Let’s face it: going to a spa is a wonderful, relaxing, and expensive luxury. It’s not exactly something that most of us can afford to do on a regular basis.

But here’s another fact: most of us are probably stressed to the point of being frazzled every day. We barely have enough time to fix a decent meal to eat in the morning, and we spend the rest of our day taking care of other people’s needs and trying to stay ahead of the game, whether it be at work or at home.

Where did the me time go? You grab a quick shower once or twice a day, just to wash the necessary bits. Maybe sometimes you shave your legs. But there’s just not enough time, really.

Well make time! Seriously. Set aside an hour or two once a week and give yourself an at-home spa session. You can relax, glue all the pieces of your mind back together, cozy up with your rubber duckie, and take care of all your weekly beauty treatments all at the same time.

PREPERATIONS:

- Lay out everything you’ll need for the entire session. You don’t want to have to go traipsing all over the place in your bath robe trying to find your favorite body cream and ruining the soothing experience.

- Draw yourself a nice, hot bath. Use your favorite bubble bath (I love off-brand Strawberry Shortcake and philosophy’s 3-in-1’s for a tasty froth) and a special treat for your skin, such as bath salts or just skin-softening milk.

- Whip up your favorite drink. My choice would be a warm cup of dark cocoa topped off with fresh whipped cream, but your mileage may vary.

- Bring in your CD or MP3 player and put on your favorite, most relaxing tunes. Whether it’s Enya or Metallica, whatever soothes you, play it!

- Dim the lights and bring out your favorite scented candle. My favorite is Yankee Candle’s vanilla cupcake — it makes my bathroom smell like the inside of an oven on someone’s birthday.

- Be sure to have your most plush, fluffy bath robe ready.

Now hop in. Soak. Relax. Sip your drink and listen to the soothing sounds of your chosen music. Lay back with your eyes closed and do nothing until the water starts to cool off. At that time, it would be a great idea to take care of some all over body exfoliating with a gentle scrub, and shave whatever areas you usually put off shaving.

Once you’ve thoroughly relaxed in the tub and you’re as pruny as a California raisin, rinse off, pat dry and get ready for phase two. Here’s a few reccomendations of weekly beauty treatments that you can get done while you’re “at the spa”:

• Deep Conditioning Treatment: This is great to do while you’re soaking. Comb in your favorite deep conditioner — currently, I am loving Garnier Fructis Melting Masque, but just plain jojoba oil works wonders — put your hair up in a bun or under a shower cap, and let it soak in for 10-20+ minutes. Your hair will thank you for it.
  
  

• Facial Mask: Something else to do while you’re kicking back in the tub. Find a mask for your skin type (I always loved Queen Helene Mint Julep mask for oily, breakout-prone skin) or make your own. (Half a banana and a few teaspoons of honey is a messy, but surprisingly effective facial mask for moisturizing and toning the skin. Plus, you can eat the other half of the banana, preferably with some peanut butter, as a pre-spa snack.)
  
  

• Exfoliate: Exfoliate everywhere, face and body! Give an especially good scrub to areas where you plan to do hair removal.
  
  

• Shave: Come on. You know you put off shaving. (I know I do.) You know that your legs look like Bigfoot’s girlfriend’s. Shave it all off and be done with it. You don’t even need a shaving gel — hair conditioner works just as well.
  
  
  
• Tweeze: Down with the unibrow! Get all of your tweezing out of the way. Clean up your brows. Pluck your big toe. (And if you’re like me and you’re just so into self-torture, tweeze your bikini line.)
  
  

• Wax: Are you a waxer? Now’s the time to rip all those hairs right out of those follicles. Show no mercy!
  
  

• Bleach: If you’re starting to get questions about your moustache, bleach it away now.
  
  

• Mani/Pedi: Take care of your poor hands and feet — don’t they take care of you? Scrub them up good with an exfoliator (use a pumice stone on especially rough spots), and then trim, shape, buff, and file nails. Slather on a good, thick body butter and slip into some moisturizing booties or gloves. Hey, you could even paint your nails cotton candy pink if you’re feeling adventurous.
  
  

• Moisturize: Use all of your favorite facial moisturizers, body butters, and lotions to make your skin baby soft from head to toe.
  
  

• Teeth Whitening: Now’s the time to pull out those expensive teeth whitening strips you’ve been hiding in the back of the cabinet and saving for “that special occassion”.
  

Oh, and don’t forget the deodorant. That’s actually something you should do daily, not weekly.

You’d be surprised at how incredibly pampered, relaxed, and yes, even energized you will feel after a session like this. And to top it off, after it’s all said and done, you can slip into your favorite pj’s, eat a delicious meal or snack (linguini with garlic bread and chocolate-covered donuts, yum — but not together) and catch your favorite TV show or movie.

Whatever makes you happy, whatever relaxes you, whatever makes you feel beautiful — just remember, it’s all about you.

Dark and noticeable hair on the face and body has long plagued and perplexed mankind (well, mostly womankind, mankind usually just kind of embraces it).

Perhaps one of the complexion combinations that makes this phenomenon so hard to deal with is the one that I am blessed (cursed?) with: pale skin, dark, dark… dark hair.

I don’t mind admitting that I bleach. If I didn’t, I’m convinced that my arms would look like they had been removed from the body of a monkey and surgically implanted onto my body. I envy those that have blonde, babyfine peach fuzz on their arms; the kind of hair that you only notice when the light hits it just right, and Jupiter is aligned with Saturn and a witch flies across the full moon and casts a shadow on a giraffe in a zoo.

There are several different ways of dealing with unwanted facial and body hair. All of them have their ups and downs. I choose to bleach around my face and arms because (1) I don’t want to have to wait for the hair to grow out in between waxing, and (2) stubble from shaving just would not be okay on these areas.

Oh, and (3) I don’t have money to waste on laser hair removal that might not even work.

Bleaching is a task that I loathe. I love the results, but oh, the agony of the procedure. It burns. It stinks (sort of like ammonia). It’s not at all glamorous, and you have to basically sit still for 10+ minutes and endure the burny-itchy-stinky torture while you try to amuse yourself by reading the list of ingredients on your shampoo bottle. If you bump up against the shower door, you come out later with a beautifully bleached arm that has a two inch strip of dark hair with a neon sign above it that says “LOOK AT ME WHEEEEEEE”. You are basically confined to the shower while the bleach sets, because as it dries it starts to flake off and you leave a snowy trail everywhere you step.

But this is all neccessary, because sometimes, beauty is torture.

So, if you’re like me and you endure said torture once a week, or if you’re thinking of delving into the crazy world of bleaching, here are some tips and tricks to get the most of your (bad) experience.

• PICK THE RIGHT BRAND FOR YOU, AND STICK WITH IT: You may have to experiment for a while to find the right brand of bleach that works best for you. My weapon of choice is Sally Hansen cream bleach for face and body. It comes with a pre-application primer (some sort of liquid that you apply with a cotton ball that), cream bleach and applicator (you mix the two together), a spatula for mixing and applying, and a mixing cup. And every box comes with a $1 off coupon for your next purchase! Rock on. I strayed and tried Jolene bleach a while back, and I was thrilled that it barely burned or stank at all…. oh, and it didn’t lighten my hair whatsoever. So experiment and see what works for you.
  
  

• PROTECT SENSITIVE AREAS: While you’re out picking up bleach, get a tube of Aquaphor, or plain old Vaseline. Before you start bleaching, smear this stuff all over your lips and over any little nicks and cuts you may have on the areas you plan to bleach. I repeatedly gave myself a chemical burn on my lips before I realized what was going on — the bleach was migrating and burning my mouth. And heaven help you if you spread bleach over a paper cut — you will beg for the sweet release of death as the pain spreads and the area puffs up and turns the same shade of a crab.
  
  

• FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS: Really. If it says to let the bleach set for 10 minutes, just tough it out and leave it on that long. I know it burns. I know it itches. But if you occupy yourself with something else, you won’t notice it as much. If you chicken out and rinse it off after 4 minutes, don’t blame the bleach if you still have monkey arms.
  
  

• OCCUPY YOURSELF & MAXIMIZE YOUR TIME: So you’ve applied your bleach and now you’ve got 10 minutes to waste. You could spend it watching the clock and counting down the seconds while you squirm, or you could be productive with that time and get something done and take your mind off the slight burning sensation! Sit in the tub (don’t fill it up, of course, or you’ll splash away the bleach) and exfoliate your feet and legs. Try the milk and honey body scrub recipe! Clip your nails. Shave your legs. Before you apply the bleach, comb a deep conditioner into your hair (the hair on top of your head, that is) and then wear a shower cap, so while you endure the bleaching experience, your hair is enjoying a deep, nourishing conditioning treatment.
  
  
  
• RINSE WELL: When that glorious time comes to remove the bleach, make sure to rinse it off well. Don’t leave any residue or flakes on yourself. I have found that washing after bleaching seems to have a negative effect on the results.. so reach for the shower gel before you bleach.
  

For some of us, bleaching is just a neccessary evil and a small part of the grand beauty plan. But hopefully you can turn that beautifully bleached frown upside down.

Well, world wide web, welcome to slice of beauty, a beauty blog that focuses on the author’s .. erm, shall we say, “unique” sense of style.

Product reviews?  Got ‘em.  Pictures of stylish celebrities in interesting getups?  Slice of Style, got it.   … oh, and you’d like to be alerted to big dolla savings on your favorite big dolla brands?  Well, okay.  It can be done.  It will be done.

Just remember, I never claimed to have a conventional sense of style.  I think the early 80’s Madonna black jelly bracelet fingerless lace gloves eighty crucifix necklaces at one time look needs to make a comeback in a big way.  Sometimes I feel a bit glamgoth, and sometimes my earrings don’t match.  Sometimes I get in a mood, throw all caution to the wind, and go bare-faced and lounge-panted out into the real world.  And sometimes it takes me two hours to put my makeup on before work.

Maybe I’m stylistically bipolar.  Yeah.. yeah, that’s it.