Henna How-to

I’m excited to present this post written by the absolutely beautiful Callah from My Yoga Life. She recently dyed her hair with henna and was generous enough to share her experience with me and the readers of Five Seed. Thanks, Callah!

I have been colouring my hair since I was about 11 years old. Seriously. It started with temporary dyes, graduated in high school to bleaching my hair and dying it blue, purple and bright red, and just about every other “natural” colour in between- blonde, brunette, redhead, highlights, pink streaks (ok, that’s not natural), you name it. Safe to say I’ve loaded tons of chemicals onto my scalp on average probably 4-6x a year… for 13 years… that’s a lot of chemicals!

In the past few months (with much inspiration from Yancy at Five Seed!) I started my own journey phasing chemicals out of my life. I started with the easiest switches… shampoos and face washes. But, my roots were beginning to get pretty obvious to the point where my sister told me it was time to do something about my hair! The henna investigation began.

Some things you should know:

-henna is a plant (Lawsonia Inermis)

-true, pure henna is red and red only. Any variation of colour is done by adding different plant and sometimes even chemical (eek!) compounds. Read the ingredients carefully before buying anything!

-the process is kind of messy, and long. But isn’t spending a little time worth it to save a bunch of chemicals from absorbing into your scalp?

-in the first 24-48 hours, you may experience a green tinge to your hair. This should go away. I think this is only an issue who haven’t waited the 6+ weeks after chemically altering their hair colour. The colour continues to develop into a rich deep shade in the first few days.

-if you’ve chemically coloured your hair, wait a MINIMUM 6+ weeks before henna-ing, and probably a couple months after henna-ing. The chemicals react with the henna and can cause funky things to happen. It’s a commitment!

-If you don’t love the results, do NOT bleach it out- it only opens the hair follicles more, causing the henna to sink in even deeper.

After much investigation, I decided to use the Lush Caca hennas- I know a lot of their products have chemicals such as SLS and perfumes despite being touted a “green” products, but their hennas appear to be natural and easy* to use. (The ingredients from Caca Brun: Fair Trade Cocoa Butter (Theobroma cacao), Indigo Henna (Indigofera Tintctoria), Red Henna (Lawsonia inermis), Ground Coffee, Nettle Powder (Urtica dioica), Irish Moss Powder (Chondrus crispus), Clove Bud Oil (Eugenia caryophyllus), Citral, Eugenol, Geraniol, Citronellol, Limonene, Linalool, Perfume.) Ok, the perfume is a bit questionable but it’s my first time.

Preparing the henna.

I started with a strand test, since my hair has been previously coloured. I decided to mix the Caca Brun & Caca Noir since I’m going for a deep brown shade over previously lightened hair, but black is too dark for what I’m after. Nothing funky happened, so…

D-Day! I chopped up the remainder of the squares I used for the strand text from each block, grated it up (using a knife to cut the last tiny ends into fine bits) and used strong brewed coffee in lieu of the boiled water for a richer brown tone. I added the coffee to the grated henna inside a pyrex bowl, just enough to saturate the powdered mix rather than drown it. It’s a little bit off-putting because the outside of the blocks look dark brown but inside it is green! You then mix up the henna until it is a thick, creamy texture.

I had boiled a big saucepan of water, and prepared the bathroom beforehand by covering it (literally) with newspaper. I had a few trivets on the counter, allowing me to bring the saucepan of water into the bathroom to keep the mixed henna warm and therefore easier to apply. Apparently the hotter the henna is, the brighter the colour (without burning your head of course!) I used a big hair clip and a brush with a fine pick for dividing the hair into sections, starting at the back and working forward- roots first, and then saturating the ends last. Gloves are absolutely necessary and I slathered some thick lotion around my hairline to make post-colour cleanup quick & easy). It was somewhat messy since the henna crumbles a bit- but cleaning up was very quick thanks to the newspaper. It took me about an hour from jumping in the shower to wash my hair, drying it, preparing the henna and applying it. Not as long as I thought. (Although I can see this being quite the task for long-haired beauties

Now, to sit and wait! Some people leave it on for ages (I’m talking 6-8 hours) – but since I’m pretty short on free time I decided to start with 2 hours. You can leave it uncovered for a richer, deeper brown shade, or cover it with saran wrap for a redder tone. I decided to leave it uncovered. You can also build up the colour over multiple sessions. It’s the perfect time to watch a movie… or blog!

Washing it out can be a process as well. The longer you leave it on, the more it dries. Mine was about half dried, so I just rinsed really well and then slathered on some (organic) shampoo a few times to work it out. I conditioned (which I usually skip) and let it soak in a few minutes, and then it was complete! My hair feels pretty soft (and felt even better the next day) and it definitely looks shiny. I don’t really notice any green tinge at all, and I’m really satisfied with the results! I think the time and effort are totally worth keeping it natural. I’ll definitely henna again and recommend it to anyone who asks!!

So, what are you waiting for? Next time you are tempted to add some colour to your hair, take the natural route and try henna!

(Note: there is also neutral, uncoloured henna which can be used to make your hair soft & shiny without the colour! Also, I used the Lush brand which is a solid bar- that powdered henna might have a different consistency when followed and to read the instructions carefully for whatever type they purchase!)

*Well, as easy as henna can get!

Skin Care History, Pt. 2

So I left you in my 26th year, having decided not to take Accutane* and wondering what on earth I was going to do about my skin. Let me assure you that I tried just about everything else by that time, including changing my diet and using Proactiv (which smelled bad, burned my skin and didn’t help as much as I’d hoped it would).

No Accutane for me.

Being as all the promises I had heard in my youth – that my skin would only get better with age – had failed to manifest, and indeed, my skin had gotten worse with age, I knew I had to look elsewhere for help.

There were two things I kept coming back to. First, I have always felt strongly that our emotions and thoughts are strongly linked to our physical being. It seemed completely logical (and painfully ironic) that my breakouts seemed to get worse when my self-esteem was low, and that my self-esteem fell lower with every breakout. It was a vicious cycle.

The other idea that resonated strongly with me was natural healing. Soon after high school, I read a few books that struck a chord with me on many, many levels, like Peace Pilgrim’s book, and Mutant Message Down Under. These spiritual teachers believed that the body could take care of itself. Peace Pilgrim mentioned that she never used soap or lotions on her face because it interfered with the natural workings of her body. I knew in my heart that this was an important truth – that the body, and all things created by Mother Nature, are governed by their own systems that, when well-maintained, keep everything healthy and in balance. It just seemed right to me that the more products we used, the more difficult we made it for our bodies to operate the way they were meant to operate.

I can’t say that knowing these things made it easy to heal my skin. It can be downright scary to scale back – or even eliminate – personal care products from one’s daily routine, especially when one is afraid that the absence of those products will make one’s bad skin even worse. I think it would be more accurate to say that I struggled through five years of a slow “detox” from commercial beauty and skin care products.

By the time I was 31, I started grad school and felt my confidence building, leading to several months of relatively unblemished skin. I was thrilled and felt confident and even, dare I say, pretty. Unfortunately, once I started student teaching in middle and high school, my self-esteem plummeted. I felt out of my element, unappreciated, nervous, stressed and I was struggling to survive the daily torment dished out to me by my students (especially those in the high school, some of whom were exceptionally cruel to me). To make matters worse, due to my financial situation (student teachers work full time for six months with no pay and have to pay university tuition at the same time) and the fact that I was not married and didn’t have a partner to financially support me through that time, I had moved back in with my parents and was very embarrassed about that.

About a month into student teaching, I began breaking out just under my jawline, a place I had never broken out before. It was really bad, too – not those little pimples that disappear in a day or two. No, I’m talking about the giant ones that last for weeks. Before one would disappear, another would arrive, until eventually, the entire area was covered with red spots. It was especially cruel, as that part of my face was the most visible to my students, since they looked up at me from their desks while I walked around the room.

This series of breakouts continued after I graduated, and all through my two years of substitute teaching. I hated subbing with a passion – never knowing my students, what I’d be doing, where I’d be going, and having to deal with kids who were looking to play some pranks (yes, I’ve had a Kick Me sign taped to my back). The more I broke out, the lower my confidence fell. The lower my confidence fell, the worse I was at teaching. And the stress and low confidence just kept the breakouts coming.

One day I asked my sister why this was happening to me. She knew I had weaned myself off commercial products and that I was trying to find a natural balance for my skin. She knew the troubles I had been through, and my brief encounter with healthy skin when I had first started grad school. “How could this have happened so quickly and gotten so bad?” I asked her.

She just turned to me and said, “It’s because you’re not proud of yourself anymore. You’re stressed out, you hate your job and you’re ashamed that you had to move back in with Mom and Dad.”

Hearing that was like being hit in the face with a 2×4 called TRUTH. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t realized that for myself.

Since then, I have slowly (too slowly, lol) eased out of subbing and into something that makes me infinitely happier – Five Seed! Many things in my life have changed since that talk with my sister all of which have, I believe, contributed to better skin. But I’m still on a journey when it comes to my skin and still struggle with breakouts from time to time.

There are many tricks I have learned over the past few years, all of which I will discuss here throughout this series. But I wanted to start with revealing my history as a way to give you an idea of what I’ve been through and to encourage you to explore your own skin care history. Even if you have never had skin problems and you are simply attempting to simplify your skin care routine and “go natural,” it can be very useful to think about your past and your beliefs. Were you, like me, taught that “un-managed” skin was a recipe for blemishes? Did you believe that you had to buff, scrub, lather and shellac your face to keep it healthy? To be considered “pretty?” Did you learn that sweat is dirty and that you should wash your face at least 3 times a day? That you shouldn’t eat chocolate or french fries? What do you believe now? Are you still worried about breakouts? Are you worried about wrinkles? Do you smile or frown when you see your skin in the mirror?

I’ll say again that I truly believe that we create our own skin. I’ve known people who used a product successfully for years and then someone told them that a certain ingredient would “clog their pores.” Suddenly, that very product was causing the person breakouts when it never did before. Coincidence? Or was it all in the mind?

You may not believe that our thoughts or emotions are tied to our skin at all, and if that’s so, then great. It won’t be an issue for you because you don’t believe it. And if you do believe it, then review your own thoughts about skin.

How do you identify yourself? I often wonder what would happen with my skin if I no longer believed that it was “problem skin,” or if I stopped saying things like “I’ve always had bad skin.” There’s a little food for thought…

So take some time this week to explore those beliefs and perhaps start a mental revolution. What beliefs can you challenge? What beliefs can you change?

From here, I’ll share a few home remedies I have tried that have helped me a lot. But I honestly believe that nothing is more effective than tackling our minds, which is why I started the series here. That’s the foundation you must work with – and then we’ll go from there!

*Please remember that I am not a doctor or health care professional of any kind. This blog expresses my opinions only. I personally did not feel comfortable using Accutane and felt it was dangerous for my body. However, everyone is different and skin conditions will vary from person to person. Using Accutane or any other blemish remedy is entirely a personal choice that must be made by the individual after learning everything possible from one’s health care provider.

Skin Care: Exploring Your History, Pt. 1

As uncomfortable as I am talking about skin care (which I’m sure is true for most people who have struggled with bad skin), it’s time to get into the series, as I promised weeks ago. So here we go!

If you are struggling with skin problems, or are looking for a way to go more natural, or just simplify your routine, I think the best thing you can do is to start at the beginning. I’m a huge believer in the saying that we create our own reality, both through our thoughts and emotions. This is no less true, in my opinion, when it comes to our beauty routines. Think about antiperspirant, for instance. Many of us know about the toxic heavy metals in those products, yet still use them because we have been taught from a young age that sweat=dirtiness. Why do we shower so often even when we learn that washing our hair every single day damages it? Because not showering=dirtiness. We have a lot of cultural beliefs about cleanliness/dirtiness, what those things imply, and what we should do to avoid one and embrace the other. In reality, though, many of those cultural beliefs boil down to a whole lot of nothing.

Our skin is no different. I think many people have had the same experiences with skin care that I have had. So many of us were taught, from a very young age, that we needed an arsenal of beauty supplies to keep our skin healthy and to avoid breaking out. Cleansers, toners, astringents, masks, powders, moisturizers, sunscreens, foundation, pimple cream, etc. We were taught to use these products every day to avoid or battle pimples. We were taught not to touch our faces to keep breakouts at bay. We were taught to avoid certain foods, certain activities, and to never let our faces get sweaty or oily – wash, wash, wash!

When I was 12, my mother “baptized” me into womanhood with Mary Kay products – the brand she had been using for a decade. There were five products in the line, I think, that were labeled their Basic Skin Care Line: cleanser, toner, moisturizer, mask and foundation. I was taught to use all five products regularly – cleanse, tone and moisturize every morning and night, wear foundation every day to “protect” the skin and use the mask once a week for deep cleaning.

By this young age, I was already struggling with the genes I got from my father’s oily-skinned side of the family. I was excruciatingly embarrassed by my shiny skin and washed it obsessively to remove the oils, never realizing that this was making the problem worse by causing my sebaceous glands to produce MORE oil to make up for what I was stripping off with cleansers. I also got into a decade-long habit of powdering my face every hour with heavy, pressed facial powders, a memory that makes me shudder now.

By high school, I had started to break out a bit – nothing major, but four or five pimples to a teenager is, of course, the end of the world. I expanded my skin care routine to include concealers and any tinted acne cream I could find. I would run off to the bathroom at school every chance I got to powder my face and add more concealer. I was embarrassed by the way I looked. When I got home, I would wash my face yet again, never able to shake the feeling that it was “dirty” and would apply my Mary Kay mask to my pimples, in an effort to dry them into oblivion.

I continued on in this manner throughout high school. You can guess that I had virtually no social life, as my afternoons were dedicated to washing my face and wearing green dots of mask on my pimples. I didn’t want anyone to see me like that.

By the time I was 16, my skin was a mess. My breakouts were escalating, and though my face was super shiny all the time, it was also exceedingly dry (from all the powdering and washing, no doubt). I was humiliated at school and could not look anyone in the eye. I didn’t date, and only spent time with my close circle of friends. But overall, leaving the house had become my worst fear – I imagined everyone was staring at me.

The truth was, my breakouts weren’t that bad – certainly not abnormal. But there were very few people who were suffering with breakouts at all at my high school and I was jealous and embarrassed by all the girls with their smooth, clear skin who didn’t ever seem to get a single pimple. No one else was hiding behind their hair, or running to the bathroom every 30 minutes to powder and conceal.

My mother was worried about my skin and the low self-esteem it had caused in me. She did everything she could to help. One of my many dermatologists gave me a chemical peel, saying it would heal my pimples. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. I thought I was going to die on the table from the suffocating acetone vapors. I ended up with a red, burned face for the next few weeks (just like Samantha Jones, “beekeeper”), and when my skin finally healed…I kept breaking out.

Samantha Jones: Post chemical peel

Another dermatologist gave me a prescription for Retin-A, a product I used for ten years. Basically a chemical peel in a tube, though, oddly, I never thought of it in that way until I was older. At times when my skin acted especially badly, I went on antibiotics to control the flare-ups. But by that time, my dermatologist was “managing” the problem, as no prescription drug or topical cream was working. I was basically living on the hope that if I waited it out, my skin would get back to normal once I was in my twenties.

I’m sorry to say that my twenties brought me the worst acne I had ever faced in my life. I was no longer powdering as often, but I was still desperately using Retin-A, pimple creams, concealers, and any home remedy I could find. I read that Suzanne Sommers used toothpaste as a spot cream for pimples, and that they would disappear by morning. I used toothpaste on my pimples religiously for a month – I broke out worse than ever, and the toothpaste literally ate through my skin, leaving deep scars on my cheeks and chin.

At 26, I pushed back my humiliation and visited a new dermatologist. She said my breakouts weren’t that bad (though maybe she didn’t realize that I was 26, not 16…?), but that my scars were really apparent and that we had to do something to heal the current breakouts to keep from getting more scar tissue. I was horrified by her words – I had been so focused on my breakouts that I hadn’t noticed the scar tissue at all. Suddenly, I had yet another problem to be embarrassed about.

She only had one recommendation – Accutane, which was oh-so “in fashion” at the time. I considered it for about a day before vetoing the idea. I wanted a miracle cure, desperately, but I was too afraid of the drug. If you take Accutane, you are required to submit to monthly pregnancy tests, whether you are sexually active or not, as a precautionary measure. The drug is so dangerous that it can cause severe birth defects in a fetus, causing the doctors to pull you off your prescription immediately if your pregnancy test comes back positive. Upon hearing that, I thought: If it is that dangerous for a fetus then why on earth would I want to put that into my body?

That was a huge turning point for me, though at the time, it didn’t seem significant. I just knew that I was on my own. I’d spent the last ten years visiting endless dermatologists and none of them had helped me. If my last option was Accutane, I knew I had to live with the problem, or figure it out on my own. Honestly, I think I had resolved myself to just live with it, but a tiny part of me believed that there had to be an answer that I hadn’t found yet.

I’ll leave you there for now, and will come back to my story and tons and tons of tips over the course of the next two weeks!

Plastic: Business, Ethics and Determination

I have spent the last week ordering new supplies for all the products I’m developing, and when the process first began, it was exhilarating and exciting. I could so easily visualize all the balm, salves, powders, masks, rinses, etc. that I am planning to create. Unfortunately, finding eco-friendly packaging for these items has been a lot more difficult than I ever could have anticipated.

At this point, I have mostly used metal tins for my products, which is nice as they are reusable, recyclable (in some areas), and flat, so I’m able to keep shipping charges low on those items. However, now that I’m moving into medicinal salves and herbal infusions, I need a variety of packaging options. Specifically, I’ve been looking for tinted (brown or blue, for instance) glass jars in different sizes. Tinted jars protect light-sensitive oils, and they keep products fresher longer.

I still have a few of these from before I made my committment to reduce plastic in the line, but I refuse to restock them!

However, as many of you know, I don’t want to use jars with plastic lids if I don’t have to. I don’t like plastic, from an environmental standpoint, and I will do anything to keep from using it in my store. Unfortunately, after consulting with many colleagues, making public inquiries and spending weeks researching options from wholesalers, I have found only TWO vendors who sell these types of jars with metal lids. One vendor offers jars that are too small for my needs, so I made an order with the other only to hear days later that those jars are backordered until November. I called and talked to them, explaining my need for metal lids and tried to find an alternative product with which to replace the backordered items…but to no avail. I ended up having to cancel the jar portion of the order, leaving me with nothing in packaging for a huge portion of my new product line.

Admittedly, when I come against a brick wall, I can become a bit of a crybaby. I shed a few tears and cried to my sister and boyfriend about the predicament. Both said the same thing: “You logically only have two choices. 1. Use only tins and forget the glass jars. 2. Buy tinted glass jars with plastic lids.”

While they were right, as far as logic goes, I just could not bear the thought of giving in. I feel I make lots of compromises about plastic on a regular basis, and I didn’t want to do it in yet another area. I didn’t feel I should have to. I even felt that giving in to using plastic lids would be a failure of my convictions and a betrayal of the promises I made to all my customers who are as concerned about the environment as I am.

I thought: Why should it be so difficult to find tinted jars with metal lids? Why is plastic everywhere? Why don’t we, as consumers, have options? And if I give in to buying plastic lids, doesn’t that just send the message to the vendor that plastic is what we want? That plastic is in demand?

As silly as this sounds, I told my sister and boyfriend that I was going to count on the Metal Lid Angel to create a miracle for me. I kept thinking about all the businesses I know of who put profit above environmental responsibility over and over again. And I kept thinking of the oil spill in the Gulf and how my purchase and use of plastic lids (a petroleum product) would ultimately just be contributing to the problem.

Plastic pollution.

I spent another two days researching, desperately searching for those elusive tinted glass jars with metal lids. Nothing, nothing, nothing. FINALLY, at long last, I found some frosted glass jars (almost as good) with metal lids! They aren’t the “look” that I was going for, but I always said that I would go for the “green” rather than the “pretty.” When I began Five Seed, I promised that I would never put packaging and profit above my responsibility to the environment. So I ordered the jars and they are on the way. Hopefully they will work out well for me until the blue jars I initially ordered are back in stock.

So yes – there IS a Metal Lid Angel, indeed! All we have to do is believe!

Now I know this might seem like nitpicking. It might seem hypocritical, even. One could easily point out several non-green aspects of my business. For instance, I wrap tins with electrical tape before shipping them off in the summer to prevent them from leaking in the hot temperatures. In my mind, it is a better alternative than, say, shipping them in plastic bags, but it is still a plastic seal. I also have some products that have some plastic packaging. Jars I bought before I committed to cutting plastic out (pictured above), and dropper bottles. Also, metal jar lids are almost all lined with a thin film of plastic to ensure a tight seal…so even my precious non-plastic lids are still a little bit plastic.

But I think it is too easy to say, “Well, I’m not perfect with my green efforts, so why bother doing anything at all?” I believe that we should stand up for every little detail that we can stand up for. I felt certain that there had to be a way for me to find glass jars with metal lids – so why not use every resource at my disposal to do so? Every day is another step for me in improving my business, and its eco-friendly principles and practices. So finding the jars with metal lids was a huge accomplishment for me.

Part of the reason that I’m sharing this struggle is because I want to be open about my efforts (successes AND failures) in greening my business. As a consumer, I want to know what kind of commitment my favorite shops have to the environment, and I want to be informed of their efforts to improve their green business practices.

However, I also write this to ask all of you to be aware of how ubiquitous plastic has become in our society. We are a society of consumers and in general, there are no end of options available to us in any product category. Yet, finding packing without plastic is extraordinarily difficult. That shouldn’t be the case. We should have as many non-plastic options as possible.

Remember when you make purchases to make an effort to either avoid plastic, or if you can’t, please write to the company in question and tell them that you want greener packaging options. Tell them you want glass or metal. Tell them that you want to see us move past our petroleum dependency, that you’re concerned about packaging that never truly biodegrades. It is so easy these days to look up a company on the internet, click on the “Contact Us” link and send a quick email. It only takes a moment, and believe me, your voices will make a difference!

For more information on why it’s important to avoid plastic and how to do it, check out Fake Plastic Fish.

And as for Five Seed‘s new products, I’ll be further behind in launching them than I originally anticipated because of this problem. The back-ordered jars and subsequent search for an alternative packaging option has put me 10 days behind schedule. I’m still shooting for August 31st as my “finish” date, however. If there’s a Metal Lid Angel who helped me find an alternative product for my salves and balms, then there might be an Efficiency Fairy, too, who just might feel inclined to clear the path ahead of me for the next few weeks and help me crank this stuff out just under the wire.

Herbal Aromatherapy Perfume: Titania

Each Herbal Aromatherapy Perfume is named after a woman who love the earth or who is deeply connected to it. This blend is named after the queen of the fairies from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Titania.

Most of us know the story of Titania and her argument with her husband, Oberon, which inspired the king of the fairies to have his mischievous henchman, Puck, dab Titania’s eyes with the magical pollen that would make her fall in love with the first man she laid eyes on. When she woke, she found herself face to face with Bottom, the weaver, who had, during his night in the magical forest, acquired the head of a…ahem, donkey. The play’s plot revolves around the celebration of midsummer, also known as the summer solstice when it was once believed that fairies overtook the land and spread their magic far and wide.

This blend was actually inspired by a custom order I received earlier this summer. The customer obviously has a keen intuition for fragrance blends as this one was heavenly. When I mixed it, I knew I had to offer it for sale, as the scent was magical, mysterious, bright and breezy.

The Titania blend contains almond oil infused with organic and fair trade vanilla beans, as well as the organic essential oils of lavender, grapefruit and ylang ylang. Lavender, vanilla and ylang ylang are all extremely calming to the system, and their sweetly floral scents are beautiful complements to each other. Together, they are soothing, centering and uplifting. Meanwhile, the grapefruit adds a kick of energy and just a dab of mysterious sensuality – just what you’d expect to find in the fairy world on a midsummer night.

This blend is perfect for those days when things just don’t go your way and you need to remember that there’s always an invisible force working behind the scenes. It helps you not just accept that mystery is part of life, but to see the beauty and excitement of mystery. If you need a little magic to help get you through, this is the blend for you.

It is also perfect for creating a sense of mystery and magic whenever you need it. Going on a date and want to feel extra alluring? Want to spice things up with your long-time lover? Or are you a single gal who just wants to feel sexy? Give Titania a try.

Don’t forget to read this important information about essential oils before making a purchase.

Makeover: Herbal Aromatherapy Perfume

Things are sure changing around here, and our perfume blends were one of the first products to get a major makeover. For those of you who have been around since the beginning, you may remember how long it took me to find a name for my solid perfume line. My sister was the one to come up with Sankalpa Scents – a name I loved. However, I have changed and simplified the name to simply “Herbal Aromatherapy Perfumes.”

There are two reasons for this change: 1. The name seemed to be confusing to many people. Everyone who received the free samples thought they were lip balms, and almost no one knew what “sankalpa” meant. 2. I have been feeling that there was no cohesive theme holding Five Seed together – yoga, apples, herbs, Jane Goodall, chimpanzees…??? I’ll talk more about this later, but ultimately, I want Five Seed to be an expression of my passion for herbs, for natural healing, for the natural world. So, to keep it simple, to make it easier to identify the products to people who aren’t familiar with yogic terminology, and to stick with the “garden” theme of Five Seed, Sankalpa Scents are now known as Herbal Aromatherapy Perfume.

I’m excited to announce that I am launching three new blends very soon. One was inspired by a custom blend requested by a customer who obviously has a keen intuition about blending scents. The other two are partners, in a sense – two blends that represent two sisters from one of my favorite books. I will be including one (or maybe both…) of them in Mrs. B’s 31 Days of Halloween (a month-long celebration of Halloween, my favorite holiday, complete with blog tours, recipes, and daily giveaways), though if you don’t want to wait until October, these will be available by the end of the August.

I’ve created a “database” of sorts to help customers keep track of the Herbal Aromatherapy Perfumes. This page will list all the blends, their scents and key words (which are being added to the labels as I make each new batch), and this page will list other important information, to make it as easy as possible for you to find what you want.

And as always, feel free to contact me if you are interested in suggesting blends for the line, or if you are in need of a custom blend. There are still a few scents that I would like to collect in the future, but I’m sorry to say that most of the ones I am missing are the ones I can’t afford. Many that I’d like (rose, for instance, or neroli) run upwards of $30 per 1/8 oz. (And that’s the cheaper end of the spectrum – a super high-quality rose oil costs $359 for 1/2 oz.) These would ultimately make for some pretty expensive perfumes, and I’m not sure that’s a direction I want to go with the store.

Further, other scents (sandalwood and rosewood, for instance) have been “flagged” by my supplier as pre-tapped. In other words, like animals, plants can reach a point where the demand for them outruns their ability to produce, putting them in a category that my supplier calls “at risk.” As much as I’m tempted to purchase these, I cannot, in good conscious, use these “at risk” herbal and flower oils simply to make and sell perfumes.

So ultimately, I won’t be able to produce as many “woodsy” fragrance blends as I’d like (I know many of you are anxious for more of those), but I will do my best to get creative and find other alternatives. You can be assured, however, that I will NOT be using fragrance oils at any time EVER in this line, as I am committed to only using natural ingredients.

Finally, for those of you who purchase these perfumes in the future and who have bought them in the past, you will notice that I have added more essential oils to them, making their initial scent stronger, as requested by many of you in my Six Month Survey. However, please note that despite many requests to make them last longer, that is something out of my power. Natural ingredients like essential oils flare with the first contact with the heat from your skin, and then slowly fade over time. It is like picking a flower and putting it in a pot of water and finding that it doesn’t smell as strongly the next day.

Synthetic perfumes last a long time because they are made from chemicals that sit on the skin and release their scents consistently as the day goes on. But as many of you know, those perfumes are filled with potentially harmful stabilizers, fragrances, dyes and preservatives.

Part of the reason I made Herbal Aromatherapy Perfumes in tins is so you can carry them with you throughout the day and enliven yourself with fresh applications at lunch or in the afternoon when you need an extra lift. One of the best ways to make these scents last longer, however, is to apply them on the inside of hinge joints – in the crook of your elbows, for instance, or behind your knees. Apply it in places where skin meets skin – where there is extra heat to keep the oils activated. Behind your ears, at the base of your throat, even on your stomach, at the fold of your waist. This will keep the scent “cooking” longer.

I’ll be refreshing the entire line of HAPs, and should have it all up and running by the end of August. Butterfly and Sveva are back in stock, with others soon to follow. Enjoy!

Good Seed: Pretty Birdie

I am so, so excited about this feature. There are so many amazing clothing shops on Etsy – people dedicated to using sustainable fabrics, or upcycling thrift store clothing. Many are so talented that they could, in my opinion, compete with the big designers. And I’d choose the Etsy sellers any day. They are more affordable in many instances, and you know that you are paying for quality, eco-friendly clothing – not just a name brand.

Pretty Birdie by Stephanie Teague is one of my all-time favorite shops on Etsy. Admittedly, I have many favorite Etsy shops, but this one is one of the most sophisticated I have seen. I continually click back to Pretty Birdie for inspiration on photography, nature and even clothing. This is the kind of shop I aspire to be – sustainable, sophisticated, super high-quality, inspiring and endlessly creative.

One of the realizations I have had from my recent “clothing contemplation” is that I want to invest in high-quality pieces of sustainably-made clothing. I’d rather have a half-full closet of high-quality clothing than one bursting at the seams with cheap, non-sustainable clothing that I never wear (that 80/20 rule). Pretty Birdie offers exactly the kind of clothing I would like to invest in.

Take a look for yourself – I guarantee you will be wowed, inspired and will find a garment that you just have to have. Teague’s designs, while unique, are still extremely versatile and have classic shapes that won’t go out of style anytime soon. Each piece is custom made to fit your exact measurements (such a difference from off-the-rack clothing!). Further, she is passionate about creating eco-friendly clothing. Teague says: “Everything is handmade by me with great care. My goal is to produce comfortable couture that is also gentle on the environment.”

So without further ado…

These photos were taken by Sara Lyn Photography and Evergreen Studio. They were used with permission. The beautiful owl mask in the first picture can be found at One Eyed Jane’s.

Giveaway

Have you checked out the amazing giveaway over at Namaste~Heather? There are five amazing prizes (one from Five Seed), and you just can’t miss out on this one! It’s so easy to enter – just click on over and see! Jewelry, a book, yoga mat spray, lip balm…what more could you ask for?

The 80/20 Rule of Clothing

(Sorry this post is lacking photos – I seem to have accidentally deleted the ones I wanted to use.)

Yes, I promise I’ll get back to skincare very soon, but I still have some things to talk about regarding clothing, fashion, etc. Today, I want to talk about the 80/20 Rule. You may have heard this before – that we only wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. The rest of our clothes just sit around taking up space.

Why does this happen? After taking a journey into my closet, I found a ton of clothes that I wanted to like. Things I saw in the store and loved on the hanger, but clothing that didn’t work for me. Here are a few common themes:

::Clothes that are too tight. Jeans without a little stretch to them, for instance, which I find constricting and uncomfortable. T-shirts that are too tight and make me feel very self-conscious when I wear them. Pants that fit great everywhere but the waist where they pinch uncomfortably.

::Fabrics that make me uncomfortable. I bought a beautiful sweater from Old Navy once that I just love, but never wear because it is extremely itchy. I also hate wearing thin, synthetic fabrics like gauzy, polyester shirts (typical work shirts for ladies). I hate the way those fabrics feel against my skin, and I am afraid of sweating in shirts like that – I’d much rather sweat in cotton!

::Clothes that don’t fit. We all have skinny jeans in the closet, right? I used to, and finally got the courage to give them away. Funnily enough, I lost 50 pounds about three years ago, and now I have a lot of “fat pants.” I use that term jokingly, of course, but there are many pants in my closet that are now two sizes too big for me. I keep them because they are comfy, and I wear them more often than I should. I also have too many pants that are “low-riders.” I LOVE the fit from the thighs down, but the waist is so low that inevitably, my stomach ends up hanging over the waistband, creating a really unattractive muffin top. I also have to hike these pants up over and over throughout the day, which is really annoying, making me avoid wearing them.

::Second thoughts. I have several items of clothing that I bought when I was interviewing for teaching jobs. Blouses that my friends called “the perfect teacher shirts.” I have three that I just hate. After three years, I’ve never worn one of them. I also have a pretty french blue skirt that I love, in theory. It looked so cute on the hanger and represented the free spirit I wanted to be after my two years in grad school. Yet it doesn’t go with anything in my closet and it’s another item I bought and never once wore.

::Bad memories. I have many, many (all too many) sweaters and shirts and pants that I wore during a difficult time of my life that I can’t bring myself to wear again. My eight months of student teaching were hell for me, and even though I absolutely love the argyle sweaters and pinstriped pants I used to wear back then, every time I look at them, I get a sick feeling in my stomach. They remain at the bottom of a drawer, in the hopes that maybe (maybe?) I will wear them again someday without the leftover, toxic memories associated with them.

::Incongruities. I don’t know about you all, but I seem to be the most manic dresser. I love clothes and fashion and am always inspired by certain looks. As I said, I love argyle and pinstripes, but I also love flowing, ankle-length skirts and tunics. I love a slightly French-inspired preppy look and the gypsy-bohemian-hippie style. I have more of the former than the latter in my closet, thanks to my days as a teacher, but I tend to go back and forth a lot. This makes for a bit of a fractured wardrobe with many items that only have a few coordinating pieces. (Or, in the case of the french blue skirt, no coordinating pieces!)

::Regrets. Yeah, we all have a lot of these, I’m sure. Many, many shirts, skirts, pants or shoes that we spent a lot of money on and then wonder why on earth we bought it in the first place.

You have probably read all those articles about the emotional freedom of cleaning out your closet. I’m a big fan of the clean-out and pass-on. However, I leaned so far in that direction that I was constantly getting rid of too much and acquiring even more to replace what I’d given away. That ended up defeating the whole purpose.

I think a better solution is to slow down. Take a few months to observe what you wear and what you don’t wear. What stays on the hanger and why? Before you buy something, think about it. Try it on multiple times. Make sure to sit down in the fitting room. Walk. Move. Most of us remain standing in sitting rooms and therefore, never notice fit issues until we take the item of clothing home and discover that it doesn’t move, it sags, or something else.

If you have items in your closet that you like, visually speaking, but never actually wear (for whatever reason), consider repurposing it instead of giving it away. If you are handy with a needle and thread, or if you have a friend who is, see if you can turn a pullover into a cardigan. Add ruffles to a t-shirt. Add embellishments to a skirt. And if you don’t want to alter the item, but have serious fit issues, consider investing in a visit to a tailor, who can make your beloved pair of saggy jeans fit better.

For future purchases, try to keep in mind the fabrics you like, the cuts you prefer, and the items you tend to wear most of the time. See if you can end up wearing 80% of your clothing (or more) 80% of the time (or more)!

Need some inspiration? Check out my friend Heather’s ThriftEEE project. It encourages people to only buy new items from thrift shops, garage sales, etc., or from small businesses, like those on Etsy. Join the ThriftEEE project on Facebook or Twitter and share your goals!

Good Seed: Chatham Girl

I stumbled upon Zara Carpenter’s Etsy store, Chatham Girl in June and have been captivated by her designs and imagination. Her hats and bows are unbelievably creative, and I had to ask her to let me feature her on my blog. Enjoy!

The Alice In Wonderland Hat Painting The Roses Red

The Alice Giant Bow Aliceband

The Enchanting White Rose Gazebo Hat

The So Very Decadent Sea Pearl Ship Hat

The Dreamy Wood Nymph Hat (or The Owl)

Photos used with permission.