I haven't had a giveaway for a while so I decided it's time. I want to give away a big prize to one lucky winner on August 1st so you can celebrate my birthday with me! I am giving away a free consultation (value of $50) that may include herbal, aromatherapy or flower remedy treatment for what ever you need. I'm really excited about this and I want all my readers to be excited so I am making this available worldwide and I'm going to give you tons of chances to enter.
Leave a comment and tell me what you want out of the consultation (1 entry).
Follow my blog (1 entry)-I have lots of other opportunities coming in the near future so you may want to keep up!
Follow me on twitter (1 entry)-the link is to the right of the page...........
Tweet this giveaway and leave a comment telling me you did.
Post this giveaway to your Facebook page and leave a comment telling me you did.
Make a purchase from any of my stores and leave 3 comments with the transaction ID.
That's up to 8 entries! I'll choose the winner whenever I roll out of bed on my Birthday (August 1st) and my family is done showering me with love and gifts (yeah, right). Good Luck and I look forward to working with the winner.
Did I mention that you'll receive free stuff as part of the consult? Yup!
Showing posts with label vegan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegan. Show all posts
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Comfrey Flower Essence
Today I have added Comfrey Flower Essence in my stores. This is one of my favorite plants and it was created using the fertile European comfrey and not the sterile Russian comfrey. It is one of the most healing plants I have ever used and the flower essence will be wonderful too. If you use homeopathic symphytum you may consider using this as a less expensive alternative!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
How to Shop for Soap
This seems like a weird question but I'm sure we have all bought soap that looked and smelled wonderful, but after we use it our skin is all dried out and we're not so impressed anymore. This is mainly true of commercial soaps but you may have had this experience with handmade soaps as well. It is my goal to educate as much as possible with this blog so I want to educate consumers about what to look for when buying handmade.
I recently dropped off some of my soaps at Truly Bluegrass where I have items consigned and one of the owners snagged a bar for herself. On my next visit, she told me that she had tried all of the natural soaps in their store but mine was the only one that hadn't dried her skin out. I know why. There is one basic mistake that soapers and makers of other handmade skin care items make. Coconut oil is NOT a moisturizing oil. It is a DRYING oil, especially in soap. If you want to test this out for yourself, go to your grocery store or health food store and buy a bar of Kirk's Coconut Castille Soap. It costs about a dollar and change for a bar so it won't be an expensive experiment-go buy a bar and take a shower with it. It's made with just coconut oil and I GUARANTEE this soap will dry your skin out more than any other soap you have ever used! The same goes with another popular ingredient in handmade soaps-Palm Kernel Oil. I can't imagine you can add enough shea butter to make up for the drying effects of coconut oil AND palm kernel oil in any soap recipe.
That said, I do like some coconut oil in my soap because it makes a firm bar with lots of suds. But my primary ingredient is olive oil. It's stable and moisturizing but isn't creamy and doesn't make lots of bubbles in soap. So the key here, like everything else in life is balance. I use enough coconut oil to make a good lather and make the soap firm, but it isn't my primary ingredient. This is why my soaps aren't drying like other handmade soaps.
What to look for? When I list my ingredients I list the items in order of content-that is the first ingredient on the list is what I have the most of -so when I list the ingredients in my soap I list olive oil first because that is the most plentiful ingredient. This is how you are legally supposed to label items so I always assume that are others are doing the same. So if I look at a listing for a bar of soap and the first ingredient is coconut or palm kernel oil, I assume that the soap is mostly coconut and/or palm kernel oil. I can honestly tell you that if I see BOTH as ingredients, especially the top 2 ingredients, I won't buy it-and yes, I do buy soap from other people from time to time.
Now, ironically, I am off to make Monoi lotion bars with coconut oil. I will be balancing the coconut oil with avocado butter and some light vegetable oils, like almond, grapeseed, sunflower, etc. I am using the coconut oil because it's a must for Monoi oils and I have a bottle of coconut oil from India that has a heavenly coconut scent that I can't duplicate with essential oils.
I recently dropped off some of my soaps at Truly Bluegrass where I have items consigned and one of the owners snagged a bar for herself. On my next visit, she told me that she had tried all of the natural soaps in their store but mine was the only one that hadn't dried her skin out. I know why. There is one basic mistake that soapers and makers of other handmade skin care items make. Coconut oil is NOT a moisturizing oil. It is a DRYING oil, especially in soap. If you want to test this out for yourself, go to your grocery store or health food store and buy a bar of Kirk's Coconut Castille Soap. It costs about a dollar and change for a bar so it won't be an expensive experiment-go buy a bar and take a shower with it. It's made with just coconut oil and I GUARANTEE this soap will dry your skin out more than any other soap you have ever used! The same goes with another popular ingredient in handmade soaps-Palm Kernel Oil. I can't imagine you can add enough shea butter to make up for the drying effects of coconut oil AND palm kernel oil in any soap recipe.
That said, I do like some coconut oil in my soap because it makes a firm bar with lots of suds. But my primary ingredient is olive oil. It's stable and moisturizing but isn't creamy and doesn't make lots of bubbles in soap. So the key here, like everything else in life is balance. I use enough coconut oil to make a good lather and make the soap firm, but it isn't my primary ingredient. This is why my soaps aren't drying like other handmade soaps.
What to look for? When I list my ingredients I list the items in order of content-that is the first ingredient on the list is what I have the most of -so when I list the ingredients in my soap I list olive oil first because that is the most plentiful ingredient. This is how you are legally supposed to label items so I always assume that are others are doing the same. So if I look at a listing for a bar of soap and the first ingredient is coconut or palm kernel oil, I assume that the soap is mostly coconut and/or palm kernel oil. I can honestly tell you that if I see BOTH as ingredients, especially the top 2 ingredients, I won't buy it-and yes, I do buy soap from other people from time to time.
Now, ironically, I am off to make Monoi lotion bars with coconut oil. I will be balancing the coconut oil with avocado butter and some light vegetable oils, like almond, grapeseed, sunflower, etc. I am using the coconut oil because it's a must for Monoi oils and I have a bottle of coconut oil from India that has a heavenly coconut scent that I can't duplicate with essential oils.
Monday, May 24, 2010
New Video
I have uploaded a new herbal video on you tube. This time-Valerian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j5j8OsCB9k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j5j8OsCB9k
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
I MADE SOAP!!!!......Again
This time I am celebrating my first batch of hot processed soap. It is in the mold cooling but I scraped some scraps together and made a little "bar" that I have already washed my hands with twice. It is looking great! I made a rosewood exfoliating soap with apricot kernels. I had made the sanme soap from rebatched soap before and loved it so I just had to do it again. I may make some more tomorrow or later this week in lavender with some lavender buds mixed in. Watch for it in my stores!
UPDATE 3/10/10-The soap has been unmolded and cut. I am going to let it harden for a few days but it came so beautiful I'm getting ready to make another batch! This time it will be a lavender/citrus castille soap. This is FUN!
UPDATE 3/10/10-The soap has been unmolded and cut. I am going to let it harden for a few days but it came so beautiful I'm getting ready to make another batch! This time it will be a lavender/citrus castille soap. This is FUN!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Medicated Oil
I have a small amount of medicated oil back in stock. It is slightly different than the original batch since I was working with all dried herbs. There is no all-heal in it and I added some wood betony. It smells very close to the original and the addition of the wood betony will make it more relaxing.
I will be able to make more very soon as many of my plants are starting to peak above the soil. We are forecast to have warmer temps for the next week-let's hope it stays that way and Spring is finally here! We have been warming up a little but we have had so much snow this year that some of it still hasn't melted! So every now and then you see a batch of snow on the ground while you're driving around.
Man am I ready for Spring!!!!!!!!
I will be able to make more very soon as many of my plants are starting to peak above the soil. We are forecast to have warmer temps for the next week-let's hope it stays that way and Spring is finally here! We have been warming up a little but we have had so much snow this year that some of it still hasn't melted! So every now and then you see a batch of snow on the ground while you're driving around.
Man am I ready for Spring!!!!!!!!
Friday, February 12, 2010
My 1st Review
Yes, I have had my first official review. Check it out here:
http://homemadebeautyreview.blogspot.com/2010/02/lavender-ylang-ylang-bath-salts.html
Essentail oils are awesome! I'm always excited to share my love for aromatherapy with someone else and I really am excited about this blog. I want everyone to follow the Homemade Beauty Reviews. She is putting out really useful information about products that she is buying anyway. This is great information especially if you are new to handmade and all natural products.
Thanks Kym!
http://homemadebeautyreview.blogspot.com/2010/02/lavender-ylang-ylang-bath-salts.html
Essentail oils are awesome! I'm always excited to share my love for aromatherapy with someone else and I really am excited about this blog. I want everyone to follow the Homemade Beauty Reviews. She is putting out really useful information about products that she is buying anyway. This is great information especially if you are new to handmade and all natural products.
Thanks Kym!
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