Get Down, a Little Dirty and Organic on Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day can easily become a day of unbridled excess.  Recent years have been prosperous and as such has upped the ante for a perfect Valentines Day from a box of chocolates and a love note to limousine service, five star dinners and a diamond tennis bracelet carefully hidden in a linen napkin.  Romantic, yes…if you’re Spencer and Heidi desperately trying to ratchet up the gag factor on yet another over the top PDA publicity stunt.  But for those of us living in the real world, circa 2009 and post-Bush the pressure to create a moment worthy of celluloid perfection has been thankfully lifted!  Excess is not longer in vogue and for the first time, in a long time…less is back to being more!

So how do I give my Valentine’s sweetie a holiday that is both socially responsible and still worthy of expressing my love and affection?  The answer is remarkably simple…get back to the basics of romance!  I have carefully listed a variety of products and ideas that are organic, cruelty free, and earth loving while giving you the opportunity to lavish your love and affection on the one who brings you joy throughout the year.  So get yourself a sitter, turn off the phone/TV/blackberry and get to the business of love!

Set the mood:  Nothing says romance like a room set alight by the soft glow of flickering candles.  Put away your flameless t-lites and Glade scented plug-in’s tonight.  It’s time to break out a good old fashioned scented candle.  Soft scents such as vanilla, ylang ylang and lavender stimulate the romantic "scent-sibilities" and have been used as calming agents and aphrodisiacs for centuries.  Just stick to one scent and if your candle is particularly potent you can add light without overpowering the olfactory’s by choosing unscented candles for extra mood lighting.  Look for soy based candles that burn clean and are paraphin free like the one’s available here at www.findsoycandles.com.  Or…if you’re feeling especially artistic try www.cajuncandles.com for instructions and supplies to make your own scented soy candles!  Just be sure to make up a few extras for your special someone.

Go old school: I hate to break it to you youngsters, but there is still NOTHING more romantic than a mixed tape!  Okay…so maybe not an actual tape (this isn’t 1986 after all and we don’t have to hold the recorder up to the radio anymore) but a compilation filled with all the romantic songs that made your heart flip-flop when you first smooched your sweetie is a sure fire hit this V-day.  Recycle a re-recordable CD or drop it onto your I-pod or computer with a play list named "Love Songs Inspired by (insert your Valentine’s name here)" and you’ll be guaranteed a night of passion.  Spend a little time playing the "remember when we danced to this song" game, or whatever your memory may be and soon you’ll be reliving those fleeting moments when you thought you’d explode waiting for that first heart pounding kiss!  Take it a step further and put the lyrics to your special song in your Valentine’s Day card as a memento.  You can find the lyrics to thousands of songs at www.songfacts.com.

Channel your inner Cary Grant / Audrey Hepburn: Gone may be the days when men rose for ladies and ladies offered their hand for a gentleman to kiss but the images of romance these acts conjure can be just as intoxicating even today.  Somehow we’ve lost sight of the art of romancing each other and have replaced it with text messages and tagging on Facebook.  So what would Cary and Audrey do?  He’d show up with flowers and she’d have a sinful souffle’ in the oven (or vice versa…we’re a progressive world now!).  Simply pick local winter blooming flowers or bake your sweetie a homemade treat, they’ll be touched by the effort.  Not the flower picking/baking kind?  We’ve got you covered. Check out www.organicbouquet.com for eco-elegant blooms and organic fair trade chocolates that don’t harm the earth and provide hard working people with fair living wages!  Just stay away from the guy selling tacky carnation and baby’s breath bouquets at the freeway off ramp (the guys that buy these know who you are!) because no one wants blooms that smell like rush hour traffic!  

It’s rub-a-dub tub time! Is there anything more tempting than a warm tub full of bubbles, beckoning your lover to join you in its aromatic lushness?  I think not!  You’ve already set the mood with softly lit candles, sensuous mood music, and a sweet aphrodisiac.  Make the seduction complete with two times the fun in the tub!  Choices of bath inducing ooh’s and ahh’s abound at www.lush.com and will not disappoint!  Check out their Sex Bomb Bath Bomb for softly fragrant water, the Strawberry Feels Forever Massage bar for up close and personal tub time, or simply give a gift for him/her with the Hello Sailor or My Fair Lady gift sets.  Their products are 100% vegetarian, some Vegan, are made by hand, never tested on animals and are certifiably perfect for your Valentine’s Day pleasure!  Just make sure to have two sponges available (check out the natural sea sponges carefully harvested from sustainable and controlled areas at www.puresponges.co.uk) so that you can lavish your attention on each other and spread the Lush-ous love!

I am living my shared intent to live simply so others can simply live and I invite you to join us at Intent to see how you can benefit from getting back to the basics!  There is so much to be enjoyed in this big beautiful world if we simply take the time to sit back and take it in.  So grab your significant other and smell the roses…or chocolates…or bath salts, whatever strikes your fancy on this day of love and throughout the year!