The Spa Girls
Melissa Calvert and Lisa Seale teach women how to pamper themselves for pennies.
Camerin Courtney

 A woman with a Wal-Mart bag tied on her head is addressing a roomful of women who are laughing and taking notes. The woman next to her is talking about hair color—how the plastic bag helps each application last longer and how to get two uses from each box of home hair-coloring. Both women are dressed in hot pink and black, and a large sign behind them announces that they're the Spa Girls.

The "Girls" are Melissa Calvert and Lisa Seale, two 40something working moms in the Houston area who launched this creative women's ministry in early 2004. The "spa" in Spa Girls stands for Spiritual, Practical, and Amusing ways to live the godly life, which they teach in 60- to 90-minute demonstrations at women's retreats, luncheons, conferences, and parties.

They give six main presentations: Spa Cents, their signature talk, shows women how to make spa treatments for pennies with everyday household products. Teen Spa Cents gears this info for teenagers. BYOMB (Bring Your Own Make-up Bag and Bible) provides make-up lessons and scriptural truths about beauty. Home Cents includes tips to efficiently organize and manage home and family life. Money Cents teaches women how to set financial goals and create a livable budget. And Savvy Cents helps women decorate their homes on the cheap, including bargains from garage sales and thrift stores, and capture the true spirit of hospitality.

"Most women think they're too busy to take care of themselves," Melissa says. "But we remind women you can't take care of others if you don't take care of yourself. These presentations are a fun reminder of that truth, providing practical, economical ways to do so."

Sisters in Thrift

It all started with an "argument" when Lisa and Melissa found themselves seated next to each other at a Sunday- school class dinner. They'd met briefly a few weeks earlier when Melissa and her family showed up for an evening service, and Lisa welcomed the newcomers to her church.

"At that dinner, Melissa turned to me and told me she was the queen of thrift shops," Lisa says. "And I said, 'I beg your pardon, I believe that would be me.'" As they kept talking, they realized their shared love of a bargain was just one of many things they had in common. They both grew up in traditional Southern Baptist churches, believe in debt-free living, are make-up junkies, own dachshunds, and have a passion for worship music. They're also one year apart in age—Lisa's 42 and Melissa is 41—and have kids around the same age—Lisa's daughter, Erin, is 15, and her son, Ethan, is 12; Melissa's blended family includes a son, Bryan, who's 19, and three daughters, Lindsay, 15, Whitney, 14, and Courtney, 12.

Lisa and Melissa began serving together on their church's worship team, where Melissa sings and plays the flute and Lisa plays the keyboard. And, of course, they went thrift-store shopping together. While spending this time together, the women discovered their most poignant commonality—their shared grief. A couple months before they met, Melissa lost her brother to cancer. A few months before that, Lisa lost her dad.

"I'm an only child now," Melissa says. "I never had a sister and I didn't have many girlfriends while growing up. It's like God gave me a best friend at 40, right when I needed one. When we talk to women at our presentations, we find there's a real hunger for girlfriend time. We certainly understand that."

You Go, Girls

A year into their friendship, Melissa and Lisa embarked on their first shared adventure—visiting a mutual friend who'd moved to Malaysia. It was there the idea of becoming the Spa Girls was born.

"When our friend invited us, I was a bit hesitant. I hadn't traveled overseas before," Melissa explains. "But Lisa's adventurous. Her response was, 'We can do this. People go over there all the time.'" When they found a cheap flight, the deal was sealed. "The trip was an awakening for me. I learned you're never too old to try something new or to take a risk." She had no idea this was a foreshadowing of what was to come.

While in Malaysia, Lisa and Melissa pampered themselves with some spa treatments, since they're much more affordable there. "We left there thinking, Our friend is so lucky. We have to go home where we can't afford such things," Lisa says. "But then we also started thinking, What about other women like us who can't afford or don't want to spend their money on expensive spa treatments? What can we do for them on the cheap? And that's where the idea for Spa Girls got started."

Lisa and Melissa started scouring magazines, websites, drug stores, and product labels in search of frugal ideas. They planned to create a website where they could share their ideas with fellow thrifty chicks. But before they went about learning how to create a website, things snowballed. They shared their spa-treatments-on-the-cheap ideas at a slumber party with some friends. That earned them an invite to do a bridal shower. The bride was a bit older, so her friends wanted to do something nontraditional for the party. The spa treatments were a big hit.

Melissa's sister invited them to present at her church's women's retreat, and when their own church women's retreat announced a theme of Extreme Makeover, Lisa and Melissa got roped into the action. "I asked the organizer what they were doing for the makeover portion of the weekend," Melissa explains. "And they were like, 'What are you talking about? It's about making over your heart.' And I said, 'No, no, no. You don't understand. These women are going to expect some real makeovers, some girlie stuff.'" When the organizers heard about Lisa and Melissa's recent spa-treatment demonstrations, they invited them to provide the girlie touches. The retreat attendees loved it.

"We thought that was a one-time shot," explains Melissa. "But the women in attendance kept telling us, 'That was great. You need to do this for other women's events.'" So Melissa contacted women's ministries at Houston-area churches and asked if they'd be interested in similar presentations at upcoming events. They booked their first official "shows" that way, and through word of mouth, the ministry took off.

Bath Salts and Scripture

When Lisa and Melissa started perfecting their presentations, they realized these spa treatments and products provided them a creative, memorable way to share Scripture. "We emphasize that a woman's true beauty and self-worth come first and foremost from a personal relationship with Jesus," says Melissa. "So when we talk about lipsticks, we mention verses about the Lord setting a guard on our lips. When we show them how to make their own bath salts, we talk about believers being the salt of the earth. We hope these verses come to mind the next time the women put on their lipstick or soak in a hot bath."

So how can you pamper yourself and save money with common household products? "Did you know that bath salts are basically rock salt, oil, and fragrance?" Melissa asks in the Spa Cents presentation. The recipe, one of many they pass out to attendees, calls for one cup of rock salt or Epsom salt; 1 tablespoon of baby oil, mineral oil, sweet almond oil, glycerin, or olive oil; and any type of scent you enjoy. Place these items in a tightly sealed jar and turn it every few hours for a day or two before using.

You can make your own face mask using Pepto-Bismol or milk of magnesia. Lisa and Melissa ask for a volunteer to try this during their presentation. Rinsing your hair in mouthwash helps remove product build-up. And you can exfoliate your lips with an old toothbrush ("Preferably your own," Lisa jokes) and Vaseline. The Spa Girls encourage attendees to take at least one hour each month to pamper themselves. They also send each woman home with some homemade goodies and tip sheets listing all their ideas.

While they're demonstrating these tips, Lisa and Melissa sprinkle in humor ("We're like Lucy and Ethel," Melissa says) and Scripture, such as 1 Samuel 16:7, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

"More than anything," Lisa says, "we want the women to know God thinks they're beautiful and loves them unconditionally."

Toward the end of their presentations, Lisa and Melissa share the difficult journeys they've each traveled to learn and accept these truths. Lisa went through a season of depression years ago, and shares how holding onto the truths of God's Word, even when they didn't feel true, and leaning on others for support got her though the dark times. Melissa battled a life-threatening eating disorder from her teens through her late twenties and finally found healing in the truth that she's fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).

"We share these struggles because so often women look around at church or work and see other women looking so together," says Melissa. "We think they're perfect and have no worries. And that's just not true. Everyone struggles with something. Women love the make-up and money-saving tips we share, but seem to respond to our honesty the most."

Lisa adds, "We want to be one more voice sharing that there's grace and love and freedom in Jesus. It's available for everyone and it's free. You can't get more thrifty than that!"

For more information about the Spa Girls, go to www.spacents.com.

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today's Christian Woman magazine.