TPIB: Spatacular, turn your library into a stress busting spa

The fashion industry spends millions of dollars advertising to us girls.  I have no idea if my skin needs the $100.00 skin cream or the $200.00 one.  I just know that those little pimples that pop up (yes, still) are the bane of my existence.  Gah!  But – you can have a spa party at your library that emphasizes information over glamour and give teens some fun products they can make at home for a fraction of the cost.  You can also teach them some fun stress relief ideas because we all know, our teens are mega stressed out!

The Books

Girl in a Fix: Quick Beauty Solutions (and why they work) by Somer Flahery and Jen Kollmer
Girl in a Funk: Quick Stress Busters (and why they work) by Tanya Napier and Jon Kollmer
Skin: The Bare Facts by Lori Bergamottot



Skin is a great addition to your collection because it addresses those pesky questions we have about our skin and don’t always know who to ask.  I mean, is Pro-Activ really your best information source when they are trying to sell teens a product? Chances are good there is a tad bit of bias there.  Skin discusses not only acne, but some other skin conditions including hives and heat rashes (Beyond Zits is the chapter title).  There is also some interesting discussion on tweezing, waxing and make-up.  Includes a helpful index, great full color illustrations and Q & A sections.

Girl in a Funk and Girl in a Fix are both short, browsable books that address the very topics they say they do – stress and beauty.  Did you know a dab of mint on your forehead can sometimes help ease headaches?  Me either!  Did you know that in a pinch you can use hand lotion to help tame your bad hair day? Yep, it’s true.  Here, simple problems are presented with solutions and a little background information as to why they work.  Quick reads with full color illustrations, fun stuff.  PS, should you ever need the information Girl in a Fix tells you had to get rid of a hickey.

Pair these 3 awesome Zest Books titles with these 3 Crafty Girls titles and you have the ultimate Spa package:
Crafty Girl: Hair
Crafty Girl: Makeup
Beauty: Things to Make and Do

Spa program ideas:

Make Your Own Sea Salt Scrub
Use empty baby food jars and sea salt to create your own scrubs for ashy skin days.  Use glass paint markers to decorate your jars and then fill with sea salt.  When you need it, use the sea salt as a scrub in the show. (Girl in a Fix, page 10)

Make Your Own (Matching) Lip Gloss
Mix petroleum jelly and eye shadow to create a lip gloss that matches your favorite eye shadow.  You can add a little bit of glitter to make it sparkly.  Decorate (decoupage) empty mint tints to create a home for your new favorite and totally original lip gloss. (Girl in a Fix, page 72)

Random Dancing Stress Release
Break out into some random dancing throughout your spa party and discuss how dancing and exercise can be great stress busters. (Girl in a Funk, page 74) And for those of you that recognize it, yes I do watch iCarly.  I have a tween, remember.

Sleepy Time Eye Mask
Here are instructions for making your own eye mask.  You can have your teens hand sew the mask instead of using a sewing machine should you need to.

There are a ton of other great spa ideas that you can do on the fly including making hair accessories like barrettes and headbands, busting out some nail polish and nail stickers to have some manicure therapy, and learning about pressure points to help relieve stress.

You can often get a Mary Kay or Avon consultant to come in and do make-overs and teach some basic make-up tips, which younger teens just starting to learn to wear make up definitely need.  But I would love to see libraries emphasize more natural beauty in their programming.

Filed under: Beauty, Stress, Teen Issues, Teen Programming, TPIB