Blueberry + Raspberry + Shea Learn how to make your own Whipped Body Butter Your family and friends will love you for this beautiful nourishing whipped body butter! Ingredients: 8 ounces Shea Butter 1 tsp Dried Blueberry Powder 1 Tbsp Raspberry Seed Oil or here (organic). 12 drops Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) 10 drops Tangerine (Citrus reticulata) 7 drops Petitgrain (Citrus aurantium var. amara) To Make: Place shea butter in glass mixing bowl (more tall then wide with this small amount) and begin whipping with hand held mixer. Once slightly whipped, add READ MORE
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Butters, Balms, and Salves – What’s the difference?
Butters, Balms, and Salves - What's the difference? Both body butters and balms are made utilizing the base ingredients of natural butter/s and herbal and/or vegetable/nut/seed oils. Balms contain beeswax. Salves use herbal oils and beeswax. Since body balms, butters, and salves do not contain water, they are called anhydrous formulations. The lack of water also means they do not need a preservative however depending on which vegetable oils you use in your formulation, you may want to consider adding in 1% antioxidant such as rosemary CO2 extract, vitamin E or mixed tocopherols. The READ MORE
Vegan Lip Balm: Coconut Lime
'Tis the season for lip balms! Here is our recipe for Vegan Coconut Lime Lip Balm: 29.07g Coconut oil (51%) 14.25g Calendula herbal oil (25%) 13.11g Candelilla wax (23%) **You could go down to about 20%. At 23%, this formulation works best in tins. 18-20% would be good in lip balm tubes. 1 g Distilled Lime essential oil (2%) I use this scale for making small batches like this. It works incredibly well and is good to have if you are planning on making your own body care products! To Make: Using a double boiler, place the candelilla wax in first. Once the READ MORE
Cold Sore Lip Balm
Recipe for Cold Sore Lip Balm Makes: Approx. 7-8 0.15 lip balm tubes 8.55 g / 0.30 oz Shea butter 5.70 g / 0.20 oz Mango butter 7.98 g / 0.28 oz Cocoa butter 22.77 g / 0.80 oz Tamanu oil 11.40 g / 0.40 oz Beeswax 25 drops Melissa syn. Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) essential oil 15 drops Eucalyptus globulus Steps to Make Lip Balm: Weigh all ingredients. Use glass prep bowls for butters and beeswax and a glass beaker or measuring cup for tamanu oil. Place beeswax into double boiler. Allow to melt almost completely, then add in mango butter, shea butter, and tamanu READ MORE
Eucalyptus + Laurel Body Scrub Recipe
To Make: 16 ounce jar Ingredients: 1 cup + 2 tbsp of Fine Sea Salt 1 tbsp. Ground Dried Eucalyptus leaves 3/4 cup Sesame Oil or Jojoba Oil 10 drops Eucalyptus radiata e/o 18 drops Laurel e/o Tools: Glass bowl Stainless steel spoon Measuring spoon Measuring cup General Steps to Make: Step 1: Find a glass container you would like to work with. Wash with hot water and allow to dry completely. I used a 16 ounce clear glass jar from here. Step 2: Fill glass or PET container 3/4 of the way full with fine sea salt. Then pour salt into glass mixing bowl. For READ MORE
Aromatherapy & Pregnancy
Aromatherapy & Pregnancy: Exploring the controversy to uncover the healing potential of essential oils. Written by: Jolene Meum, MBA Research paper for The School for Aromatic Studies Abstract Pregnancy is a pivotal point in a woman’s life. One will seek out information about how to provide the best for the tiny child they have yet to meet. They may look to professionals for advice, research online, read books, and ask friends for opinions to feel comfortable about the choices they make during pregnancy. Unfortunately, some topics have polarized views with passionate opposition. At READ MORE
Bee Balm Pesto
My son, Soren, and I have a great love of pesto and we love exploring different plants to use in our pesto making. From Bee Balm to Lady's Thumb and Basil to Nettles, you can use just about any edible leaf to make it! Bee Balm Pesto 3 cups Bee balm leaves (Monarda fistulosaor M. didyma)** 1 cup Walnuts (*Can lightly toast in skillet) 2 - 2.5 tbsp of Lemon juice 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese or Nutritional yeast 3-4 cloves of Garlic (more, if you have a love of garlic!) 3/4 cup Extra-virgin Olive Oil **Can combine 1.5 cups bee balm with 1.5 cups of Lady’s Thumb READ MORE
Distilling Aromatic Plants
First Plant Distillation This is Part Three of blog series on Distillation. See Part One: About Distillation and Part Two: How to Prepare Your Still. Preparing for your first plant distillation is a journey to embrace.... For your first distillation, I recommend keeping it as simple as possible and to remove all judgement about doing it right or not right. Whatever happens during your first distillation is all a part of the learning process. Relax, observe, enjoy the experience. I typically devote two to four days to each distillation. Prior to scheduling a harvest and READ MORE
First Distillation: How to Prepare Your Still
(Part II of Distillation Series) with Cathy Skipper and Jade Shutes Have you received your copper alembic still? Here is information on how to prepare the still for the first plant distillation. This is an important step, so be sure to follow and you are sure to have days and years of beautiful distilling ahead! The first distillation is designed to clean and seal the inside of the unit. It is an important step to ensuring your still works well once you begin distilling plant material. Step One: Prepare Distillation Space The first time I ever distilled, this is what it looked READ MORE
About Distillation
About Distillation Written by: Cathy Skipper and Jade Shutes Where to begin......Are you interested in exploring Distillation for hydrosols and maybe even essential oils? Do you have a still or are you thinking about getting one? Learn the basics of distilling in this 4 part blog series with Cathy and Jade. What is Distillation? Distillation as Alchemy When we pick up an essential oil, we could say that we are holding a physical manifestation of alchemy - a substance of transformation. We could describe this process of alchemy in the language of the five elements. As plant READ MORE