Several months ago we already wrote about the pleasure of bath salts and how a spoonful of components created especially for this experience can make your day relaxing and rejuvenating. Today, we would like to broaden your knowledge of therapeutic baths and tell you about how else you can make your bath time better and more beneficial for your body. In this post we will concentrate mostly on things you can find in your kitchen.

     First of all, we will talk about sea salt. Sea salt is known to moisturize your skin, making it look younger and more vibrant. This simple additive will help you fight stubborn cellulite and strengthen your nails, as well as relax you after a hard day of work. You can either purchase special sea salts (Russian Shoppe, of course, offers a great variety), or simply buy table sea salt at your local grocery store.

     Baking soda is another surprisingly beneficial ingredient that can be added to your bath regimen, making your skin soft and silky smooth. Just try adding 200 grams of your regular cooking baking soda to bath water and see how it will change the appearance of your skin in just weeks.

     Milk! Yes, milk. You may say that everything so far sounds like we are cooking some kind of an elaborate dish. Well, though all these ingredients can be found in any kitchen and are not thought of as skincare products, you will be surprised to find out that many people, including celebrities, turn to them to look better and feel healthier. Milk has a lot of vitamins and minerals that raise the skin’s elasticity and its rejuvenation properties. Add 1 liter of warm milk to a bath full of water and soak yourself in it for approximately 20 minutes.

     Lavender is another great additive and more than likely most of you know why. This herb is one of the best in lowering stress and getting your mood back on track. It also helps get rid of any inflammatory processes on your skin, as well as headaches and migraines. Adding just a tea-bag of lavender, or some lavender oil, will do wonders for your day.

     Honey is a great moisturizer as well. Additionally, honey will heal any skin cracks (like on your feet, for example) and will infuse your skin with the great abundance of vitamins and minerals that it has in it. Mix 2 spoons of honey with warm water in a glass and then add this mixture to your bath. Make sure to take a warm shower after the bath, as you may be a bit sticky.

     There are times when you want to take a relaxing bath , but just having water in it doesn’t seem enough.  At times like these, most of us are sorry we don’t buy different bath ‘gadgets’ and of course don’t want to run to the store to purchase them. Well, now you know that more than likely, you can find something to bring that extra ‘oompf’ to your bath time in your kitchen. Just make sure not to add all of the above at the same time – that may turn out to be something edible. 

      It’s not a secret that women like flowers. Even those women, who say that they would rather receive something else, secretly enjoy the gesture and no matter how much they growl, when you leave, they will stare at that bouquet for hours and imagine things unimaginable. There seems to be no physiological reason for this, at least none has yet been found.

     Some research suggests that proximity to nature relaxes, which is why women that are surrounded by flowers seem to be happier and calmer. This makes sense; after all, we are animals that genetically feel closer to nature than the city. However, it doesn’t explain why women start feeling more romantic when flowers are given to them.

     A very interested study was done by Doctor Guéguen – a French scientists – to show the correlation between the presence of flowers and women’s mood. As a subject he took several dozen women and one by one placed them in a room, where he showed them a video of a man. The man was not doing anything out of the ordinary, but half of the women were placed in a room with three vases of flowers, and the other half, in a room with no flowers. After each spent some time looking at the man in the video, she was asked if she found him physically and sexually attractive.

     This is where the interesting facts start! For those women, who looked at the video of the man in the room with flowers, he seemed to be much more attractive than for those women, who did not have flowers surround them.

     The experiment went further, with a real man being present in a room, where the same women were asked questions that had nothing to do with romance or flowers. Half of the women were interviewed in a room with flowers, the other half, well, you get the point. When the researcher left the room, the young man present during the interview asked the woman for a date. A whopping 81% of those women surrounded by flowers answered ‘Yes’, compared to only 50% of the women that were in a flowerless room. That’s a 31% difference! And the guy didn’t even have to do anything!!

     This incredible experiment shows that women are more prone to romance not just when they are given flowers, but when they simply have flowers around them! So if you are cheap, you may want to take her to a meadow and then ask her out. If you can read between the lines, you should know that $15 spent on a bouquet of roses (daisies, tulips, carnations, etc.) will get you a result that is… well, like Visa says ‘Priceless’!

     Though this post has nothing to do with the products we sell, Russian Shoppe just wanted to remind all the men out there – cherish your women and don’t underestimate the power of flowers!

     In the past several years, the juicing craze has gotten completely out of control. People juice everything: pineapple, beets, cucumbers, kale, tomatoes, etc. etc. There are high-power juicers and cold-presses, juicers for one and for an entire platoon. But do we really know all there is to know about how good, or bad juicing can be for your health? If you juice, do you know what conditions you may have and how drinking different juices can affect them?

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     Have your ever hurt yourself in such a way that you know for a fact – there will be a bruise! And of course, it always appears on a part of your body that will be exposed in a day or two due to an event (in case of a woman), or just because you need to go to work and there is this blue, green and purple something developing like a Polaroid picture under your eye (in case of a gentleman). Legs, arms, or face, bruises never appear in places that no one will see – that’s just their property, to spoil our day to day lives. If you are a lady, a great outfit can be completely worthless if you have a 2 centimeter in diameter bash on your knee, and no one will believe that you walked into a door in the middle of the night if there is a nice, juicy shiner under your left eye.

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