{"id":4167,"date":"2009-10-06T07:45:50","date_gmt":"2009-10-06T11:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=4167"},"modified":"2009-10-01T16:05:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-01T20:05:00","slug":"diy-body-wrap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=4167","title":{"rendered":"DIY Body Wrap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Body wraps are popular in spas these days; they help tone and tighten the skin and can soothe minor skin ailments.  (They&#8217;re also reported to help &#8220;detoxify&#8221; the body and eliminate cellulite but I haven&#8217;t actually seen any scientific studies on that so I wouldn&#8217;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 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesage.com\/\">Majestic Mountain Sage<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.snowdriftfarm.com\/\">Snowdrift Farm<\/a>), some health food stores, or Amazon.<\/p>\n<p><b>Equipment:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wrap sheets &#8211; You can purchase &#8220;mud sheets,&#8221; but thin towels or even Ace bandages are fine.<\/li>\n<li>A mixing bowl.<\/li>\n<li>A nonreactive (stainless steel or enamel) pot with at least a gallon capacity.<\/li>\n<li>A nonreactive (stainless, plastic, or wooden) spoon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Ingredients:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>8 cups (2 quarts) of water<\/li>\n<li>2 cups of cosmetic clay &#8211; Choose <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bentonite-Powder-Clay-lb-Frontier\/dp\/B000UY8738\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&#038;s=hpc&#038;tag=shadmano-20&#038;qid=1254423023&#038;sr=1-1\">Bentonite<\/a> if you have oily skin and <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Kaolin-Powder-Clay-lb-Frontier\/dp\/B000UYIQZC\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&#038;s=hpc&#038;tag=shadmano-20&#038;qid=1254422976&#038;sr=1-1\">Kaolin<\/a> if your skin is dry.<\/li>\n<li>1 cup of salt &#8211; Any kind will work: Sea salt (which may include additional minerals), &#8220;cosmetic&#8221; salts like Hawaiian Red or Himalayan Pink, or plain old kosher salt.  Don&#8217;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).<\/li>\n<li>1 cup of powdered seaweed &#8211; Use one or a mixture of <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Kelp-Atlantic-Powder-Organic-Ascophyllum\/dp\/B001A1VI8Q\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&#038;tag=shadmano-20&#038;s=hpc&#038;qid=1254421867&#038;sr=8-1\">kelp<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Frontier-Irish-Moss-powder\/dp\/B000UY86CU\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&#038;s=hpc&#038;tag=shadmano-20&#038;qid=1254423825&#038;sr=8-1\">Irish moss<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bladderwrack-Powder-Organic-vesiculosus-Botanicals\/dp\/B002DXZE8A\/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&#038;s=hpc&#038;qid=1254424098&#038;sr=8-2\">bladderwrack<\/a>, or other seaweeds.<\/li>\n<li>1 cup of powdered herbs &#8211; 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&#8217;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).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><b>Instructions:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bring the water to a boil, remove from heat, and add all of the ingredients.  Let sit 15-20 minutes or until it is comfortable to the touch.<\/li>\n<li>Once cooled, you can add any of these optional ingredients:\n<ul>\n<li>1 cup apple cider vinegar (reduce the amount of water used by 1 cup) &#8211; Tones and tightens skin.<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup colloidal oatmeal powder &#8211; Softens and soothes irritated skin.<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup milk powder (buttermilk, goat&#8217;s milk, or whole milk) &#8211; Helps moisturize skin.<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 cup honey powder &#8211; Acts as an antibacterial and humectant.<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 cup liquid lethicin &#8211; Helps condition and moisturize skin.<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup yogurt or cucumber puree (reduce the water used by 1\/2 cup) &#8211; Soothes irritated skin.<\/li>\n<li>Several drops of essential oil  &#8211; Lavender, lemon, rosemary, lemongrass, patchouli, rose, bergamot, etc.  Make sure that the oil is skin-safe (instead of the &#8220;fragrance oils&#8221; used for scenting things like candles), and again double-check for usage if you&#8217;re pregnant.<\/li>\n<li>2 tablespoons vegetable\/seed oil &#8211; Sweet almond, apricot kernel, avocado, grapeseed, jojoba, olive, etc.  Helps with dry skin.  Don&#8217;t use more than 2 Tbsp or the wrap won&#8217;t be as effective.<\/li>\n<li>A few drops of Vitamin E oil &#8211; Moisturizer and antioxidant.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Mix thoroughly.<\/li>\n<li>Brush down your skin with a body brush or dry loofah, or take a warm shower (don&#8217;t shave your legs immediately before a wrap, because ouch).<\/li>\n<li>Dip the sheets into the wrap mixture one and a time and wrap your body, starting at the ankles.<\/li>\n<li>Keep warm and relax for an hour.<\/li>\n<li>Unwrap and take a warm (not hot) bath.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Much<\/em> cheaper than a spa treatment, and you don&#8217;t have to have a stranger see you naked.  Unless you want to.  I won&#8217;t judge.<\/p>\n<p>A body wrap kit also makes a lovely gift: Mix the dry ingredients and package in a tea tin or pretty plastic jar (it&#8217;s not a good idea to package bath products in glass) and include measurements for any perishable ingredients and instructions for use.  An at-home spa treatment might be a fun &#8220;bridesmaids&#8217; day out&#8221; too: Provide a selection of ingredients, instructions for mixing their own personal blend, and lots of towels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Body wraps are popular in spas these days; they help tone and tighten the skin and can soothe minor skin ailments. (They&#8217;re also reported to help &#8220;detoxify&#8221; the body and eliminate cellulite but I haven&#8217;t actually seen any scientific studies on that so I wouldn&#8217;t necessarily expect miracles.) A spa visit is expensive, but the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doom-it-yourself","category-terror-in-the-aisle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4167"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4561,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4167\/revisions\/4561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}