FitSugar

At Home Spa Treatment: Coffee Scrub

FitSugar — Fri, 11 May 2007 14:30:00 PDT

I like the idea of whipping up an at home spa treatment with ingredients found in my kitchen cupboard. Recently, I came across not one, but two coffee scrubs and I thought I should tell you about them.

The first one, from Spa Index is an exfoliation scrub. All you need is:

2 cups of coarsely ground coffee

1/2 cup raw sugar or sea salt

2-3 T massage oil, or olive

Here's what you do:
Mix all ingredients together. Apply in hot shower after your skin is evenly moistened and your pores are open. Using wide, circular motions, rub the coffee mixture onto your skin with strong, even pressure. Rinse off, pat skin dry, and apply a thin layer of your favorite body lotion.

The second coffee rub, from Care2 claims to be a cellulite buster. I have seen many spas offering coffee cellulite treatments, and I don't believe anything like scrubbing your bum with coffee will get rid of the dimples. Cellulite occurs in 50 - 90 % of women regardless of their age or clothing size. But this scrub is an interesting variation on the coffee theme so I am sharing it with you.

Want to see what you need for this one? Then

1/4 cup warm used, caffeinated coffee grounds

tablespoon of olive oil

newspaper

1 roll of plastic wrap

Here's what you do:
Mix coffee and olive oil. Place newspaper on your bathroom floor. Apply coffee mixture to the cellulite area with your hands or a loofah. Some will fall onto the floor, hence the newspaper, you just need a thin layer of the scrub on your skin.

Wrap the area with plastic wrap, and keep it covered for several minutes. This might be a good time to give yourself a pedicure.

When your toe nail polish is dry, or you're just plain bored of hanging out dressed in nothing but coffee and plastic wrap, unwrap yourself and brush off the excess coffee mixture. Shower with warm water.

It is suggested that for best results you should repeat this process twice a week.

So maybe coffee is a pick me up for the skin too.

Fabio Viviani: His Best One-Liners

Susannah Chen — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:49:29 PST

After a very late night the evening before, we were kicking ourselves for signing up for a Bertolli demo with Fabio Viviani at 9 a.m. the next day. But he greeted us with coffee (scratch that - cappuccinos!), and gave us a warm Italian welcome (you'd have never known that he'd gone to bed at 4:30 a.m.). "I'm not famous enough to have my own party in South Beach, but I do like to cook," Fabio said, as he introduced himself humorously before making fresh pasta. After that, we knew we'd be OK.

In fact, we were more than just OK - we were in stitches with the former Top Cheffer's zingers. To see a few of his best quotables from the morning, keep reading.

Healthy Ways to Take Advantage of a Leisurely Weekend Morning

FitSugar — Fri, 13 May 2011 18:12:21 PDT

Ah, the weekend. If you're used to a hectic work week, Saturday and Sunday mornings are the best time to spend some time doing the things you weren't able to get to during the rest of the week.

While weekends are good for long workouts, they also can be great for doing things that don't even require you to lace up your running shoes. Here are some healthy things to you can do when you are getting your day going.

Stretch in bed. These can help energize you when you just want the alarm clock to stop buzzing during the week, but taking a few more minutes to do a series of them will make you feel amazing. From a spinal twist to a cobra, do a few stress-releasing stretches before you shuffle out of bed.
Make like a barista. Weekday coffee may be just whatever you can grab on your way to work, but take some time on the weekend to figure out your favorite way to be caffeinated. A little bit of coffee has been proven to have many benefits - from reducing your risk of certain diseases to improving your memory - so if you're a coffee drinker now's the time to brew the perfect cup, experiment with a French press, and otherwise be able to fully appreciate the beverage.
Contemplate. The benefits of weekend mornings is that you can take time to do something you may not have time to do on during the week - nothing. Whether it's through meditation or just curling up with a book, you'll be relieving stress and releasing the work week's anxieties.
Have a healthy shower. There are so many things you can do in the shower besides lather up and shave. Take some time on the weekend to do things you may feel like you don't have time for during the week, like using a homemade body scrub or relieving congestion with an in-shower neti pot.

Natural Beauty Products That Invigorate the Senses

Jaime Richards — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 04:02:26 PDT

April is Earth Month, a great time to re-energize with eco-friendly beauty products. So wake up and smell the coffee. Coffee soap, that is, with BodyCoffee's energizing body bar ($9), a glycerin-based bar soap made with coffee and peppermint extract. Or if you prefer to get clean with a liquid product instead, try Organic Surge's invigorating shower gel in citrus mint ($6), a high-foaming gel that will perk you right up in the morning. From a lemony scrub to an energizing lotion to a scent-stimulating fragrance made with food-grade ingredients, just click on any of the images above to discover more.

5 Surprising Household Uses For Denture Cleaner

CasaSugar — Tue, 03 May 2011 10:00:00 PDT

I don't wear dentures, but I have worn a retainer, which I cleaned with Efferdent. The experience was valuable not just for keeping my teeth straight but also for educating me on the wonders of denture cleaner.

After seeing how well the effervescent tablets cleaned tiny nooks, I started experimenting on other tough-to-clean items; believe it or not, they are great for cleaning the rubber casings on my earbuds.

Trust me, these tablets are amazing at cleaning hard-to-reach spots, and they're cheap: 120 tablets of Efferdent costs less than $8, and the generic version is even cheaper. To see five surprising ways to use denture cleaner around the house,

Clean the toilet. Drop two or three tablets into the bowl, let them sit for 10 to 15 minutes, then give it a scrub.
Remove burnt food. Get rid of the browned bits on your Pyrex by soaking the dishes in denture cleaner and warm water for half and hour to an hour. Follow with dish soap as usual.
Remove stains on ceramic. Whether it's a coffee-stained cup or a stem-stained vase, fill it with water, drop in a tablet, and let it soak for 15 minutes.
Unclog a drain. Break up a denture tablet (or several) so the pieces fall into the drain trap, then run hot water down the drain.
Clean tea kettles, coffee carafes, and thermoses. Get rid of the stains and mineral deposits on metal-lined carafes by filling them with water, dropping in two tablets, and leaving it overnight. Then clean thoroughly with soap and water.

Have you tried any of these? Found any other uses for denture cleaning tablets?