Posts by Rebecca D. Dillon

About Rebecca D. Dillon

Rebecca D. Dillon is a soapmaker, DIY-er and blogger whose life is controlled daily by a dachshund. You can learn more about Rebecca by checking out her bio. Or discover more great skin care & beauty recipes by subscribing to Soap Deli News blog via email.

Breathe Easy Essential Oil Blend: Make A Homemade Vapor Rub Cold Remedy

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October 12, 2019 By Rebecca D. Dillon 2 Comments

Try this natural breathe easy essential oil blend recipe to make your own homemade vapor rub cold remedy for symptom relief from nasal and chest congestion. A simple and effective home remedy for fast cold relief when you’re fighting a cold or the flu.

How to Use An Aromatherapeutic Breathe Easy Essential Oil Blend

When I get a cold, there’s nothing worse than not being able to breathe through my nose. While shower steams with menthol work wonders in the morning, taking a shower every time my nose gets stuffy isn’t a realistic option. Especially not at night when I’m trying to sleep. That’s when a breathe easy essential oil blend comes in handy. Whether you make your own breathe easy essential oil recipe or use a ready made breathe easy essential oil blend, you’ll be set for all the congestion challenges seasonal colds throw your way.

There are three easy ways to use the breathe easy essential oil blend. You can use your breathe easy essential oil blend in an essential oil diffuser at night or include it in an essential oil shower steamers recipe. Alternately, you can also use it in a simple remedy for homemade vapor rub. Keep reading to learn how to make a breathe easy essential oil recipe as well as where to buy a premade essential oil blend. Then try out your breathe easy essential oil blend in my simple (super easy!) homemade vapor rub cold remedy.

Breathe Easy Essential Oil Blend Recipe

Support respiratory function and promote a healthy immune response with this natural breathe easy essential oil blend recipe. This natural plant-based blend can be used in your diffuser as well as in my homemade vapor rub recipe. Use it to support easy breathing, revitalization and clear airways throughout winter.

Combine in an amber glass jar with a reducer or glass dropper and shake to combine.

Alternately, if you prefer, you can buy this specific blend premade in order to avoid buying multiple essential oils from Edens Garden. Or try the Respire blend from Spark Naturals, which also contains tea tree and clove essential oils. Formulated with a combination of peppermint, melaleuca (tea tree), eucalyptus, rosemary, lemon and clove, this blends aids in relief of congestion and other respiratory symptoms caused by colds and flu.

Once you’ve made an essential oil blend to use for aromatherapy, you can use your formulation to create your own homemade vapor rub recipe as a natural cold relief remedy.

Homemade Vapor Rub Recipe for Nasal & Chest Congestion

Ingredients:

2 oz. beeswax pastilles
4 oz. carrier oil, such as sweet almond oil or fractionated coconut oil
3 mL Respire or Breathe Easy essential oil blend (or .1 oz.)
.05 oz. menthol crystals

Instructions:

Using a digital scale, weigh out the beeswax. Place the beeswax in a double boiler and gently heat until melted.

While the beeswax melts, weigh out the carrier oil into a separate container.

Next weigh out the menthol crystals. Add the menthol crystals to the container with the carrier oil. Stir until the menthol crystals dissolve.

Once dissolved, measure or weigh out the breathe easy essential oil blend. Then combine with the carrier oil and menthol mixture.

Once the beeswax has melted, remove from heat. Then stir in the carrier oil mixture with the menthol crystals and essential oils.

Now pour the homemade vapor rub into a 6 oz. glass jar or three 2 oz. glass jars. You can also use metal tins.

Allow the homemade vapor rub to cool completely, then screw on the lids and label as desired for personal use.

To use your homemade vapor rub as a natural remedy for fast cold relief, rub a thin layer on your chest or upper back at nighttime. It will help to soothe coughs and may also offer relief from nasal and chest congestion as well as sinus pressure and headaches.

Like this recipe? Then you’ll also want to try my recipe for DIY shower steamers with menthol crystals! As well as check out my post on other natural ways to fight colds and flu including how to make an elderberry syrup to support your body’s natural immunity. Plus don’t forget to pin this post for reference later!

Where can I buy homemade vapor rub?

Not ready to make your own homemade vapor rub from scratch? Try one of these artisan made, petroleum free cold and flu salves instead.

You can also explore more herbal home remedies here. Also be sure to check out my eucalyptus & orange essential oil blend recipe. It’s one of my favorite aromatherapeutic essential oil blends and has a number of uses for health, home and beauty. Or discover more DIY ideas by visiting my Essential Oils & Herbs board on Pinterest as well as my Home Remedies board.

Want more great ideas? Then be sure to follow Soap Deli News across your favorite social media channels. You can find and follow me on Blog Lovin‘, pinterest, facebook, twitter and instagram. Or sign up for my semi-weekly newsletter.

Filed Under: Bath & Beauty Recipes, Health & Wellness, Lifestyle Tagged With: aromatherapy, cold relief, colds, diffuser blends, essential oil blend, essential oil recipes, essential oils, fall, flu, health and wellness, healthy living, home remedies, home remedy, self care, vapor rub, winter

Cooking & Baking with Mace: The Vintage Spice You Need to Try

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October 9, 2019 By Rebecca D. Dillon 1 Comment

Have you ever used mace in a recipe? No, mace isn’t just a deterrent from assailants. It’s actually a lesser known vintage spice. Mace is closely related to nutmeg and is similar in both aroma and flavor. It is often used in teas and tinctures. And it also makes a great addition to foods and baking recipes. Keep reading to learn more about the vintage spice mace. And to discover food, dessert and drink recipes that call for mace as an ingredient.

Many years back I read what I thought to be a rather interesting article on Etsy’s blog titled The Historic Spice Cupboard. It contained some really neat information on vintage spices – rather the spices our great and great great grandparents probably used – in cooking and baking. Some of the spices are still used today, while others are a lot less common. For example, mace, is not a spice I had ever heard of.

What is the Spice Mace?

I’ve always thought of mace as pepper spray so I was a little confused at first. But as it turns out, mace is a very close relative of nutmeg. Mace is actually the red membrane that surrounds the nutmeg seed. It’s very similar to the taste of nutmeg, but rather has a more red pepper reminiscent heat. It was very common in the 18th and 19th centuries, but has since fallen by the way side. Like nutmeg, mace can be used in baking. However it is also served well in savory dishes for flavoring meats, stews, curries, savory sauces, and even homemade pickles. You can also use it in teas, tinctures and beverages.

What are the Health Benefits?

Additionally, it’s believed that mace has an antioxidant effect in the liver, helping it conserve glutathione and increasing protection against free radicals. theKitchn has additional information on this amazing vintage spice. You can also find out more information on mace from Mountain Rose Herbs including both contemporary and folklore info.

Where Can I Buy It?

If you want to try mace, be sure to buy it from a reputable source that guarantees that the powder is not made from previously BWP (broken-wormy-punky) nuts. It’s also better not to use an irradiated product which breaks down the fatty acids that contain the essential oils that give it aroma and flavor. Mountain Rose Herbs is great place to buy ground organic mace. In fact, I have it on my next shopping list of things to buy from them since it’s so versatile and can be used in so many different types of recipes. I’ve also found it to be a common ingredient in many Indian dishes.

Recipes That Call for Mace

Following are just a few of the many recipes I’ve found that can be made with mace.

Baking & Dessert Recipes

Drink Recipes

Dinner Recipes

Spice Mix Recipes

Have you ever cooked with mace? I’d love to hear what your favorite recipes are for this wonderful vintage spice!

For more DIY ideas and food recipes, be sure to follow Soap Deli News across your favorite social media channels. You can find and follow me on Blog Lovin‘, pinterest, facebook, twitter and instagram. Or sign up for my semi-weekly newsletter.

Filed Under: Food Recipes, Health & Wellness Tagged With: baking, dessert, dinner, drink, drink recipe, food, food recipe, mace, spice, vintage spice

Beauty Benefits of Ginger Essential Oil: Plus Natural Skin Care Recipes

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October 7, 2019 By Rebecca D. Dillon 3 Comments

Ginger oil anyone? There’s a reason ginger essential oil is a favorite among natural skin care enthusiasts. Ginger essential oil offers a number of natural skin care and beauty benefits when used as an ingredient in your skin care formulations. Learn about all the ginger essential oil benefits for your skin! Plus discover a collection of my favorite natural skin care recipes made using ginger essential oil.

Ginger Essential Oil Benefits

Ginger essential oil probably isn’t in your top 10 favorite essential oils, but it should be. The benefits of ginger essential oil are numerous for both your hair and your skin.

A natural anti-inflammatory, ginger essential oil feels warming on the skin when you use it topically. For this reason, it’s often used in pain relieving and sore muscle recipes to relieve pain naturally without side effects. Not only does it work well as a natural pain remedy, it’s also a wonderful alternative ingredient for those who may be allergic or sensitive to capsicum, which is found in cayenne.

You can also use ginger essential oil for skin in natural skin care recipes. It’s antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and full of antioxidants to combat the signs of aging. These benefits of ginger essential oil make this one of my favorite essential oils for natural skin care. Ginger oil for hair can also boost hair growth and control flakes from dandruff. Because who wants to deal with that?

What is Ginger Essential Oil?

Ginger essential oil is extracted from the root of the ginger plant by either steam distillation or extraction using carbon dioxide. Ginger is native to South Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, but it was exported to India and Europe about 2,000 years ago. It is a common spice in Indian and Asian food.

In the past, ginger root was commonly used for digestive issues. How many of you grew up drinking ginger ale when you had a stomach ache? Having a glass of pop was the only good part of being sick when I was a kid.

Ginger essential oil benefits aren’t just for digestion however. Using ginger essential oil for skin and ginger oil for hair also offers many benefits. So it’s great as part of your natural beauty routine.

Inflammation

One of the main ginger essential oil benefits include being a natural anti-inflammatory. Ginger essential oil has several natural compounds that are natural anti-inflammatories. One of these compounds is zingibain, which has been shown to help relieve migraine pain without side effects.

The anti-inflammatory properties of ginger can help reduce pain and inflammation from muscle ache, arthritis, and migraines. While I use my favorite ginger oil salve for sore muscles, I also find it effective at soothing fibromyalgia pain when it flares up.

Cramping

Ginger oil can also help reduce muscle cramping when used topically, so ginger essential oil benefits include after exercising care for your body. It may be effect for sore muscles, menstrual cramps, stomach cramps, and back pain. It can also help soothe sore muscles after working out.

Along with being a natural anti-inflammatory, ginger essential oil can boost circulation, which can lower muscle cramping. The warming effect is a benefits of ginger essential oil that can help relax muscles to reduce cramping.

Anxiety

Ginger essential oil benefits also includes relieving anxiety naturally. It has been shown to naturally reduce anxiety in animals, and it may help reduce anxiety in people, too. Ginger works by activating the serotonin receptors in the brain, which makes you feel good.

This can help improve your mood, and it can also reduce pain by lowering anxiety levels. As someone who once suffered from agoraphobia, I’m well versed in how debilitating anxiety can be. Therefore, finding natural ways to better cope with anxiety and stress are always high on my list.

Antioxidant

Perhaps the biggest ginger essential oil benefits is that it is high in antioxidants that combat free radicals in the skin. Free radicals are oxygen molecules that have an unpaired electron. This causes oxidative stress in the body. Antioxidants bind with the unpaired electron to make the oxygen stable.

Antioxidants can prevent the visible signs of aging, including fine lines, wrinkles, and age spots. Free radicals are also associated with some diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and cancer. Ginger essential oil for skin helps boost antioxidants naturally for better looking skin.

Antimicrobial

Ginger essential oil is a natural germ killer. If you use antibiotic soap or certain kinds of hand sanitizers, you could be creating super bugs that are resistant to antibiotics and will be harder to kill.

Using ginger essential oil won’t create super bugs by only killing the weak germs, so it’s a great natural antibacterial agent to use. It’s especially effective on E. coli, staphylococcus aureus, candida albicans, and bacillus subtilis.

Beauty Benefits of Ginger Essential Oil and How to Use It

Ginger essential oil benefits can be used in DIY natural beauty recipes, but keep in mind that it feels warm when you apply it topically. For some recipes, this is a great thing and can help reduce pain. But for some skin care recipes, you may want to combine ginger essential oil with other oils.

Ginger essential oil benefits make it a great oil to use in your natural beauty recipes. It can help protect the skin from signs of aging and naturally kills germs that can cause acne or other skin conditions. Ginger oil for hair can help reduce dandruff and lead to thicker hair over time.

Ginger Oil for Hair

Dandruff

Dandruff is caused by a fungus on your scalp. Since ginger essential oil is naturally antimicrobial, it can kill the fungus, treating the dandruff and stopping the flakes.

Hair Growth

Ginger essential oil can help encourage your body to grow more hair. Ginger is warming, so it stimulates the scalp. This boosts circulation, which can lead to more hair growth over time. Using ginger oil for hair can lead to thicker hair over time.

Ginger Essential Oil for Skin

Cellulite

Ginger essential oil can boost circulation and tone the skin naturally. This can help reduce cellulite and make the skin appear to be more toned.

Fading Scars

Ginger essential oil may help reduce scars and lighter pigmented areas on the skin. This is due to its toning and antioxidant properties.

Anti-Aging

Since ginger essential oil is high in antioxidants, it can help prevent the signs of aging. Use it topically to prevent free radicals that can lead to fine lines and wrinkles. It can also help boost skin elasticity and tone the skin.

Ginger Essential Oil Recipes for Your Natural Skin Care Routine

With so many beauty benefits of ginger oil, I use it often in my DIY natural beauty recipes. I use it the most in my pain relieving recipes, but I also use it in hair care and skin care. Ginger oil really makes a nice addition to my natural beauty and skin care routine. Following are some of my favorite uses and recipes for ginger essential oil.

Lemon Ginger Lip Balm

Ginger essential oil for skin also helps your lips. Combine ginger essential oil with lemongrass essential oil for a light and refreshing scented Lemon Ginger Lip Balm recipe. This packs some serious moisture for your lips with cocoa butter, shea butter, and sweet almond oil.

Pumpkin Spice Latte Lip Balm

Use ginger essential oil to create a pumpkin spice essential oil blend for this pumpkin spice latte lip balm recipe.

Chocolate Ginger Agave Lip Butter

Get smooth and soft lips with my Chocolate Ginger Agave Lip Butter recipe. This unique flavor has shea butter, cocoa butter, and walnut oil to moisturize. It’s naturally flavored with chocolate absolute and ginger essential oil.

Ginger and Turmeric Face Polish

How to make an anti-aging and antioxidant Ginger and Turmeric Face Polish recipe. It has white clay to gently exfoliate and hemp seed oil and rosehip seed oil to moisturize.

Sea Salt Shampoo Bar Recipe

I used ginger essential oil in this Sea Salt Shampoo Bar Recipe. It also has kelp powder, eggs, and sea salt for hair health. Ginger oil for hair can help reduce dandruff and boost circulation in the scalp for thicker hair.

Essential Oil Roll On Perfume Recipe

Want to use ginger essential oil for aromatherapy? Make an easy roll on perfume recipe with natural essential oils.

Fall Soap Recipe

Ginger essential oil is perfect for fall. Get ideas for fall essential oil blends and an autumn harvest cold process soap recipe.

Gingerbread Jelly Soap Recipe

Learn how to make a gingerbread essential oil blend and use it to make gingerbread jelly soaps.

Chamomile Balm Recipe

Relieve dry skin with this chamomile balm recipe. It’s great for feet, elbows, hands, and other dry areas.

Gingerbread Emulsified Whipped Sugar Scrub Recipe

This gingerbread emulsified whipped sugar scrub uses ginger in a blend to smell like gingerbread.

Lush Inspired Massage Bar Recipe

Inspired by Lush, this massage bar recipe can use ginger essential oil in place of peppermint for a milder version.

Magnesium Body Butter

This magnesium body butter recipe combines the benefits of magnesium flakes and ginger essential oil benefits to naturally relieve pain and reduce inflammation in the body.

Pain Relief Massage Oil

How to make a pain relief massage oil. This easy recipe takes just a few minutes to make and uses the benefits of ginger essential oil to naturally reduce pain.

Ginger Salve for Sore Muscles

How to make a ginger salve for sore muscles. This uses an oil infused with ginger and ginger essential oil for more benefits of ginger essential oil.

Natural Pain Relief Salve

Get natural relief without side effects with this natural pain relief salve recipe. It has arnica infused oil, beeswax, and ginger essential oil, so it’s a fairly easy DIY recipe for beginners.

Now that you know about all of the ginger essential oil benefits, why not add it to your natural skin and hair care routine? You can purchase quality organic and certified ginger essential oil from Mountain Rose Herbs. Choose from their classic ginger essential oil made from dried root for an earthy spicy scent. Or try their fresh ginger essential oil made from fresh ginger root for its bright note and less earthy fragrance.

What are your favorite ways to incorporate ginger essential oil into your natural beauty routine? Be sure to share your favorite ways you use ginger essential oil in the comments. And don’t forget to pin these natural ginger oil skin care recipes for later!

For more ways to use essential oils in skin care, be sure to follow Soap Deli News across your favorite social media channels. You can find and follow me on Blog Lovin‘, pinterest, facebook, twitter and instagram. Or sign up for my semi-weekly newsletter.

Filed Under: Bath & Beauty Recipes, Health & Wellness Tagged With: bath and beauty, bath and body, beauty diy, beauty hacks, essential oil, essential oil recipes, ginger essential oil, natural skin care, skin care recipes

Pumpkin Spice DIY Body Spray Recipe with Essential Oils for Fall

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October 3, 2019 By Rebecca D. Dillon 3 Comments

Enjoy the scent of fall whenever and wherever you like with this easy essential oil DIY body spray recipe that smells like seasonal pumpkin spice! It’s a simple way to create your own custom fall fragrances for yourself or to gift as easy DIY holiday gifts throughout the season.

Make Your Own DIY Body Spray for Fall

I love fragrances. Unfortunately, it’s rare that I can shell out $40+ for a designer fragrance. Body sprays, on the other hand, are a budget friendly splurge. Body sprays tend to cost less than designer perfumes. Therefore I’m comfortable with using them everyday. There’s no need to ration out my favorite scents so they last longer. However, as I often have an arsenal of essential oils stashed in a cabinet for my natural skin care recipes, I really enjoy making my own seasonal DIY body sprays.

Benefits of Making Essential Oil Body Sprays

There are a number of benefits to making my own custom scented DIY body sprays with essential oils. Obviously I don’t need to worry about the potentially toxic ingredients hidden in proprietary perfume formulations made with fragrance oils. Instead, I’m able to create unique scents using plant-based essential oils.

Custom DIY body sprays with essential oils are also incredibly easy to make. Plus, with the holidays quickly approaching, I’m able to make multiple body sprays at once. One for me, and then several more to gift to friends and family. All at the same time and all in under 15 minutes.

I also love that I can use my favorite essential oil diffuser blends and recipes in my body spray recipes. So rather than hunting for essential oil blend recipes all over the internet, I’m able to work with what I have on hand at home.

How to Make A Pumpkin Spice Body Spray

While this easy pumpkin spice DIY body spray is perfect for fall, it also make a great DIY gift idea throughout the entire holiday season. Once you’ve made my pumpkin spice scented body spray, be sure to try it with other essential oil blends as well. It also works great with your favorite knock off designer fragrance oils!

You can find more fragrance ideas and essential oil blend recipes for your custom DIY body sprays here. (I even give great tips on how to make your custom fragrance blends last longer!) Or try one of fourteen other amazing fall essential oil blend recipes that can be used not just for your DIY body spray, but for homemade soap recipes as well! See those custom blend recipes for your DIY body spray here.

Pumpkin Spice Body Spray Recipe

Ingredients:

4 oz. jojoba or fractionated coconut oil
12 drops cinnamon leaf essential oil
12 drops ginger essential oil
12 drops nutmeg essential oil
9 drops clove bud essential oil
3 drops cardamom essential oil

Instructions:

Measure out your choice of carrier oil into a 2 oz. glass or aluminum container. Then add the essential oils. Shake to combine.

To use your pumpkin spice DIY body spray, simply mist onto your body as desired. Or lightly spritz onto hair to add both fragrance and shine.

More Ways to Make DIY Body Sprays

If you enjoyed my pumpkin spice DIY body spray recipe with essential oils, then be sure to try some of my other recipes for creating custom body sprays and perfumes.

Custom Dry Oil Body Spray Recipe for Soft Skin
Mermaid Shimmer Body Spray Recipe with Shimmering Mica
DIY Dry Oil Body Spray Recipe with Camellia Seed Oil
Shea Butter Body Spray Recipe with Shea Nut Oil
Aromatherapy Essential Oil Body Spray DIY for Sleep
Caramel Coffee Dry Oil Body Spray Recipe for Fall

Not quite ready to start making homemade body spray recipes? Need to save my pumpkin spice body spray recipe to craft DIY holiday gifts later on? Then be sure to pin my essential oil DIY body spray for later!

For more DIY ideas for fall fragrances and natural skin care recipes be sure to follow Soap Deli News across your favorite social media channels. You can find and follow me on Blog Lovin‘, pinterest, facebook, twitter and instagram. Or sign up for my semi-weekly newsletter.

Filed Under: Bath & Beauty Recipes, Holiday DIY, Homemade Gift Ideas Tagged With: bath and beauty, bath and body, body spray, dry oil body spray recipe, essential oil blend, essential oil recipes, essential oils, fall, fragrance, gift idea, holiday gift, perfume, perfume oil, pumpkin spice

Botanical Skin Care Course Review (Plus A Vanilla Whipped Body Butter Recipe)

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September 18, 2019 By Rebecca D. Dillon 4 Comments

This post is sponsored by The Herbal Academy. All opinions are my own.

Expand your knowledge of herbal skin care and discover the relation between nutrition and your skin with the Botanical Skin Care Course from The Herbal Academy. Keep reading to learn why I recommend this in depth course, plus how to make a vanilla whipped body butter recipe for dry skin.

When we think of back to school, our thoughts instantly go to school buses, packed lunches and hopefully a little bit of peace and quiet. That’s not always the case however. I have several acquaintances, also in their forties, who have gone back to school recently in order to start new careers. While my sister-in-law recently finished her teaching degree and just started teaching pre-k students in low income areas – something she’s always wanted to do.

Unfortunately, not all of us have the luxury or the means to head back to college later in life. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to further our education. In fact, I love learning! It’s one of the reasons I became a blogger. Being a blogger encourages me to research new ingredients on a regular basis and explore new techniques in my field. While the internet offers a wealth of information online through an unguided quest, not everything is readily available with a keystroke. So how do I gather further insight and the knowledge I need to go further my craft? The answer is an easy one. It’s The Herbal Academy.

Botanical Skin Care Course Review

I didn’t realize how much more there was to learn about natural skin care and whole body wellness until I enrolled in The Herbal Academy’s Botanical Skin Care Course. This online course offered so much more than I expected. I can honestly say that I learned way more than I’d expected. As it was thoughtfully and well presented, I found myself wanting to learn even more after I completed the course. The Botanical Skin Care Course not only offered in depth information on the natural ingredients used in skin care, it also taught me the biology behind our skin and how its makeup relates to herbal skin care.

Why I Love (& Recommend) The Botanical Skin Care Course

There are number of things I really loved about this course.

For those new to The Herbal Academy, a video tutorial was available to make the process of navigating the course even easier.
There were notable facts about the history of cosmetics and skin care that were especially intriguing and found throughout the course lessons.
As this course offered in depth information on skin biology and whole body health, I felt this was definitely a college level course.
The information was broken up into different lessons and sections, so it was easy to stop at any time and pick it back up later.
There was no endless reading. The informational sections of each lesson were broken up with instructional videos and recipes, as well as graphics and herbal knowledge.
All of the information provided can be printed or viewed as a PDF. So everything is printable including the lessons, graphics and charts.
The Herbal Academy also provides printable pdf transcripts of video lessons to refer back to later.
The course is much more affordable than taking a college course and can be completed at your own pace.
Once you start the course, you have full access to that course for a full year from the day you begin.
There’s a private facebook group for additional help as well as to share tips and recipes. (I checked it out and signed up. It’s pretty awesome – plus zero drama.)
The course offers a brief overview of terminology on how to share the benefits of herbal skin care products without making medical claims.
If you want to further expand your knowledge on a topic covered in the Botanical Skin Care Course, there are additional resources provided at the end of each lesson.

Some of My Favorite Information from The Course

There’s so much information to soak up through the Botanical Skin Care Course. Therefore, it’s really hard to share a full overview of everything it entails. However, some of my favorite things were learning how to use herbal allies to care for skin – as well as how skin care connects to whole body wellness. (ie. Gut-Brain-Skin Axis.) I also like that this course covers herbs that address acute and chronic skin ailments with special consideration for anti-aging skin care. And there aren’t just skin care recipes to accompany the lessons. There are also herbal remedies AND food recipes that offer nutritional support for skin. You’ll also love their chart on skin-friendly dietary guidelines!

I loved learning about the basic energetic categories of Western herbalism—hot, cold, damp, and dry—to provide a more nuanced view of skin health. It was highly enlightening as were the sections on Ayurveda skin care and skin care in Chinese medicine. One of the more important lessons, however, covered the commercial ingredients we should be avoiding and why they are harmful. I was most surprised to learn that retinol, which is practically a staple in anti-aging skin care products, should be avoided due to its numerous negative side effects.

In contrast, the Botanical Skin Care Course from The Herbal Academy, also educates you on the carrier oils and butters that you SHOULD be using in your natural skin care products. Fatty acid content, comedogenic ratings, properties, shelf life and absorption rate are covered for each ingredient. There’s also a printable chart so you can keep this information handy when referring back to it later. Additionally there is information on salts, waxes and emulsifiers, clays and natural skin safe pigments, humectants, natural preservatives and essential oils.

For those of you just getting started with essential oils, you’ll find the chart for essential oil dilution guidelines especially helpful along with the properties and aroma of common essential oils used in skin care. I also learned the right way to make herbal vinegars, while expanding my knowledge on hydrosols, salves and oil infusions. There are a number of great recipes in the lesson on making botanical body care products. This section also offers video tutorials, troubleshooting information, additional graphics and printable charts as well as information on storing your products.

Botanical Body Care Recipes Within the Course

In fact, you’ll discover video instruction, printable property charts, troubleshooting tips, preservatives needed and recipes for making a number of botanical skin care products. These herbal skin care recipes include:

Natural bath care product recipes.
Recipes for creams, lotions & body butters.
Instructions for crafting herbal gels.
How to make herbal soaps with recipes.
Hair care recipes.
Cosmetic recipes.
Recipes for herbal vinegars.
Information on making herbal hydrosols.
Herbal salves and balm recipes.
How to make oil infusions & recipes.

The sheer volume of information provided throughout this course is priceless. I know that I will personally be referring back to this course throughout the year.

Botanical Skin Care Recipe Book

You also have the option to add on the Botanical Skin Care Recipe Book with this course. It’s filled with 194 favorite tried and true herbal skin care recipes. Inside are recipes for pretty much everything you can imagine – eye shadows, toners, face masks, deodorant, foot scrubs and baths, body butters, facial serums, homemade soaps and more. (You can also purchase this book separately here.) I really love this book and would definitely recommend it as an addition to your collection.

Now that you’ve decided to sign up for the Botanical Skin Care Course, be sure to also check out the recipe for making a daily moisturizer for acne prone skin. You can find this natural skin care recipe both within unit 4 of the course (for support for chronic conditions) as well as inside the Botanical Skin Care Recipe Book.

Vanilla Whipped Body Butter Recipe

The great thing about body butters is that they don’t contain any water-based ingredients. This means there’s less potential for microbial contamination (such as bacteria) which gives body butters a longer shelf life than lotions and creams. Because the ingredients used can be damaged by exposure to air, light or excess heat – causing the oils to go rancid, vitamin E or rosemary extract can be used to help prevent oxidation.

This vanilla whipped body butter recipe is adapted from Plant-Powered Beauty by Amy Galper and Christina Daigneault. The finished whipped body butter is both fluffy and decadent with a fragrance reminiscent of an orange creamsicle.

Ingredients:

¼ cup (2 fl oz) coconut oil
¼ cup shea butter
¼ cup cocoa butter
¼ cup (2 fl oz) jojoba oil infused with vanilla (Vanilla planifolia) bean
35 drops sweet orange (Citrus x sinensis) essential oil and 5 drops ylang ylang (Cananga odorata) essential oil (optional)

Instructions:

Make the vanilla-infused jojoba oil using the instructions in the herb-infused oil tutorial (found in the Botanical Skin Care Course) using ¼ vanilla bean and ¼ cup jojoba oil. Note that ¼ cup is the amount of finished herbal oil to include in the recipe—you may need to start with more oil when making the herb-infused oil, as the herbs will soak up some of the oil (if you forget to do this, just top off with some plain oil as needed for this recipe).

Gently heat coconut oil, shea butter, and cocoa butter in a double boiler over low heat (or a glass or ceramic bowl or canning jar over a small saucepan of simmering water) until melted.

Add the vanilla-infused jojoba oil, stir until mixture is melted and consistent, and turn off the heat.

Let cool for approximately 10 minutes, and once it is still warm, but not hot to the touch, cover and transfer to the refrigerator for approximately 1 hour, or until there is no longer a semi-liquid center.

Using an immersion blender or electric mixer, whip the mixture on high for 5 minutes or until it changes color and looks fluffy. You may need to periodically scrape the mixture from the sides of the bowl.

Add essential oil, if desired, and mix.

Label, and store in a cool, dark place. This vanilla whipped body butter recipe will keep for up to 1 year.

Not quite ready to commit to the Botanical Skin Care Course? Then be sure to pin this post for later! Otherwise, you can sign up for the Botanical Skin Care Course here.

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Filed Under: Bath & Beauty Recipes, Health & Wellness, Lifestyle Tagged With: bath and beauty, bath and body, body butter, body butter recipe, botanicals, health and wellness, herbal infusion, herbal skin care, herbalism, herbs, homemade soap, natural beauty, natural living, natural remedy, natural skin care, non-toxic, online course, review, salves, skin care recipes, whipped body butter