Give Yourself Many a Valentines

 

 By Laura Medina

Any type of holiday, especially Valentine's Day, doesn't have to happen on that specific day.

It can happen any time of the year.

Many a people say, in order to find love, you have to take care of yourself-first.

Whether it be physical, health-wise, or mental, accepting then loving yourself of who and what you are is the building foundation for love.

This is the common theme during this year's Valentine's Day.

Smashbox's current Spring "Love Me" Collection gives that boost of self-esteem long after the holiday has expired.

Answer to Chanel Mademoiselle, Coach Love belongs in the perfume league of Audrey Hepburn...young, vital, but worldly.

The ingredients of fruit/floral, grounded by caramel, are the "Girls" fragrance...that transition from teen to young adulthood where one reaches self-assurance.

Another form of loving yourself is learning how to mix a real cocktail...like an adult.

If you can shake a mean cocktail, you'll impress him enough to catch and keep him.

International Burlesque Star and fashion icon, Dita Von Teese, worked with New York-based master mixologist, Kyle Ford, to create some “stripped down” cocktails for this year. She will be bringing her burlesque variety show, Strip, Strip, Hooray!, to Los Angeles over the week of Valentine’s Day and these are the signature cocktails that will be served at her performances!  More details about her performances here: http://www.stripstriphooray.com/. 

 The cocktail recipes pay tribute to the sultry star’s sexy art form and incorporate decadent ingredients like sugar, chocolate, Cointreau and champagne. With Dita’s help, Ford created these mouthwatering sips that are “stripped down” to make this holiday fun, sexy and stress-free. Below you’ll find everything from the bubbly Red Stockings (Cointreau, Cranberry Juice Fresh Lemon Juice and Champagne) and Sugar & Spice (Remy Martin VSOP, Cointreau, sugar, bitters and Champagne) to the Peppermint Teese (Cointreau and Peppermint Tea).  It’s entertaining made easy! (Recipes below).

COCKTAIL RECIPES

Red Stockings

Smooth as silk.  Alluring, extravagant, simply elegant. 

1.5 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. Cranberry Juice
½ oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

Top with chilled Champagne
Shake all ingredients with ice, except for the Champagne.  Strain into a champagne flute.  Top with Champagne.  Garnish with cranberries. 

Sugar and Spice
Sugar, spice, and everything nice. 
½ oz. Remy Martin VSOP
½ oz. Cointreau
1 sugar cube
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Top with chilled Champagne
Build all ingredients in a chilled champagne flute.  Garnish with a long lemon twist.

         

                

               

                Peppermint “Teese”

                Lively and refreshing. 

                1 oz. Cointreau

                6 – 8 oz. Peppermint Tea

                Build in a warm cocktail mug. 

 Another form of building that foundation of love, so you can attract love, is wearing clothes that make you comfortable.

If you're at ease, he'll at ease.

 

                

              

This is nothing more than a simple guide towards loving oneself by treating yourself and pampering yourself.  If you continue to build that pyramid of loving oneself, eventually you attract that who loves you for you.