It would be nice if you could go straight to the spa after work. You would be pampered, and you would be in a beautiful environment. You would also be broke. The spa is expensive! Create your own home oasis spa and unwind after work… and any other time you want.
Ancient Origins
The history of the spa dates back to ancient Rome. Soldiers in the Roman army suffered from sore muscles and numerous aches and pains after long days of fighting Franks and Gauls, and other European tribes. They found natural springs and soaked in the water. These places were known as “aquae.”
The act of soaking in the water to ease a battle-weary body became known as Sanus Per Aquam. This means “health through water,” and it became known as spa, for short. The town of Spa, Belgium was founded right around the time the word came into popular use.
Creating a Home Spa Environment
You don’t have to go to a spa to get a spa-like environment. You can turn your own bathroom into a spa with just a few tools.
Light
Use flameless candles to create soft lighting and set a nice mood. Harsh lighting has been proven to agitate the mind. It can cause anxiety. And modern humans are exposed to harsh lighting more and more every day.
How often do you look at computer screens, TV screens, phone screens? The bright electronic light can actually cause stress in the mind and the body. Softer lighting, on the other hand, can be soothing. This is why spas use it.
Turn out the lights of the bathroom and light the space instead with flameless candles, which are not a fire hazard. You can also use colored lights, such as holiday lights, to strike a certain mood. The science of colors says that colors have meaning, and they can even affect mood.
Red lighting, for example, can evoke feelings of passion and eroticism. Blue lighting can be relaxing and help relieve anxiety. Use colored lights to set the mood you want to feel.
Sound
Spas often play gentle, instrumental music or environmental sounds, such as a babbling brook or a gentle rainfall. There are tons of apps online you can use to create a sound atmosphere exactly like any spa. Play any sound from gentle flute music to the noise of wind in the trees.
Sound has an effect on the mind and on the mood. You’ve probably noticed this yourself. When you hear a fast-paced song that’s full of anger, you might find yourself moving more aggressively, making sharper motions, and possibly setting items down too harshly.
When you hear a sad love song, you might think of sweet memories or get a craving for a certain food. You might even move a little more slowly as your mind wanders back to the past.
Music affects the mind, and that’s why sound is an essential element of the spa environment. This is a very easy element to create for yourself for free!
Smell
Do you get hungry when you smell bacon frying? Do you think about being out in the sunshine when you smell fresh-cut grass? Have you ever smelled chocolate chip cookies baking and got an immediate craving?
Smell is linked directly to the brain. It can trigger memory or even affect your mood. You might immediately feel a little less cheerful when you smell garbage or burning plastic, right? But the scent of clean laundry or a floral garden, that’s a nice smell that might make you smile.
Aromatherapy is used often in spa treatments. Pleasant and soothing smells are used to strike a positive mood and put you in a more relaxed state of mind. This is something you can easily create yourself.
Burn scented oil or incense, light a scented candle, fill a bowl with water and essential oils to release a smell. Scents that are used in spas often include lavender, rose, and chamomile, smells that are said to be naturally soothing and relaxing.
Home Spa Treatments
It costs a lot of money to go to a spa and get a lot of different treatments. But you can do many similar treatments at home on your own.
Hair Mask
A deep conditioning hair mask can cost plenty of money at the salon or spa. There are plenty of DIY recipes you can make with common ingredients and give your hair the same deep conditioning treatment, however.
If you don’t feel like mixing up a whole recipe, you can always slather your hair with coconut oil. This is naturally conditioning and enriching for hair. Coconut oil is naturally high in vitamin E, which is an essential ingredient for beauty. You don’t need much. A tablespoon or two should be enough even for thick hair. This is a great solution for dry hair.
If your hair is brittle and you want to strengthen the strands, mix about one cup of milk with one tablespoon of honey to create a strengthening hair mask. This mask actually encourages cell regeneration to make your scalp and hair healthier.
Frizzy hair? Try a yogurt mask. Yogurt has natural lactic acid that provides moisture and prevents frizzy hair. Add a little avocado to give your hair shine and a little honey to help your hair retain moisture. A teaspoon of olive oil will give your tresses shine.
Face Mask
You know the green masks you see in every single movie that ever has a spa scene in it? you don’t have to go to the spa to get that. There are tons of options for the facial clay that gets slathered onto every actress at some point.
Clay masks are said to purify and detoxify skin, pulling out impurities. You can easily buy the clay at any beauty supply store, or online, and give yourself this treatment at home.
Body Scrub
Exfoliating the skin at least once a week is a good way to maintain softer, healthier skin. Many different scrubs are available at the grocery store or you can get some ingredients and make your own. Some DIY scrubs can be used on your face as well as on your body.
Mix a half cup of coffee grounds with one tablespoon of warm coconut oil and two tablespoons of hot water to make an invigorating body scrub that can be used to remove dead skin cells and freshen up skin.
There are lots of DIY body scrubs you can try using common ingredients like brown sugar, honey, coconut oil, and other fairly common household ingredients. Just rub it on your skin and then gently, in a circular motion, rub it into your skin before you rinse it off.
Body Soak
To create a spa experience at home, use your own bathtub. There are all sorts of bath bombs, bubble bath formulas, and bath salts you can add to your bathtub to create a relaxing, wonderful soaking experience. In a pinch, you can even add shampoo or liquid body soap to the water to create your bubbles.
Add a few drops of essential oil to make the water scented as well. You can also put rose petals on top of the water while you lay there to really create a fancy experience. A single rose or two at the grocery store isn’t all that expensive.
Epsom salts or bath salts in the water can actually help to relax and soothe tense muscles, helping your feet, back, and legs feel more refreshed. It’s expensive to go to the spa and get a full body massage. With some hot water and salts, you can create a similar experience at home for a whole lot less.
Steam Treatment
Don’t have a sauna? No problem. Create your own steam treatment in the shower. Point the showerhead so that the water isn’t spraying directly on you, or even at all, and turn the hot water on with the shower curtain (or door) closed.
Let the steam surround you and clean out your pores. Stand there for about five minutes—you’ll definitely feel the difference, and you will feel steam-cleaned. Just be careful reaching to turn the water off, and be sure to add some cold to the water if you’re going to step under the stream.
Moisturize
After your skin is steamed and exfoliated and soaked in scented water, you can always moisturize it. use a water-based lotion and massage it into your skin to moisturize and soften yourself all over. Oil-based lotions may clog pores, so you want to stick to the water-based formula. Look for lotions with aloe in it if you want to soothe and repair dry skin.
Gently rub the lotion into your skin with circular motions. This will not only help the lotion penetrate into the top layer of your skin, but it also encourages circulation and stimulates blood flow all over your body.
Getting your blood flowing everywhere is good for you. It circulates oxygen through the blood and gets it to your muscles, it stimulates blood flow in your skin, which you definitely want because you want new and healthy skin to keep growing. And it can make you feel sort of tingly and healthy all over, which is just how you ought to feel after you’ve had some spa treatments.
Creating a Home Oasis Spa to Unwind After Work
There are many other ways to create a spa experience at home, whether you use decor and little tools or you go all-out and get a hot tub or even build your own sauna or soaking tub.
You might choose to add a cool water feature to the bathroom or do a full bathroom makeover to make the room look a lot more like a spa. Leafy plants, bamboo, neutral colors, and soft pastels are a great way to create a spa decor sort of vibe.
Don’t forget the soft lighting and lots and lots of plushy towels. A good towel and a soft bathrobe can create a feeling of luxury that doesn’t have to cost a whole lot of money. Soft slippers and plushy bath mats are nice, too. Spas are often filled with soft textures for a good reason: they’re comforting.
Whether you’re performing big DIY projects or small ones, here are many ways to give yourself a spa experience and even to give yourself very similar treatments for a lot less than actually going to a spa.
A little scented oil and some floating flameless candles in a big bowl of water can be a great temporary water feature, or you can get creative and get some rocks and a plastic tub and make a more permanent water feature.
DIYers of all skill levels and all budgets can create a more spa-like environment, a little oasis to unwind after work or maybe on a Sunday evening. Use big ideas and small tips to create your own spa and treat yourself. Everyone deserves to be pampered, and everyone deserves a spa experience. You’re a DIYer, so create your own!
Home Spa FAQ
Can You Make a Bathtub More like a Hot Tub?
Not everyone has the money or the space for a hot tub. Just maintaining the hot tub can be a task that people don’t want to take on. But there are ways to create a hot tub-like experience without going all in on a hot tub.
There are several products on the market that simulate a hot tub-type environment in even a standard bathtub. Waterproof bath mats can be used to blow air into the tub to create a sort of DIY hot tub. There are lots of portable little mini home jet devices like this.
How Can You Make Your Own Foot Soak?
Are your feet tired and aching? Get yourself a big plastic tub and some Epsom salts. Fill the tub with hot water and Epsom salts to enjoy an invigorating, relaxing foot soak. The salts will help to soothe your muscles and relax your feet.
What’s an Easy Trick to Give Yourself a Foot Massage?
Giving yourself a foot massage can actually be more painful because you end up twisting yourself into a pretzel shape. There’s an easier way. Get any standard golf ball and put it on the floor in front of you.
While sitting or standing, place your foot on top of the golf ball and gently move your foot around, rolling the ball around under your feet. This is a simple way to give yourself a nice foot massage. You control the pressure and the motion and where your foot is being massaged.
Further Reading
Create Your Own Home Bathroom Spa
How to Create a Meditation Space
How to Install a Sauna Light
Thinking About Installing a Spa Bath?
Welcome to Your Bathroom Spa