Cleopatra's Bath

One day in Latin class we were translating, rather slowly, some bit about Cleopatra and her famous bath of asses' milk. Of course, we giggled. How absurd was that? We were far more into floral bubbles.

So when a few years ago I read that Yogi Bhajan recommended a bath with yoghurt I remembered the legendary beauty of the Egyptian queen. Suddenly it seemed that maybe she had been onto something.

This is how it works:

Get a couple of litres of fresh, live yoghurt. Make sure that it's at room temperature (it's much more pleasurable). Find a couple of hours when you can be on your own, with the bathroom all to yourself. OK, I like to make it very special so I get some candles and play my favourite mantra music.

Get in the empty bath and take the next 40 minutes or so slowly to massage your whole body. Start with your toes and feet and gradually work up to your head. I usually take the cream from the top of the yoghurt and massage it into my face. You'll notice that the smell changes. This is simply the friendly bacteria in the culture having a feast on the dead skin cells and the skin pores cleaning out.

Next gently fill the bath up with warm water (not too hot because it cooks the yoghurt) and soak away for an hour or so.

Use an old towel to pat down and let the natural oils of the yoghurt soften your skin. I usually put on an old pair of pyjamas and rest for a while.

If you can, wait till the next morning to wash with soap.

One word of warning: if you're going to be hanging around people you may wish to put some essential oil drops in the water to cover up the smell.

After trying many different varieties of yoghurt the one that I still like best is the Original Greek Style Yoghurt from Neal's Yard Dairy. Next best is to make your own.

PS The Teleseminar call on Tuesday 11th December for the Be The Woman... Course was called "What's a Woman's True Beauty?". Please sign up here so you can get the free mp3 download. There's lots of wonderful ideas for you....