SUPERFOODS FOR DRY SKIN

One of the most common complaints during winter is related to dry skin, but dry skin can happen at any time of the year. Apart from the obvious moisturizing solution, look at your diet to added help. Foods for the dry season are sweet, sour, salty, heavy, oily, moist foods provided you can digest them well.

The following are superfoods that will sustain you all winter long and help not only your avoid constipation, dry skin, hair and nails, but also

SOAP MAKING: DELICATE - HANDLE WITH GLOVES

Cranberry harvest in B.C. by Paul Woodcock. What a
gorgeous colour for soap! 

Making soap can be done anytime, but I prefer summer and fall as this is when all things fresh are available to fuel creativity and productivity.

It can be very simple or quite complex depending on what type of soap you want to make,

WHEN THE GOING GET DRY, GET THE OILS FLOWING

Oils come in all colours and textures.

Mother Nature has provided every area of the world with an abundance of oils. Why? Because they are absolutely necessary in our diet and on our body, especially for the maintenance and repair of the nervous system and the skin. Think of coconut oil and shae butter everywhere in the tropics, olive and sesame and almond in the mediterranean area, rice oats oils in Asia, canola, sunflower and grape seed in more temperate areas. People from northern countries, living above the tree line, found their source of oil

BEAUTY TIP AND RECIPE WITH PATCHOULI

I visited a new friend yesterday with whom I share a passion for aromatherapy. She gave me a bottle of patchouli essential oil, which I knew of but had never used. She said that it is like a good wine, meaning that it improves with age. I tried it last night and its scent and texture are very soothing. I thank her for inspiring the recipe and beauty tip below.

RECIPE: Cuts, wounds and scars mix 

Patchouli essential oil has the reputation of healing cuts and wounds, and speeding up the fading of their scars, as well as being effective to help marks left by boils and acne disappear.

In a small bottle, mix:

3 drops of patchouli e.o.

½ teaspoon of neem oil

3 tablespoon of ghee

Clean the affected zone, then apply the oil mix and help it penetrate well.

BEAUTY TIP: Calming insomnia

Insomnia is a Vata condition that affects many people, especially during the fall (Vata) season.

Putting 6 to 8 drops of patchouli essential oil, a sedative among many other things, in your diffuser will help alleviate or eradicate that condition. And look how synchronicity works: it also is a tonic for the liver and had started a liver cleanse that day!

24 Oils to the rescue for fall-winter skin care

Unless you are going though puberty, have a Kapha constitution or live in the Southern hemisphere, your skin likely has started feeling dryer than it has over the last months.

"Natural my dear Ms. Watson, it`s Vata season!" And who says Vata, says dry, cold and light. So let`s call carrier oils to the rescue to lubricate the whole body, whether in your food, in massage oil or in skin care products.