Master The Art Of Making Blue Violet Eye Cream With These Tips Secrets Of A Wild Harvest

Feed your skin the best all-natural eye cream with the beauty of wild violets.

They are both edible and medicinal and come up in the late winter or early spring. Foraging for wild violets is easy as they grow almost everywhere! Wild violets are an edible and medicinal flower, and easy to spot! Learn how to identify and forage for wild violets, and the many ways to use them in the kitchen and in herbal medicine.

I started wild harvesting last year on my property which is at the base of the Marlboro Mountains, sometimes called Marlborough Mountains, its a group of hogbacked mountains arranged in a 25-mile-long (40 km) ridge extending from Newburgh, New York, to just south of Kingston, New York. Considered to be part of the Ridge and Valley Appalachians. They  are known for their sweeping views of the region. Today, due to a decline in agriculture (the orchards) at the base and logging in the mountains, the area is reverting rather quickly to a more natural state. An abundance of violets sprung up everywhere on the path in my woods.

This recipe is great for tired, puffy, or irritated eyes or just for day to day makeup removal. The Greta Breedlove recipe is very popular its from the book The Herbal Home Spa.
The blue chamomile essential oil is expensive so you could treat it as optional. Its high in Azulene an anti inflammatory agent extracted from chamomile flowers and its very soothing to the delicate skin under the eye. Its not crucial for the recipe but its a great addition when you can afford the indulgence. This is a great lotion and moisturizer for dark eye circles. It's also a vitamin C eye cream. The best eye cream for sensitive skin.

125ml fresh violet flowers

125ml fresh violet leaves

300ml of almond oil

125ml fresh horsetail

30ml beeswax pastels

10 drops E vitamin

10 drops blue chamomile essential oil (optional)

optional use Optiphen for preservation at 0.3 to 1.5% percent of the total weight in oil-based products. Add the Optiphen when your project is 176 F or below. Higher temperatures can degrade the preservative.

Yeild: Approximately 30 1/4 ounce containers

To Make:

1) Gather the flowers and leaves and place them on a towel to wilt overnight

2) In a double boiler, steep the leaves, petals, and horsetail in oil over low heat for 5 hours

3) Strain the flowers and leaves from the oil completely

4) Pour the oil back into the double boiler and add the beeswax

5) Melt the beeswax completely then remove from stove

7) Add vitamin E and blue chamomile essential oil

8) pour into dainty 1/4 ounce (7g) containers or jars

Great For:
1) Contains vitamin c for dark circles
2) Best natural eye cream for dark circles
3) Contains vitamin A eye cream

#violet #eyecreme #eyecream #eyecreamrecipe #eyetreatment #violetflowers #gretabreedlove #homemadebeauty 

source: wikiwand.com, The Herbal Home Spa: Naturally Refreshing Wraps, Rubs, Lotions, Masks, Oils, and Scrubs (Herbal Body) Paperback –  by Greta Breedlove, Brambleberry, 

Rose Clay, Activated Charcoal, Goats Milk Spa Bar Recipe: It's Not as Difficult as You Think

Charcoal and Rose Clay Spa Bar - Learn to make a luxurious soap bar with this recipe.

Available at my store: Handmade Goat's Milk Soap Rose Clay & Charcoal Spa Bar with Rose Otto Essential Oil - FREE SHIPPING

Rose Clay along with activated charcoal are great soap ingredients for several reasons. They have great purifying qualities and introduce beautiful natural coloring to your melt and pour soap. Rose Clay is a very beautiful clay that adds a dusty rosy pink color and gentle exfoliation. Clay can be added to Melt & Pour Soap up to 1 tablespoon per pound.  The easiest way to add Clay to your Soap is to mix it with a small amount of rubbing alcohol prior to adding it to your Soap Base. Creating a smooth liquid with the clay and rubbing alcohol will help keep the clay from clumping when you add it to the Soap; the rubbing alcohol will evaporate out.

Activated Charcoal has so many cleansing and purifying properties. With charcoal, a little goes a long way. 1 teaspoon should be plenty treat it the same way using a small amount of rubbing alcohol until it dissolves

For a great skin nourishing soap, I used goat's milk soap base a proprietary blend from Brambleberry. Goat milk contains a certain fatty acid that helps skin prevent moisture loss and its PH is similar to that of human skin. If you want to receive all the benefits of goat milk in melt and pour soap, Goat Milk Melt and Pour Base is your best bet. If you are using Rose Absolute you would not want to waste it in the heat up process during saponification. The oil is too precious and expensive to just burn off. This soap has a lot of skin-loving ingredients that are perfect for facial skin. However, everybody’s skin is different! Some may be more sensitive than others. I would recommend trying this bar on your face and seeing what you think!

The 4 Benefts of Rose Clay, Charcoal, Goats Milk Spa Bar Recipe

1) Rose Clay benefits are anti-inflammatory properties that can help reduce the redness of irritated skin, get rid of acne, dermatitis and eczema.
2) Activated Charcoal has so many cleansing and purifying properties.
3) In addition to lactic acid goat milk contains fatty acids that help repair the skin barrier, probiotics to encourage the growth of normal skin flora, and vitamin A to help gently exfoliate.
4) Rose Otto is the purest of rose oils and known as the Queen of oils. It has anti-inflammatory, cooling and soothing properties which can help with stress-related conditions in more mature skin types.

To make this soap you will need:
56 ounces Goats Milk Melt & Pour soap
1/2 teaspoon Activated Charcoal
1 tablespoon French Rose Clay Powder
12 mL Rose Otto Essential Oil 
12 Cavity Rectangle Mold

Start by cutting up your goats milk soap base into small cubes. I have learned that keeping the cubes small and evenly sized will help make the melting process go a little more smoothly – pun intended! When you have all the soap base all cubed, divide the base.

Put the small soap portion in the microwave for intervals of 30 seconds and stirring in between. This will allow the soap to melt evenly without scorching. The goal is to get a nice smooth melted soap base without over heating. 

Divide the soap into three portions: plain goats milk, pink rose clay, and charcoal.

Use a very small bowl and measure out 1/2 teaspoon of activated charcoal into the dish. Add rubbing alcohol until it’s well hydrated and easy to mix (up to 1 Tablespoon). Using the mini mixer or small wisk, carefully blend the charcoal to break up any clumps and get a smooth liquid consistency. Set that aside. Use the same technique for the rose clay.  Add rose otto essential oil equally to melted soap.

rose absolute vs rose otto

Rose oil is the essential oil extracted from the petals of various types of rose, the most commonly used being Rosa damascena, the damask rose, and Rosa centifolia, the cabbage rose. Rose Oil is expensive because you need a high yield of flowers to produce a small amount of oil. Typically Steam Distillation, Rose Otto, produces a smaller yield of oil compared to solvent extraction, Rose Absolute. It is said that Bulgaria produces about 70% of all rose oil in the world, other significant areas that produce rose oil are Morocco, Iran and Turkey.

get your mold ready mist with rubbing alcohol and pour the base creating a base of activated charcoal soap

This bar has a dual design one side is entirely an DIY activated charcoal soap recipe melt and pour. 

Once the entire tray has completely cooled and hardened, you can carefully unmold your rose clay soap. Hope you have a better understanding of the benefits of rose clay in soap. 

source: brambleberry, soap queen rose clay soap mask, Dr. Purvisha Patel #rosesoap #roseotto #goatsmilksoap #charcoal

Houndstooth Shawl with Optional Closure by Nancy Tranter a Closer Look at the Rigid Heddle Weaving Technique

English Houndstooth, French "Pied de poule", Dutch “Hanevoet”, is one of the most classic patterns for fabrics. Take a look a closer look at the rigid heddle weaving technique.

Whether on a houndstooth scarf, coat, skirt, purse, chair, blanket, or umbrella, the houndstooth never seems to go out of style. If you have it in your wardrobe, you will have a piece that will always be fashionable, at least in pattern. Although the pattern must have been known for centuries, it was made famous mostly by Christian Dior and is still frequently used in many variations. It is a non-exhaustible source of inspiration for fashion designers.I am using a 24" rigid heddle loom for this oblong shawl; however, the houndstooth pattern may be created in the same way on many other types of looms. You should only need to adapt it to your loom’s particular warping method. Weaving the Houndstooth is the process of creating a fabric from 2 perpendicular thread sets. One set is called the warp (vertical), the other the weft (horizontal). The weft thread crosses either over or underneath the warp threads and the precise about rule where to cross over and where to cross underneath determines the weave type of the fabric thus made.This weave is the simplest version of houndstooth – a 2×2. This size is also known as pinwheel and puppytooth. The addition of Reindeer antler buttons are supplies from my Sami bracelets inspired from Swedish Lapland. 

Supplies:
Ice Yarns Rock Star Copper Black 
Nancy Tranter Handspun Art Yarn Copper chain ply, 3 ply dk to light worsted 
Ice Yarns Rock Star Gold Black  

#weaving #houndstooth #artyarn #homespunyarn #yarn #iceyarn #shawl

Make and Create Frankincense & Myrrh with 24k Active Gold and Calendula Soap

Frankincense & Myrrh with 24k Active Gold and Calendula Soap

From the classic notes of frankincense and myrrh to the light scent of calendula, to the deepening scent of coco. Frankincense & Myrrh with 24k Active Gold's light and mild fragrance captures the most indelible scents in a soap. This unisex fragrances is an individual. I use only premium grade natural essential oils, resins, flowers, absolutes, and even sophisticated fragrance oils from Givaudan, Firmenich. Natural ingredients are used for their color properties such as 24k active gold, Calendula, Alkanet Root, Powdered Myrhh and Coco. Due to the handmade nature of my soaps, sizes and appearances may vary from photo. Each bar will weigh approximately 3.8 - 4.2 ounces.

This is a luxury soap. Made with oils of Olive Oil, Avocado Oil, Castor Oil, Babassu Oil, Distilled Water, Mango Seed Butter, Oils infused with Calendula Flowers, Sodium Hydroxide (Lye), Super fated around 5%

*No parabens, phthalates
*No preservatives
*No EDTA
*No sulfates
*No synthetic dyes
recipe put through soapcalc
you can find it at etsy