gift

Time to Start DIYing for Valentine’s Day

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There are a lot of options for making your own one-of-a-kind, deeply personal Valentine’s gifts, but I’m partial to perfume body oil. It gets my vote for best DIY Valentine gift because it can also be used as a massage oil for some loving partner time, or bath oil for individual (or shared) self-care tub time. Even if your gift recipient is prickly about baths, massages, and perfumes, they can still rub their feet with the oil before putting on socks and this is a highly effective way for the essential oils to get into the body, and whose feet don’t need some extra love? They could also soak their hands in warm water with the oil which again is another way for the whole body to experience the essential oils and afterwards they can rub their hands with more oil for deep moisturizing after pandemic quality washing and sanitizing for a couple of years now.

Making a body/bath/massage oil is incredibly easy with just base oil(s) and one or more essential oils. It can be made even more healing and complex with first creating an herbal oil, then adding essential oils. Making an herbal oil using the quick method only takes a few hours and is guaranteed to make your house smell divine. I have several tutorials on how to do this, here, and here.

Base oils are fairly interchangeable but there are some I’d recommend over others depending on how the final product will be used. If you think it will be used as a pulse-point perfume, then jojoba or fractionated coconut oil are the best choices. If you don’t have either of those, use sweet almond oil or grapeseed oil. For a full body perfume oil, combining two or more of the oils mentioned above is a great idea. Just using one of those oils will work too, but sweet almond oil and grapeseed oil are going to provide more slip so those two make it easier to cover larger areas than merely pulse points. That makes those two oils ideal for massage oil, and any of the base oils I’ve mentioned will work for a bath oil.

For herbal oils great choices would be lavender, rose, or vanilla, or a combination of two or more of those herbs. As noted above, I have several tutorials on making herbal oils here and here.

So, which essential oils to choose? That’s the easiest part in one way, and also the most daunting in another. It’s easy because any essential oil or combination of essential oils is going to most likely reduce feelings of stress and tension, and help boost feelings of wellness and calm confidence. The only time this might backfire is if the person has a bad experience associated with a certain scent and therefore the scent can trigger feelings of unease. For example, lavender is traditionally known to be calming and relaxing, but if someone went to a lavender farm when they were young and got lost in the fields, separated from their family for long scary minutes, then lavender could easily trigger feelings of distress and alarm on some level for that person for the rest of his/her life. This is fairly rare though and we often know what scents our friends and family gravitate towards. If they are big flower people, pick florals, if they love citrus fruits, pick a citrus, if their favorite thing to do is to hike in the woods, pick pine or cedar, etc. The daunting part can be when trying to decide which essential oils blend together nicely, and for that I’d recommend starting small and starting early, which is why I am posting this a couple of weeks before Valentine’s Day. Use a small container to test the essential oil blend before adding it to the oil, so that way you can see how the blend develops over a few days or weeks’ time, and what adjustments need to be made, such as more top note for more of a lighter initial hit or more base note for grounding, or perhaps more middle note to weave it all together better. I have a few recipe suggestions below but follow your intuition, your nose, and what you know about your gift recipient. Think of this as a truly customized, personal, gift that only you would make for only that one special person. That way what you create will be unique to you and your giftee and both of you will think of the other each time that scent is in the air. Which reminds me, don’t forget to write down your recipe so you can recreate it!

If you are looking for an aphrodisiac combination since this is the holiday that celebrates all aspects of love after all, keep in mind the general effect of any essential oil is to support a calm, confident, and relaxed yet alert state, so any essential oil is truly going to be a good place to start. That being said, some essential oils have traditionally been used for aphrodisiac affects, including the spices such as cinnamon*(see caution), cardamom**, and nutmeg**(see note). Vanilla which is not a true essential oil but can be used in the form of an herbal oil or an absolute. Rose, jasmine, and ylang ylang have sensual reputations as well.

*Cinnamon essential oil can be irritating to the skin. Cinnamon leaf is less so than cinnamon bark, but use either essential oil sparingly in blends and test for sensitivity. ** Cardamom and nutmeg are very potent and easily take over blends, so although they aren’t known to cause the same skin irritation that cinnamon and clove e.o. can, use one drop in a blend at the end of blending, mix, and then test to see if you want to add more. If so, only add one drop at a time, mix, then test.

If you prefer to just buy a ready made oil or body mist with aphrodisiac essential oils already considered in the blend, you might like to check out these two items from Mountain Rose Herbs: a body oil and a body mist. They also have an essential oil Love kit that makes picking out ‘love inducing’ scents easy too.

Here are a couple of recipe ideas to get you started. There are many more recipes in my book, All-Natural Perfume Making, with proposed amounts of each ingredient, so check it out if you like playing with herbs and essential oils. I didn’t suggest amounts for the recipes below so you can truly experience blending with your nose and intuition. Feel free to contact me though with your ideas if you want a second set of eyes.

For a traditionally masculine scent:

Cedarwood, vanilla absolute, bay, and lime in a base of lavender, rose, or vanilla herbal oil

Or

Sandalwood, vanilla absolute, bergamot, and nutmeg in a base of lavender, rose, or vanilla herbal oil

For traditionally feminine scents:

Vanilla absolute, ylang ylang, rose absolute, and cardamom in rose herbal oil

Or

Sandalwood, jasmine absolute, ylang ylang, lavender in vanilla herbal oil or rose herbal oil

Here are more Valentine’s Day DIY projects to consider and here is a post with more information on herbs that support reproductive health, including healthy sexuality.

Wishing everyone rich, deep and layered love this upcoming Valentine’s Day and always ❤.

Easy Homemade Hostess Gift: Vanilla Extract

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I have another post on making Vanilla extract if you like to read more than watch, but even so this quick video will show you how to pick out the right vanilla beans. You can often find these in bulk bins at natural foods stores such as Whole Foods, or they might be sold in the spice aisle in ones or twos in a glass jar or plastic bag. To be certain you aren’t buying old beans, make sure they are the texture in the video.

The basic recipe is at least 4 Vanilla beans per cup of alcohol. For the alcohol, vodka, rum, brandy, or bourbon will work, but I always use vodka because I use my extracts in perfume making and vodka imparts the least amount of scent. Let it sit at least 6 weeks but really 10-14 weeks will be better, and the longer it extracts the more the vanilla scent/flavor will develop. Be sure to shake the container each day for the first week, then at least every other day after that, and you want the alcohol to completely cover the vanilla pods so if they want to stick up out of the liquid, use a wooden chopstick to push them back down.

As far as making holiday gifts goes, this is about as easy as it gets. Put the finished extract in a pretty glass jar and it doesn’t even need to be finished~ just keep the vanilla beans in there and let the recipient know they can take them out in a month or however much longer they need. For real vanilla lovers, you could give them vanilla oil too for body and/or baths. Vanilla is a luxurious product in any form as the pods are the second most expensive herb (after saffron) and have a long history known as an aphrodisiac, so these herbal crafts also make a superb Valentine’s gifts! Keep that in mind if you start your extract too late to gift for the holidays and don’t want to give unfinished extracts.

May your November be full of gratitude and your holidays be full of peace. Every year I make an effort to not get caught up in the frenetic pace and overwhelm of the holidays and this year is no different. So far I have not made it through an entire holiday season without the stress seeping in, but I’m holding out hope that this year I can stay centered. Be well!

Herbs and Supplements for Students

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Students have specific needs whether they are in middle school or pursuing their third Master’s Degree. Some of these suggestions meet the needs of all students, while some are just for the older set. Most of these herbs and products are focused on either brain function or stress management so people other than students can certainly benefit from them as well.

There are several herbs known for brain functioning enhancement, and interestingly enough, a few of them happen to be adaptogens too which help with overall stress management. Adaptogenic herbs Ashwagandha, Tulsi, and Gotu Kola have also been traditionally used for brain functioning as well as their adaptogenic over-all body balancing benefits. Ginkgo Biloba is another herb known to enhance brain functioning with benefits to clarity, mood, and memory also traditionally observed and is especially good for the aging brain.

Blends are a great option for getting several ingredients that work together in a synergistic way in one supplement. Gaia Herbs makes one that comes in capsules, while Herb Pharm has one in tincture form. Herb Pharm also has an alcohol free one for kids to help with concentration. There is another tincture option from Anima Mundi which is a newer line of herbal products that are well-formulated and well-made. The video below has a brain function supplement from Neurohacker Collective that actually came to me through the New Hope Blogger Box of which I am a member. The packaging of this supplement called Qualia is so beautiful that it is gift-worthy, and honestly, pictures didn’t do it justice so I made the video below. You should check out their website for more information because these supplements are packed with vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs, and surely other ingredients I didn’t even catch.

Also in that video is Spice Pharm‘s Chocolate Elixir which is a great herbal drink that tastes like hot chocolate, has Ashwagandha and Turmeric in it, and helps reduce stress and hunger pangs. They also make a Golden Chai which is another delicious, healthy option for students and anyone else who is a chai lover.

Other herbs for stress management include herbs under the classification of adaptogens and nervines. Adaptogens are for long-term balancing and should be taken on a daily basis throughout a lifetime, while nervines are more for getting through specific events or tough times, unless there is a continual need to fight anxiety or depression, in which case the nervines can be taken long-term as well. I have rather lengthy posts already on adaptogens and nervines so click the links if you haven’t already read your fill about those. If I were to send a care package to a college student, I would definitely include a powdered mix of adaptogens that are also brain specific like the three mentioned above, and a tincture or two of an anxiety/stress-buster blend.

Other products that can help students, especially those living in dorms, are powdered greens. It’s hard to get all the fresh produce that a working-hard brain needs when living away from home, so a greens mix is a nice supplement to include to enhance daily nutrition. There are several good ones out there but this one by Food Science of Vermont which I received recently in that same New Hope Blogger Box is doctor formulated and enhanced with probiotics and enzymes. Just mix half a scoop in 8 oz. of water or juice.

Essential oils can also be used for students of all ages for stress reduction and also for clarity and memory enhancement. Rosemary essential oil is the best known scent for memory, and actually the fresh or dried herb can be used for cognitive functioning as well so it’s a great plant to have in study areas, although not the best for sleeping rooms since it is stimulating. Any essential oil can be used for studying though, and in fact it is best to change up the oils used according to the subject being studied. If you or your student is studying for a math test for example, you could diffuse the essential oil of orange in the room while working on it, then during or just before the test sniff that same scent. Then when it’s time to study for History, you would use a different scent, such as cinnamon, then again have the scent available to smell during or just before taking the test. In other words, it doesn’t matter what scent you use as long as it is a scent you can smell at the time of studying, and then again at the time of test-taking. You can take the scent along with you by putting it on a cotton ball, sticking it in a sealed plastic bag, then sniffing it before the test, or even better, you can make an oil with it and put it on your neck before the test. (Use 6 drops of essential oil per teaspoon of base oil.) Scent really helps with memory so it is a great tool to use for studies.

Students of all ages are working hard and handling stress to differing degrees. There is plenty of help for them in terms of nutrition, brain functioning, and stress management. Please share this with any student or parent of student that you know who might be looking for natural help with the hard work associated schoolwork. Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested.