Essential Oils – Health and Beauty

When I use essential oils in my health and beauty products I feel like I’m pampering myself at a fancy spa or something. Even if it’s just using a really awesome smelling hand soap! The aroma from the oils are so uplifting and the added health benefits of using essential oils make me feel like I’m doing something right. Here are some of the ways I’ve utilized essential oils in homemade health and beauty products.If you missed my last post, I mentioned that I use DoTerra oils. The “On Guard” oil I use in the hand soap is one of their oil blends. It makes your hand soap smell like truly fancy pants stuff! Let me know how you get on if you try any of these out? I’d love to hear how you’re using essential oils!

Essential Oils – House Cleaning

I’m close to the end of my pregnancy now and you could say I’ve begun “nesting”. My urge to clean and tidy the house in an attempt to prepare for our little one’s arrival is in full throttle! I thought it’d be fun to create an illustration to show you how I’ve been ultilizing essential oils, though I prefer to call them “magic potions” (they really do work like magic!) in my house cleaning.

I must admit, the vinegar smell is a bit strong at first but it soon disappears and what you’re left with is the scent of fresh lemon or whichever essential oil you chose to use. I prefer using natural cleaning ingredients since harsh chemicals in many cleaning products tend to give me a headache, and a headache is the last thing I want to add to the dizzy spells that come with all the bending over and the getting up and down of house cleaning!

If you were wondering what Citrus Bliss and On Guard are, they’re essential oil blends from Doterra. Here’s what they’re made up of:

Citrus Bliss: Wild Orange, Lemon, Grapefruit, Mandarin, Bergamot, Tangerine, Clementine, and Vanilla Bean Extract. This stuff smells like happiness!

On Guard: Wild Orange, Clove Bud, Cinnamon Bark, Rosemary. I used this to make a handwash, but details on that will be in my next essential oils post.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend with hopefully not too much house cleaning!

Things I Shouldn’t Eat

When I’m craving something good to snack on (and by “good” I mean bad), those dried apricots and almonds in the pantry just ain’t gonna cut it man! We usually do pretty well at the supermarket, strictly hauling home only healthy snacks and fruit. But there’s that feeling of regret at the end of the day, when we curl up to watch Netflix, when I’m NEEDING  something sweet to eat! I exclaim to my husband, “why didn’t we just get a box of cookies? We have nothing to eat!”.  The snow has gotten pretty bad here so it’s not like we could just dash out to get some cookies on a whim, so I decided to bake some instead! Desperate times call for desperate measures! I was craving something sweet and citrusy so I whipped up these lemon melting moments. So bad for you, but sooooooo good!

Lemon Melting Moments:

1 cup butter
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/4 cup corn starch

Filling:
60g softened butter
1 cup icing sugar
5 drops DoTerra Lemon essential oil (other brands will work too)
1 Tbsp lemon juice or orange juice (if the mix is too dry)

1. Mix the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy then mix in the vanilla extract.
2. Sift the flour and corn starch together, then mix gradually into the butter mixture. Mix until all ingredients combine into a smooth ball.
3. Roll dough into balls (slightly larger than a gumball). Mixture should make enough for 30 balls. Arrange on cookie tray and with a fork (dipped in corn starch to prevent sticking), flatten the balls slightly.
4. Bake for 15-20 mins at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When done, cookies should be a pale golden color.
5. Once cookies are cool, sandwich 2 together with a dollop of delicious lemon filling!

Hippy Mama

There’s been a bit of a hippy vibe going on at our house lately (minus the flowing armpit hair that is). Ever since these pregnancy hormones have upped the ante on my blood hound sense of smell, any kind of synthetic perfume/scent has felt too intense, bringing on headaches and nausea. This reaction made me start to question what synthetic chemicals in beauty products or cleaning supplies can do to our bodies. Surely they can’t be great if just the smell alone was making me feel sick right? So I was thinking, if I’m super careful about what I put INTO my body e.g. no cold cuts, alcohol, caffeine…etc, then shouldn’t I be conscious of what I’m putting ON my body? Our skin is our largest organ, it absorbs whatever the heck we smear or lather onto it and that makes me fear that some of those chemicals that get absorbed into my body could be harmful to my baby. Maybe I’m being a tad over dramatic but it has startled me enough to make some natural product choices when it comes to the beauty and cleaning supplies we use at home.

My midwife gave me a handful of Doterra essential oil samples and I mentioned in my last pregnancy update that I believe the blended oils truly work for mood enhancement. I’ve been using the single oils quite a lot as well, for cleaning, adding to drinks, and massages – to mention a few uses. I’m discovering so many handy ways to utilize them, so I went ahead and bought bigger bottles of lavender, lemon and peppermint (as seen in the first picture). I’m on such a hype with these oils! I can’t wait to share the ways I’ve been using them and what I plan to do with them too!

Another natural product I’ve been crazy about is coconut oil. It’s great for your body, inside and out! I’ve been substituting it for butter in baking, using it to moisturize this big ol’ preggo bump, and using it as makeup remover! I have a lot to say about this amazing stuff and so I really need to dedicate a future post to it as well.

Stay tuned for future posts on Lavender, Lemon, Peppermint and Coconut oil! 🙂