How to Make Vegan Wax Melts + Stress Support Essential Oil Blend
Since I started sharing recipes for my aroma melts, people have asked me for a beeswax-free version. I was initially reluctant because the vegan wax alternatives can be a bit finicky, and I have always had great luck with beeswax. I finally decided to accept the challenge and took a retreat to my creative space to formulate a vegan wax melt recipe. After a few dozen rounds of trial and error, I discovered that carnauba wax is my preferred beeswax alternative. It has no aroma and is a much harder wax, so I don’t have to use as much of it as I would in a typical wax melt.
The hard part was finding the golden ratio to get the melts to stay solid at room temperature while also having them melt in store-purchased wax melters! And by golly, I have done it! It took hours of testing different ratios and combinations, but I finally came up with a core recipe I feel good about.
If you think “watching grass grow” is hard, you should try “watching carnauba wax melt.” Luckily, I have done lots of that for you so you can just jump to the fun part!
Brightening Berry and Honey Face Mask & Exfoliant
This year, I set out to create a natural skin care treatment for my dull and dry winter skin. So I took to my crafting space to work on a mask and scrub that was brightening and cleansing. After several iterations, I created one that I’m quite excited about, and I think you all are going to enjoy it, too.
When creating new skin care recipes, I generally formulate them with ingredients I can use for other things. I especially like it when the core ingredients can be used internally for health and wellness, as in this recipe. Here are the ingredients that inspired this recipe, along with reasons they are good for the skin and other ways to use them.
Herbal Irish Coffee
I love a good Irish coffee. The conundrum, however, is that I generally limit my daily caffeine consumption to a morning espresso and I don’t want whiskey for breakfast, so it’s hard to figure out when to have said Irish coffee. St. Patricks Day is almost here and I’ll be getting together in the afternoon with my coffee-loving friends and family, which will include traditional, festive Irish coffee. Happily, my talented mixologist of a husband recently got inspired by a tin of Mountain Rose Herbs herbal coffee. I wasn’t sure what he was up to tinkering away in the kitchen, and then he came out with this creamy glass of pure ambrosia. Although I am not generally an all-caps kind of woman, this herbal Irish coffee recipe is, OMG SO GOOD. Bonus: I can drink a glass in the evening and still get a good night’s sleep.
Sprouts: Grow Sustainable Food on Your Countertop
Eating sprouted seeds is an easy, delicious way to capture a botanical’s nutrients, minerals, and vitamins at their peak. Depending on the sprouts you choose, they can be an excellent source of potassium, magnesium, folate, beta-carotene, calcium, vitamin C, and also vitamin K, which is a key vitamin for bone growth and blood clotting. They add flavor and texture to a wide variety of foods: salads, sandwiches, bagels, stir-fries, soups, frittatas, scrambled eggs, and more! These days they’re easy to find at farmers markets, natural foods stores, and in the produce section of many grocery stores, but did you know they are remarkably simple to grow right on your kitchen countertop? All you need is a jar, a sprouting screen or cheesecloth, seeds, and water.
Spring Pesto Recipes for Health & Vitality
Research compiled by Oregon State University has shown that roughly half of the adult population in the United States doesn’t get enough of the vitamins and minerals that leafy greens supply: 52% don’t get the recommended intake of magnesium, 44% don’t get enough calcium, and 43% don’t get enough vitamin C. Although many of us know that we need two to three cups of leafy greens a day to supply our exquisitely complex bodies with the vitamins and minerals needed to carry out cellular processes and repairs, many of us have trouble eating adequate amounts of those greens.
Dandelion Chive Pesto Recipe for Spring
Research has shown that about half of U.S. adults don’t get enough of the vitamins and minerals that leafy greens provide, including magnesium, calcium, vitamin C, and more. Our bodies need those nutrients to carry out cellular processes and repairs, but many of us find it difficult to get an adequate amount of those all-important greens. Enter… pesto! Pesto is a fantastic way to bring fresh greens and herbs—with all their flavor and nutrients—to your meals. Adding fresh herbs helps our bodies improve nutrient uptake by increasing digestibility, supporting the enzymes and probiotics in the gut, and helping to catalyze digestive processes. When you have pesto on hand, it’s easy to top any cooked food with fresh greens! When you think of pesto, you might think of the delicious basil version, but our friend, herbalist Kami McBride, has four new pesto recipes for you to try, because the world of pesto is bigger than basil.
Flowers Inspire Us Together | Featuring Bevin Clare (Rerelease)
Today’s episode is a rerelease of an excerpt from our spring online Free Herbalism Project hosted on April 8, 2021. This presentation was the inspiring and informative intro with our guest emcee Bevin Clare. Bevin covers a few of her favorite spring flowers and notes their traits as well as some lesser known facts. It’s a fun, short presentation, but we think you’ll have a lot of takeaways from it.
Spring Rain Essential Oil Blend + Wax Melt Recipe
I love to live fully within the seasons. I take in all the nuances of the seasonal elements, ebbing and flowing with the twists and turns of the weather and the expansion and contraction of daylight. This mindfulness practice allows me to connect with the “now” and fully appreciate all that the Earth shares with us through her wondrous cycles.
Now, as the spring rains fall and the first blooms of the season begin to unfurl, I feel called to create a new aromatherapy blend that melds with my natural environment. I have found over the years that many seasonal aromatherapy creations are created to match the exact scents of the season, rather than to complement nature’s aromatic offerings. In other words, they try to “outdo” the subtle aromas of nature by making them stronger.
I crafted this “Spring Rain” recipe to highlight the elements of spring while leaving enough room for nature to shine through. The bergamot I used in this blend is light and breezy and allows the fresh blooming flowers to dance with the olfactory senses. Similar to cheery lemon balm, litsea cubeba is added as a symbol of the sun which generously shines longer and with promise. Meanwhile, sweet marjoram offers an herbaceous tenacity, which helps balance the ethereal scents of the previous two oils. And finally, vetiver grounds out the blend, offering its sweet and earthy notes, symbolizing the damp earth.
Aroma Oils for Spring: DIY Diffuser and Fragrance Oils
Spring is just around the corner, which means it’s time to craft our favorite spring aroma oils for diffusSpring is in the air, and I’m more than ready to refresh my spirits, feel the sun on my face, and set out on new adventures. With that in mind, I’ve been gathering up my supplies to craft some of my favorite DIY essential oil blends for spring, ones that our Mountain Rose Herbs’ in-house aromatherapist developed with careful intent to clear the mind of lingering winter fog and bring the power and pleasure of aromatherapy wherever we travel, whether it’s a grand European tour or a trip to the grocery store. Warmer days are just over the horizon, which means now is the perfect time to create diffuser blends, fragrance oils, and aroma sprays in preparation for the annual blossoming of spring.er blends, fragrance oils, and aroma sprays.
