essential oils
Ice Jewelry
With summer in full swing and temperature rising, I was inspired by a post on Mathery on ice jewelry. I decided to take the idea a step further and add essential oils. The result was amazing and not only did it cool me off, but it gently diffused the oils on my skin.
Ice Jewelry with Essential Oils
What you’ll need:
- Ice cube tray
- Essential oils (make sure to avoid skin irritating oils, such as peppermint and ones that break down plastics, such as citrus oils). I used Grounding Blend, Calming Blend, and Lavender.
- A variety of necklaces, bracelets, and hair accessories
- Water
- Tablespoon
Place the jewelry into the ice tray and position to your liking. I made sure the charms faced toward the bottom of the tray, so they would face forward when worn.
Cover each cube with water, filling each only partially. I used a tablespoon to get the exact level that I wanted. Add 1-2 drops of essential oil to the water of each.
Place it in the freezer until completely frozen.
The end result was better than I expected, and the ice lasted around 15 minutes, it offered cooling plus the smell of the oils on my skin. Once the ice melted, I was left with my favorite jewelry (which even after an hour, still had the lingering smell of the oils on them). With the hair accessory, I used it as I would normally, and as it melted the cool water ran through my hair and onto my neck.
Feel free to share your results with this.
Have a happy and safe summer!
Snow Ice Cream!
Snowed in? Make it fun!!
Those of us on the East Coast are either dreading the snow days or enjoying them. Here is an excellent way to ENJOY your snow day! Especially if you have kids. Great on a low budget, and almost everyone has milk and sugar. And I’m pretty sure all of us reading this blog post have essential oils in our cabinet!
This is a generic recipe that can be altered due to your taste buds, but this is my absolute favorite that tastes like lemon sherbert ice cream.
Lemon Sherbert Dream Recipe:
- 4 cups of snow
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 4-5 drops of lemon essential oil, or any essential oil that you want to taste!
Mix all of the ingredients in a big bowl, and enjoy! It doesn’t take much. Some other variations of this include making a ginger and honey snow ice cream, or a peppermint lemon ice cream, a lavender, frankincense and wild orange ice cream – the choices are limited only by your own palate and creativity. I guess also what is in your doterra cabinet, haha. I don’t recommend using other brands besides Young Living, Doterra, or Native American Naturals, because to my knowledge those three companies are the only three essential oils that are pure enough to drink and take internally. Otherwise I wouldn’t have my kid be eating this ice cream along with me.
This is a great activity to get children involved in on – especially to make a game out of it. My son and I pretended we were explorers trying to get the purest cups of snow in order to make the best treasure out of them. There is something to be learned from the innocence and fun of children.
Enjoy everyone! Stay warm and Happy Saint Patricks Day!
What you are is what you drink
Looking for a healthier alternative to soda’s, sugar sweetened drinks, vitamin water, and drinks with artificial colors and flavors? Below are some pretty simple infusions that you can do and what they are good for!
1. Green tea, mint, lime – fat burning, digestion, headaches, congestion and breath freshener.
2. Strawberry, kiwi – cardiovascular health, immune system protection, blood sugar regulation, digestion.
3. Cucumber, lime, lemon – water weight management, bloating, appetite control, hydration, digestion
4. Lemon, lime, orange – digestion vitamin C, immune defense, heartburn, (Drink this one at room temperature)
So now what is an infusion and how do you go about doing this?
Take these fruits and cut them into nice slivers. Put them in nice tall glass mason jars or any container that you have that is large enough for a lot of water and a lot of fruit (glass if you want to add essential oils to them), and let them sit for 30 minutes. An infusion is letting the plant or fruit steep in a solvent (in this case water) in order for the fruit/herbs to release their phytochemicals, minerals, taste, and chemical compounds. For fruit, it is better to do this without heat, because heat will destroy some of the volatile chemical constituents which are therapeutic. It is very refreshing if you have this in the fridge and pour yourself some in the morning.
Some essential oils you might want to add to boost the flavor:
- Lemon or Lime (same properties, slightly different flavors) – Great for detoxification and flushing out the system. Wonderful for kidney health.
- *Cinnamon – Another blood sugar regulator (perfect if you want to add it to the strawberry kiwi) and extremely effective antibacterial and antiviral.
- Ginger – One of my new favorites! Great for digestion, and nice bitter taste to it. Helps clear sinuses, aids in nausea, helps with joint pain and cramping.
- Grapefruit – Helps curb your appetite, mood lifter, and helps increase metabolism. Great addition to the cucumber, lemon, lime infusion.
- Peppermint – Need that pick me up in order to get you nice and awake? Peppermint is a great stimulant and wonderful cognitive essential oil that helps improve concentration. Will also leave you with fresh breath, and helps with breathing.
Footnote: *Regarding Cinnamon essential oil – It is one of the more highly researched essential oils, and studies have been published in order to prove the efficacy of these antimicrobial properties. Here is a recent study done in 2014 regarding Cinnamon: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713513004155