Blog Every Day in May: Pampering

'What is your ideal way to pamper yourself and relax?'

today has been kind of horrible and just tiring and exhausting for some reason. and well we all have those days when we just need to relax and do something for ourselves. now I'm going to take you through what I like to do maybe ever other week to relax and calm down. 
also as I'm a food blogger and just generally in love with food it is all a little food themed even if sometimes not on purpose.

Dinner
one of the things I look forward to the most after a long and/or exhausting day is to get into the kitchen and make myself something lovely to eat. for many people this is probably more of a burden but for me cooking is my meditation and it's where I get to calm down so a lot of the time this is the first step in my pampering/relaxing routine.
sometimes I need something substantial and cheering up but most of the time I try not to have heavy meals in the evening as it only weighs me down and makes me feel really blah in the morning too. so this one is a good and yummy pampering meal.

it's a simple green salad and tomatoes with a yogurt dressing and roasted chicken and green peppers. all you need to do is marinate the chicken in a bit of balsamic vinegar and garlic prior to stir-frying it. for the dressing I simply mix yogurt, lemon juice and a bit of salt.

Drink

during the colder months you will almost always find me with a warm cup of tea but as it's been fairly warm lately I'll go with the cooled version now. I know some people like to enjoy a glass of red wine on a pampering evening but as I am not much of a wine drinker myself I'll just go with my beloved tea. I make my iced tea myself as it saves you money and sugar and tastes better which is always a plus. let me know if you'd like me to post a recipe for this one, you can find some I made last year here. 

Bathtime 

this next step is where I really get to relax and calm down and it is, surprisingly, also food related, dessert this time. I love taking a good bath even though I don't do it a lot as most evenings I'm probably skyping and then it's too late and I can't be bothered anymore. but every once in a while I do enjoy a lovely bath using my favourite chocolate bubble bath. it's called 'Seelentröster' which translates as soul comforter and I can tell you that's most definitely what it does. it smells deliciously like chocolate but not in a very sickly way. I'm not sure if you can get hold of this in the UK but if you spot it somewhere definitely give it a try. and of course I need a candle too. this one is from IKEA and I've had it for ages, it smells like cinnamon buns and I love it. and there's no bath without the ducks of course.

Facemask 

a face mask is an absolute must for me if I'm having a proper pamper evening. I've been loving this LUSH BB Seaweed one lately and I will definitely go and try out more of the LUSH fresh face masks as I like the idea of them being, well, fresh and I like knowing that I'll put natural ingredients on my skin. if I don't want weird stuff in my food why would I want it in my skincare. well this mask doesn't smell like you could eat it like some of the LUSH masks do, even though it reminds me a little bit of sushi (which for me is not a bad thing, even in a face mask)

Nails

if I have enough energy after the bath and the face mask which admittedly is not very often, I will attempt to do my nails. I am by no means an expert when it comes to this as for four years while in school I never really bothered painting my nails as we weren't allowed it in our cooking lessons (which makes sense, who wants nail polish in their food really). but I really love it now and I am getting better at painting my nails and caring for them too. I use the OPI original nail envy to strengthen my nails and as a base coat and a rimmel topcoat. and my spring and summer favourites at the moment are Essie's mint candy apple and Model's Own fuzzy peach. they look just as yummy as they sound and will definitely be on my nails a lot of the time during the summer.

Bedtime

then after a long and exhausting relaxing pampering routine I'm leaving my nails to dry while watching some stupid tv trying not to touch my laptop and my phone and then I'm off to bed probably listening to some of my beloved nature podcast. hoping I will wake up with my nails still looking ok. goodnight everyone.

Magdalena.