicure with at least three coats; a base coat, a color, and a topcoat. This way you have maximum coverage and it will last longer. You do need the patience to dry every coat. Also don’t polish your nails if you still need to wash out your hair mask. Trust me, not a pretty sight!

WTF (Where’s The Food)

Beside your plate with fruits and veggies it is also important to have a good lunch or dinner, depending on what time of the day you are having your beauty spa. Since it’s your spoil-your-cute-butt day, you might as well go all out and make yourself a healthy snack, lunch and dinner. Click here for healthy recipes the #FITGIRLCODE crew has shared before! Schedule kitchen time in between your treatments or before the start of your beauty spa day.

Stay tuned, because you can read the second part of this article in a few days. I’ll include some tips and tricks for a great facial- and body treatment. Did you set a date for your beauty spa at home yet?