I joined the mass of panic buyers at the store this morning to get provisions for the weekend, but my gloves got wet and cold. By the time I got home after my car was pushed up the hill by a very kind man, my hands were almost numb with cold, the skin was cracking and the joints were painful.
So I put on my paraffin wax bath!
Paraffin wax is a wonderful treatment for the hands and feet, but it can be used all over the body as well. If you have dry, cracked skin and want to have some warmth over joints, then this is the treatment for you. It helps stimulate the skin, and if you pop your favorite hand cream on underneath it, the paraffin will help your skin to absorb it so that your skin is left deeply nourished. The paraffin treatments also help to cleanse the skin; sloughing off dead skin cells and correcting the acid mantle of the skin, leaving your pH balance in tip top order.
Personally, I always opt for the luxurious treatment option and apply Dermalogica's MultiVitamin Power Recovery Masque on under my paraffin to help boost my skin's health with the vitamin rich complexes. I then follow this with the Multivitamin Hand And Nail Treatment, which I feel is just heaven for dry skin and nails.
So, how do you use your paraffin wax bath?
- Follow your manufacturers instructions. Commonly the wax baths will only have two settings; on and off, so you are sure that the wax is heated to the correct temperature at around 46c. So pop the wax in and set it to on and leave it for about an hour to heat up.
- Get two ziplock bags and three fresh fluffy towels, a cuticle stick and a nail file along with your hand care products.
- Take off any nail varnish; it's nice to make sure that the nail plates get treated along with the whole hand.
- Enjoy cleansing your hands; wash them in some lovely Conditioning Body Wash and exfoliate them with Exfoliating Body Scrub.
- Pat dry on a fresh fluffy towel.
- Grab a cuticle stick and very gently push the cuticles back.
- Tidy up those nails with a nail file.
- Get the two zip-lock type bags and open them up so that it is easy to pop your hands inside.
- Fold the two clean hand towels so that you can slip each hand in without having to move the towels around.
- Massage a generous amount of your hand cream or masque into the hands, concentrating on all the dry and cracked areas.
- Now, dip your hands into the wax bath one at a time taking great care not to burn yourself! Dip them, take them out and repeat about four or five times so you get a few layers going on.
- Put your hands in the zip locks, then cover them with the towels. (This is why it's important to get it all ready before you start!)
- Enjoy the warmth for about 10-15mins.
- Slip your hands out of the ziplock and peel the paraffin off your hands (this is my very favorite part!)
- Massage any hand cream in that is left on the skin, or lightly rinse away the masque.
- Finnish up by applying the hand and nail cream and enjoy soft, pretty hands!
You can follow the same routine for feet as well, and I think it's really lovely for all of you who spend the day on them; Teachers, Store Assistants, Therapists (!), busy parents, and just about anyone who suffers from tired feet can benefit. Just do the same thing, but soak your feet in a foot bath whilst the wax is warming up.
In a foot bath I like to add some relaxing aromatherapy oils; get a teaspoon of almond oil and add a drop each of lavender, geranium and bergamot, then add to the warm water.
I hope that this helps you if you are snowed in and wanting to look after yourself whilst you have some unexpected free time. Be careful on the roads and don't risk it if it's not an emergency.
For all of you waiting for Base Knowledge The Third, it's coming next week! I'm just looking up some lovely information on macerated oils.
Looking forward to writing to you soon.
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