Forest Bathing, what it is and how it can help.

Forest Bathing is way cool. In Japan, shinrin-yoku or Forest Bathing is a valuable tool for anyone wanting to improve their quality of life. All you do is go to a natural environment, and walk in a calm and leisurely manner. It is so simple, and like most simple things, it is highly effective. The benefits include, reduced stress, boosted immune system, improved focus, increased energy level, improved recovery time, and lowered blood pressure. Benefits that others have observed include a higher connection to the environment, a deeper connection to their intuition, and an increase in happiness among many other benefits. How cool is that? Just simply getting outside to a natural environment and just simply walking around can have such huge benefits! 

I like to use a few essential oils in my diffuser to get a similar effect from the natural compounds that the trees give off. 

• Eucalyptus
• Pine
• Cyprus
• Cedarwood
• Douglas Fir
• Frankincense

Oils that I like to pair with these include,

• Lavender (for relaxation)
• Rosemary (for focus)
• Peppermint (for energy)
• Cinnamon and clove (during cold and flu season)
• Lemon (for a sense of freshness) 

I hope this quick post inspired you to go out and explore your environment or to at least take a quick walk around the block! See you next week! 

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DIY Natural Beauty Gift Basket

This is a simple little gift basket that I put together using dome diy beauty products and some chocolate, plus a homemade gift tag that I made at a party. Don't Forget to watch the video to see how I put it together!
if you would rather watch the video on youtube follow the link HERE.

Basic lip balm recipe;
In a double boiler, Melt 1 Tbsp beeswax, 2 Tbsp cocoa butter, 1 Tbsp almond oil, a few drops of tangerine and vanilla oil. pour into containers.

DIY ginger snap body scrub

Pink Peppermint Lip balm I used a different one but I haven't posted that recipe yet.

The goats milk soap is a basic melt and poor soap from etsy.

Berry basket from target

Alter eco chocolate bars

Honey patties

Other things you could add are things like a mini loofah, tea, bath salts, clay mask, bubble bath, nail polish, lotion, anything that you like that is shelf stable.


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I'm not sponsored by anyone, I just really like these chocolates and they were on sale, so extra bonus!

Wonderful Wintergreen Bath Bombs

Bath bombs are really fun use but they can be a bit of a pain to make. My preferred way of making them is without the water and just putting it in a container to sprinkle it in. For gifts you can put it in a sachet with enough for a single use. Like bath packets that you would buy at the store. I like to mix up bath bombs with ingredients that  I want mixed into my bath that can clump up, such as goats milk powder, oat flour, etc. The reaction helps mix in ingredients when you have a cooler bath also. When you use a powdered color it is helpful to be able to mix it in with the reaction as well. If you don't want to bother with the citric acid, you can use cream of tartar, or even baking powder in place of the baking soda/citric acid combo will work. But if you want to go really crazy you could skip the acid in the bomb and just use the baking soda then when you go to put it in the bath add in apple cider vinegar to create the reaction. That would make it really easy to make the bath bomb but you would need to add them both at the beginning of the bath for it to incorporate all the way.  Don't forget to watch the video below or you can go to it on youtube HERE.
I have tried to make Bath bombs with melted coconut oil before, and it does help them to stay together but it also doesn't mix into the bath quite as well but if your water is really warm/hot then you could probably get away with it just make sure your area that your mixing everything together is nice and warm otherwise the coconut oil will harden before you get everything mixed in.

Ingredients 
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup citric acid
3 1/2 Tbsp Epsom salt
1/4 - 1/2 tsp mineral pigment
2 Tbsp Almond oil
5 Drops wintergreen oil
5 drops of vanilla
Spray bottle of water (optional)

Mix together the dry ingredients with a whisk you could sift the baking soda beforehand to get out all the clumps. Add in the oils. Spread out the mixture and mist with water, mix, repeat until it comes together when squeezed. Press firmly into a mold and turn it out.

Or skip the water and place mixture in a clean container and sprinkle a couple of tablespoons into a bath.

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Glossy Pink Peppermint Lip Balm DIY

This diy was inspired by my favorite holiday ice-cream, Pink Peppermint. Mountain Rose Herbs has a great diy for tinted lip gloss that I had been wanting to try out. Since I was going for more of a balm instead of a gloss I added a little extra beeswax and I'm not really into geranium so I changed the essential oils that I used to suit my needs. I also have been really loving almond oil lately so I used that instead of macadamia nut oil.

This recipe is easier than it seams and is so great for the winter. It has a glossy finish with a rosy hue. You need to make the alkanet root infusion first but that is so simple. 

Its just 5 Tbsp of liquid oil (I use almond) and 1 Tbsp of alkanet root gently heated together in a double boiler until the oil takes on the color of the root. The longer you let it sit the more color will be extracted. strain out the root and you've got your infused oil to use in the lip balm recipe. Watch the video to see how it's done and you can use the directions below to make it easier. 

Pink Peppermint Lip Balm

1 Tbsp plus  1or 2 teaspoons of beeswax 

1 Tbsp of coco butter 

3 Tbsp of your almond oil alkanet infusion

5 drops of peppermint oil

10 drops of vanilla oleoresin 

In a double boiler, melt the beeswax, then the coco butter, then add in your oil and stir till its all combined. Once its all melted add in the essential oils. Poor into lib balm tubes or tins. let sit until hardened. 

This recipe can be changed up depending on what you prefer in a lip balm. If you don't want it to be as glossy and you want it to shield your lips from the winter, add an extra couple teaspoons of beeswax. if you want it to be more buttery add a half Tbsp more of coco butter. if you want it to be more of a straight up gloss play around with using a higher oil to wax/butter ratio. You could even exchange the coco butter for coconut oil and that will make it more of a gloss just definitely put that in a tin instead of a tube. And if you don't quite like how it turns out, melt it down and add a little more of something. I like to test mine out by putting a little bit in a tin and cooling it down in the fridge until it sets. This can be a bit deceiving so let it warm up slightly if you've let it sit in the fridge to long. 

I hope this inspires you to try something new this week. DIY's are so fun for holiday gifts and the extra thought goes a long way to make people feel special. 

Have A great week everyone!

Vanilla Orange perfume diy

This is such an easy perfume, that lasts all day with a lingering scent of vanilla, orange, rose and subtle notes of tree resins to round out the sweetness. The base is a mixture of infused vodka. You can make this whole perfume by simply infusing vodka with vanilla, orange rinds, rose petals, and tree resins, or you can use a base of vodka and add in extracts and oils, or just oils. What I did this time was mix together vanilla extract (homemade) with vodka (so that its no to strong) and added in orange oil, rose water concentrate, cedarwood oil, and elemi oil (similar to frankincense and myrrh).
If you want to make a body splash mix together equal parts rosewater or orange blossom water (or a combination of the two) and vegetable glycerin. I prefer the extract and oil recipe near the bottom. It is easiest for me since I always have the ingredients on hand.


All oil perfume
container for solid or liquid oil perfume. the liquid one should be an old essential oil bottle, a dropper bottle, or roll on.
1 oz of an oil, mango butter for solid, or jojoba, almond or another neutral oil.
5 drops of orange oil
5 drops of vanilla oil
4 drops of rose oil
1 drop of cedarwood
1 drop of elemi (or frankincense or myrrh)

All extract perfume.
This can be done three ways. Either making all the extracts separate and putting them together later, or mixing all the ingredients into one extract and having them saturate the vodka together. The third way is by mixing pre-made extracts with vodka, but you will still need to use a couple of oils.

If you are going to make the extracts separately follow how to do that here.
The ratio will need to be
5 parts vanilla (if making yourself use vanilla beans cut in half lengthwise)
5 parts orange (if making yourself use orange rind)
2 parts rose (making yourself use rose petals)
1 part cedarwood needles
1 part tree resin. (use a resin such as myrrh or frankincense)
Vodka to cover and vodka to dilute once you've made your extracts.

Mixing them before you put it into the bottle will make it easier to tell the ratios. Add in the vodka and let sit until the scent is to your desired strength. If it gets to dark be careful not to get it on your clothes.
If you make your extracts separate you will need to mix them together in about 4 weeks.
You can also make any of these extracts and mix them with essential oils.

Extract and essential oil perfume.
25 ml bottle
15 ml vodka
9 ml vanilla extract
7 drops of orange oil
4 drops rose oil or 10 drops rosewater concentrate
1 drop cedarwood oil
1 drop elemi, frankences, or myrrh

Mix into a 25 ml spray bottle.

Body splash
Using this recipe  for rosewater glycerin body splash, make your base. You can use all rosewater in this recipe or orange water and use rose oil, or do half and half. You may need to add in more orange oil no matter what depending on your preference.
Depending on what water you use, use the ratios above as a guideline.

Some other oils that can be nice to add are, fennel, tangerine, and geranium.

I sure do hope this makes sense. If you need more help feel free to comment below.

Diy Gelatin hair gel

I like to use this hair gel to keep my hair in place when I put it up or in a braid. It is so easy to make, and costs only pennies. 

1/4 - 1/2 tsp of gelatin mixed with 1/2 cup of water.

Let it heat up for a couple minutes in a sauce pan until the gelatin has dissolved. Pour into a container, and chill in the refrigerator until set. 

Mix it up with a fork to make it easier to use. Keep in the refrigerator. Will last a week or two.

Additional options; use rose, or orange blossom water in place of some or all of the water. Add in some vanilla extract, or essential oils for sent.

Watch how to

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Easy Diy Perfume

I love to use essential oils and hydrosols for perfume instead of that toxic nastiness that you get on your fingers when turning the page in a magazine for a perfume add. Instead of messing up your endocrine system, giving you headaches, and causing cancer in your body, you can actually help your body out with perfume made from essential oils and hydrosols. 

You can make perfume 3 ways, one as a roll on with a carrier oil, 2 as a solid perfume (find my tutorial for that HERE) and 3 as a spray using hydrosols for the carrier instead of alcohol. 

I like to keep things simple with rose hydrosol and chamomile oil in a spray bottle, but you can get as complex as you would like. Bellow I have oils in groups to give you ideas.

For a roll on take a bottle with a roll top and drop in your essential oils first. you will want the oils to go probably about 1/8th to 1/3 of the way up. Experiment with just a little first so that you can test out combinations without wasting any oils. Then fill the bottle up the rest of the way with a carrier oil such as almond.

For a spray perfume choose your mixture of oils and add them to a spray bottle with a hydrosol of your choosing. Hydrosols are the water left over from making essential oils, so they still have the smell and small particles of the essential oils suspended in the liquid. You will want to play around with the ratio of oil to hydrosol because every oil has a different strength to it. 

You can even use floral waters, like orange blossom and rose water that you can get at the grocery store with extracts like vanilla and almond. 
 
Blend ideas for women:
 *Neroli, chamomile, and bergamont are refreshing and relaxing.
*Jasmine, ylang ylang, vanila, cardamom, orange create a romantic scent
*Lavender and vanilla is simple and sweet.

Oil ideas for men: Sandalwood (calms and soothes but also increases testosterone and balances hormones) Frankincense, spruce, fir, cedarwood, vetiver, sage, vanilla, hints of cardamom are nice, basically anything manly. You can go woodsy, or more spicy. 

My favorite is sandalwood with frankincense and cedar with a bit of orange and vanilla. 

You can put oils in a roll on and use them for various problems that you might be having to rub directly on where you need the oils. 

Sore muscles/back pain: Peppermint and clove work marvelously together. You can also add other warming oils like wintergreen, cypress, basil, marjoram, and elemi can be added as well as calming oils like lavender and chamomile.

Endocrine system rosemary, cinnamon, Black pepper, dill, geranium, and frankincense.
  
Fatigue:  Ginger, Peppermint, White Fir, melissa

Help you think: Rosemary, basil, sage/Clary sage, peppermint.
  
Hot Flashes: Peppermint, Geranium, citrus oils, and Clary Sage.  
  
Low Blood Sugar: Cinnamon, clove, thyme,

 Mood: Bergamot, Clary sage, fennel, geranium, lavender, lemon, peppermint, rosemary, sandalwood, blue spruce, ylang ylang, melissa

 PMS: bergamot, Clary sage, fennel, geranium, grapefruit, lavender, Roman chamomile, melissa,

Have fun being creative and smelling fabulous!

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8 tips for healthy hair

Many of us want hair that is thicker and longer, or maybe we just have problems with breakage or just need a few tips on how to detangle those unruly locks.  Hopefully this post will have some tips to help you out.

My number one tip is to brush your hair really well morning and night and to braid your hair every night. This may seam like a lot of work for some of you, but once you get the hang of it it is a really great way to relax and de-stress before bed. At night, start by brushing your hair from the ends working upwards so that the knots from the top don't tangle with the knots near the bottom. Once the knots are out brush from the roots of the hair down to the ends. This distributes your hairs natural oils so that your hair is less greasy and the ends stay healthier and conditioned. Brushing the scalp also stimulates the hair to grow. Try to brush your hair with 50 to 100 strokes. Then braid your hair so that it doesn't get pulled and tangled during the night to prevent breaking. I prefer a side braid for comfort. In the morning brush your hair just to stimulate the scalp and to distribute the hairs oils, about 20 to 50 strokes.

A biggy for preventing breakage is to not brush your hair when it is wet and to only use a wide tooth comb to comb your hair when it is wet. Brushes and smaller toothed combs pull and stretch then break the hair when it is wet.

Rosemary and peppermint stimulate the scalp and promote hair growth. Rubbing these oils into the scalp help to combat baldness as well as helping your hair to grow longer.

Another fabulous agent for promoting hair thickness as well as strength is gelatin. You can take it as a supplement by mixing a tablespoon in water and drinking it. Click HERE to read more about the many benefits of gelatin.

Use sulfate free shampoo. Sulfates remove the hairs natural oils and dries it out. This makes the scalp produce extra oil to compensate leaving your hail oily. This makes it so that you need to wash your hair everyday. Your hair needs its natural oils to be able to stay healthy, you will be more likely to have dry ends which will need to be cut off removing the length that you have gotten. Perhaps not all of it but if your goal is to grow your hair longer then you might as well use a shampoo that will help you rather than hinder your growth. Hair conditioners help, but they don't work nearly as well as your natural oils.Click HERE for more on sulfate free shampoo and the no poo method.

I rinse my hair with apple cider vinegar for conditioner. This makes my hair so soft and shiny. If you want to make it help your hair grow, add in some rosemary and let it sit for 3 weeks so that the rosemary infuses with the vinegar.

If your ends are dry or you have fly aways use a nourishing oil such as olive, coconut, or jojoba. I like macadamia and jojoba because they are similar to the hairs natural oil and they just work best for me.
Styling your hair with heat such as blow drying, curling irons, and flat irons damage your hair making it more prone to breaking. Back combing your hair also makes your hair more prone to breaking.

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Oil cleansing your face

Do you find that cleansers, masks, scrubs and other products promoted to cleans your skin, and rid it of oils and bacteria causing blemishes make your skin irritated, dry, or even more oily and have more breakouts than before? You are most certainly not alone. I have always, like most women, struggled to find the right cleanser. for me the things that would work the best but never fully were food based products and soaps that contained oils.
Most skin care products designed to wash your face and rid it of acne cause dry uncomfortable tight skin which makes your skin produce even more oils to compensate what you took away. Our skin needs these oils to stay healthy, and when we constantly try to change our skin like this we cause breakouts, redness, and various forms of skin irritation. If you use antibacterial soap it takes away all of the good bacteria that keeps your skin healthy and fungus, blemishes, and other skin problems away. We allow that .1% that is inevitably still their in our "supper bug" age to bread and grow without the good bacteria to keep them in check. The way that acne medications work, is to kill the acne causing bacteria. They are antibiotics, which like the antibacterial soap that many use, kill the good guys too. This is why yogurt that contains probiotics (the good bacteria)  is recommended for people taking acne medications.
Bacteria is not the only cause of skin problems, but also the buildup of oil, dirt, dead skin cells and hormones (or rather an imbalance of hormones) can cause blemishes. This is of coarse is why it is important for us to cleanse our face every day for our skin to stay healthy.
The best method that I have tried is the oil cleansing method. I know it seams a bit backwards to clean the oil, dirt, bacteria etc off of your face with more oil, but it really works well. Since your face needs the oil to stay healthy and balanced the oil in combination with a hot washcloth pressed against your face for a few seconds pulls out blackheads, bacteria, etc, while following up with gentle circular motions of a washcloth that gently scrubs away the dead cells. And believe it or not, depending on what oil you use and how well you wash it off you may need a moisturizer afterwards! The reason why oil cleansing works is because the oil you use dissolves the oil that has hardened with impurities and gotten stuck inside your pores, and takes it away. The hot washcloth will open up your pores making it easier to cleans them. If your face feels a bit dry afterwards just use a bit of the oil that you used to cleans your face with as a moisturizer.
I suggest you try out what type of oil works best for you.

Start with your base oil, I prefer , Macadamia nut or Jojoba, oil for their similarities to sebum, or the skins natural oils. Macadamia nut is much cheaper that jojoba though. Chia seed oil however is probably going to work best for most everyone especially people with acne,dry, or aging skin. If you do have normal to dry skin you could try some other oils such as Camelina, Coconut or Olive.

You can leave it at that or you can make a blend of oils. you could add some castor oil for its healing benefits, but don't use too much because it can be drying, other than that many people find it works very well. I like to add Tamanu oil for its amazing healing properties. it has bean know to heal your skin of things from leprosy to eczema. though it is more expensive than castor oil, it works better for me and its production is more ethical and definitely safer to the people who make the oil. I love using Sea buckthorn oil oil in my blend. This goes a long way so you really don't need to use much.
You can chose to add any essential oils now. I like adding healing oils and since I don't put the oils around my eyes, eye irritation isn't a problem. I prefer Elemi oil, it is in the same family as Frankincense and mirth but it is much cheaper. I have had high success with using frankincense to rid my sin of any scars, and where elemi doesn't work nearly as fast it definitely help to rid my skin of blemishes and keep my skin from getting scars. Rose is also very nice, especially for aging skin.
For my moisturizer I use my oil blend, but I add a couple drops of lavender oil. When I have finished washing my face I rinse it with cold water to close my pores to keep debris and bacteria out, and then moisturize. the lavender helps to close the pores further and to kill any harmful bacteria left on the skin. Also it is very soothing and nice for before bed. don't put lavender oil on your face if you are going to be going out into the sun. Lavender oil is photosensitising. this means it makes your skin more sensitive to the sun and can cause red blotches and similar breakouts.

My blend:
Fill a small pump bottle with 2/3 of macadamia nut oil or chia seed oil. To that add just under 1/3 of tamanu oil and fill that the rest of the way with a few drops of sea buckthorn oil and elemi oil.

How to cleanse your face with oil:
Wet your face, and remove your makeup (if you have a lot on) with the cleansing oil. Once your face is moist massage the oil into your face. Taking a hot wrung out washcloth (I use the hottest water from my faucet) place it on your face and let it sit until it becomes cool. You can repeat as many times as you want. Taking a side of the cloth, wipe off the oil (you want to take as much as you can so that all of the dirt will come off and your pores wont be re-clogged). Then splash your face with cold water to seal up your pores and apply some more oil as a moisturizer if desired.

Have fun pampering yourself!

A previous post on beauty alternatives, The toxin free home: Beauty care

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Easy toothpaste DIY

If you remember a while back I did a post on an oil blend that I use to brush my teeth. Click HERE to check that out. I made a video that is part of my DIY Health and Beauty series on toothpaste made from baking soda, coconut oil, and the oils that I recommend using in my healthy teeth oil. This toothpaste is great for cleaning  your teeth, making them white without using any whiteners, as well as keeping them strong, healthy, and clean. Most toothpastes in the store (including health food stores) contain toxic ingredients such as titanium dioxide, FD&C Blue Dye # 1 & 2, sodium lauryl sulfate, synthetic types of glycerin and sodium fluoride. Click HERE for an interesting video from Mamma Natural.
Coconut oil is antibacterial, antimicrobial, and anti-fungal  Studies have shown that coconut oil destroys the bacteria that can cause tooth decay. Baking soda is a very mild abrasive which aids in cleaning and whitening teeth, and restoring pH balance. to read about the benefits of the essential oils click HERE.

Mix equal parts baking soda and coconut oil, I use about 2 Tbsp of each, with 2 drops of clove oil, 10 drops of birch oil, and 5 drops of orange oil. Adjust to your liking. You can always try other citrus oils, and other oils like cinnamon, wintergreen etc but make sure to not make it to hot! Also xylitol can be added to sweeten it, and a clay (such as bentonite) can be added along with the baking soda, and/or a powdered magnesium but I just like to keep it simple.

Healthy teeth

I have bean using a blend of peppermint and wintergreen essential oils diluted in almond oil to brush my teeth with, and you know what? I don't like how it tastes. Everyone else I know that uses it loves the taste, so I don't know what wrong with me. To my joy I finally finished up the blend and I decided to make a new one. I mixed about 10 drops each of birch (antibacterial and good for the gums) clove (helps with toothaches and stops bleeding.
So it's good for soars in the mouth) and some orange oil (great for the mouth and gums in general). It tastes kind if like a Christmas root beer. The initial taste was a bit weird at first, but the aftertaste is so incredible! I absolutely love it. And my tooth that I have bean having problems with since I got my braces off feels so much better. I put the oil in my old bottle for essential oil. You can also use a glass bottle with a dropper, but you need to make sure it has a glass dropper also because the oil can kind of "eat" away at the plastic which you don't want in your mouth since it absorbs so much of what you put in it. All three of these oils are awesome for all sorts of stuff. I really like mixing birch with grapefruit in my vinegar cleaning bottle. It covers up the vinegar so well, and it leaves such a delightful sweet smell. Birch is good for keeping skin from aging, and both it and clove are great for arthritis type pains (gotta use birch internally and clove externally). I mix clove and peppermint with almond oil in a roll on and it gets rid of the aches in my neck and back. I encourage you to look up the other uses. And make sure you get a therapeutic grade oil and make sure you won't have any adverse affects before proceeding. Oh! And keep those teeth nice and clean! The rest of your body suffers when you don't keep them clean especially when you loose them.