It’s now one of my favourite oils for my skincare, and a favourite aroma that I find really sweet, earthy and enriching.  I recently discovered it as if smelling it for the first time.

Take a strong, deep sniff, and you’ll find it a little sweet, a little spicy, a little woody, very rich and thoroughly earthy.  This is a wonderful “base” oil for grounding and nourishing; helping us to keep in touch with our physical self, and hence fabulous for a rich and indulgent night time treat for the skin.

Patchoui has talents in a couple of areas of beauty care:

• It is excellent for cell regeneration, disinfecting, moistening and “cooling” hot conditions (like inflammation)
• When the skin has been broken or damaged, or in cases of acne or eczema, patchouli will heal and encourage the formation of scar tissue
• It’s also amazing for dry, cracked skin or wounds

When applying to your face, neck and décolletage at night, you can literally feel the day’s over-thinking and worry melting away.

The rich scent soothes and grounds, leaving your mental faculties perfectly intact to meditate or fall into a soft dream space.

Nourishing & hydrating night serum recipe for dry skin:

• 1 drop Patchouli, Pogostemon cabin
• 1 drop Frankincense, Boswellia carterri
• 1 drop Rose, Rosa damascena (or 5 drops of rose at 3% dilution)
• 1 drop Ylang Ylang, Cananga odorata
• 11ml Jojoba oil*
• 1ml Argan oil
• 1ml Camellia oil
• 1ml Rosehip oil
• 1ml Macadamia oil

Blend everything in a 15ml bottle and apply 6 drops to clean, still moist face, neck and décolletage in the evening before bed.  You can also add 4 drops to your favourite moisturiser for an even more rich treat for your skin.

Patchouli is one of the best kept secrets in aromatherapy.  Both uplifting, earthing and good for dry skin, you can’t think of a more nourishing ingredient to add to a nighttime beauty ritual.

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You might also like:

• Skincare that creates the Wow! Factor
• How to start using essential oils for beautiful skin

Here’s the second step in our 4 easy steps to beautiful, glowing skin using natural products already found in your kitchen. Excellent for all skin types especially congested.

After you’ve exfoliated and hydrated using baking soda, lemon juice, honey and salt recommended in Part 1, it’s time for Step 2: unclogging your pores with an aromatic steam inhalation.

Before you gloss over at the thought of a home steam, I have to say: this is SO much more exciting than you might imagine, since it involves adding essential oils (clearly not something you might have randomly in the kitchen, as I suggested in the subtitle, but you can do this step just as easily without).

Immediately preceded by Step 1, your pores will be perfectly prepped for detoxification.

All you need to do next is:

1. Add 3 drops of your chosen oils to a bowl of steaming water
2. Cover head with a towel
3. Inhale for at least three minutes.

Choose some essential oils to suit your mood or the time of day; uplift and energise or calm and ground.

With over 300 to choose from, there’s plenty of variety; experiment with fragrance and experience the real power of synergy in healing your mind AND creating beautiful skin.

Energising & uplifting:

• Juniper - to fortify, unburden and empower
• Lemon – for refreshing & clearing
• Lime - for refreshing & clearing
• Grapefruit – for dispersing, lightening & reviving
• Peppermint – for attention, tolerance & vision

Calming & grounding:

• Bergamot – for releasing, relaxing and uplifting
• Roman Chamomile – for calm control and easy acceptance
• Frankincense – for tranquil contemplation & spiritual liberation
• Jasmine – for desire, creativity and harmony
• Lavender – for calm composure & easy self-expression

You can do this as often as you like; everyday works wonders.

Not only does it set you up for a busy day, or unwind you after a hectic one, it really starts to CLEAN your skin from the inside out.

Try these beautiful recipes:

• Try 1 drop essential oil of juniper and 1 drop essential oil of pink grapefruit for a zesty start to your day
• Try 1 drop frankincense and 2 drops lavender for a relaxing end to your day.

You’ll feel cleansed and refreshed, and so will your skin, in preparation to glow.

Step 3 follows soon!

You may wish to read 4 Steps to Beautiful Skin.

Photo source: fan pop.com

This is an email forward with a fabulous moral.  Source unknown.

Photo by David Blaikie

Easy steps for beautiful, glowing skin using natural products already found in your kitchen. Excellent for all skin types especially congested.

Ever wondered how to have beautiful skin without spending a fortune on expensive cosmetic skin care products?

Over the next four posts you’ll learn how to create a glow that usually only an airbrushing session can create!

There are four simple steps to beautiful skin that you can do at home, using everyday ingredients found in your kitchen.

To uncover your natural radiance you need to:

1. Exfoliate
2. Unclog
3. Detox
4. Nourish

Beauty Tip #1 for Glowing Skin:  Exfoliate & hydrate

Head to the kitchen and grab some:

• Baking soda
• Honey
• Salt
• A lemon

Squeeze a teaspoon of lemon into the palm of your hand, add half a teaspoon of baking soda, half a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of honey and blend into a paste with your fingertips.

Add to your face in gentle circular moments and leave on as a mask for 5-10 minutes.

You can do this everyday prior to jumping in the shower or three times a week if you have sensitive skin. If there is any irritation, rinse of immediately.

A little bit about these amazing natural beauty elixirs:

Baking soda is a first class exfoliator and the secret to the most amazing, creamy, gorgeous, luscious glowing skin imaginable. It is also superb for the whole body. Add 2 cups to the bath for a sizzling and soothing exfoliation for the whole body that also nourishes dry skin.

Tip: Buy aluminum free from any good supplier of health foods.

Honey is made by very clever bees whose products like royal jelly, bee pollen and propolis are all excellent for protecting our health and keeping us young! Honey contains trace minerals, waxes and sugars all excellent for soft and glowing skin. It is non-irritating so great for even the most sensitive skin types.

Tip: Buy raw and organic for best results.

Lemon is packed full of enzymes that help clear away dead skin cells, allowing beautiful, glowing skin to emerge.

Tip: Buy organic and juicy for best results.

Stay tuned for the next 3 steps to beautiful, glowing skin!

Read Part 2 here.

We discover that the disappearance of frog and reptile species, the changing location of barnacle species, the distribution of fish and birds, and the dying Quiver tree are all the indications and irreversible effects of climate change.

Neither a catastrophist nor sceptic, Pearson concludes that while there is no debate on whether climate change is affecting natural ecosystems, it’s the future that divides opinion; will plant and animal species adapt in situ, change location, or become extinct?

As Pearson sheds light on divided interpretations of the data, it’s hard not to mourn the future loss of species, but we are left with a glimmer of hope: while change is inevitable, we can help chart the course for the future.

What is cellulite?

How to get rid of cellulite

1. Drink more water

Photo by HealthAliciousNess

Why home-made almond milk?

What are the benefits?

Photo by Tambako the Jaguar on flickr

What is sleep?

Why do we sleep?

Sleep is an adaptive state that maximizes the efficiency of all activities

Ok, probably not.  The Egyptians definitely hold that crown, however God did show some talent in the area of perfumery.

As part of the Alternative MBA suggested by Chris Gillebeau in his book The Art of Non-Conformity, I’m reading The Bible.

Now, before you say: “What the….!!!”, wait just a minute!

It’s brilliant.

I’m only two books in, having finished Exodus late last night, and am drinking in every word. It’s filled with drama: sex, incest, husband sharing and, of course, lots of sin.

We haven’t changed too much, by the sounds of it; still lots of that going on.

On a serious note, it’s opening my eyes to a deeper understanding of the way we live (how influential the book has actually been is a huge surprise to the girl who did not listen during the Sunday sermon), and, most of all, I’m enjoying the aromatic references.

• Aroma is mentioned on two occasions, once in Genesis and once in Exodus, the first book of the Old Testament, when God is pleased by the aroma of the burnt offering of – vegetarians close your ears! – a sacrificial lamb.
• Hyssop, one of my favourite essential oils, is mentioned in Exodus (an ex-boyfriend had asthma, for which it’s brilliant).

And then in Exodus 30:22:

The Lord said to Moses: “Take the following fine spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant cane, 500 shekels of cassia – all according to the sanctuary shekel – and a hin of olive oil.  Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer.

It was then used to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony, the table, the lamp stand, the altar of incense, the altar of the burnt offering and the basin, as well as Aaron and his sons so that they can serve God as priests.  He goes on to emphasise that this blend is sacred and whoever makes perfume like it, other than a priest, will be “cut off from his people”.

I’m loving these references – it’s so spicy and vivid! And dramatic.

I am surprised to hear so many stories of “religious” people who frown on natural remedies and raw materials as if they are “the work of the devil”.

Now you can say: “What the…..?”!

A friend’s ex-wife (a devout catholic) refused to let him treat is son’s eczema with an aromatherapy blend, citing it as “sinful” and I have heard other similar stories (though can’t remember them well enough to mention them here).

If God himself was a perfumer, and these raw materials were used to create sacred blends to anoint these sacred spaces, platforms and priests, then herbs, essential oils and perfume should be considered divine.

Fragrance has been used a medium for communicating with the divine for centuries, and it’s with this in mind that I’ll continue to enjoy it. Whether you’re religious or not, who can deny that their favourite aroma or perfume doesn’t, even if only for a moment, bring you a little piece of heaven.

Photo ©Timothy Archibald

Described by Vanity Fair as “the latest in a long line of female pioneers who’ve helped America shake its reputation as the Land of the Repressed,” Nicole Daedone is making waves in all the right places.

Founder of Onetaste, Orgasm Meditation (also known as “OMing”), and author of Slow Sex: The Art and Craft of the Female Orgasm, Nicole is taking on the onerous task of liberating our orgasm, for within it lies a fuller experience of life, deeper connection with our parters, and the key to changing the world – a notion supported by none other than the Dalai Lama.

A slow and meditative practice where a man strokes a woman on the upper left quadrant of her clitoris for 15 minutes, Tim Ferris has dubbed it “required education for every man on the planet.” Recently invited to speak at TED, Nicole’s work is hitting the mainstream.  While feedback is polarised, it’s the negative feedback that shows how far, as a society, we have to go in even discussing female orgasm.   (You can view the TED video at the end of this post).

I caught up with her earlier in the year, when Onetaste were preparing for the opening of the NYC hub.  She shared some insight on the practice of OM and how it feels to be in the driving seat of sexual liberation.

“Orgasmic meditation” – the name itself is open to misinterpretation.  What isn’t it? (let’s set the record straight!)

I’ll be sitting with [people] and they’ll say to me “So tell me about this diddling.”

What?!

With all earnest they’ll say:  ”Tell me about this mutual masturbation practice you have.

It’s not diddling, it’s not mutual masturbation, it’s not foreplay.

It’s not sex as we know it.

The best example I have is [to explain that] yoga isn’t a workout.

The two domains that have most affected me have been meditative practice and yoga so it’s no accident that those [elements] are in there.

I love this idea of sexual mindfulness; it seems we’re being given the opportunity to slow down in many areas of our lives.  Where does “slow sex” fit into a more “mindful” way of living; how does it enhance our experience of sex itself, our relationships, our lives, and the world around us?

It brings sexuality back to what sexuality really can be, and that’s a sanctuary in the world where you have the opportunity to connect with yourself and with your partner.

If I could say one thing to men especially it would be to slow down.

He would be an infinitely better partner in the sexual arena but beneath is the fact that slow sex is really this antidote to this kind of super fast, cortisol, testosterone, adrenaline, inner flight response that most of us are living in, and the kind of reactive response to the world.

You said to the NY Times: “I don’t think women will really experience freedom until they own their sexuality.” What does that mean?

I think as women we’re still in a place where, sometimes, we see our sex as a bargaining chip rather than as a chance or opportunity to deeply nourish ourselves; or as a commodity; so we withhold or we desperately try to get more; or we give in when we don’t want to.

There’s all of [these] reactive responses.

I was having an OM maybe 6 years ago (after years of OMing) and all of a sudden this voice rose and said “I’m free.” And what that meant to me in my body was two things:

One is that sex took it’s right place.  It took it’s full seat inside of me but it also wasn’t this exaggerated form.  That’s the first piece.

The second is that I felt like I would [not] have to do something in the sexual arena that I didn’t want to [ever again], and that I could if I did.

Credited alongside the likes of Estelle Griswald, Brenda Howard, Alice Walker and even Madonna, what does it feel like to be passed this torch?

It’s daunting and, by the same token, [in order] to actually live up to that name I can see how much there is to do.

That’s really where my focus is.

I don’t know that it’s given me an added vision but it gives it an added legitimacy and makes it that much easier.

It really is like digging in cement with a spoon; getting any movement in this direction [is good, so] it was definitely a boost.

As with all these women you have met with friend and foe, some accusing you of running a cult etc. Why do you think the practice of and principle behind OMing may pose a threat to some?

I think it’s basic human nature and I think it’s going to require a tremendous amount of education.

We don’t have a context in which to understand a woman opening her sexuality in a way that’s beneficial. And so when people hear about it, the only models we have are kind of strange and on the fringe.

Thinking about moving this into the mainstream in some way just sounds scary and that’s really where I see my work in educating, so that this isn’t a freaky weird thing but a clean, well-lit way to understand and exploring sexuality.

My prayer and hope is that enough people try OM [so] that it can speak for itself.

Nicole and Onetaste are still working on the ways to make this accessible, citing video as the most popular:  ”People really want their first interaction with OM to be private, and at home,” says Nicole.

With TV characters like Samantha from sex and the city, and readily accessible prom, we don’t have many models for what real sexual liberation looks like, but in the practice of OM we have the chance to explore it of ourselves and experience the transformation in our own lives.

If you, like so many other online commenters, doubt that any man would bother doing this for 15 mins, or enjoy sex perfectly well without orgasm, you and your partner are the perfect candidates, because orgasm IS important, and your experience of life after it will prove it.

For information about classes, retreats, coaching, Dvd’s, kits and ebooks like OneTaste Stroking Basics, go to the Onetaste website.