It’s all about love this month…spreading love…being in love…coming from a loving place…unconditional love…self-love…head over heels in love…demonstrating love…sowing the seeds of love…

It can all start with your morning shower!
Try the uplifting, intoxicating aroma of Red Mandarin pure essential oil first thing when you wake up, and it will allow you to experience

“LA VIE EN ROSE“

throughout your day! This scent can’t help but make you feel the love - it’s so exhilarating!

We like it in our fabulous rose colored cream soaps.

Lather Up

Mandarin Dream Cream Hearts

32 oz. Shea Butter Melt and Pour Soap Base
2 Tablespoons Red Mandarin Pure Essential Oil
3 teaspoons French Pink Clay

Makes (9) 3.5 oz. bars (3 trays of 3 bars each) - we like to use Celtic Heart, Victorian Heart, Simple Heart, or Radiant Heart Milky Way Soap Molds for this one, available at www.brambleberry .com

In a 2 quart Pyrex measuring cup (or any microwavable dish), place cubed soap base, and cover top with plastic wrap. Leave a tiny opening to let steam escape. Microwave soap base for 2 minutes, remove from oven and stir. Put back in oven and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes, remove and stir. Put back and microwave for 1 minute, remove and stir. Soap should be close to melted. Place back in oven for 30 seconds, remove, stir and continue this process until all soap is completely melted. Ladle a small amount (start with 1/2 cup) soap base into a bowl and add the clay. Whisk until thoroughly incorporated, and then pour back into main bowl and whisk color all the way through the rest of the base until you get a uniform color. If you would like a more intense color, repeat the process with additional clay. Add essential oil, stir gently but well. Pour into molds, and spray with rubbing alcohol to pop bubbles and leave surface texture smooth.

If you need the soap that day, place molds in the freezer, and check after 20 minutes. Soap shouldn’t take too much longer to set. When completely hardened, push thumbs on the bottom of mold, underneath each soap bar, and gently pop them out of the mold. The only problem with freezing is you will ruin the integrity of these plastic molds faster. They tend to crack when using this method over just letting them air set. Let them come to room temperature. Pat dry and place in cello bags with a nice ribbon.

Body Scenting

For a spicy, full body, exfoliating “dry rub” that will leave you deliciously fragrant, and feeling texturally magnifiSCENT, try the following formulation.

You may just have most everything you need in your cupboard already, especially if you like to cook with flavorful ingredients! Pantry’s happen to hold some of life’s finest beauty care and therapeutic treatments available. If you don’t have all of the necessary components for this recipe, it’s okay - it just takes a little ingenuity. Just use your imagination, and I bet you will come up with something equally as fabulous!

Orange Blossom Almond Spice
Fragrance Paste

1 1/2 tablespoons ground almonds
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 pinches clove powder
1 pinch nutmeg powder
2 1/2 teaspoons sweet almond oil, or any light oil you have in the house
1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1-3 drops pure essential oil of Neroli
1-3 drops pure essential oil of Patchouli

A blend of equal parts Jasmine Sambac Absolute, Sandalwood, and Neroli is another heady blend (my friend Kris dubbed this scent “Liquid Sunshine”) that would also lend itself very well to body scenting. And of course, Rose Absolute would be great and very timely for Valentine’s Day!

Combine all ingredients in an unbreakable container, to form a smooth paste. Now go take a nice relaxing shower, buff yourself dry, and while still standing in the shower (with water off), begin applying the paste in circular motions, starting at your neck and working your way down to your toes. When you complete the toes, go back up to your neck and start brushing the paste off with a soft body brush - ( a big barber’s brush, such as Denman’s Duster Brush - available at beauty supply stores - works perfectly) and brush the remaining ingredients away. (Before you leave the shower, pick up any big pieces of paste (you wouldn’t want to clog your drain) and rinse the small amount that is left down the drain.

You won’t want to stop inhaling yourself, never mind how you can effect the people around you!

Practitioners: This is a very luxurious, yet inexpensive, add on treatment to fragrantly end your clients massage. (Make sure you put some sheeting or towels on the floor so it doesn’t get all over rugs, wood or other flooring.) Just buff massage oil or lotion off the skin with a dry fluffy towel, and proceed with applying the paste from head to toe. (Client will be lying down, face up - feel free to ask them to roll from side to side and sit up for a minute, so you are able to access back and behind the legs.) Brush paste off with soft brush onto the table, then brush the table off into your hands, and voila! it’s done.

This can be a 15 minute treatment that is terrific for brides, if someone has special plans for the evening, or just if your client wants to smell great and continue to feel wonderful after they leave you!

Cool Compresses For Tired Eyes

There is nothing like the aroma of Orange Blossoms or Roses to inspire feelings of great joy!

Next time you come home at the end of a long day, tired, spent and not too cheery, take a chilled bottle of Rose Water (I use Indo-European Private Reserve, imported from Lebanon that I cook with. You can find it at international groceries and some specialty stores.) or Orange Blossom Water (I use A. Monteux Orange Flower Water, imported from France, also for cooking, and available at international groceries and specialty shops.) and pour a spoonful on a soft cloth or 2 cotton pads for a scent that will take you to beautiful, far away places!

The cooling effects are non-irritating (unless you happen to be sensitive to these ingredients - if irritation presents itself flush with cold water and discontinue this practice) and calming to both the senses, and end of day puffiness around the eyes.

Practitioners: Great for your clients too - nice during a heated wrap, or other body treatments! Just use as a forehead compress if they don’t care for anything on their eyes. A completely simple, yet mood altering experience…

Confections For The Soul

I like my Valentines hot, sweet and spicy - how about you?

Why don’t you try making these incredibly tasty, yet simplistically elegant truffles - they are sure to satisfy your soul! Package them up nicely and they make great gifs for loved ones, and clients as well!

(For every imaginable packaging available, super prices, and great, prompt, customer service, visit www.papermart.com located right here in Los Angeles.)

Bittersweet Truffles

16 ounces of the finest quality bittersweet chocolate
(I used a combination here of Scharffen Berger Bittersweet and Lindt Bittersweet because that is what I had.)
1 cup of cream
4 Tablespoons of flavoring
(Your favorite liqueur, red wine- like a good Cabernet or a spicy Zinfandel, good quality balsamic vinegar, vanilla extract, etc.)
Dry ingredients to roll the truffles in
The following can be used individually or blended together to make your own unique combinations: cocoa powder, chile powder, espresso powder, confectioner’s sugar, finely chopped nuts, ground dark or milk chocolate, ground coconut, candied lemon, lime, orange peel, rose petals, or the petals from other edible flowers, and wherever else your experimentation takes you!

Steps:

Shave/cut chocolate into tiny pieces, and place in a heat-proof bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan until it boils. Pour boiling cream over the top of the chocolate and let sit for 4-5 minutes. Blend with a wire whisk until mixture is smooth. Chill for up to 3 hours, but at least for one hour. Remove from refrigerator and form into small balls or quenelles. Be prepared to get dirty! Roll truffles in dry ingredients and refrigerate to store. If truffle mixture seems too soft to form into shapes, place back in the refrigerator until desired consistency is reached. 

So I made a batch and a half of these recently. I poured the blended chocolate and cream into 6 separate bowls; added 6 different flavorings to each bowl, and dressed each batch of truffles differently.

Here is what I did in the order of how successful I felt each combination turned out:

By far, the Grand Marnier (1 Tablespoon) mixture rolled with candied orange peel was my favorite - it was such an amazing explosion of flavors, and the crunchy sweet peel on the outside married perfectly with the smooth chocolatey-orange center!

My second favorite was the Citrus Champagne Vinegar (1 Tablespoon, manufactured by “O“) rolled in candied lemon peel, actually equally as satisfying as the first example.

Third choice was the Habanero Sauce, (I used 15 drops of Sontava Extra Extra Hot Habanero Sauce, because it has great taste along with great heat - not just all heat) - it didn’t overwhelm the flavor at all, just gave you a nice amount of spice with a little heat at the finish, rolled in a combination of cocoa (1 Tablespoon), confectioners sugar (1 Tablespoon) and
New Mexican Chile Molido (Hot) powder (1/2 teaspoon).

Fourth choice was Frangelico. I love this hazelnut liqueur, and these truffles tasted great when rolled in a mixture of cocoa (1 Tablespoon), confectioner’s sugar (1 Tablespoon) and cinnamon (1/2 teaspoon).

Next was vanilla extract, rolled in a half and half mixture of vanilla powder (Nielsen-Massey Vanillas) and finely ground turbinado sugar -
very nice and the smoothest creamiest texture of all the varieties, which is strange since it was from the same batch.

Lastly (but you know I really liked them all) good quality, balsamic vinegar of Modena (of course prices range on this ingredient - it can get quite expensive. I used a moderately priced one, but better then your regular grocery variety) rolled in ground dark chocolate.

To make candied orange/lemon/lime zest:

Wash and dry 2 large navel oranges, 2 large lemons or 2 large limes, and zest.
Mix zest with 2 teaspoons of sugar. A little less maybe if the fruit is small.
Spread zest on parchment paper lined sheet pan, and place in a low temperature oven, around 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Shake the pan a bit every 10 minutes for 25 to 30 minutes, or when peels feel dry and a bit brittle, but aren’t browned.

Chop candied zest into very small pieces, and roll truffles to coat.

Serve with champagne, cappuccino, espresso, red wine, or a really tall glass of milk!