to celebrate the silky feel of herb-infused grapeseed oil on your hands, and the aroma of just-harvested lemon verbena that elevates your mood just by its fresh fragrance. Do words exist that truly describe the way mint tingles? My answer to myself was: Try as I might to tease and entice, there are just no words that can do full justice to the herbal spa experience itself.
And so I give you my heartfelt invitation to discover for yourself the beyond-words gifts from the herbal garden – your garden – to immerse yourself in the healing qualities of herbs, to care for your body and engage your senses.
What’s Inside
The book is presented in three parts: Surround, Grow and Create.
■ Surround helps you envision a setting that says ahhh to your soul, much the way a great destination spa can do. This is not about replacing that luxurious experience, it is about capturing it. The destination spa for most of us is a quiet moment in the bathtub. Now go beyond that. Let this part of the book inspire you to create your own personal spa environment – its design, colors and textures – whether it’s a private corner of your garden or a place of retreat inside your home, or all of the above.
■ Grow is about the plants. There are hundreds of plants that are classified as healing herbs, many with excellent qualities to use in spa treatments. For this book, my objective was to keep everything accessible. The list of herbs is small (19), rather than comprehensive. They are common and well known, and they will thrive in a diversity of climates. I want them to be easy for you to grow and use. The recipes in the book use only the 19 herbs I’ve profiled. (The same goes for other ingredients you’ll use in your spa concoctions: recipes using exotic and/or hard to find things were not included. I also stayed away from things that might be risky or have high sensitivity in their interaction with skin and body care.)
Once you have your spa surroundings and your fragrant herbs, it’s time to bring it all together.
■ Create is about the recipes – lots and lots of them, along with some fun DIY projects. I’ve put information about ingredients, kitchen tools and preparation right up-front, so you don’t have to keep turning to the back of the book to check on something. The recipes are grouped around 11 themes, with names like “Get Steamy” and “The Top-To-Bottom Scrub Experience.” The themes are yours to explore and be inspired to experiment with. Plan a romantic evening and use the vanilla infused oil (the Après-Scrub Skin Oil) recipe as a massage oil. Gift friends with homemade scrubs (try Lavender Spa Salt Glow) labeled with a personalized note of encouragement to pamper themselves. Throw a bridal shower and make it a foot spa party (double the recipe for Peppermint Foot Soak) to treat your guests.
■ ■ ■
Please stay in touch about your home spa adventures. Let me know what worked, what didn’t, and what you adapted or invented that you’d like to share with others. I hope you enjoy this book!
Warm wishes,
Sue
■ SPA: A LITTLE HISTORY AND LORE ■
The origin of the word spa is a bit ambiguous. It may have come from the word espa, which translates as fountain in the French-Belgian Walloon dialect. Then there is the reputation of the Belgian town of Spa, which is noted as far back as the 1500s, when Henry VIII came there for its healing pools of therapeutic waters… and even before that, when its waters were written about by the 1st century naturalist Pliny the Elder. One way or the other, the word has come down to us as a source of health and pleasure.
“Taking the waters”
All through history, people have been “taking the waters” in places like Spa and around the world – whether it be lounging along the edges of natural earthen pools or enjoying the amenities of elaborate public bathhouses. If you look at the evolution of bathing you will find that cultures everywhere have their own rituals of soaking in water. In the Western world, physicians have long prescribed bathing in waters full of minerals, herbs and other naturally occurring chemicals, to heal whatever one’s ailment was. In ancient Greece, bathing was beginning to move from simple hygiene to a communal experience, with bathhouses created for the purpose. Sparta had even developed a kind of steam bath. But it was the Romans who raised the simple ritual of bathing to high art. Roman “thermae” were free public bathhouses used for physical fitness, social interaction and entertainment. They featured heated pools, massage, serene gardens – even libraries. I suspect those waters were awesome therapy, too, for great thinkers to debate global domination while immersed in the steaming water.
In cultures everywhere, we see the many facets of water treatment – from the simplicity of taking a bath in mineral water to full-cleansing, herb-laden therapeutic rituals in beautiful surroundings.
Fragrant herbs and essences
I was interested to discover that those Roman thermae often had perfume shops attached to them. Unlike the modern methods of perfume making (which are usually alcohol-based, with synthetic fragrance added) the ancient foundation of perfumery was based on immersing oneself in natural, aromatic herbs. The use of plants for fragrance dates back to the beginning of historical records, which describe methods of boiling, crushing, pressing and powdering. Plant extracts were used in bathing and for scenting and cleansing linens and clothes, the floors of the home, tiles, tents, horses, and even the sails of ships (more on that in a moment). In Elizabethan times, aromatic herb waters and cut stems of plants were sprinkled on floors to mask unpleasant odors.
As an example of the power of natural scents, consider how Cleopatra chose to use them. We know that she employed wit and charms to get her way in a dangerous world, including the use of precious plant oils. In an attempt to expand her political influence, she seduced Mark Antony by her lavish use of aromatics. Shakespeare, in Antony and Cleopatra, described the time when Antony first fell under her spell. There they were, on her magnificent gilded barge: “Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that the winds were love-sick with them…”
Value and demand made fragrant plants a commodity on a par with gold and silver. But beyond the fragrance were their treasured healing and nurturing qualities. And so, the ancient power of fragrance and the ritual of healing waters brings us full circle to what we think of as the spa experience: a way to care for the body and soul.
PART ONE
SURROUND
Every person has their “thing”
that helps them relax,
feel cared for and nurtured.
Ask five people what calms them and you will get five different answers. Our complex brain and sensory functions receive outside influence differently. For example, some of us like to have our feet rubbed, while others
