Beauty in the face comes from Grace not youth.

I am preparing for a talk I will be doing this weekend at a Women's Wellness fair. I have already done a talk on natural cosmetics and the importance of knowing what it is you are putting on your skin. This weekend I will cover this as well but I have been exploring the idea beauty.
Here is a first draft of the article I wrote for Acupuncture Turning Point's March newsletter:

What am I trying to do with facial rejuvenation? Not reverse natural ageing of the face. Any efforts to that effect would be in vain, pun intended.  Beauty is typically associated with healthy youthful persons.  So by using treatments which bring the body to a state of well being the result can be reflected and expressed in the face radiating from the inside out. My goal is to get you feeling healthier, balanced, possibly put a spring in your step and naturally looking better.

What is in a face? Our face is how we are recognised; no other human has the exact combinations of features.  Our emotions are expressed with our face.  It is our mask we present to the world.  Beauty also resides in the face. 

Beauty is powerful.  It will motivate us, softens our hearts, and results in powerful emotions just by simply observing it.  Because it is such and intangible it is usually left only for the “eyes of the beholder”.  Rushing around wrapped up in my own business I often find it takes slowing down to behold it. Or should I say once I have taken time I am often smacked in the face with it, life is indeed beautiful.

If you think that the beauty of your face is fading it is understandable then that some people may begin to feel insecure and powerless.  Perhaps it is not the beauty that is fading.  Youth and beauty are common bed fellows but I know you can have one without the other. I have witnessed it my self.  I think what separates them is loving acceptance, and grace.

In his book “Dying to be Young” Eric Kaplan, talks about his and his wife’s recovery from becoming paralysed after having Botox injections.  For those who still don’t know what Botox injections are it is the injection of a “safe” form of botulism toxin into the facial tissues paralysing the muscles making your expression lines appear “softer”.  This is an extreme example but it shows the lengths some people are willing to go to feel young and beautiful.

My inspiring example of a graceful beauty is my Grandmother.  Her elegance is a result of her impeccable classic style mixed with her moral and spiritual integrity.  Her discipline is reflected in how she takes care of herself.  She makes every effort to make sure she looks “put together” without a stitch of makeup. I don’t know that she has ever dyed her hair.  It seems as if she is very proud of head of white wavy hair, and so am I.

Since focusing on facial acupuncture I have done some reading on Chinese face reading.  In the book ‘The Face Reader’, Patrician McCarthy talks about specific markings on the face and their traditional meanings.  Take for example the nasolabial grooves. These are the lines that run down the face from beside the nostrils to the out side corners of the mouth. Patrician explains that these are our lines of purpose, or Fa Ling lines.  According to McCarthy, “these lines tell us if we are aware of our creative and spiritual purpose in life, if we have strong ideals, and to what extent we are following our true goals. Because they reflect our ability to eliminate the superfluous issues that bog us down and to nurture our essential talents, we should have Fa Ling lines by our early to mid forties.”   She goes on to say that although it is fashionable, it is “tragic to remove evidence that we are on our creative and spiritual path”.  A life with purpose is a beautiful thing.

It has been awhile since the last entry...let's pick up where we left off, like all good friends do. So I made most of my Christmas presents. Yay! It was great to play with the different recipes, some we more successful then others. I will post the recipes I used and add some comments. As I was creating in the kitchen I remembered what my husband said about recipes and cooking, they are guidelines the act of cooking is an art not an exact science. It might make exact replication difficult but it is more fun.
So what did I make?
Lip Balm
Adapted from a recipe found in the Green Beauty Guide, by Julie Gabriel
Makes 1 lip balm

• 1 tbsp soy wax flakes, from an unscented soy candle
• 1 heaping tbsp of coconut oil
• 3 drops of vanilla
• 1 drop of bergamot
• 1 pinch of garnet,or whatever colour mineral shimmer (I bought Earth Lab cosmetics brand)

I got little metal containers. I put the soy wax and the coconut oil in each container. I took a small frying pan and put a bit, 1/2 inch, of water in it over low heat. Carefully placed containers in the pan until the oil and wax had melted. Then I removed the containers from heat and stirred in the vanilla, bergamot, and then the mineral colour. The mineral shimmer powder will take a while to stir in completely. Then I popped them in the fridge for 2 hrs to set.

Facial Cleansing Powder/Mask

• 1 tsp organic green tea
• 1 tsp dried lavender florets
• 1 oz white clay
• 1 oz oat bran
• 3 caps of vitamin C capsules

I just put all ingredients in my magic bullet and blend until smooth. To use pour tsp into a dry hand add a few drops of water, form a dense paste, and rub into face avoid eye area. Leave on for ten minutes to use powder as a mask.

 Winter Protection Cream
Important for us Edmontonians

• 1 tbsp cocoa butter
• 2 tbsp of beeswax (or soy wax)
• 1/4 cup of coconut oil
• 1/2 cup of almond, soybean, or apricot kernel oil (I think you could use any oil just a note that hemp oil is green and will change the colour but it is really good for your skin)

Melt all ingredients in a small sauce pan on low heat or double boiler. Let set over night. Use within 12 months.
Protective Day Cream
The base is the same recipe as above.

• Substitute Rose hip oil instead of other oils suggested for last ingredient. It is full of antioxidants and therefore used in many anti-ageing skincare products.
• 1 drop of each, chamomile and rose essential oil

Personal scents, which I put in some beautiful perfume containers from Egypt.

• In a base of jojoba oil I added a blend of oils. I would choose only 3 or 4 oils. I love rose, jasmine, neroli, and bergamot. 5 to15 drops of each essential oil. I would keep sniffing as I added the oils.

Another fun part about making your own skin care is choosing your packaging. I used small mason jars for creams and body butters. I would decorate them so they didn't look so rustic....I call them craft sale chic.


First Body Butter...top is bedazzled with pink jewels :)



We are just over a week into November and Christmas is just around the corner. Since I have been doing this blog, I have decided to make some Christmas presents for people. I shall start my search tomorrow to source out all the ingredients and accoutrement. I was looking online yesterday but I want to do a test batch first before I order a bunch of things that I am not sure I will need.
So what is it that I am reading that has gotten me convinced to make homemade creams and potions for my family? I have found a fantastic book called The Green Beauty Guide, by Julie Gabriel former beauty editor and registered nutrition specialist. It's a great read. She is very thorough explaining all the things we should be avoiding when we buy our cosmetic and why. She includes lots of scientific research and references. Also in her book is recipes and a whole chapter on baby care. The best part about about his book is, even though Julie clearly is a smart cookie and has done her research, her tone in the book is very approachable. She has produced a very positive guide, providing us with plenty of information to make good choices. She writes, "If you choose to pick just one piece of information from this book, make it this: anything you apply to your skin ends up inside your body just as if you had ingested it. So whenever you put something on your skin think: would I really want to eat this?" Bottom line is it's important to learn how to read the labels of the cosmetics we are using. I have been interested in this stuff for a while now, and even I find all those long words intimidating. Unless you are a chemistry major. Or, I know I will read the label and know something is bad but I couldn't exactly tell you why. So if you are like me and have no memory for those crazy chemical names then I highly recommend going to the ewg (environmental working group) cosmetic database http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ . Here you can look up every body care item in your bathroom. Each one is rated on a scale from 0-10. 0 being as natural as you can get and 10 being toxic waste (simile).
Here is another link to an article I found, it's worth a read. It's titled, '10 ways to if a product is (or isn't) natural', from the Huffington Post  http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fbeth-greer%2Fnatural-products-labels_b_1024143.html&h=zAQEG-KafAQExhxeEgQ6pTlgI0vfUrecQw0ayvwUtIx72uA
Stay tuned for my test batch pictures.

Happy (belated) Halloween! Hands down the best time of year. We get to play with costumes and eat candy...no matter what age. This is also the only day of the year where I would put mascara on my 2 and a half year old. She has strawberry blond hair so her beautiful long lashes are barely visible.  Even as I go to do it I pause, just for a moment. I am fairly conscious about my choice of cosmetics, so I know the ingredients in the mascara are natural, it has just been in my makeup kit for about a year now, which for cosmetics (I am learning) is too long.
Oh well, cuteness and convenience trumps possibly blinding my daughter with some bacterial infection. Sounds dramatic ...especially because us moms really do make these types of choices at least a hundred times a day. I want to be as informed as possible as I make these choices in the future and this is one of the million reasons I am writing this blog.

Traditional Chinese Medicine facial rejuvenation, it is a way to improve the appearance of your face while supporting the health of your whole body. It makes sense right? I think so. This is one of the reasons why I am focusing my practice on facial rejuvenation. So many thing people do to stay looking beautiful are harmful to their health. I will explain more about that in future posts. Using  Chinese medical techniques will help to bring your whole body into balance and therefore improve your appearance and make you feel good. Win win.
In the book A Comprehensive Handbook for Traditional Chinese Medicine Facial Rejuvenation, Ping Zhang discribes the rich history of this practice. There is documentation of these therapies dating back to 1121-770 B.C. Talk about tried tested and true.  Interestingly acupuncture is only one of many modalities a TCM practitioner can use for facial rejuvenation.
Acupuncture is very familiar to us North Americans as it was the first facet of Chinese Medicine to become popular here. I believe it was the in the seventies when Richard Nixon or a reporter following him received acupuncture and then wrote and article in the New York Times about it (need to check the facts).
 Not that I have been there ...yet, but it is my understanding that in China, Acupuncture is a small part of traditional medicine. Qi gong, massage, herbs, and food therapy are very common and acupuncture is seen as more invasive of the lot.

Jade Roller

In her book Ping Zhang shares many food and herbs, massage techniques, and special treatments like gua sha and jade roller. I bought a jade roller recently...it feels fantastic.  My husband agrees. There is so much info in this book I am excited to start applying.

First Day Blogging.

Here we go! I decided to create this blog as I embark on my journey through the world of beauty, I am very excited to explore what people do to feel beautiful. How do some of these things have an affect on their health for the positive or negative? As I learn I want to share this information to people I know and love so they can make informed choices about their chosen beauty routine. 
Who am I? Mother, Wife, etc. as well I have just over ten years experience in the health food industry. I have a diploma in holistic health, as well as I have studied  Chinese acupuncture and  herbology. I am currently setting up my practice where I am focusing on facial rejuvenation using TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) techniques.
I ordered my business cards last night. My husband Will created a beautiful design and I am very excited to get them in the mail.
It starts.