Beauty Secrets of the Spas

Spa Secret
Purify your mind—and complexion— with inexpensive DIY solutions.

• Spritz yourself happy "Fill a spray bottle with a cup of water and five drops of an essential oil and use it as an aromatherapy spray," advises Rebecca Vogdanos, an aesthetician and massage therapist at the upscale Equinox Fitness club in Chicago (equinoxfitness.com). "Mist jasmine-infused water on your sheets to help you relax at bedtime or spray juniper-scented water around your office for a midday energy boost." Find essential oils at auracacia.com.
• Brighten up with baking soda Turns out baking soda isn't just an excellent tooth whitener, it perks up your complexion too. "Slowly mix water into a quarter cup of baking soda until it gets pretty thick," says Vogdanos. "Then use it as a daily scrub to exfoliate and lighten areas of discoloration on your face, even if you have sensitive skin."

Spa Secret
Play in the mud to refresh from head to toe.

• Score softer skin At the spa in Se, a swank new hotel in San Diego (sesandiego.com), you can indulge in the Moroccan Rasul treatment, a traditional Arabic cleansing ritual that involves applying desert clay mud and relaxing in a sauna. But Michelle Frye, the spa director, says you can recreate the experience in your own bathroom. "While in the shower, shampoo, then use a scrub to exfoliate.and open your pores.from your neck down. Next, stand away from the nozzle and apply a mud mask to your whole body. Let it sit for a minute while you work in your hair conditioner, then rinse everything off,¡" says Frye. A best bet is the Ahava Purifying Mud Mask ($28; ahavaus.com) with Dead Sea minerals. Before you step into the shower, try fixing yourself some antioxidant-rich green, white, or black tea to sip while the mud dries.