With winter just around the corner, I am eager to craft one of my favorite seasonal house staples—foaming hand soap! Crafting custom scented soaps to match the seasons is one of my most beloved pastimes, as it's an easy and fast way to bring seasonal cheer to my home.

Each year, when I make my holiday gift list, I aim to meet a set of criteria. Offerings that are thoughtful, personal, and useful are amongst the most important to me. I have generally found that homemade gifts are more appreciated than things I can find in mass quantities at any big box store. Small-batch DIY gifts also allow customization, making them personalized for your beloved recipient. It can also help to keep waste out of landfills.

I have mixed feelings about going into the fall this year. While I welcome the return of the Pacific Northwest rains, flannels, hoodies, pumpkin spice, and autumn colors, I also find myself savoring these last days in the garden. So this year, instead of turning my focus to the season ahead, I decided to celebrate my garden’s ongoing bounty and extend the spirit of the season just a little longer. Drawing inspiration from the abundance of fresh herbs still sharing their aromatic and wellness supporting gifts, I created this foaming hand soap recipe to embody the energy of a flourishing herb garden.

This nourishing facial serum is a very special one in my recipe book. Made with four of my favorite skin care oils, this blend is deeply hydrating and yields a lovely bronzing hue that can be tailored to many skin tones. The star of this recipe is sea buckthorn oil, which in my opinion, is an underutilized oil that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. While most skin care oils are pressed from the seeds of a given plant, sea buckthorn oil is pressed from the seeds and berries which yields a vibrant golden hue and contains abundant antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids. Sea buckthorn oil also contains linoleic acid which has been shown to support the skin’s lipid barrier,  helping to reduce overall moisture loss. For all of these reasons, it remains high on my list of favorite skin care ingredients.

Humans are forever seeking ways to capture the essence of memories. Beyond simple recollection, we seek avenues to bring us back to the feelings that bloomed within us during special moments. Out of all the methods of creating those pathways of memory, harnessing the olfactory system is perhaps one of the most powerful. How many times have you caught a whiff of something and been instantly transported? Pass an off-brand breath mint my way and I am suddenly 8 years old, riding in the backseat of my grandparent’s car, reaching up for one of the mints that were always in the glove box.

Nepeta cataria, commonly called catnip, is an ancient member of the mint family. It has been used in western folk practices for millennia, and is loved for its gentle, calming properties. Herbalists and parents often brew this child-friendly herb into a soothing tisane, but it can also be taken internally as a tincture. For topical use, catnip can be infused in oils, or used as an essential oil or hydrosol to bring an herbaceous, relaxing scent to body care products. Perhaps, however, catnip is best known as the herb most loved by our feline friends.

Many of us remember to use facial toners as part of our daily skin care routines, but what about the rest of our body? Wouldn't the skin on our arms, legs, and torso appreciate the same care as our pampered faces? The answer is a resounding yes!

I don’t know about you, but I am ready for all things spring!  Here in Oregon, we are just coming out of several months of rain and overcast skies, and as the spring buds and blooms begin to emerge, I dive headfirst into the season. (Even though many of us Oregonians know this as “False Spring” because we get a few wintery surprises before real spring arrives.)  Yet, I still move forward with my spring cleaning and crafting season. 

Ingrown hairs. I get them, you get them, your neighbor gets them—even cats and dogs get them! Chances are, most furry mammals walking around this planet have dealt with a pesky ingrown hair or two in their time. For me, shaving seemed to be the biggest culprit when it came to waking up to an uninvited array of ingrown hairs. No matter what direction I shaved, how many blades my razor boasted, or what fancy variety of shaving cream I slathered on, within a couple of days, my skin always found a way to proclaim its defiance towards my razor in the form of itchy, red bumps. However, all of this changed when I discovered I was missing a critical step in any well-seasoned shaver’s routine—exfoliation!

As we waltz into the season of romance, many lovers are beginning to ponder which thoughtful gestures or gifts will express their affection towards the person who captivates their hearts most. With our emotions primarily being brought forth by the olfactory system (a.k.a. sense of smell), what better way to showcase affectionate feelings than by blending enamoring scents.