What are some do-it-yourself beauty treatment recipes?

For an amazing hand and foot soak, make mashed potatoes using russets and milk (don’t waste any butter), and then water them down a bit. Soak your feet or hands in them.

The mashed potatoes retain the heat and are an amazing treatment for swollen and sore feet. The lactose in the milk makes your skin feel soft and smooth. I know it is weird…but we did this one at our spa! It was very popular.

Other foot soaks included an oatmeal foot soak with cinnamon essential oil and pumpkin foot soak with glycolic acid.

If you would like to try a few do-it-yourself concoctions, here are a few simple yet effective recipes. I have tested them all on myself, either as a teenager growing up in Poland or here, in the U.S., especially when I am away visiting friends or family and find myself without a face mask or bath oil.

• Add one teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil to your bath for a conditioning and moisturizing effect.

• Cook a potato in its skin, peel, and mash. Add a little cream, plain yogurt, or milk and mash into a thick paste. This makes a wonderful nourishing face and neckline mask. Leave on for 30 minutes.

• Mash a small piece of banana, add a little cream or plain yogurt, and mix in a handful of rolled oat flakes. Use as a smoothing, softening, and moisturizing face mask. Leave on for 30 minutes.

• Mix 1-2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup with the same amount of warm water and use as a rinse-off hair conditioner for fine, limp, and normal hair. I find that this conditioner is light, rinses easily, gives a nice shine, and it doesn’t weigh down hair or cause buildup.

• Brew two teabags of organic chamomile, covered, for 20-30 minutes. Place one teabag on each eye for a soothing eye compress that relieves tiredness, dryness, and redness.