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You may have a vision of how you want the overall event to go, but keep some flexibility in your plans. You never know when a great idea will hit you that you can incorporate. Also, it is a big day where there are a lot of players at work. Little things can get forgotten or go wrong. Don't let it bother you. By Sabrina (Sikora) Dommenge
Colors that you like to look at should be part of your physical space, table cloths, napkins, flowers, candles.
They bring family, friends, and favorite or special places together to celebrate their commitment and create a lasting memory. Care is given to the food, music, flowers, passages read to commemorate faith, and the pledge given to each other. Read More
People all over the world have known this since the beginning of time. Modern science has effectively learned how to synthesize those properties artificially in a lab for medical and economic benefits, but in the process, has short circuited our culture’s interaction with plants on a level other than for food.
We’ve come to believe that unless we buy our beauty products in a box that’s been commercially made, then it isn’t going to be as effective. Some people even believe that the more expensive the product and exotic the ingredients, the better the results will be. By following this line of thinking, we’ve also bought ourselves a boatload of chemicals components we’ve discovered are unnecessary and doing more harm than good.
Some of these chemicals have been linked to cancer, hormone disruption, chronic allergies, and a host of other problems.
For example, there are common beauty products that contain the same ingredients as found in car wash degreasers and oven cleaners, a large percentage of which are extracted from petroleum (mineral oil, paraffin waxes). The average American woman who wears conventional lipstick on a regular basis, will swallow about 10 pounds of petroleum by-product in her lifetime! All personal care products (defined by anything we put on our face, hair, and body) are absorbed by our skin into our blood stream and end up in the same places as the food we eat.
Additionally, the majority of what we pay for in a beauty product is advertising, marketing, packaging and shelf display positioning of that product, rather than the actual ingredients. From a cost/benefit ratio, this isn’t too smart!
What is smart, is look to our fridge and kitchen pantry for effective, inexpensive, and nourishing ingredients to work into our beauty routines. Just as we combine our meal sources from home cooked and restaurant choices, so can we with beauty products: some we buy, some we make.
Knowing the qualities and properties of what foods and substances do and how to combine them for desired effect is also like cooking – it’s basic kitchen chemistry.
The phytochemical properties for example, of yogurt and strawberries, are remarkable when it’s learned how and why they are good for certain skin issues. As with our meals made from scratch, whole food is infinitely better than processed and packaged. With your beauty “food,” you’re getting the unadulterated essence of the egg white or tea leaf directly onto your skin with no fillers, fragrances or emulsifiers (the chemicals to help ingredients bind and present better when a consumer looks at them on the shelf).
Finally, and most importantly, for just the same reasons that it’s truly nourishing and wonderful to learn how to cook for ourselves and our loved ones, homemade beauty products become part of a nourishing self care ritual that can’t be bought in a box. The beauty products we “cook up” have the power to not only address whatever issues we’re needing them for, but they can also feed the spirit in ways that mass produced drugstore or department store products can never do. Beauty is a combination of “ingredients.” Besides genetics, time and attention, our complexions glow from a love of life and a connection to our authentic selves.
This story from the Winter 2012 issue of Vermont Bride Magazine
Beauty Secrets “skin food” recipes
Use organic ingredients whenever possible.
Herbal Face Cleanser and Tonic
Fennel seeds can be gently cleansing and toning for the skin and they can help reduce puffiness and superficial irritation. Thyme has astringent and antiseptic qualities. Because this cleanser is very gentle, it can be used each morning and evening. Dab it on your face and neck with a cotton ball and rinse with warm water.
Ingredients
2 sprigs fresh thyme, crumbled (or 1/2 tablespoon dried thyme)
2 teaspoons fennel seeds, crushed
1/2 cup boiling water
Juice of half a lemon
Mix the thyme and fennel seeds in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Add lemon juice and steep for 15 minutes. Strain the infusion and store the liquid in a glass jar in the fridge for up to a week.
This mask combines avocados, which are rich in Vitamin E; carrots, which are high in beta-carotene and antioxidants; and cream, which is high in calcium and protein. The honey is anti-microbial. These ingredients will rebuild skin collagen, improve tone and texture, and fade age spots.
Ingredients
1 avocado, mashed
1 carrot, cooked and mashed
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 egg
3 tablespoons honey
Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Spread gently over your face and neck and leave in place up to 30 minutes. Rinse with cool water and follow with your favorite toner.
This exfoliating scrub will eliminate dull, flaky, dead skin. The Vitamin C from the orange will boost skin repair and the olive oil moisturizes to create a smooth, silky skin texture.
Mix a ½ to ¾ cup of course cane sugar with the juice of half an orange and enough EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) to make a consistency similar to damp sand for sensitive skin or a drier, thicker consistency for less sensitive skin. Massage all over body in gentle, circular motions, then rinse with warm water in the shower or bath.
Green Living expert, Randi Ragan, is the founder and owner of the award-winning GreenBliss EcoSpa, Los Angeles, California’s only eco-friendly mobile spa and lifestyle service. She has been highlighted in several magazines and blogs including Healing Lifestyles and Spas, Organic Spa, The Huffington Post, Vegetarian, Whole Life Times, and Whole Living. Randi lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter and is currently at work on a book about mindful green living from A to Z.
Read these Vermont Bride Featured Love Stories online! Love Story: Kellie (Goessinger) & JJ Oliver. Read the Love Story online here. Photo by Stoilov Studios, Vermont. |
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 [Above] Sara (Forest) Sokolowski. Read the wedding Love Story online. Photo by Polis Photography. |
 [Above] Vyna Phuong Le and Phu Van Truong. Read the wedding Love Story online. Photo by RaidenShine Photography. |
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