As almost all of you know, our very gracious and beautiful Tyrika is now a married woman. I have been reflecting on this over the weekend and am beyond ecstatic for her, her husband and their families.

Tyrika, you are genuinely beautiful and full of love, so it makes absolute sense that your life would follow suit. I wish nothing but all the best blessings for you and your family at this incredibly special time!

I thought it only fitting, under the circumstances and for Valentine’s day, to give everyone some uses for aromatherapy to encourage a loving mood The essential oils most commonly used for romance are:

• Rose
• Jasmine
• Neroli
• Clary Sage
• Cypress
• Sandalwood
• Cedarwood
• Ylang Ylang
• Clove
• Black Pepper
• Veviter

As usual, there are plenty of ways to utilize these essential oils. Incense, diffusers, bath oil and in lotions are always great. To increase desire, candles and a massage oil would be ideal…

Mainelement:Love fragrances that would be great to rub on before a date would be; Strawberries and Champagne, Wedded Bliss, and Blue Rose for the ladies, and Insatiable and Seductive for the gentlemen. Most of these fragrances come in le’amour body butter, body wash AND body oil. They are truly fabulous and made with the utmost care.

You could also try the skin care recipes Tyrika has posted, to make sure your significant other finds your skin inviting and touchable.

Now that you have your Valentine’s day aromatherapy arsenal stocked and your skin will be silky-smooth, you are ready to celebrate in style…

Tyrika, we love you and await your return! Congratulations, lady!

Final countdown and I’m ready to make it happen!  It’s been a whirlwind week but I refused to forget about myself and my need to keep myself satiny smooth from head to toe for my big day.  I really think this 30 regimen has helped my keep my sanity….bridezilla still hasn’t shown up and I don’t think she’s going to

In addition to the 30 day and 2 week regimen, I added:

• The threading I neglected to get a few weeks ago (my eyebrows are now fabulous!!!)
• Correcting the two toned hair color I had going on due to 11 months of new growth since my last color
• Due to the new color I had to adjust my conditioner to keep my hair fortified –
• Stepped up my exfoliation to every other day this week; because of the oils and the sugar in the scrub I can’t stop rubbing my own legs, they feel goooooood!
• Mani and pedi today – the perfect shade of red to compliment my strappy white shoes and classic French tips to accentuate my bouquet

I can see it all coming together now, and I’m thankful I made time to keep myself from going crazy or feeling rushed.  It’s hard to enjoy and appreciate the feeling that taking care of yourself gives you when you have to rush through it.  And it was really easy to make it a habit.  A girl could get used to this!
This is it…next time you hear from me, you’ll be seeing pictures of the big day.
Love and blessings to you all!

Ok, we’re T minus 2 weeks guys.  Nervous? No.  Excited? Very!   I have to give the nightly lavender vanilla partial credit for that.  The pre wedding regimen has been absolutely helpful.

• My skin is still holding up well, I’m determined to keep away any last minute blemishes.  I’ll still be keeping the same morning ritual, and will be adding the Oil of Olay Deep Cleansing clay mask to it 2 evenings a week over the next two weeks.  This will replace the need to go get a facial at the spa.  Exfoliate, replenish, renew, and clean the pores…under control at home.

• I didn’t get my eyebrows waxed as intended and my makeup artist silently gave me a piece of her mind about the two bushes I have growing up there right now (which is why I didn’t do a video blog for this post as I originally intended to; I can’t let ya’ll see me like this!) She very politely informed me that in the future it’s not necessary to let your eyebrows grow completely out to correct what some happy go lucky “brow artist” messed up. There’s your beauty tip for the day ladies.

• My hair is soft and growing and forcing me to rework my bedtime ritual with it.  We had a detangling battle this morning due to my lack of combing it for a week, instead of my normal every 2 – 3 days.  We’ve come to a mutual agreement and I don’t expect we’ll have any more problems.  I’ll comb it as promised, put a few loose braids in it at night and cover it with a bonnet and I expect we’ll both be happy from here on out.  I’ll be doing a trial run on the planned wedding hairstyle this evening, just to be sure, what I have envisioned will work in real life.  This gives me plenty of time to rework as needed.  I’ll deep condition it this weekend, and next weekend in preparation for my color touch up.

• Lastly I went to the nail salon to get a manicure and pedicure today to do a trial run of the colors I’ll wear on the big day.  Sadly, I can’t get a manicure without the nail tech cutting my cuticles too deep resulting in an ugly scab.  Not very attractive for pictures.  This way I won’t have any color mishaps, or nicks and cuts on my cuticles the day of.  My nights from here until the night before will include thick, cotton socks and a healthy dose of body butter on my feet to keep them soft.

That’s my latest update on Operation: Get Me Down the Aisle.  I’ll let you know how things are going the week before the big day.  I’ll be checking out everyone’s entries to the Spa at Home Ritual contest in the meantime and if you have any at home spa/beauty suggestions you think I should try out between now and then, leave a comment and let me know.

We’re always excited about sharing the latest info, news and tips on natural spa products and techniques to our readers. We’re even more excited about the wonderful feedback from our readers…so excited that we’re sponsoring a contest for our blog readers to post their favorite “at home” spa ritual and experience, to win a mainelement: love spa basket worth over $100.

The contest will run from January 20th to February 12th, 2010, with the winner being announced on February 19th.

Here’s all you need to know and enter:

• Subscribe to our blog via RSS or email (see the right side bar)
• Email your favorite “at home” spa ritual including the products and/or ingredients you use and the steps to make them, and the cost to create this contest to tyrika@mainelementlove.com using “Spa at home ritual” in your subject header
• Include the natural health benefits of your spa experience and how it relaxes and calms you
• At the end of the contest period, the staff of mainelement: love will read and select the post with the best “at home” spa experience and ritual  using natural products and/or ingredients that are most cost effective

The winner of the contest will receive a mainelement:love spa basket(filled with the entire le’amour body line in Rise and Shine or Lavender Vanilla, a journal, box of chamomile tea, ceramic mug, and spa socks), and their ritual will be featured on the Love: Blog

The fine print:

• Blog followers may only post one spa experience story during the contest period
• All spa experiences must be authentic and solely created from contestant and not a copyright of any magazine, book, published author or day and salon establishment
• Products and/or ingredients must be natural
• Contestants must include their first and last name and valid email with blog entry to tyrika@mainelementlove.com  this info will not be used for any third party marketing, but winner contact purposes only
• No Purchase is necessary to enter