Body wraps are popular in spas these days; they help tone and tighten the skin and can soothe minor skin ailments. (They’re also reported to help “detoxify” the body and eliminate cellulite but I haven’t actually seen any scientific studies on that so I wouldn’t necessarily expect miracles.) A spa visit is expensive, but the ingredients for a homemade body wrap are cheap and easy to obtain. Most of the ingredients are available at the grocery store, and the others can be found at soap supply companies (like Majestic Mountain Sage or Snowdrift Farm), some health food stores, or Amazon.

Equipment:

• Wrap sheets – You can purchase “mud sheets,” but thin towels or even Ace bandages are fine.
• A mixing bowl.
• A nonreactive (stainless steel or enamel) pot with at least a gallon capacity.
• A nonreactive (stainless, plastic, or wooden) spoon.

Ingredients:

• 8 cups (2 quarts) of water
• 2 cups of cosmetic clay – Choose Bentonite if you have oily skin and Kaolin if your skin is dry.
• 1 cup of salt – Any kind will work: Sea salt (which may include additional minerals), “cosmetic” salts like Hawaiian Red or Himalayan Pink, or plain old kosher salt. Don’t use table salt that has an anti-caking agent added. You can also replace some or all of the salt (sodium chloride) with epsom salts (potassium chloride).
• 1 cup of powdered seaweed – Use one or a mixture of kelp, Irish moss, bladderwrack, or other seaweeds.
• 1 cup of powdered herbs – Use one or a mixture of herbs such as green tea, peppermint, lavender, chamomile, or rose petals. You can powder dried herbs yourself in a blender or food processor. Take care when using flowers (such as chamomile) if you tend to have pollen allergies, and if you’re pregnant make sure you research whether your chosen herb can cause health problems (goldenseal, mugwort, and pennyroyal can call cause uterine contractions, for instance).

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