A BASKET FULL OF POSSIBILITIES THIS FALL-WINTER

Life, Love, Health, Beauty, Joy, Gratefulness, Peace. Those are qualities or vibrations that make us who we are, maintain us and bind us. We sometimes feel that our basket is so full that we want to share its content with everyone around us. Isn't  that when everyone tells you how beautiful and radiant you are? 

ELEGANT QUEEN ANN'S LACE GIFTS FOR A WEDDING

My friends Rémi and Rebecca got married this past weekend. They rallied the help of their friends to create a true community event. Some prepared food for 60 people. Some sang and played music instruments, recited poems, and our teacher lead the spiritual ceremony and hosted the event in her beautiful garden. The mother of the bride, a consummate potter, made candle holders. Children--young and old--were asked to blow soap bubbles. I was asked to take charge of making bouquets for the banquet tables while another friend used her ikebana skills to make arrangements for the buffet table.

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,

SWEET FACIALS OF SUMMER

Whether home is in Papete, Mexico City,
Gatineau or Sydney, a facial picnic
with friends will always be fun.

How delicious it is to reach summer! You can almost feel the taste of the sun on your tongue and its sent on your skin. Skin is such a fascinating organ, the largest of your body, sensitive to what is going on inside the body as well as outside, and a great communicator between the two. This summer give it a facial it will remember for a long time.

Ayurveda and aromatherapy for beauty

Taking care of the skin with ayurveda and aromatherapy is a delight, especially

ONLINE BIOVEDIC FACIALS AND TREATMENTS: SO MUCH FUN, SO PRACTICAL

No time is the best time. A great illustration
by my friend Hughes Chassé.

One of the great pleasures and mysteries of energy work is that is knows not the boundaries of time and place. As a practitioner I can give facials and treatments from home or while traveling and you can be at home, at the cottage or anywhere else to receive it. The precision and quality of the facial, treatment as well as the sense of intimacy are the same whether we are geographically in the same room or 35,000 km apart.

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

INNER AND OUTER BEAUTY: BALANCE AND SELF-CARE (FALL 2013 PROGRAM)

The Aroma Muses for the Arts workshops announced in the previous entry are only one part of Face to Grace’s calendar of activity. They're definitely for those who are seeking expansion and want to put on their wings. The core part of Face to Grace’s course program includes:

• Practical Awakening for those seeking help for sailing journeys regardless of weather
• Balance Your Emotions with Aromatherapy, both in English and French, offer tools when the tides of emotions are high.
• the 1-Year Biovedic Beauty Certification Program develops grace and flexibility, and provides countless tools on the journey of beauty.

All three include components on aromatherapy, ayurveda and much more.

HOT OFF THE PRESS: THE BOOK OF BEAUTY

It sometimes takes a long time to make a dream come true. This week, mine finally arrived in four boxes. My first official publication, The Book of Beauty: Making Skin Care Products with Aromatherapy and Ayurveda. When I was six years old, my mother bought me my first brand new book, Martine à la mer. Right there and then, I knew I wanted to become an author. I spent most of my career writing as a reporter, as a communications officer or in some other capacity but it did not meet this urge deep within. Now this one did and propelled me to start another one.

The Book of Beauty summarizes everything I learned over the past 15 years about making skin care products. I share with readers the basics of Ayurveda as it relates to skin types and provide a test that allows you to assess your own and other people's dosha or constitution with photos that support the teachings.

NATURE'S BOUNTY FOR YOUR BEAUTY: TURMERiC, NEEM, HENNA AND HIBISCUS

Comes February, I will be back in Kerala, India, for 21 days of pancha karma treatment and to learn more about ayurvedic use of medicinal herbs for health and beauty. Already familiar with turmeric, neem and henna, I discovered the wonders of hibiscus for amazing hair during my last trip.

Turmeric

North Americans are familiar with turmeric as

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DEAR LAVENDER: HEALER, TEACHER AND FRIEND

Ageless, fragrant, powerful.

Little did I know when I first met you that you would become so important in my life. My grandmother had a sachet of your dried petals in a drawer to ward off the moths from the woolens in her drawer. I didn’t particularly like your smell at the time, and associated you with ‘old’ women. Either Grand-maman didn’t have the words to explain how valuable you are or I didn’t have the ears to listen.

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.

Planning for the holidays? Come to the cottage for healing skin care and Ayurvedic spa treatments

August 5-6, from 10 am Friday to 4 pm Saturday

Nurturing your breasts with nature's best

Since a few people have followed up on the Face to Grace breast balm recipe posted on my teacher’s blog, http://bhuvaneswaridevi.blogspot.com/2011/05/basic-breast-balm-recipe.html, I decided to include an enhanced recipe here and talk about the benefits of some of its ingredients. Future recipes will now on appear in the blog for all to enjoy.

For Beautiful and Healthy Breasts
The breasts have sensitive skin,

Summer affects your skin? Take charge with delicious natural recipes!

Most people love summer and soaking in the sun, happy to show up at the office with gorgeous tans in contrasting white shirts, skirts or dresses. Others will demonstrate their painful kinship with the lobster family.

But why is it that some people can bear the rays with apparently little damage and others not? There are many factors, including the level of melatonin in the skin, heredity and good preparation.

Know yourself, know your skin

Ayurveda has a very simple way to analyze the human body. It looks at the balance of the five elements that make up the universe (space, air, fire, water and earth) and how they interact. From that perspective, taking care of the skin becomes quite easy, simple and enjoyable.