Recipes by Flora Eyster

     Before your wedding day try to plan the following schedule of luxury. You’ll be relaxed and really glowing!

MASSAGE BY PROFESSIONALS

     Stage a professional massage schedule one per week for two to three weeks prior to your wedding day. Easy going, full hour massage is best. Result: very relaxed, focused and centered you. Treat your lover too, if he feels game.

MINERAL WATER AND HYDRATION SKIN VALUE

     Drink at least 10-12 glasses of MINERAL WATER, (Appolinaris for example), daily. I personally consume about 3 liters a day. Really! The result is a natural diuretic and slimming results. Your complexion really responds well. If you drink this much water all the time, be sure and check that your vitamins and supplements are not being leached out of your system though!

ORGANIC CHOCOLATE FACIAL MASK AND BATH

    Scentsational Chocolate Mask and Bath Tip

     I’m saving the best for last! Take a nice, full, warm bath with some favorite essential oil added—say about 5-10 drops of Aura Cacia’s lavender, lemon or lime essence. To this, add 3 tablespoons of either Organic Hazelnut Oil (Rapunzel Company), or Organic Avocado Oil (Rapunzel Company). Hazelnut is my favorite combo. Stir oils in with a wire chef’s whisk.

     Purchase a can of Organic Unsweetened Dogaba Cacao Powder. Keep this powder well sealed and dry. Measure 3 tablespoons of the cacao powder into a nice ceramic bowl. Take it into the bath area with you. Towel your hair up and out of your face! Use a dark color as the chocolate may leave traces of color.

     After soaking in the fragrant bath, mix a little warm water into the cacao making a paste that is thick enough to spread evenly over your face, neck and shoulders. (Too runny won’t stick and too thick won’t spread on evenly, so play around with the paste thickness.) Spread this very generously on your face; it is very gentle so your eye area is even inviting.

     Allow the mask to remain on while you soak, for about 20 minutes. It will slightly dry and “set” into your skin. Rinse off the facial chocolate in the bath and stay in a little longer to pamper the rest of you while soaking in the nice chocolate “stew.”

     The smell is amazing; the results for y our skin and face are sensational. Try to use the suggested products. It pays off in quality. Certainly do not use any product with sugar added—even though organic sugar is a nice sloughing agent. (I store my cacao container in the freezer in a zip lock between uses to stay fresh.)

WEDDING DAY COOL MIST

     On your wedding day stay cool—try misting with a few drops of Aura Cacia’s lavender or rose essential oils added to Apollinaris mineral water in a very fine mister. Be sure and use only a few drops in the mister then shake when you first prepare it.

     This will keep your oils and skin under control and cool the “day of.” It also sets your make up base if you use it over your powder then apply one final LIGHT coat of powder over the dried cooling mist. Berts Bees company makes one of my favorite prepared misters called “Carrot Seed Oil Complexion Mist.” It is the best!