Every night of my life, I take a bath. But for the past two or so months, I have added several steps to this habit, because I have finally, at the tender age of 37, decided to try to actually put this whole "self-care" hoo-ha into practice.

And so every night, here is what I do:

1. Dry brush my entire body. (If you have never heard of dry-brushing, allow Gwyneth to explain it to you. It's great.)
2. Microplane my feet. This sounds disgusting, and is disgusting, but is also the single best method I have found for dealing with my horrifying foot situation. The first time I did it, I removed a shot glass's worth of dead skin from my feet, revealing all the baby softness that had apparently been there all along, and it was mayyyyybe the single most satisfying thing I have ever done in my life (ok, after this). 
3. Run a bath, into which I add a couple of drops of frankincense oil, and about 1/2 tsp rosewater.
4. Exit the bath, and (while my skin is still damp), coat myself from neck to toes with coconut oil into which I have mixed another drop or two of frankincense oil. And if you think frankincense oil will make you smell like a cathedral, let me tell you: it's this odd blend of musk and freshness, and it's definitely unique, but I love how it smells on the skin.
5. Apply yet another oil to my face (either Superfood or prickly pear oil).
6. Add yet another coat of coconut oil to my feet, and then put on socks to a) lock in the moisture and b) enable myself to get from bathroom to bedroom without breaking my neck because oil on the body is one thing, and oil on the soles of the feet is another, far more treacherous, situation.

If you're going to say that this all sounds like a whooooole lot of work...I mean, yeah. It is. But I also do it while catching up on The Bachelorette on my computer, and it's my Me Time. Non-negotiable.

Summer activities are just some of the many things that can dry out your skin.

You probably know this by now, but skincare is a big deal to me. My skin has always been sensitive and dry and a little problematic, and as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized more and more how vital it is to not only “treat” my skin, but to actively futureproof it, using products that help prevent problems before they start.

Except there’s one part of my skin I’ve never thought about all that much. You probably haven’t either. I mean, who worries about the skin on their scalp, when it’s all covered by hair, and therefore invisible-ish and such? I certainly never worried about it…until I did. A few months ago, I developed dandruff (like, bad dandruff) for the first time in my life, and it was a seeeeriously unpleasant experience. So after a couple of weeks I decided that nope, this was not acceptable in the slightest, and brought in the official scalpskin experts, Head & Shoulders. I used their products, and loved their products, and later ended up partnering with them - so now I’m going to tell you why I think you should use their products not only for dandruff control, but also for skincare. 

Aren't children supposed to love baths? Isn't bath time supposed to be fun??

They are, and it is. So why do my children avoid baths as if they are filled not with warm, wonderful water and an assortment of age-appropriate toys, but rather scalding-hot oil and/or velociraptors? Especially my daughter; girlfriend has to be a scrub before I deem it worth my time to spend half an hour "convincing" her ("manually wrestling her into the tub") that baths are, in fact, a prerequisite for even semi-normal human interaction.

I have found the solution to this quandary, and it is - perhaps unsurprisingly - a rainbow mermaid bath bomb.

"All-natural" isn't something I typically look for in my beauty products. Perhaps not the loveliest admission, but I tend to be about results more than about the absence of parabens (yes, I know, parabens = bad; it's just an example). As I'm getting older, though, I'm discovering that my skin is getting increasingly sensitive, to the point where some products make my skin react immediately and visibly - and extremely unattractively. When I was in LA with Francesca, for example, I decided to try a different K-beauty mask every night, and...let's just say that this is not something that the sensitive-skinned among us should do. (Oh my god.)

So while I'm not tossing all my chemical-containing serums anytime soon - because excuse me, those things were expensive and many of them are indeed quite wonderful - I am trying to pay a bit more attention to what's in the stuff I put on my face. Mostly what I'm looking for are products with fewer ingredients and fewer artificial scents, but I'm not especially well-versed with regards to what's out there in this category, so back in April (a.k.a. "Earth Month") I decided to test-run a whole bunch of eco-friendly, all-natural products. I spotlighted a few of my favorites on my IG stories, but now it's mid-May and I've had more time to play around with them...and there are a few that ended up being so great that I needed to write about them here.

For posterity, you know.