Treat Yourself to a Midwinter Spa Day: A Homemade Herbal Valentine’s Gift to Yourself!

By Beth Schreibman Gehring

It’s midwinter, and many of us are stuck inside due to cold weather. To beat the winter blues and celebrate St. Valentine’s Day, why not treat yourself to a homemade herbal spa day? A day spent like this is a perfect opportunity to connect with yourself and bring the beauty of nature inside.

Herbal spa days are an easy and romantic way to soften your dry, parched winter skin using ingredients such as rose petals, essential oils, jasmine, and coconut oil. They can help you create lotions, potions, and body butters that are not only good for your skin, but also have a relaxing and rejuvenating effect on your body, mind, and soul.

To begin, gather all the ingredients you will need for your homemade herbal spa day. I’m including some of my favorite recipes here, or you can find recipes for body butters, lotions, and potions online, and use them to create your own unique blends. Some popular essential oils for skin care include lavender, rose, geranium, and jasmine. You can also add dried flowers, such as rose petals or jasmine blossoms, to your blends for an extra special touch.

I always tell my clients that if you can eat it…you can generally put it on your body. For the most part, this is very safe advice, but always be on the alert for any kind of allergic response to any ingredient you choose.

Here are some of my favorite ingredients for home-crafted body care lotions and potions: 

I love to use raw honey, because it’s naturally antibacterial, full of antioxidants, moisturizing, and very soothing. So, it’s great for calming broken out and parched skin, giving your complexion a needed lift. Its inclusion in any recipe really helps create a glow. Combined with ingredients like ghee, avocado, and green clay, raw honey makes a wonderful face and hair masque.   

I am never without sterile French green clay, because it’s a wonderful base for any face or body masque; it’s like a mini mud bath you can use at home! I’ll often mix green clay with olive oil and a gentle essential oil, like rose oil, to make a simple face masque that I pat on, leave for 15 minutes, and then wash off.

Himalayan salt is another great ingredient for nourishing my skin–it’s like Epsom salts, only better, when used in a bath. The salt eases everyday aches and pains, and it’s also my favorite salt to use in homemade salt scrubs.

Ghee–or clarified butter–is a terrific moisturizer for skin and hair. In my observation, ghee seems to bring a soft glow to the skin that most other oils don’t. It also doesn’t smell odd when you use it the way that regular butter would, making it a wonderful base ingredient for infusing essential oils and fragrant petals for skin softening treats.

To make my favorite body butter, take one cup of ghee and scoop it into a small bowl. Add six drops of rose essential oil, six drops of jasmine essential oil, and three drops of holy basil essential oil. Beat this together with a fork until incorporated. Use as you would any body butter. I particularly love this blend, because it is so very good for your vitality, mood, AND your skin.

If you are lucky enough to have a blooming jasmine plant, pick the fragrant blossoms and mix them gently into the butter, then place the container in a warm (not hot) place. After a few days, pick them out. You will have what is known as jasmine enfleurage. Enfleurage is the perfumer’s art of creating scent by having fragrant flowers release their oils into fat.

Full of fatty acids, coconut oil is another one of my favorite moisturizers for skin and hair. It can be used to remove makeup, but I think it’s at its best when mixed with some coarse brown sugar and a couple drops of your favorite essential oil to make a luscious sugar scrub. All by itself, coconut oil makes a wonderful massage oil, but when blended with a bit of vanilla essential oil, it becomes a heavenly treat.

So, to begin this blissful day, find a quiet corner in your home where you can create a peaceful and calming atmosphere. Buy yourself some beautiful fresh flowers beforehand. Light some candles, play some soothing music, and get ready to pamper yourself. Our goal for this day is pure connection. Bring nature inside. Begin by taking a few minutes to shut your eyes and meditate or take a few cleansing breaths. I like to keep a journal nearby to write down any thoughts that come up before I start. This is more for emptying and quieting the mind, so that I can fully enjoy the treats I’ve prepared!

Once you have gathered everything you are going to use, start by taking a warm bath or shower to open your pores and prepare your skin for all the pampering it’s about to receive. After your bath, apply your homemade lotions and potions to your skin, focusing on areas that are particularly dry. Take your time to massage the products into your skin, letting the ingredients work their magic.

To finish pampering yourself on Valentine’s Day–or any day–I don’t think there’s anything more glorious than a relaxing foot bath. In this recipe, I’ve used pine essential oil, a fragrance that I love for promoting emotional balance, as well as respiratory support, and rose geranium, an oil that I use to help reduce hot flashes in women of a certain age! To make this foot bath, I use hot water, about a cup of Himalayan salt, many of my favorite smooth rocks and crystals that I’ve brought back from the many rivers and seas I’ve visited, two cups of fresh kombucha of any flavor, which is glorious for gently exfoliating the skin, and fresh catnip and rose geranium leaves, whose scents can promote relaxation and joy.  I use three drops of each oil that I wish, but no more than two different oils, and I always add 1/4 teaspoon of olive oil to diffuse the essential oils.

Soak your feet for 15 minutes, drink a relaxing cup of tea, and then dry your feet. Finish by exfoliating with the sugar or salt scrub of your choice, rinse again, and smooth your feet with some of that glorious jasmine body butter. Then, put on a pair of warmed socks and enjoy.

Finally, finish your spa day by wrapping yourself in a soft warm blanket and enjoy the peace and quiet. Take a few deep breaths, and let yourself relax completely and even drift off to sleep for a while. When you awaken, pay close attention, because often the first thoughts upon waking can be the catalysts for important life changes. When you are ready, enjoy another cup of tea or a glass of wine and savor the moment. Don’t forget a delicious piece of chocolate!

A homemade herbal spa day like this one is a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine’s Day and connect with yourself in a way that is normally difficult to do with our busy schedules. It’s a simple and inexpensive way to bring nature inside during this time of the year and help alleviate the midwinter doldrums.

Medicinal Disclaimer: It is the policy of The Herb Society of America, Inc. not to advise or recommend herbs for medicinal or health use. This information is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as a recommendation or an endorsement of any particular medical or health treatment. Please consult a health care provider before pursuing any herbal treatments.

Photo Credits: 1) Winter scene (C. Moore); 2) Dried herbs (Canva); 3) Dried rose buds (Victor Wong, Creative Commons); 4) Herbal body butter (Canva); 5) Tea and journal (Canva); 6) Tea (Canva).

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Beth Schreibman Gehring is a lover of all things green, delicious, growing, beautiful, magical, and fragrant. She’s also a lifestyle blogger, storyteller, and occasional wedding and party planner who uses an ever-changing seasonal palette of love, life, and food to help her readers and clients fall madly in love with their lives! Beth lives and works with Jim, her husband of 40 years, and is owned by 17 full sets of vintage dishes, hundreds of books, two cats, one dog, a horse, a swarm of wild honeybees, a garden full of herbs, fruit, vegetables, and old rambling roses, too many bottles of vintage perfume and very soon, a flock of heirloom chickens! In 2014 she took a stab at writing a book called Stirring the Senses: How to Fall Madly in Love with Your Life and Make Everyday a Day for Candles & Wine. Available on Amazon! Join her in her gardens at https://bethschreibmangehring.substack.com/, or contact her at  beth.gehring@stirringthesenses.com

Love and Gardening on St. Valentine’s Day

By Beth Schreibman-Gehring

“ I work at my garden all the time and with love. What I need most are flowers, always.

                                                My heart is forever in Giverny. “

                                                                                                         – Claude Monet

It’s St. Valentines Day, and the whole world smells as if it’s been dipped in a gigantic vat of roses, violet-flavored marshmallows, and chocolate-covered strawberries. It’s been absolutely freezing here in Northeast Ohio, so like most of my herb loving friends, I’m tucked away inside with stacks of rose, seed, tree, and other various and sundry plant catalogs.

Personally? I’m also eating plenty of chocolates and drinking a cup of homemade rose petal and chocolate chai! You‘ll find that recipe below, and I think you will love it!

I have spent many a Valentine’s Day in this way, but as I started writing this, I began thinking about the year that my husband asked me to meet him in France at the tail end of a business trip he’d been on in Spain. It was my very first trip to Paris, and I was completely enchanted by the city and the people I met. Valentine’s Day that year was perfect. We started with tea at Ladurée, where I enjoyed an absolutely delicious pot of jasmine tea and a delectable pastry filled with rosewater and cardamom crème topped with rose petals and fresh raspberries. We ended the day with a fabulous meal of raw oysters and confit of duck on a bed of lentils, with a sauce of orange, lavender, ginger, and honey and, of course, plenty of Champagne, because, after all, we were in Paris!

In between tea and dinner, Jim and I walked hand in hand through the shops and the markets. The shops in Paris are always wonderful, but February the 14th finds them filled with all of the beautiful symbols of romantic love that the French are known for: beautifully hand-dipped and painted chocolates, the softest and most luscious caramels, fabulous perfume, and gorgeous lingerie. But in truth, it’s the flower shops and market stalls that I remember the most, filled with gorgeous bouquets of all kinds and friendly men and women eager and willing to have patient conversations with me (not easy with my limited French!) about their beautiful flowers, produce, breads, cheeses, preserves, and teas. As I wandered happily sniffing and shooting picture after picture, I began to think of my father. It took me a moment, but suddenly I realized why.

When I was a child, our lives completely changed the year that my parents went to France for the first time. I’ll never forget it, because my father went first to Paris and then Giverny and came home a man enchanted. Life at home wasn’t the same after that. It was as if he’d discovered something there in the culture and the landscape, a part of his artistic soul that he’d been missing all along.

Besides possessing a Masters in Biology, Dad was also an excellent painter. But until that trip, he hadn’t paid much attention to his yard. The three acres that we had were pretty basic; what had once been a victory garden lovingly tended by my father and grandfather was covered by a swimming pool. And as for flowers? There were mostly annuals and some pretty boring ones at that. 

Until that trip to Giverny.

My father came home from France and realized what his painting had been lacking the entire time: context, or as the French would say, a raison d’être. Dad set out to build his own garden paradise, and he did so with an absolute passion. I wasn’t at all surprised. Even at a very young age, I could see that my dad was wildly romantic, and after experiencing the gardens that Monet had painted in, he couldn’t help but follow in his footsteps.

That entire winter, life became about his garden, planning his borders, reading and learning about all of the plants that he’d fallen in love with when he was in France. That spring, he began to build the beds, amending the soil, and planting the foundation plants. Within two years, his entire property was completely transformed. His favorites were the fragrant old roses, but his lilies, irises, and peonies were just as luscious. His beds were also filled with every kind of fragrant herb and flower imaginable; everything he touched just thrived. Not one to rely on traditional pesticides, antifungals, and commercial fertilizers to keep his plants healthy, he worked with his soil, which was as rich, sweet, and dark as the chocolate many of us are enjoying today. Every plant had a companion or two, specifically chosen to help it stay healthy and as pest free as possible.

His roses never had that much trouble with black spot, beetles, or mildew…rarely were there bothersome pests that took over and destroyed everything. My father, ever the biologist, always planted with the  pollinators in mind, stressing native plants like serviceberry, aronia, and American cranberry alongside his beautiful flowers. He loved milkweeds and watching the Monarch butterflies. He had a carefully tended patch of sweet woodruff that was always covered with honeybees, which he used to make May wine every spring, and he loved plants like pokeberry and comfrey, letting them grow wherever they wanted to, because he knew that they were biodynamic accumulators—plants that gather nutrients from the soil to store them in a more bioavailable form. At the end of the gardening year, he’d chop these into his beds as mulch.

My father’s gardens had the fattest honeybees and bumblebees, the biggest and juiciest earthworms, and wonderful snakes that would slither through on occasion, much to the delight of his grandsons. He was generous with his knowledge, and he taught me everything I know about building soil and keeping plants healthy without resorting to the use of chemicals. He loved to share his gardens with everyone, especially his children and grandchildren. As I got older, summer nights would find us wandering together with martinis and hoses…watering, mulching, and laughing, and later, would find us in his living room talking about the garden and listening to his extensive collection of classical music. My father lived such an artistic life in so many ways, and he loved to encourage us to do so as well. He was the first person to encourage me to follow my instincts for herbalism, and he is single-handedly responsible for my love affair with old roses and all of the things that I’ve learned over the years to make from their hips and petals.

When I came back from Paris, I began to remember my father’s lessons from his gardens, and as a result, I slowed down. I began to plan my gardens instead of just buying every plant in sight. I began asking myself what would bring me joy—to look at, to smell, and to taste. I began to think of my gardens as an extension of my inner life, my artistic life. That was when my gardens began to find their way into my kitchen, my vases, and my dreams. Everything became connected. When you look at pictures of Giverny, you can see what I mean.

You see that there is a “whole.” The house is the garden, and the garden is the house…there really is no separation.  

Even though my father passed away before I got to share with him the joys of my own trip to Paris, I know that he’d understand when I say that our Valentine’s Day trip brought my life as a gardener into focus. Although I did not go to Giverny as he did, my wandering through France, talking with the florists and farmers, connected me to what he learned so long ago on his own pilgrimage there.

If he were still alive, he would say that gardening is not difficult, but it requires an open heart, an open mind, and a sketchpad; that there is a time to plant and a time to rest; that learning to water correctly is about listening, asking, and observing; that the soil is alive; and that most often, all you need is a great layer of compost. Lastly, that every plant has a best friend that it depends upon for support.

Much like we all do.

I wish you all the loveliest St. Valentine’s Day wherever you find yourself planted.

Rose Petal and Chocolate Chai (no added tea)

You will need:

6 Tablespoons of coconut sugar (if you like it sweeter, add more)

2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon

2 Tablespoons of really good cocoa powder

2 tablespoons of finely ground organic rose petals (you can grind these in a coffee grinder)

2 Tablespoons of ground cardamom

1 tablespoon of ground ginger

1 teaspoon of ground Chinese five spice

3/4 teaspoon of ground allspice

1 inch of split vanilla bean (you’ll leave that in there for flavor)

Mix all of these ingredients together in a bowl with a whisk to break the clumps of ginger.

Store in a tightly covered mason jar away from the light.

To make a cup, take one level tablespoon without the vanilla bean (you can always add more, but be careful, it’s spicy!) and place it into a saucepan with a pat of organic butter. Add a cup and a half of almond milk or whatever milk you enjoy. Heat slowly , whisking the entire time to help the cocoa melt. You can also use a hand frother, or a Vitamix if you have one, once the mixture is hot. Sweeten to taste with more coconut sugar or maple syrup.

This recipe is entirely adjustable. Once you make it the first time, you’ll know how you like it. I’ve been known to add even more chocolate!

Photo credits: 1) Cup of Rose Petal and Chocolate Chai; 2) Dessert at Ladurée restaurant in Paris, France; 3) One of the flower shops in Montmartre, France; 4) Monet’s home in Giverny, France (Stock photo on Canva); 5) Author’s father’s sweet woodruff patch; 6) Author’s father’s comfrey patch; 7) Author’s father’s Rosa rugosa; 8) Dried rose petals the author uses for potpourri, jams, and teas. (All photos courtesy of the author except #4.)

 

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Beth Schreibman-Gehring is the Chairman of Education for the Western Reserve Herb Society, a unit of The Herb Society of America. She is also a member of Les Dames de Escoffier International (Cleveland), The Herb Society of the United Kingdom, The International Herb Association, The Herb Society of America, and Herbalists without Borders. Her book, Stirring the Senses! Creating Magical Environments & Feasts for All Seasons, can be found on Amazon.