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.

CACAO, EGGS AND EASTER

Yesterday evening I meditated with cacao absolute*. It was an experience that illustrated the paradoxes of life and its kapha* aspects: heavy, humid, slow, patient, motherly and loving nature. It also showed sluggishness, muddiness, pain and depression as well as the importance of acceptance, dreamtime,  sacrifice, infinity and the process of birth, death and rebirth. In the process, it provided a glimpse of

INDIA: PANCHA KARMA, YEAR 3

Students at the Chinmaya Mission College for girls

I come back from this fourth trip to India more relaxed than last year. The memory of amazing smiles, scents and sights in my eyes fill my senses… 

Kilos lost and gained
… and many kilos of ayurvedic pastes, oils, tablets and medicinal ghees filled up my suitcase on the way back to follow up properly with my 3rd annual pancha karma

RECIPES: QUICK FIRST AID TIPS FOR PIMPLES AND ECZEMA

Cinnamon has great disinfecting properties.

Pimples can go quickly when you apply a paste of honey and cinnamon directly on it to dry it before you go to bed. A bit sticky but fragrant and efficient. Mix a good pinch of cinnamon powder in 1/4 tsp of honey. You'll likely have some left over and it can be kept for a week or more. You have pimples every month with you moon cycle? You may wish to macerate broken pieces of

SCENTS AND RELATIONSHIPS

Your nose knows.

A flash thought about Valentine's Day took me by surprise this morning. A bit early in the season I thought… But whatever triggered that idea inspired me to dedicate this blog to the topic of relationships and scents. It also inspired me to use essential oils associated with love since Antiquity for the next Meditations on Beauty.

Curiosity led me to search for recent information. The findings led me to

ABOUT THE AURA and THE AURA CLEANSE AND PROTECTION PROGRAM

One of the ways you could
see your aura. Thanks to
Gilbert Heim for this picture.

As the vibration of the Earth changes, more and more people are sensitive to “energy”. The best proof is in the exploding numbers of people who see or perceive the aura, who have premonitions, perceive angels or entities of various realms, and of people attracted to reiki, shamanic work, bioenergetics, healing work, channelers, aromatherapy, and so on. You may be one of them.

So what is that energy that people perceive but don’t necessarily see? The most common term used is “the aura.” As a kid, seeing light of different colours around the head of the priest during mass, I wondered why it was not gold and floating above his head like in pious pictures. Later on, as a teenager, I wondered why I saw this and what  was the role of the aura. Since the late 1990s, I studied and learned to work with it. A couple of weeks ago, 

GHOST BUSTERS: A STORY OF RELAXATION

Nervous tension is stored in the cells
 and makes the body nervous.
A good massage reduces that incredibly well.

This is the second article I write today. The other one disappeared on purpose under the delete button. I admit, at first I felt unqualified to share knowledge through this blog today because of judgements that I didn’t cope well with a strong case of Vata disbalance. And yet, as I wrote this, a voice inside told me this was not true.

The inner layer of defence said:  

“You took care of the physical bodies by:

CUBEB AND CANANGA ESSENTIAL OILS FROM BALI, OH LA LA

Bali, one of the jewels of Indonesia, is a world producer of
rice and a producer of fine essential oils.

After travelling, one of the most fun things to do is to talk to people who just came back from a trip. A student recently went to Bali and brought back cubeb and cananga (ylang ylang) essential oils. Thanks Chantal for this amazing sensory experience. The names sound so exotic don’t they! As are their scents! I wish they could cross cyberspace to reach your nose. So far, only nature has really mastered the ability to create perfumes that truly can touch the soul and give a sense of connection with the world and with the self. And at this time of year, these essences and other wonderful essential oils have the ability to generously keep us warm as the fall and winter seasons are already at our doorstep.

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.

AROMA MUSES FOR THE ARTS - A CALL TO BUDDING, AWAKENED AND FULL-FLEDGED ARTISTS

What is fearlessness for you? When and how does it come about? For most fearlessness is present when one is determined to go into the unknown or to meet a fear face to face. That could be in any area of life: relationships, self-inquiry, profession, creativity or exploring the world. It always is triggered by a need for freedom and expansion, from knowing that you can do more and be more fully who you truly are. The arts and aromatherapy provide a perfect platform to meet fears with curiosity and innocent fearlessness.

TEST YOUR MEMORY AND KNOWLEDGE OF AYURVEDA AND AROMATHERAPY

Here is a short quiz for the fun of it. Whether you have been reading my blog for a long or short while, enjoy testing your memory or sniffing out the answers through its various entries. For those who want quick answers, see below.

1. What are plants that support the female hormonal system?

• fennel
•  shatavari
• ashwanganda
• evening primrose
•  all of the above
• none of the above

RECIPE: LEMON VERBENA CLEANSING TEA

Although this fragrant recipe will suit all skin types, Kapha ladies and gents will enjoy it most. If you want to drink the tea, simply double the recipe. Great to improve digestion, which will also benefit your skin.

Ingredients:

5 leaves of lemon verbena

3 lavender stems with flowers

3 leaves of lemon balm

1 litre of water

Method:

• Make a tea with the following 3 fresh or dried herbs. 
• Let it steep for 11 minutes
• Let the tea cool off a bit
• When temperature is appropriate for your skin (warm enough to open the pores) soak 2 face cloths in the mixture.
• Quickly fold both facecloths in triangle shape, place first one tip up from nose to forehead, the second one tip down from under the nose to the chin.
• Make sure all areas of the face are covered.
• Add a small towel on top of everything if breathing is not an issue.
• Relax for 11 minutes.
• By then, the rest of your herb tea will have cooled off. Use it for a final rinse.
• OPTIONAL: Spray lavender hydrosol as a toner. If the day is cool, use ginger hydrosol instead.

YOUR SKIN CELLS HAVE SUCH GREAT MEMORY!

The human cell: no wonder it has such
good memory.

Skin cells have an incredible memory. You may have experienced this yourself. For example, years after having recovered from surgery or a trauma of some kind, you’re getting a treatment from an ayurvedic practitioner, a chiropractor, an acupuncturist or a massage therapist. Then seemingly out of nowhere, a memory blocking self-healing comes up through