DIY Spa Day!

A few days ago I decided to have a fun, at home, DIY spa day! I tried out my first coconut oil hair mask as well as a sage tea face mask and wanted to share the results with you!

Let's start with the face mask recipe! I have been really into reusing my tea bags and this recipe re-uses a tea bag. Making one cup of tea with a tea bag doesn't necessarily use up all the good things in the tea. Many people make more than one cup of tea with the same tea bag, but I'm a bit picky on the taste of the second cup, so I have been trying to use my tea bags in different ways. Look forward to a post about this soon!

Here are a couple of my favourite teas to reuse on hair and skin. On the left is peppermint tea, which I often make a hair rinse out of, and on the right is the sage tea I used in my mask today.

I picked sage tea for this mask because my skin has had a few flare ups lately and sage is very soothing and calming both when ingested and for the skin. You could use any type of tea though, you just need to do a bit of research on which teas to use for different results. I added a few other ingredients that were either soothing or moisturizing as well, since it is dry here in the winter. On to the recipe!

Sage Tea Face Mask Ingredients:

- Contents of 1 sage tea bag (I re-use ones that I have already made tea with)
- 1 tbsp ground oats or oat flour
- 1/2 tsp coconut oil
- 1/2 tsp honey
- a few drops of water

Directions:

- place all ingredients but the water into a microwave safe container
- microwave for 10-15 seconds to melt the coconut oil and honey
- stir together and add water until you have a thick paste
- apply all over your face and leave on for 10-15 minutes
- wash it off and enjoy your fresh skin!

The face mask is a bit lumpy and difficult to apply to the face, but once on it really does have a calming, soothing feel to it. My skin was extremely soft after the mask and that lasted for about 2 days.

Next I did the coconut oil hair mask. I massaged about 2 tablespoons of coconut oil through my hair, from the root to the tip, and let it sit for about 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes it was time to wash out the coconut oil, which proved to be extremely difficult for someone who has gone no poo. I have to tell you that baking soda alone does NOT remove coconut oil from hair!!! I washed my hair that way about 3 times to no avail.

Eventually I turned to the internet for help and it told me to try a raw egg in my hair. This advice actually worked! For those of you using the no 'poo method, a raw egg is a very good cleanser! You can't use egg to clean your hair too often though, only about twice a month, otherwise your hair will have too much protein in it and become brittle.

This is the coconut oil I used, and the egg that eventually saved my hair!

In the end, my hair did turn out extremely soft and shiny, but I can no longer tell if it was the coconut oil, the egg or a combination of the two.

Well, that's it for my spa day! I highly recommend you try some version of the homemade face mask I made! you definitely don't need to follow the recipe exactly and you can try this with any tea you like!