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With the increased availability of Fair Trade and ethically sourced cocoa products, it isn’t hard to find excellent chocolates these days—but if you’re anything like me, you just have to try making a batch yourself. With such a variety of ingredient options and applications, how could I not? Luckily the basic recipe isn’t difficult, and it pairs well with a variety of fillings.

A diffusing essential oil blend is a fun way to spread pleasant aromas throughout any space. Expensive and synthetically perfumed candles can be tempting with their bright colors and familiar aromas of candy canes, apple pie, and evergreen cheer, but diffusing pure essential oils at home or work is a wonderfully natural way to scent a room with seasonal aromas. I hope these holiday-inspired blends bring a smile to your face!

The weather is getting cooler, leaves have changed colors, and in some regions the snow has already begun to fall. Family and friends gather to celebrate and reminisce. It’s holiday season! This time is notoriously known for eating a lot of food and drinking your favorite drinks, most of which contain alcohol. If you don’t drink much alcohol or prefer to enjoy an evening without feeling woozy the next day, you can still experience the magic of the holiday season with this maqui berry holiday mocktail.

Winter Solstice is a time of change, both seen and felt. Waning daylight works upon our bodily rhythms and subtly shifts our mindsets and moods. As darkness obscures the world around us, these seasonal tides encourage us to reflect on that which has been hidden from view—sometimes by turning inward, and sometimes by feeling our way through the shadows to explore our once familiar, illuminated settings in new ways. The discoveries made through these careful probings can be profound and transformative, but they can also challenge our physical and emotional resilience, compelling us to dig for the energy and positivity needed to stay balanced. Fortunately, at times like these, our herbal allies are there to help!

A fantastic scrub butter like Neroli or Awapuhi leaves the skin feeling moisturized, exfoliated, and loved—these body scrubs are a wonderful way to practice self care! However, for some people (like me), salt- and sugar-based body scrubs aren’t as ideal. No matter how gentle I am, the intensity of salts and sugars rubbed into my skin always leaves me feeling like I lost some epidermis that I actually wanted to keep. This has become truer as I’ve aged. Exfoliation is important for happy skin, but I want a gentler touch these days… which explains my recent quest to perfect a DIY “microderm” body scrub that does a good job, but dials back some of the scrubbing fierceness of sugars and salts.

Everyone deals with stress. In fact, stress is said to be the top health problem in America. To keep ourselves healthy and happy, some are turning to the practice of mindfulness. I’m one of those people that thought mindfulness might be worth a try. Since I’m also a fan of tea, I naturally wondered if tea recipes could help with relaxation.

Getting started with creating your own personal care products can be a daunting task. How do we make quality natural products without all the chemical mumbo jumbo? Without time and practice, we realize that it can be a hard project to tackle, so we came prepared! Our new line of natural bases make it easy for you to scent and create your own bath and body products without a doctorate in chemistry! All you need are your favorite essential oils!

In college, I befriended an exchange student from France who arrived in NYC just before fall term. Sonia and I would often meet at coffee and tea shops during our break from classes. After discovering a shared love of baking, we made plans to meet at her dorm and make a quintessential American apple pie together. Since she was French, I entrusted her with the pastry making, and I would bring everything for the yummy apple pie filling. To say I was excited was an understatement.

Most of us are familiar with the ubiquitous black, green, and white teas. Their incredible popularity and immense history make the tea brewed from Camellia sinensis the world’s most consumed beverage (after water of course!).

I have to admit, the concept of this recipe came from an herbal preparation flop. As I was getting ready to hunker down for the colder months ahead, I began my seasonal tradition of making elder berry syrup. Wanting to expand the flavor profile and add a little seasonal boost, I decided to include some rosehips. As it turns out, if you add too many rosehips, your syrup will take on a jam-like texture due to the natural pectin. But all was not lost as it was quite a delicious mishap, and one that I wanted to explore further.