green beauty

Green Beauty

by

Daylight savings time just ended last night as I write this here in the U.S. and although it’s much easier to deal with than March’s ‘spring forward’, it has the annoying effect of making me want to eat lunch at 10:AM for a week or two. Anyone else? I couldn’t figure out why I was so darn hungry this morning until I remembered that it was *actually* an hour later than the clocks were telling me. Apparently Washington and the entire west coast has voted to keep DST all year, but it needs to be approved by congress before that change actually takes place, and no one knows when congress will rule on it. Seems like congress is currently otherwise occupied with a few other more pressing matters. Go figure.

I thought I’d share a bit about what I make vs. what I buy in terms of green beauty, because I definitely don’t make most of what goes on my skin even though I love to craft herbal bath and body goodies. The truth is that I barely have time to make dinner most days, so although the idea of making all my own skin care items is appealing, it is not a reasonable undertaking at the moment. Last evening I went out to dinner with a friend who postponed our meeting up by half an hour right before I was about to leave the house, so with nothing else to do, I applied more makeup than usual. I don’t wear much makeup b/c it tends to look strange on me and I’m not the only one who thinks that. I’ve had makeovers three times in my life in an effort to learn how to put on makeup without it looking odd, but each time the feedback I got from everyone besides the aesthetician was overwhelmingly not positive. I like the idea of makeup though and everyone once in a while try my hand at it beyond the under eye concealer and mascara I often use, but what I forgot last night when prepping for bed was that extra face cleaning was needed. This morning when I did my typical (DIY) toner cleaning, I saw how much more was on my cotton pads than usual and figured I better do a deep clean mask (also DIY). clay mask1The mask is french green clay with powdered lavender, and I added lavandin hydrosol for the liquid. To get powdered lavender, I just put dried lavender into an old coffee grinder and whirled away for about 30 seconds. The proportions were 2 parts clay to 1 part lavender. I used a little over a tablespoon of the dry material and about a tablespoon of the hydrsol mixed together for my face. Always use non metal containers and mixing tools with clay (and henna) such as ceramic, wood, and plastic. For other homemade mask ideas, here are a few. It takes a while to dry so you can either treat it as an opportunity for more self care like a warm bath or long mediation, or you can do like I did this morning and clean the bathroom. Either way, let it dry for 20 or more minutes, and then rinse off with a warm washcloth. ‘Rinse’ is a soft word implying the mask will come off easily, and that’s misleading. The taking off of a clay mask is an exercise in exfoliation, which is part of the magic, so don’t be surprised or discouraged, just use your wash cloth starting at your chin and working up in long arches outward for best skin health circulation. You will reveal glowing skin, guaranteed!

Afterwards I put on a serum, eye cream, under eye concealer, and a moisturizer combined with a CC cream~ all bought, not made. There are many great natural beauty products out there made with health-promoting herbs, essential oils, and other natural ingredients and I love supporting them. The other cool thing is a far larger proportion of these businesses, as opposed to businesses in general, are women owned and I love that! I’ve heard that if you use non-natural products and switch to natural, it takes a couple of weeks for your skin to adjust, so that’s important to know. I’ve pretty much always used natural products so I never experienced that, but I’ve talked to enough people in the industry to know that can be a real thing and it’s likened to a ‘healing crisis’ which is what some people experience when they begin a new herb or some other natural protocol and seem to get worse before getting better. The other thing to keep in mind is that non-natural skin care can actually create sensitive skin. Once your skin is treated with natural ingredients, it becomes a lot less ‘sensitive’. Imagine eating non-natural food all of the time and what that would do to your stomach vs. eating natural foods, and you can understand how that would be the case. In other words, give your skin some time to heal and it’ll be not only healthier and glow-ier, but also more resilient.

In case you are interested, here’s a list of 35 women owned natural industry businesses. This list was provided by New Hope Network. As a reminder, I am a member of the New Hope Influencer Co-op, a network of health and wellness bloggers committed to spreading more health to more people. I’m not paid or otherwise reimbursed to share this information.

Cali’flour Foods – Amy Lacey, Founder & Owner
Michele’s Granola – Michele Tsucalas, Founder
Miyoko’s Kitchen – Miyoko Schinner, Founder & the Big Cheese
4th & Heart – Raquel Tavares, CEO & Founder
Shanti Bar – Ashanty Williams, COO, and Lauren Feingold, CEO
NuttZo – Danielle Dietz-LiVolsi, Founder
Piggy Paint – Melanie Hurley, Owner
Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Co. – Marygrace Sexton, Founder, Natalie Sexton, VP Marketing
Noosa Yoghurt – Koel Thomae, Chief Aussie Officer
Caulipower – Gail Becker, Founder & CEO
My Brother’s Salsa – Helen Lampkin, Founder
Lucky Nutrition – Jamie Oberweger, Founder
Siren Snacks – Elizabeth Giannuzzi, Co-Founder & CEO
Purely Elizabeth – Elizabeth Stein, CEO
Bohana – Priyal Bhartia and Nadine Habayeb, Co-Founders
NoBull Burger – Crissanne Raymond, Founder & President
Nixie Sparkling Water – Nicole Dawes, Founder & CEO
Bobo’s – Beryl Stafford, Owner
Siete Family Foods – Veronica Garza, Co-Founder & President
P.S. Snacks Company – Nikki Azzara, Founder
Dream Foods International – Adriana Kahane, Owner
Cool Haus – Freya Estreller and Natasha Case, Co-Founders
Remedy Organics – Cindy Kasindorf, Founder
Simple Mills – Katlin Smith, Founder & CEO
Shining Light Deodorant – Sara Salter and Kristi Joynt, Co-Founders
Rule Breaker Snacks – Nancy Kalish, Founder
Green Goo – Jodie Scott, CEO
Crazy Richard’s Peanut Butter Co. – Kimmi Wernli, CEO
Carlson Laboratories – Carilyn Anderson, President, Kristen Carlson, VP, and Susan Carlson, Founder
Lifeway Foods – Julie Smolyansky, President & CEO
DeeBee’s Organics – Dr. Dionne Baker, CEO & Founder
O’My Dairy Free Gelato – Allison Monette, CEO, and Julie Bishop, COO, Co-Founders
Thaiwala – Heather Howitt, President
Joy Organics – Joy Smith, Co-Founder & CEO
Uplift Food – Kara Landau, RD, CEO & Head Dietitian

I can add some natural beauty lines as well: Evan Healy (I love this line!), Juice Beauty, Tata Harper, Moon Juice (I know some people can’t stand her vibe but I think she’s a hoot), and Indie Lee are the first that come to mind, but there are plenty more. What are your favorite green beauty products to make or to buy?

Thanks for reading and as always, please share with any green beauty lovers in your life!

How to Make a Body Butter (Reblog)

by
I was in the mood to make a body butter and share it here, so I decided to look at the recipes I’ve made before and decided that I would just reblog the one I followed most closely, otherwise it’d just be a repeat anyway. I love making body butters because of the way they change from solid, to liquid, to a creamy consistency. It’s like true alchemy at work. They are decadent too, and so perfect for this time of year when heaters start cranking and skin starts cracking. These butters are perfect for the skin that gets driest, such as feet and elbows and hands, but I use these all over my body and my legs seem to especially love the highly moisturizing texture. They make lovely gifts too, just heed the warning below about using a tight-fitting lid such as a screw top if you or your lucky giftee have a prying pet. Below is my blog from February of 2018, and here is another one on making body butter complete with video.

Making a body butter or cream is an especially magical process because the mere act of whipping the concoction creates the luxurious feel of the product and also the opaqueness. It’s really easy to do and there are so many ways to do it that I very rarely repeat the same process twice in the exact same way. That being said, I don’t always get the proportions exactly right for a proper whip to the recipe so do follow the ingredient recommendations closely of whatever recipe you choose at least for the first time or two. Even if the whipping doesn’t make your butter quite creamy, you will still end up with a soft balm that is just as good for moisturizing, and considering all these ingredients are natural, healthy, and non-toxic, you can use them on any part of your body that needs a little lotion-y love. Use whatever essential oils you like, but just know if you are using the recipe below the cocoa butter gives the finished product a decidedly chocolate-y scent, so figure that into your scent profile. For example, orange and chocolate might be good, cedarwood and chocolate though….maybe not.) I used vanilla absolute to round out the chocolate scent and the lavender to make sure it didn’t smell completely like food, plus lavender has so many skin benefits.

25AACD8A-2C24-4EA7-8017-2F6C8FC2F792[1]

Body Butter

1/2 C Cocoa Butter

1/4 C Coconut Oil

1/8 C Shea Butter

1/8 C Rose Oil (Olive Oil based)

20 drops Lavender

10 drops Vanilla Absolute

Put all the ingredients, except for the essential oils, into a measuring cup that can go into a pot of water that will heat up to a simmer. 3756C7C8-FDB6-4FEB-B5E5-051F1F1C9E5A[1]Let the solids completely melt, then take the measuring cup out of the water and let the liquid cool. You can put the measuring cup on ice, or put it in the fridge or freezer with a clean towel on top of it. It takes a while to cool, anywhere between a half hour to an hour depending on how it is cooling (freezer or on ice or just sitting out or whatnot). If you lose track of time and find the measuring cup hours later rock solid, don’t worry, just melt it again. When the liquid feels room temperature to the touch, add the essential oils and start whipping it with an electric mixer or in a blender until it turns creamy and opaque. This could take 5-10 minutes, depending on how cool the liquid is upon starting. Pour the butter into a clean jar and keep it out of heat and light for storage. This is a very emollient body butter, good for hand or foot cream, elbows, or any part of the body that is very dry. It isn’t recommended for the face though because those hard oils and butter can be pore clogging. It smells decadent and it is really fun to make something that starts off mostly solid, melts into a liquid, then whips into a totally new texture.

45F09253-CA73-4ABD-84A3-CAE927C60A5A[1]

Store in a clean glass jar with a tight fitting top, in a cool, dark place. Preferably a cool, dark place up out of nosey doggie territory. I was going to give this body butter to a friend so I had it down on the bottom of my shelf of herbal things where I knew I wouldn’t forget about it, but see that cork there…? My dog took the cork out of the jar (it does smell heavenly, and very much like food despite the lavender, I have to admit) and the jar hardened to a decidedly non-butter state. Definitely not gift-worthy anymore although I’ll still use it. Now it’s back to the stove top to make another batch, this time with a screw-lid jar.

This does harden a bit over a couple of days even with a properly closed container, so don’t be surprised if that happens. It still melts right onto (and into) your skin. We have all heard how skin is our largest organ and whatever we put on it goes into the body, so make sure you are only using the best, purest, products. You are worth it and your body will thank you. Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested.

 

Herbal Perfume Base DIY Part 2

by

This is a follow up post to the one about making herbal perfume bases. After the tincture sits for about a month, it is ready to be strained and used as a perfume base. It can sit for longer than a month and potentially get a little stronger, but if you are like me and get antsy to get crafting, a month is long enough. I actually strained mine this time slightly before a full month was up, but I could tell from the scent and the color that it was ready. A note about the color~ when you make an herbal tincture it will inevitably take on the color of the herbs which shouldn’t be a surprise, but it may seem strange to put colored perfume on your body. The color does not show up on the body and I’ve never had it stain my clothes either so you don’t need to worry about that. If you do not like the idea of colored perfume, stick to essential oils in straight alcohol, or make an herbal oil instead because oils take on a lot less color. Here’s part two of making an herbal perfume base:

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

The final perfume I made with the 2 oz. spray bottle is the following:

50 drops ylang ylang

10 drops nutmeg

3 drops palo santo (because I’m out of sandalwood)

5 drops bergamot

This turned out to have a nice, fresh, gender-neutral, autumn day scent. If you watched the video you will know that I was thinking of adding jasmine but I’m just not really feeling jasmine-y this time of year. Nutmeg is a strong scent which is why there are only 10 drops while ylang ylang has 5 times as much, but the scent turned out to have a strong vanilla-nutmeg scent which just feels right for October. It could have really used some sandalwood but I improvised with the palo santo which is another essential oil that is extremely strong so only three drops of that one. The bergamot just gave it a light, happy finish as the only real top note in the mix.

Thank you for reading and please subscribe if you haven ‘t already for more herbal tutorials and wellness articles from the natural foods and products world.

 

Herbal Perfume Base DIY

by

It’s really nice to have an herbal oil or herbal extract as your natural perfume base because it adds another layer of scent and benefits to your perfume. It also lessens the amount of essential oils you need in your perfume, making the end product more affordable and sustainable. Essential oils are wonderful, therapeutic, beautiful gifts from the earth, but they should be used sparingly as their production can and does take an environmental toll in some cases. Sandalwood, for example, has become endangered due to over harvesting and some other environmental factors, which is also why its price has been steadily and substantially increasing. It often takes an enormous amount of botanical material to make an essential oil, and the more material it takes the more expensive the resulting essential oil. Rose and Jasmine (link is to an absolute) are classic examples of this, and one way around the steep environmental and personal financial price, is to make an oil or extract from the flowers yourself. It takes 60,000 rose blossoms to make 1 oz of rose essential oil, and it takes even more Jasmine than that, but to make an oil or extract, you can use a lot less and end up with a great product although not as potent. Vanilla is another great herb to use as an oil or extract because vanilla can’t be made into an essential oil, it can be made into an absolute which is generally found already mixed with jojoba oil, so using it in an alcohol based perfume is not rose and vanilla in oilrecommended other than as an extract itself. I like to make my perfumes that are alcohol base with vanilla extract, then add essential oils to it. You don’t need to just pick one herb though, you can add herbs together for a unique, multidimensional scent as your base, then layer in the essential oils to create something completely your own~ a true signature scent.

Today I made rose vanilla oil and rose vanilla extract for my perfume bases. The extract will take 4-8 weeks to cure, but the oil is ready in a few hours (thanks to the quick method) so I can start experimenting with some fall scents right away. Below is what I did, but remember that you can do this with any botanical ingredient that you like. If you have something growing near you that isn’t found as an essential oil, I especially encourage you to try working with that and seeing what kind of special, local scent you can create full of originality and terroir. Go for it!

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

Thank you for reading/watching and I hope you are inspired to create your own multilayered natural perfume or cologne with an herbal base. Let me know what your favorite combinations are~ I’d love to hear!

 

Infused Witch Hazel

by

I wanted to show you the end of the process since I showed you the beginning a few weeks back. This is the witch hazel after four weeks of infusion. The witch hazel has clearly been infused with all the beneficial qualities of the rose petals and calendula because the color of the liquid has turned from crystal clear to a deep, warm orange. I prepped some for a facial toner with geranium and carrot seed essential oils, and left the rest without any essential oils in case I needed it for an after sun spray, in which case I’ll use lavender and peppermint essential oils instead.

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

Witch hazel is anti-inflammatory, soothing, cleansing, and balancing to skin alone, but infusing it with botanicals makes it a medium for adding more antioxidants, healing, and enhancing properties to your skin. It’s also just fun and so rewarding to see the color change that takes place when infusing it with herbs, so it makes for a particularly good green beauty craft for young teens/tweens and it’s also gentle enough for them to actually use.

Thank you for reading and watching! I also added a couple of other new videos on YouTube on making natural perfumes if you are interested in actual recipes. Watch the alcohol based version first because in the oil based body perfume video I tell you how to (somewhat) alleviate a problem with essential oil perfumes that I bring up in the first one~ the fact that products made with essential oils just don’t stick around as long as chemical fragrances due to their ‘alive’ and volatile natures.

Happy holiday week to all the Canadians and Americans and anyone else out there who has a holiday this first week of July :0).

 

Infusing Witch Hazel

by

Witch hazel is a great ingredient to have in your natural beauty cabinet. It is anti-inflammatory, soothing and healing, great for acne and other skin conditions, balances pH, and can be used to cleanse the skin. It is most often used as a toner, the step between cleansing and applying serum and/or moisturizer, and can be mixed with other ingredients to create a more multidimensional product. I have shared a couple of toner recipes here already, this more basic one and this one with a glycerine infusion, but you can also infuse the witch hazel itself with herbs to customize it for your particular needs. I like to infuse witch hazel with green tea for toner concoctions, but for this tutorial I’m infusing healing herbs for after sun spray for a class I’m giving later in the month.

If you follow me on instagram, you might already know that I’ve chosen to infuse two herbs into witch hazel intended for after sun spray. Calendula and rose are both well-known skin herbs that add extra healing qualities to the witch hazel and essential oils (added later) for sun damaged skin. Either one would be a great choice, but since I happen to have both of the herbs in stock, I am using both. After the infusion sits for 2-4 weeks, I will strain the herbs from the witch hazel, pour the liquid into spray bottles, then add essential oils. It’s surprisingly easy to do, just like making a tincture, and really the hardest part is straining it without making a royal mess.

Here’s how to infuse witch hazel:

You will need the following:

witch hazel infusion

Fill the jar about half full with the dried herbs, cover with enough witch hazel so that the herbs are completely saturated and there is at least an extra inch of liquid on top. Push the herbs down (they will float to the top) with a wooden chopstick until they are completely covered. Put a piece of plastic wrap over the cover if using a metal lid, otherwise just cover with a plastic lid and shake gently. Let it sit in a cool dry place for 2-4 weeks. The longer it sits, the stronger the infusion will be so wait the full 4 weeks if you can. Strain and use as is or add other ingredients such as aloe and/or essential oils such witch hazel infusion1as peppermint for cooling or lavender for skin healing (or both).

Store in a cool, dry place, preferably the refrigerator since it is specifically for over-sunned skin. It will feel especially cool and soothing if it is fresh from the fridge, and if you do put aloe vera gel or juice into the mixture, it really needs to stay in the refrigerator to last for about 10 days. If there is no aloe in it, it will last for longer, so you can count on it being potent for a good three months or more, assuming no stray germs got into it during the creation process.

Thank you for reading and enjoy the sun safely! Please share with anyone prone to over-sunning themselves in the summertime.

 

What’s in a Name?

by

Shakespeare probably didn’t know how appropriate this quote would be:

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”  Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

There is a lot of confusion out there on what rose oil is compared to rose essential oil compared to rose hip oil. It surprises me every time someone says something like, “Oh I would never put undiluted rose hip oil on my face” or “What do you infuse in your essential oils?” or “Do you make essential oils at home?” I get these comments and questions all the time and it throws me, until I realize they are not talking about the thing that they think they are talking about. If those questions sound reasonable to you, rest assured you are not alone. I was talking to an aesthetician this weekend who is a brand rep for a natural beauty company, and even he was confused on what rose hip oil is. He thought it was an essential oil, which it is not. It is a highly potent base oil, closer in properties to olive oil or coconut oil, and can absolutely go directly on the face undiluted. Rose hip oil is full of antioxidants and vitamin C, in fact you will find it in vitamin C supplements, and has been used for its beautifying properties for ages. It is known to improve texture and tone of the skin, lightening dark spots and reducing fine lines and wrinkles, as well as firming and brightening the skin. It can be found as an ingredient in many facial creams and serums, but can also just be used as is, on your face, hair, and body. Rose hips, sometimes spelled rosehips, are the little fruits left over after the rose petals have fallen away. The oil should be cold pressed, as heat can damage the active constituents.

Rose oil and rose essential oil are made with the rose petals themselves. To make rose essential oil, you need a rather large steam distillation system and quite a few roses, around 60,000 rose blossoms in fact to make one ounce of essential oil. This is why rose essential oil is one of the most expensive oils you can buy. (This is also why I get taken aback by the question of making my own at home. Although that is possible with the right equipment and access to a lot of fresh flowers, it is pretty rare. I can only think of a couple of herbalists that have their own distillation equipment, and they are people who live on farms, not the ‘burbs.) Rose essential oil is also known to be great for the skin, but it should be diluted before going on the skin. It makes a great addition to a toner, serum, or moisturizer, and is especially good for mature skin. You cannot “infuse essential oils” with anything, though you can add essential oils to bath and body products, thereby infusing them with the qualities of the essential oils. In other words, essential oils cannot be a menstruum (solvent) for other products, but they can be added to common solvents such as a base oil or alcohol.

Here’s a quick video to show you how to keep your rosehip oil from going rancid, which essential oils can be added to your rosehip oil to take it to full serum status, and how to get the benefits of rose essential oil at a more affordable price:

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

Rose oil is easy to make in any kitchen and far less expensive than rose essential oil. I’ve made it here a couple of times, once using the Folk Method and once using the Quick Method. This is a great way to use rose petals from your own garden because you can make as small of a batch as you want. Rose oil makes a great base for perfumed body oils, balms, and butters. It is easy and fun to make, and makes lovely gifts as well.

Rose water or hydrosol is another beauty staple for green beauty lovers. These are especially good in homemade toners. Roses have a long history entwined with beauty and love, and there are many ways to take advantage of the their traditional qualities. I hope this clears up any name confusion out there, and maybe entice some of you to look at including roses in some form in your face and body routines. We are in an age of self care and self love reminders, and roses do it all like no other.

Thank you for reading and please share with anyone who might have questions about how to use roses in their beauty regimes.

*This website has links to affiliations with amazon which provide a small incentive back to me. This helps to keep the information coming in such a way that is free to the reader. I only talk about products or services I truly love and believe in and hope this information brings every reader/watcher closer to their optimal health and wellness whether or not they buy anything through these links.

New Foods and Supps for Health

by

The New Hope Blogger Box always has great gluten free goodies in it, and this month’s was no exception. I love granola and was thrilled to find Jessica’s Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Granola in the box because if there is anything better than granola, it’s granola with chocolate chips. This is a delicious treat for breakfast or an afternoon snack, with just right amount of sweetness. I ate it with unsweetened vanilla coconut yogurt or milk with a half teaspoon of my anti-inflammatory digestive spice mix.

My oldest son was thrilled with these unique Tahini Bars from the company Mighty Sesame. These are gluten free and only 100 calories a bar, and make for a nutty tasting, not-too-sweet snack or even a dessert. These bars come in different flavors but we tried the Pistachio Halva Bar and it was a hit, especially with my son who has taken all but one in his lunch bag. (I managed to grab that one for myself!)

Swanson Health’s Vanilla Protein Powder is packed with 20 grams of vegan sourced protein and one serving of veggies. I used this in the smoothies I make every morning and it blended in nicely and tastes good. It has 120 calories per serving which is similar to the other vegan protein I regularly use, and zero sugars. One bag has 20 servings in it.

My oldest son agreed to be the guinea pig for a natural deodorant by Prep U Products. He is almost 15, bikes uphill 1.75 miles to school everyday, and has PE there every day as well. He then bikes home. He also has sensitive skin and we have been through at least five (or more) brands of natural deodorants to find one that works and doesn’t irritate his skin. This deodorant works for him. It is gentle enough not to irritate, and yet it actually works throughout the day despite his physical activities off and on all day long. This is a golden find.

Here’s a supplement to get you fully transitioned out of cold and flu season safely and healthfully. Nature’s Answer has combined elderberry extract with probiotics which specifically target the immune system to create a powerful immune support supplement. This has 32,000 mg elderberry (which is an herb traditionally used to boost the immune system) per serving as well as 10 billion cfu probiotics. This is a great supplement to have on hand through cold and flu system and it doesn’t even need to be refrigerated. The directions are to take two per day with food or water.

The supplement’s color is so pretty!

Two bars that deserve mentioning are Hemp Health’s Cookie Dough Hemp Bar and gt brands’ good Snacks! Chocolate Peanut Butter protein bar. The hemp bar uses hemp for the main protein source and is quite tasty with a surprisingly good nutrition profile, including a decent amount of iron. It also has 12 grams of protein per bar, 5 grams of fiber and 4 grams of sugar. They have several flavors and other hemp products as well. The good snacks’ chocolate and peanut butter bar is delicious with a nod towards Reese’s peanut butter cups, though not as sweet. These have 15 grams of protein, 11 grams of fiber, and 9 grams of sugar. Both of the bars are gluten free, soy free, and vegan.

I’ve posted about Bellucci’s Olive Oil before, but in case you missed it, these olive oil packets are perfect for lunch bags, camping, or picnics. Now that spring is finally officially here (in the Northern hemisphere anyway) nothing sounds better than some outdoors noshing. With Bellucci you can actually trace your olive oil from the batch number to its roots so you know you have an authentic product, which is important because there is a surprising amount of oil out there masquerading as EVOO.

Thank you for reading and I hope you see something new to try. Happy Equinox!

Fragrance vs. Essential Oils

by

Today I’d like to share a few minutes of my workshop on making your own natural perfumes with essential oils. What I’m sharing below explains why it is important to be conscious of the fragrances we are inundated by, and also how beneficial essential oils are to our physical, mental, and emotional bodies and to the earth as a whole. There are two main reasons I make my own body oils, perfumes, and salves~ to avoid fragrances and to enhance my overall health with essential oils. The sad truth is, there is no way to avoid fragrances completely because they are everywhere, but you can absolutely very easily avoid them in your personal care routine. By not having artificial fragrances in the products you wear on your body all day/every day, you will be taking a huge step in a cleaner, greener, healthier body and environment.

This is what the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has to say about it: –“Fragrance”: Federal law doesn’t require companies to list on product labels any of the chemicals in their fragrance mixture. Research from EWG and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found an average of 14 chemicals in 17 name-brand fragrance products, and none of them was listed on the label. Fragrances can contain hormone disruptors and are among the top five allergens in the world. Our advice? Look for products that disclose their fragrance ingredients. From: https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/top-tips-for-safer-products/

I made the perfume pictured with vanilla extract that I’ve been curing for about four months. Once you know the proportions and the ingredients that can be used, it’s easy to then take it a step further with infusing the oil and/or alcohol with herbs for scent or other healing or aesthetic reasons, such as making rose oil for your base, or concocting a bay rum cologne. It’s extremely easy to get started right away though with simple ingredients you have in your kitchen right now. As long as you have an essential oil or two on hand, you can make yourself a perfume in less than five minutes. Here’s the quick and dirty on why limiting your exposure to artificial fragrances matters:

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

To learn more, visit my workshop intro page here: https://botanical-alchemy-and-apothecary.teachable.com/p/make-your-own-natural-perfumes-with-essential-oils

Happy New Year~ I hope it’s a healthier, happier, greener year for everyone. Please share this with anyone you know who might be interested, and please subscribe for weekly wellness posts.

Body Butter DIY

by

It’s winter (here) and almost Christmas, so it’s a perfect time to whip up some body butter for both self-care and homemade gifts. And I do mean ‘whip’ quite literally, as you can see for yourself below. This recipe is very similar to the one I shared here before, so as you can see, this is recipe is ripe for customization. Pick your solid butters and oils, add some (liquid) herbal oil, and choose your essential oils to make your own unique moisturizer.

Body Butter

1/2 C Shea Butter

1/8 C Coconut Oil

1/4 C Cocoa Butter

1/8 C Rose Oil (Olive Oil based)

10 drops Lavender

10 drops Vanilla (in jojoba oil)

10 drops Frankincense

Put all the ingredients, except for the essential oils, into a measuring cup that can go into a pot of water that will heat up to a simmer. Let the solids completely melt, then take the measuring cup out of the water and let the liquid cool. You can put the measuring cup on ice, or put it in the fridge or freezer with a clean towel on top of it. It takes a while to cool, anywhere between a half hour to an hour depending on how it is cooling (freezer or on ice or just sitting out or whatnot). If you lose track of time and find the measuring cup hours later rock solid, don’t worry, just melt it again. When the liquid starts to get a bit cloudy and feels room temperature to the touch, add the essential oils and start whipping it with an electric mixer or in a blender until it turns creamy and opaque. This could take 5-10 minutes, depending on how cool the liquid is upon starting. 

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

Pour the butter into a clean jar and keep it out of heat and light for storage. This is a very emollient body butter, good for hand or foot cream, elbows, or any part of the body that is very dry. It isn’t recommended for the face though because those hard oils and butters can be pore clogging. It smells decadent and it is really fun to make something that starts off mostly solid, melts into a liquid, then whips into a totally new texture.

If you are looking for more homemade gift ideas, check out this post with a variety of ideas, or this one on making bath salts. I hope you are enjoying the season and not feeling the frenzy that this time of year can sometimes whip up. Please share with anyone who might enjoy this post and if you haven’t already, subscribe for a weekly wellness post.