A Quick Note On Dressing

Making the Perfect Salad Dressing (for the bath)—What’s in the perfect salad dressing? Many would salt, vinegar, herbs of some sort, and oil.

One Sunday morning, there were several things I wanted to accomplish with my bath besides the obvious. I wanted to refresh my skin and hair and I didn’t want to come out all dry and pruney.  Plus, I was feeling a bit negative and wanted to wash all of that negativity down the drain.

Reading, shaving, soaking — I planned to be in there awhile.

The Salt

First, I added a cup of coarse-ground Himalayan sea salt to warm/hot running water. Sea salt does a number of things… it helps balance and tone the skin, it can be used as a body scrub — sloughing off dead skin, and metaphysically it is used to help eliminate negative energy. I buy my sea salt in the food sections of stores like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, or Home Goods. In these stores, you can buy a pound or more for about $3.50, whereas at a health food store, that same pound could easily cost up to $9 or $10 with sea salt running at about $ .55 an ounce.

The Vinegar

Second, two cups of apple cider vinegar were added to the water. Vinegar is truly amazing, and it will be mentioned in many posts to come (as will sea salt). Vinegar helps balance the pH levels of skin, plus it can unclog pores, fight acne, help smooth wrinkles, and calm red skin. It is good for you internally also, but that is a separate post. Always be sure to buy apple cider vinegar with “the mother.” It is this dingy cloud at the bottom of the bottle that contains the enzymes and trace minerals that makes it so effective (remember to shake the container to get a good mix).

The Herb of Some Sort

Third, I tossed in several sprigs of rosemary from the garden, running them through my fingers several times to release the oils and accompanying fragrance. Rosemary is a very stimulating herb whose fragrance will wake you up and help you stay alert. I use it in the car for long trips. You can place several drops of rosemary essential oil on a cotton ball and put that in a small bottle with a tight lid. That way the driver can use it as a “sniffer” and everyone else in the car can still nap and relax (you can give them lavender “sniffers” to help them chill).

I’ll share a quick story here — its thanks to rosemary that I really started to believe in — and understand — the incredible powers of essential oils. It was more than 40 years ago, and I had just started to learn about and use aromatherapy. It was fairly late evening and I took a wonderfully hot bath with a few drops of rosemary oil thrown in. Now, you don’t know me yet, I’m an early to bed kind of person, but I got out of that tub ready to accomplish something. I was up till after midnight, sweeping, putting away clothes, dusting (all totally out of character). My suggestion is that you only use rosemary in the bath in the morning — definitely not at night.

The Oil

So all bath projects completed, I then added about an eighth of a cup of safflower oil. I add the oil at the end of my bath, even after washing off, because I wanted the oil to trap the moisture on my skin so it leaves me feeling soft and smooth.  Also, I have a Jacuzzi tub, and I’m very careful what I pump through the system — no bubble bath, no oils.   It stays much cleaner this way!

So after I got out of the tub, I realized the bath ingredients were worthy of a salad.

Tossing it All Together

In light of that I want you to remember the famous words from Pretty Woman. You may recall that Vivian wanted Edward to hang out and probably get cuddly and he went downstairs to play the piano (crazy man):

Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts): Let’s watch old movies all night… we’ll just veg out in front of the TV.
Edward Lewis (Richard Gere): Veg out?
Vivian: Yeah. Be still like vegetables. Lay like broccoli.
Edward Lewis: Look, I’ll tell ya what. I’ll be back. We’ll do broccoli tomorrow.

I’m asking you to put yourself in Vivian’s shoes and pretend to be the salad vegetable of your choice, because soon you will be immersing yourself in the perfect dressing in your bathtub. I hope you have fun with the salad bath theme and pretend to be a head of romaine or a stalk of celery.

And what can you add? Perhaps cucumbers for your eyes? A different herb — thyme for example or even the spice turmeric (although you may come out a bit yellow). Sliced tomatoes on your face as a mask (yes they’re good for you)? Oh avocado! I just thought of avocado with its magnificent oils that are good for face and hair! You might want to use avocado.

Change up the oil, add Epsom salts… let me know your recipe for bath salad dressing!

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