Earlier this week I released two self-love offerings into the world – a chapter, “Allowing Your True Self to Flourish” in the co-authored book, Empowered Self-Care, and my Ammi Ascension Flower Essences. Both are intended to support individuals who desire self-awareness and growth while the Ammi essences additionally help one uncover their intuitive gifts. And everyone has intuitive gifts.
Flower essences are energetic vibrations of specific flowers – much like a flower’s song – that can uplift and balance the body, mind, and spirit. They facilitate these processes by helping us identify and remove emotional obstacles that can get in the way of us following our hearts. While it is not necessary to use flower essences to bring about this clearing, they act as a catalyst in reminding our bodies how we feel when we are aligned with our true self. They remind us what it feels like when we do not resist our intuitive guidance, our inner self, and instead allow our heart to guide us.
Flower essences are typically created by placing a pristine flower, or its petals, in a glass bowl of water in the sun for a few hours. This process enables the frequency of the flower to be transmitted to the water, as water has the ability to resonate at whatever frequency to which it is exposed (see M. Emoto’s, The True Power of Water, 2005). After this process is complete, the flower is removed and the water is combined and preserved with alcohol. When an individual takes a drop of this concentrated flower essence, it helps to remind their body how it feels when unobstructed by negative emotions and can enliven their ability to let go of thoughts and feelings that bring them down. Similar to the power of music and its ability to uplift us, every flower has a unique vibration or song that can move us just by being in its presence.
The Ammi visnaga flower essence aims to help an individual in reaching for their higher self, their true purpose, and their intuitive gifts. This is the intention of their song: to uplift you into a place where you are inspired to tap your intuitive gifts. Flower essences work in a gentle, subtle manner and allow the human mind to arrive at its own conclusions. It is with a quiet mind that a flower’s essence is most effective in reinforcing balance.
While flower essences work without any deliberate action on the part of the receiver, using essences with intention and focusing in on the gifts they offer facilitates increased self-awareness, self-empowerment, and self-realization. Additionally, utilizing self-reflection questions alongside the Ammi essences can help dislodge and bring attention to memories, emotions, or beliefs that can obstruct your higher vibrations. These questions can also serve any individual regardless of their use of the essences, however, the essences provide lubrication to one’s ability to conjure up and release limiting emotions and beliefs. The goal of each question is to provoke the individual to observe their emotions, acknowledge any obstructions that come up, release these obstructions, and then allow oneself to fully experience the feelings of:
Actualization (Chakra 1): the ability to manifest your visions
Applause (Chakra 2): the ability to celebrate an individual’s or another’s accomplishments
Solitude (Chakra 3): the ability to lean in to your own power to guide you
Selflessness (Chakra 4): the ability to let go of any desire for acknowledgment and/or reciprocation
Integrity (Chakra 5): the ability to acknowledge your own true nature, needs, and desires while also respecting the same needs of others
Alignment (Chakra 6): the ability to connect with your highest self and follow your true path
Serenity (Chakra 7): the ability to experience peace in all that surrounds us
Joy (Chakra 8): the ability to experience pleasure from noticing the beauty that surrounds us
Gratitude (Chakra 9): the ability to experience appreciation in and for all that sustains and supports us
Honesty (Chakra 10): the ability to experience truthfulness with your own spirit and journey
Sincerity (Chakra 11): the ability to communicate truthfulness with yourself and to others
Peace (Chakra 12): the ability to experience complete satisfaction with all that is and will ever be
These 12 ways of being are a phenomenal bar for gauging our best-feeling self and provide a North Star for us to follow. When we genuinely experience these feelings, we know we are in alignment and on the path of our most desired life. To learn more about this process or download the self-reflection questions, check out the flower essences page. These questions can additionally be used as journal prompts or meditation exercises without use of the essences.
A Happy Valentine’s Day to you – may you find the tools to support your ongoing expansion and self-love.
Best, Megan
P.S. Ma Belle Ammi, I’m in Love with You! And this song’s pretty good, too…
We’re turning the page into the school year mindset, anticipating a more structured schedule, and evaluating the priorities for our time while these last remaining weeks of summer break are upon us. We are excited to be navigating a new way of schooling this semester – one that affords our family both flexibility and an inspiring curriculum.
Just last night I had an epiphany. The epiphany was that there were other options for schooling beyond the two presented to us by our local school. I was reading the superintendent overview of what the school options entailed and felt trapped – both options felt less than ideal. Then I had an insight – an inspired thought that ran through my mind – “Check out Waldorf curriculum”. This unleashed more inspired thoughts and the realization that we had additional options for schooling beyond the two I originally considered. What this train of thought delivered was the creation of a workable homeschooling scenario to try. And today I am excited about the school semester.
This is just one example of following one’s heart – of following one’s intuition – and allowing insights that pop into our mind to be considered without immediately discrediting them. It’s frustrating to me that intuitive guidance is made into a magical, untouchable experience in many movies (Luke, use the Force) – that it is something that only ‘special’ people have. Did you know that YOU have intuitive gifts?!? Intangible, inherent capabilities that help you discern and navigate your life? They might not involve light sabers or levitating… but it certainly involves discovering that there is more to you than your body and thoughts.
Thanks to podcasts and the internet, I can seek out whatever information I desire. I recently came across Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Conversations and was delighted to find an exchange with Deepak Chopra. He reinforced that we are spiritual beings having a human experience while on this Earth. And that when we can embrace this paradigm shift for our existence, it changes the way in which we navigate our journey.
We are given many opportunities to tap this awareness, yet if we focus on the happenings outside of us – if we allow others, the media, or Donald Trump to shape our perception of the world and of ourselves – it makes it harder to realize that we have a light within us that is trying to guide us. When we afford ourselves the gift of listening to our inner voice, our inner light, and our true desires, we are most likely to find Joy. This is also the goal of Self Care. This term, Self Care, might be an elusive idea – one that conjures up visions of eating chocolate or drinking wine (which could very well be involved). However, at the most foundational level, Self Care is observing one’s thoughts from a place where one understands that they are not their thoughts. That thoughts are something that come and go, that our thoughts do not control us if we do not let them. We have the ability to think a thought, take a step back from it, observe it, and decide if it is a thought we want to let go of or think more thoughts like it. This is also called mindfulness – the act of observing one’s thoughts and intentionally choosing thoughts that benefit our person.
Another idea that Deepak shared in the Oprah Chopra show was this: There’s no social transformation without personal transformation. This elevates the importance and power of Self Care in our culture. It reinforces that prioritizing our own well-being and thriving is POWERFUL and impacts the world around us. It is easy to look at the many injustices, the fragile systems, the frustrations with the outside world and feel paralyzed – particularly at this time. However, Michael Jackson coined it best, “If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change.” If we only knew how much power we each and individually have within us!! If we only knew that the answers that are most important for our individual lives are within us – that if we can quiet our mind and allow ourselves to trust our inner voice, that our spirit knows the next best step for us to take. And that when many are taking these next best steps and encouraging others in taking their next best steps, we can collectively create a world that supports thriving.
I wish you the best in trusting your inner voice, allowing your answers to come from within, and taking your next best steps. In celebration of the light that shines within all of us – even Donald Trump – let’s take care of it. Cheers, Megan
P.S. This is a freaking awesome album in its entirety. Best listened to at a loud volume. Thanks, Beach Boys, for the inspired blog post title.
I have recently joined the Coalition of Visionary Resources (COVR) and am so grateful to have found a business community that supports the healing arts. From COVR’s website, “Visionary Resources are spiritually uplifting products and services that in some way nourish or celebrate the human spirit while making the world a better place.” Every April, COVR hosts a competition of new Visionary products and entering one’s product in this competition provides an opportunity to have one’s product selected and recognized by the one and only coalition that promotes healing arts businesses in North America. I have entered my Seasonal Immune System Support Tinctures into the Herbs, Teas, & Herbal Products category. The winners are selected both by people’s choice and COVR-member voting. I would love to share some information about my tinctures so that their aim is more widely understood and would also greatly appreciate your vote for the people’s choice award. You can check out all entries here and vote here.
Tinctures that contain plants infused in alcohol have the ability to transcend the human gut, immediately being absorbed within the bloodstream upon drinking. What makes the Seasonal Immune System Support Tinctures so potent is that the combination of herbs within each season’s collection are specifically selected to balance the needs of our body, mind, & spirit for the changing energy requirements of each season. Our bodies require different nutrients and plant energetics throughout the year and it is easiest to track these changes with the seasons. Based on the principles of Aryuveda and Chinese Medicine, these tinctures include plants that are most powerful for our bodies to recenter and balance.
While I encourage every individual to know what their specific constitution is, there is an overarching energetic influence from the Earth that impacts our constitution throughout the year. Again, this is easiest to track through the seasons. When we are able to tune in to our own constitutional needs, we are more able to discern the impacts of the Earth on our well-being. Thus, empowered self care is very much supported by knowing what one’s nutritional needs are and how these needs change in every season.
The plants that are in the Seasonal Immune System Support tinctures are almost all adaptogenic herbs, meaning that they help to balance one’s constitution whatever that constitution may be. This means that these tinctures offer support to every individual, helping to bring them back into balance. When we give our bodies the opportunity to be in balance, we can begin to feel what it feels like to be our best. Our bodies get to focus on operation and maintenance processes and thus spend less time on pulling our bodies back into balance. When we treat our bodies as an important and unique member of Team Self, it helps to give one more compassion for the way in which we treat our bodies. Treat others like you would like to be treated is the phrase we are all so familiar with, however, how many of us treat our bodies with this intention in mind? When we allow ourselves grace and the opportunity to intentionally take care of our bodies, we find that our bodies respond with gratitude and appreciation – helping us to feel more rested, more vibrant, more able, and more eager to partake in activities that bring us joy.
It is with excitement and gratitude that I will be sharing more about each plant in the Seasonal Immune System Support Tinctures so that individuals interested in trying daily herbal immune system support will better understand how these plants can provide balance to one’s body. To learn more about these adaptogenic herbs, follow my instagram account in the next few days. I will be highlighting each plant separately and celebrating the powers each one kindly offers us for healing, protection, and support.
Best, Megan Murphy
P.S. This post’s inspired title brought to you by the phenomenal David Bowie. May you also be blessed with Sound & Vision!
“What the world needs now is love, sweet love It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of What the world needs now is love, sweet love, No not just for some but for everyone...” (lyrics by Hal David & music by Burt Bacharach)
Greetings, Friends –
Some of you may know that Backyard Beauty’s vision is to “Cultivate Joy Through Flowers, Art, & Self Care.” All of these things are interrelated to me yet they each also occupy a unique realm in my life. Backyard Beauty actually began as a vehicle for me to practice Self Care – to pursue a profession that brings me Joy while also aiming to support others in this pursuit. While I initially delved into the world of flowers, herbs, and their magic, I have also been learning heaps about the intricacies of emotional well being and its roots to our physical well being.
I am deeply honored to be a part of a team of co-authors who are creating the book, Empowered Self Care: Healing Body, Mind, & Soul for a Better World – set to be released in early February, 2021. What thrills me about the Empowered Self Care book is that it offers a spectrum of tools in one place. During this time of shelter-in-place, Aeriol Ascher is also bringing the authors together to share Self Care tips during quarantine. This speaker series similarly offers a spectrum of tools in one place, making it easier for an individual to more readily find what resonates with them & support them on their journey. If you are looking for ideas from which you can begin or add to your Self Care routine, feel free to check out these recordings on the Healing Body, Mind, & Soul Whole Self Care Podcast on Facebook.
First, I’d like to define what Self Care means to me. Our ‘Self’ is multi-layered and complex & is typically separated into body, mind, & spirit. Our emotions act as the bridge between these three, so that when we tune in to our emotions we have the opportunity to better connect our body, mind, & spirit as a unified team.
Thus, Self Care to me, is primarily taking care of and being intentional with our thoughts and emotions. This is not easy! It requires choosing to drive our Selves in manual mode instead of automatic cruise control. It requires taking responsibility for the way we feel. Self Care is the daily practice of releasing thoughts that do not serve us and giving energy to those that do. This then becomes a practice of intentionally responding instead of reacting to our life experiences. We cannot control our life experiences, but the practice of choosing our thoughts helps us to be in control of our Self.
Secondly, I’d like to reinforce that there are as many Self Care tools and practices as there are people. It is a very individual thing and we each get to choose the practices that help our person to feel our best. You can’t get it wrong, you just have to figure out what works for you.
Top 10 Ideas for Self Care (Quarantine or Not)
1. Start the Day with Deliberate Thoughts As soon as you awaken in the morning, give yourself some moments of gratitude. Abraham-Hicks provides a great visual of our thoughts being like vehicles at the top of a steep hill. Which thoughts do you want to give more energy to, gain momentum, & take off in your day? 2.Get Outside Allow Yourself to Go With The Flow of the Weather – if it is nice outside, make it a priority to enjoy it. 3. Ask Yourself How You’re Feeling Each Day Allow yourself to unload your thoughts and feelings every day – don’t allow them to get pent up. Journal, call a friend, ask yourself while taking a shower… whatever works best for you… asking yourself how You are feeling can help You acknowledge emotions that are & aren’t serving you. This then supports you in releasing what doesn’t serve you & deliberately choosing the emotions that do. 4. Eat Foods That Support Your Body When you nourish your body with plant-based, unrefined foods, you send the message to your body that you care for IT and empower your body to better care for YOU. 5. Reach Out to Friends & Family Connecting during this time of social isolation helps to reinforce our shared experience & that we are not alone! It is helpful to know that we have the ability to serve others & ourselves even in isolation. 6. Give Yourself Permission to Enjoy This Time No other time has given us* the flexibility to dictate our schedules to this degree. Allow yourself to do something that fills your cup every day. *This does not necessarily apply to front line workers who are likely working more hours under more stressful conditions. This service is of utmost importance and requires our sincerest gratitude. 7. Teach Yourself or a Quarantine-Mate a New Skill Engage your brain in a new way, support your ability to keep your mind flexible. 8. Make Time to Honor the Things for Which You Are Grateful You can do this however you want. What is important is that you FEEL grateful & that you communicate this in some way. A multitude of scientific research demonstrates that focusing on things for which you are grateful helps to raise your frequency, improve immune system function, and improve overall well-being. And you are sending this energy out into the world which is particularly helpful at this time. Cue the music below… Thank you Berkely College of Music students for this phenomenal rendition of What the World Needs Now. 9. Plant Seeds to Support your Body, Mind, & Spirit There is much up in the air at this time & there is no better time to plant seeds. Connecting to the process of growing seeds that become food helps to remind us of the gifts we receive every time we eat. You don’t even need access to dirt! You can sprout seeds in your kitchen with a mason jar & water! 10. Send Blessings to Every Human Being & Wish Them the Best It is not common for us to share an experience like this across the globe and it is a perfect reminder of how we are all connected at our most human level. When we send blessings to everyone, we raise our frequency in addition to raising the collective’s frequency.
Thank you for the purposeful beauty and desirable flower essence with which you grace this World! I’ve been thinking of you and your cultivated counterpart, the long-stemmed rose, and how your uses have dramatically diverged. While you both spiritually symbolize the sacredness of one’s soul, the cultivated rose is now used to exalt one’s love for others and thus disregards one’s need to love oneself. How lovely if we recalled that the rose’s purpose also includes empowering a sense of Self-Love, celebrating each individuals’ unfolding wisdom in this life?!
As an individual who has recently created a Self-Love practice, it is important to acknowledge that this whole Self-Love thing isn’t easy (it’s really hard, actually), but it is extremely doable… even in a society that diminishes our individual value and worth. The hardest part is unlearning the habits and undervalued sense of self that have become so familiar over one’s life. Prioritizing one’s own well-being typically requires listening to one’s own guidance and not the noise that surrounds them, creating new thought-processes and brain pathways, and bucking the system and status quo. See… easy, right? Thus, I want to share some realizations that reinforce my own Self-Love practice so that it can support anyone else who desires it. These are simple, perhaps even clichéd statements that we hear all the time (who hasn’t heard, “It’s the journey, not the destination”), yet – Whaddya Know?! – doing, not just saying, the below practices are truly helping me to feel like the person I want to be: 1. I am realizing that the thoughts I think about myself and others actually impact my well-being and sense of Self-Worth. Thus, I practice letting go of judgment, redirecting my thoughts to ones that celebrate my and others’ gifts, and spending more time thinking about ideas that inspire me. 2. I am realizing that I am already a complete, whole, and worthy person who is continually unfolding. Thus, I am minimizing the thoughts that bring me down – thoughts that encourage me to believe I’m not making a difference and thoughts that compare myself to an unattainable, self-imposed super hero. It is an exercise in tuning out the expectations and requirements for Success that surround me and instead tuning my radio dial to the songs I most want to hear. It is in the hearing of my own music that I am discovering the person I most enjoy being. This is not a superhero who gets a lot of $#@! done (although I still do), but instead an individual who feels good most of the time. 3. I am realizing that my opinion of my Self is better gauged by the enjoyment of my day – not by the number of things I cross off a to-do list or someone else’s opinion of me. It feels good to feel good. And… it’s not all good! However, I am more able to be less hard on myself for my not-so-great moments and days. This contrast helps fuel my fire to continually take care of my thoughts… a daily practice, indeed! 4. Having had the goal for SIX years to establish a daily meditation practice, I am now celebrating the intentional quiet with which I begin and end each day. These short and sweet minutes encourage my mind to get in line behind my heart and bookend my day with gratitude. Most importantly, this intentional quiet supports me in loosening up, being kinder to myself, and liking the person I’m being.
Ultimately, all of the above are just examples that have worked for me and, fortunately, this day and age gives us access to so many more tools. Thus, we each get to choose what works best in supporting us on our journey.
Regardless of what the tool is, the practice is a bit like The Art of Wearing Wild Rose-Colored Glasses, eh? One Cosmic Joke of this life is that these glasses are available to each and every one of us – we’ve just forgotten that they’re resting on top of our head. Perhaps we just need more of you, dear Wild Rose, in our lives to remind us where they sit?!
It is with humble appreciation that I would like to share the impact you continue to have on me. You are woven with multiple threads throughout my days and I delight in realizing how much so. I was taught a meditation practice that incorporates the visualizations of roses with each chakra, I grow and have used your buds to create beautiful adornments for others’ bodies, I use your petals in my skincare and wellness products, and I use your essential oil in my skincare products. And now I am more deeply learning about your flower essence in the writing of this note. To say that I am impressed and grateful for you is an understatement.
Thank you again for your unbridled beauty and sweet scent that support me and everyone else in celebrating our own beauty and worth. May you continue to flourish and stay true to your essence that shines light on Self-Love!
In gratitude, Megan Murphy
P.S. Don’t tell the chocolates and long-stemmed rose that I wrote you this note. They might think I didn’t appreciate them…
Emma Reinbold’s “Just Be Acai” and my “Backyard Beauty” are excited to announce the convergence of a feel-good way to “Be”! Today we release a new offering from the gorgeous Miss Linda Shasta camper: the “Be Well Tea”! This tea will be available as a hot beverage option as well as a loose-leaf, 1-day dose from her local businesses stand. This tea is best consumed at the first signs of a cold.
The ingredients in this tea are organic echinacea and black elderberries. These two powerful immune system-supporting plants create a unique partnership when combined. The essence of the echinacea supports one’s entire physical system from disease and stress (primarily by supporting the central nervous system). It also reinforces one’s ability to connect to their true nature – an experience in need of encouragement and reinforcement these days. On a more physical level, research has shown that echinacea helps increase white blood cell production, thus it is particularly helpful to use at the onset of a physical illness.
Black elderberries have a unique essence in the plant world. Yes, they have extremely high Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, and antioxidant loads (higher than most fruit we can get at the grocery store), however, it is their ability to heal and repair our body’s cells that makes them so important at the onset of a cold (this is also done through the central nervous system). *Note that the medicinal benefits of black elderberries in tea are best accessed if one mashes the elderberry once rehydrated.
While the Be Well Tea is best for our body at the first signs of a cold, it still serves someone to drink this tea if a cold has already developed. However, once an infection is fully underway, one might find more physical comfort in choosing symptom-specific tea ingredients. Check out the Backyard Apothecary post if you are interested in learning how to choose the best plants for your body – either to maintain your body’s balance and/or to address specific symptoms. If you don’t make it there, “Healing With Whole Foods,” by Paul Pitchford is one of the best resources to tap for self-empowered wellness.
If you aren’t a tea-drinker, I also have a Be Well Tincture available for purchase. Instead of soaking the echinacea and elderberry in hot water to release the plants’ properties, tinctures are plant blends soaked in alcohol over many weeks – thus a more concentrated extract is created that can then be added (as a dropperful) to your beverage of choice.
Wishing you wellness and the knowledge to take care of your self!
Best,
Megan
P.S. This blog’s title and musical inspiration from the Kinks:
Last Sunday we hosted a Backyard Apothecary workshop at the farm. This topic is so important, transformational, and where my true passion lies. I love learning how to utilize, partner and engage with plants to support my own wellness and love supporting others on their wellness journey, too. It feels great to thrive and it feels even better when we can thrive together.
Backyard Apothecary is all about knowing how to take care of your Self with the support of plants that live outside your door, in your community, or even on the world wide web. Yes, “backyard” can refer to what is out your door, however, it is less about plants and more about reclaiming the power of You. Here “backyard” refers to our Self – a vehicle that is our own individual responsibility for which to care.
While it is easy to expect someone else to diagnose our physical ailments (besides, some professionals have gone to school for many years to study about wellness and how to care for patients), it is not fair for someone else to be expected to diagnose the root cause of our physical ailment in a short appointment. Most ailments are caused by spiritual or emotional stress that our body’s have not yet processed or let go in a healthy way. There are many statistics that point to chronic stress or trauma as the root to most ailments, however, typically this stress is not addressed – the physical ailment is instead. When we individually take responsibility to look at our emotions, our stressors, our thoughts that stick around and bother us, we can begin to increase our own awareness of what thoughts serve our being well and what thoughts don’t. Thus, Backyard Apothecary is not just a deep study of plants but also (and more importantly) the study of our own emotional landscape.
With this perspective, Backyard Apothecary reinforces first accessing information about yourself (your constitution) so that you can better understand how your own body operates and what it needs to be in balance. After gaining an awareness of what your body needs to be in balance, one can then navigate the specific plants that offer this support. Because we are all individual in the way we express our selves and our emotions, the way in which our physical ailments surface can be fairly unique. This is a very different way of approaching wellness than the one-size-fits-all pharmaceutical that is typically prescribed to treat physical conditions. Plant medicine is best for every day use to support the body’s balance while pharmaceuticals are best used for emergencies.
So, if you would like to redefine your relationship with Self Care, here are some phenomenal resources to begin understanding your constitution:
Rosealee de la Forêt’s Free Online, “What’s The Best Herb for You?” e-course. You can also purchase or check out her book from your local library, “Alchemy of Herbs” to access her ‘Discover Your Own Constitution Quiz’. This straightforward quiz is based on Chinese Medicine principles of balance and the four energetics that help us maintain our balance: hot/cold and dry/damp.
To delve even deeper into understanding your constitution, check out, “Healing With Whole Foods, ” by Paul Pitchford. This reference book provides extensive context on how Chinese and Western Medicines can integrate to support our individual wellness needs. It is my family’s go-to reference book for all things physical health-related.
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Once you have an understanding of your basic constitution, you can then begin seeking out plants that reinforce the opposite quality to help bring your body back into balance. For example, my general constitution is Cold & Dry. My extremities are generally cold, I’m usually wearing layers in a room while others around me think it’s plenty warm, and my skin is typically on the drier side (these are just a few physical characteristics that help me identify my constitution). Therefore, it is best for me to seek out plants that have Hot (ie, cayenne, rosemary, turmeric, horseradish, ginger, black pepper, +) & Damp (chickweed, violet, evening primrose, slippery elm, +) energetics. Rosealee’s e-course and book provide nice overviews of easily-accessed, culinary plants and includes their energetics. This is not typical of most plant identification and herbal medicine books, so look carefully. “The Backyard Herbal Apothecary,” by Devon Young & “The Herbal Apothecary,” by JJ Pursell are two additional examples of books that include information on plant energetics. This is so important for helping us select plants that are most suited for our individual needs.
When we think about creating an apothecary, it is likely to conjure up a visual of an herbalist’s shelves filled with potions, tinctures, and teas. This visual does not include – but should – what most of us already have in our kitchen. Spices! You already have an apothecary in your home! And are not far from taking a small step into transformational self-care practices when you learn how these spices and herbs serve your body. Rosealee’s book & free online resources also contain straightforward recipes to incorporate into your daily life. Food can be medicine and eating can be a self-care practice you enjoy multiple times every day.
Last Sunday we had a lovely afternoon of soap and salve-making with myself and Jackie of The Wright Soapery. The most important thing about making your own skincare products is the empowering knowledge you gain about the ingredients you’re actually putting on your body. Our skin is our largest organ and absorbs the substances that we put on our bodies. Rosemary Gladstar, famed herbalist, says, “If you can’t eat it, it doesn’t belong on your body.” Here’s a quick overview of The Dirty Dozen to Avoid In Your Skincare. It is also helpful to be aware of the differences between Essential Oils & Fragrance Oils in your skincare products.
This class demonstrated additional benefits of making your own skincare products. When you begin acquiring ingredients to make soap or salve, you are building an arsenal of ingredients that can also be used for many other things such as lip balms, lotions, shampoo and conditioners, body butters, +. So, these ingredients are good investments in addition to being better for you and your body.
Another benefit about making your own soap and salve is that you can adjust the ingredients to best suit your particular needs: what scents to you most prefer? how do you want your product to feel? what quantity do you like to have for yourself and for sharing with others? what physical & medicinal properties best support your body’s needs? You can invest as much as you want into growing or purchasing high-quality ingredients and this does not necessarily mean that it will cost you more than store-bought products. Making your own products typically saves you money.
Jackie provided all of the materials and equipment for each participant to craft their own 6 oz. loaves of soap. Most soap ingredients can be found at your local grocery store (ie, olive oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil), however, some ingredients are harder to find locally (ie, lye, shea butter, castor oil, essential oils) and might take a trip to a specialty store or an online order. There is a great deal of information about the varying qualities, both physical and medicinal, of body-care ingredients – Magnolia Hill Soap Co has a nice overview here – and it is easy to find more at your local library.
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For the soap-making, Jackie uses SoapCalc – an awesome free tool – to provide guidance on the soap you want to craft. You can type in the ingredients you have on hand and it will automatically give you the appropriate ratios for your recipe. It will ALSO give you ranges for the soap bar quality (conditioning, cleansing, creamy, hardness+)…really cool! Like all new recipes, it is helpful to start small in order to see what the product actually feels like to you and then apply your lessons-learned to future batches.
After we completed the soap-making, I demonstrated the process of making your own salve. The ingredients for salve are generally more straightforward than that of soap – the most basic salve uses only 2 ingredients: oil & beeswax. We used 5 ingredients for this batch: calendula-infused olive oil, comfrey-infused olive oil, beeswax, lavender essential oil and vitamin E. The oils and beeswax are melted together on low heat and then the essential oil and vitamin E are added once removed from heat. This mixture is then poured into the desired (non-plastic!) vessel for future use. Voilà! This creates a general purpose salve that is great for bug bites, stings, bruises, wounds, and dry or tired skin.
I grow calendula and comfrey at my farm and it is an awesome benefit to use these herbs for my physical self-care in addition to my garden’s ecosystem. Growing your own herbs is a great way to begin crafting your own body-care products and developing additional self care practices. For example, calendula and comfrey can both be used for lotions, balms, teas, tinctures, salves, soaps, shampoos, conditioners, bath salts, flower essences, +. It can all begin with planting one plant!
Best,
Megan
A little bit of handmade soap will wash away your fears… but perhaps not your tears:
