the florapothecarie journal

February is #SelfLoveMonth. To celebrate, we've asked a few of our natural beauty friends to share their self-care routines. LA-based photographer and world traveler Logan Hill shares her tips for bringing self care on the road.

February is #SelfLoveMonth. To celebrate, we've asked a few of our natural beauty friends to share their self-care routines. Cassidy Perry, founder of The Arise Box, practices aerial yoga, takes long walks with her pup, and loves our Whipped Body Butter.

February is #SelfLoveMonth. To celebrate, we've asked a few of our natural beauty friends to share their self-care routines. Yoga instructor and photographer Nicole Morley shares her love of baths.

Because of its ability to attract over 200x its weight in impurities, activated charcoal is having a serious moment right now in natural beauty. Let's talk about why, and dispel a few charcoal myths.

In honor of the literary holidays this week (#ReadABookDay is 9/6 and #LiteracyDay is 9/8), here are my top six go-to resources for natural beauty.

As a maker of natural + vegan beauty products, I’m frequently asked about my skincare routine. After years of research, ditching toxic products, and experimenting with ingredients and recipes, I’ve finally reached a place where everything I use in my skincare routine is 100% natural and—even better—handmade by me! I love this feeling, and I love knowing exactly what’s going on (and into) my skin. Click through to read my daily/weekly self care routine.

Happy Spring! Like the autumnal equinox, the spring equinox is about restoring balance to our lives, which is why you'll probably get an itching to clean this week — get rid of excess things, negative energy (I've got a simple ritual for that here), not-so-great people (have you read my Being Boss blog post about ditching toxic people?), etc. So I have a fun exercise for you to do this week: you're going to spring clean your beauty routine!

One question I'm asked frequently is: What's a toner? Every day, we use some type of cleanser, then follow up with a moisturizer or cream or facial oil (learn the differences here), but many of us forget a crucial middle step: the toner.

The beauty industry is intentionally confusing. Big cosmetic companies toss around words like "serum," "facial oil," "cream," and "moisturizer" as if they're four completely different products with completely different functions, and so of course as confused consumers, we feel like we need them all! (We don't.) Let's define what each of these face-fixers are, and figure out what we really need.

My first how-to video! (Yes, there will be more.) To celebrate my chocolate face mask being in this month's Goddess Provisions box, I thought I'd share with you a video on how to use a face mask. I also talk about what else you can mix in a dry mask (besides water), as well as the different face masks I offer (charcoal, chocolate, and rose) and the benefits of each. Basically, this video is everything you ever wanted to know about face masks. Enjoy!

My clay face masks may say "just add water," but you can use so many more ingredients with them. I like to switch it up depending on the season and what my skin needs. My favorites are: aloe vera juice, apple cider vinegar, green tea, honey, lemon juice, milk, oil, rosewater, and yogurt.

Oh, the ongoing struggle of pore-cleaning! Truly, a few minutes of care a day is all you really need to keep your face clear, clean, and happy. Here are 8 simple tips + tricks: 1. Wash your face twice a day. Our skin is constantly attracting dirt, excreting waste, and shedding dead skin cells, so it’s important to keep up with it by cleansing twice a day, especially if you wear makeup. I use my Rose & Willow Facial Cleanser. This mild cleanser contains no harsh surfactants, so it doesn’t strip away my skin’s natural oils. Instead jojoba oil, Castile soap, and rosewater work together to gently remove dirt without drying out your face, and white willow bark, tea tree, and lavender help prevent and heal acne. You can make a simplified version of our cleanser with this DIY natural face wash recipe. 2. Always remove makeup.  If you don’t wash your makeup off in the evening, it will clog your pores and result in acne. Not pretty. Looking for a natural makeup remover? Try our Makeup Remover! This silky, four-ingredient balm gently breaks down and “melts” makeup, making it easy to wipe away, leaving your skin soft and smooth thanks to organic coconut and jojoba oils. You can also use just plain coconut oil. Massage a little bit into your skin in circular motions to remove makeup, then use a warm, wet washcloth to gently wipe off excess coconut oil. The oil (and makeup) should come off easily without needing to tug on your skin. Splash your face with warm water. Our Makeup Remover and Coconut oil are both safe + effective for removing eye makeup. 3. Use a toner after your face wash. In addition to balancing your skin's pH level and tightening pores, toners remove excess oil as well as any dirt left behind by your cleanser (no cleanser is perfect!). Try my super-gentle, hydrating Rose & Tea Facial Toner. 4. Exfoliate once a week. Between shedding dry skin cells and perspiring, our skin excretes over a pound of waste per day (YUCK), so we’ve got to help it out by exfoliating at least once a week. Exfoliating — either with a scrub or dry brushing — removes dead skin buildup, improves blood flow, and firms skin. Avoid using body scrubs with large grains of salt, sugar, or other types of abrasive on your face as they can be too harsh on your skin. Instead, try one of our super gentle Cleansing Grains, available in Lavender & Chamomile or Rose & Hibiscus. They're made with oat and rice flours, plus finely ground herbs. Just add water! If you're looking to DIY this step, plain oats make a great gentle exfoliate - grind them up with a mortar and pestle, add water, and you've got a simplified version of our Cleansing Grains. 5. Deep clean with a mask weekly. After cleansing and exfoliating, I use a mask at least once a week, and I switch up the mask based on my skin's needs. If it's too oily or I'm seeing a lot of blackheads, I use my Charcoal Mask to really get in there to clean + detoxify my pores. Charcoal is a bit too harsh for very dry or sensitive skin, so the Matcha Mask is a great alternative and still rich in antioxidants. If my skin is in need of hydration, I use the Chocolate Mask. If it needs a little exfoliating and brightening, I go with my Rose Clay Mask or Tropical Enzyme Exfoliating Cleanser. 6. Try a natural acid facial peel. The natural alpha hydroxy acids and salicylic acid in lemon, papaya, pineapple, pumpkin, and strawberries make all of these ingredients fantastic non-abrasive exfoliants. Use the fresh juices or pulp to make 1-ingredient face masks. Read more about this (+ get recipes!) in my eBook, DIY Natural Beauty on a Budget. Or try the Tropical Enzyme Exfoliating Cleanser. 7. Stop touching your face! This is a biggie for me, too. Think about all the things you touch in a day, picking up dirt and oils with your fingers. Now, think about rubbing all of those things on your face. That's pretty much what you're doing every time you touch your face —you're increasing the amount of bacteria on your face, which leads to breakouts. Stop touching and especially stop picking! 8. Clean pillowcases weekly. If you're getting enough sleep, you spend between 7-9 hours a night with your face on a pillowcase, sweating and shedding dead skin. (I know, gross, right?) You gotta wash those things frequently! Toss 'em in with your regular laundry, or have backups so you can switch them out every week. Looking for more natural beauty DIYs? Check out my eBook, DIY Natural Beauty on a Budget. It has over 40 recipes for natural masks, scrubs, and hair care using ingredients you likely already have in your kitchen, plus a detailed guide on how to use and blend essential oils. Happy making!

Make your own gentle natural cleanser without harsh surfactants. Perfect for those with sensitive or problem skin, dry or oily.

From inducing sleep to healing acne, minor cuts and burns, lavender is a must-have in the cabinets of every natural beauty or kitchen witch.

Travel season is upon us! In all the rush, we sometimes forget to take care of our largest organ: our skin. Read on for tips on keeping it happy and healthy while you're on the go.

Say hello to my all-new Rejuvenating Facial Serum! This miracle facial elixir is great for all skin types and formulated with nourishing, skin-loving plant oils. Here's what's inside: + jojoba oil — regulates & tames oil production + rose hip seed oil — fades age spots + vitamin e oil — repairs damaged skin cells + carrot seed oil — smoothes fine lines & wrinkles + geranium essential oil — balances hormones + lavender essential oil — heals acne + clary sage essential oil — reduces inflammation + tea tree oil — fights & heals acne Get it here.

I started making natural beauty products when I realized just how many toxic chemicals were in my favorite mass-produced cosmetics. It’s incredible to me how much we can’t rely on the Food & Drug Administration to police the cosmetic industry here in the US. The European Union has banned over 1,300 chemicals from being used in cosmetics, compared to the FDA’s paltry 11.  The 10 chemicals below — including formaldehyde, people!! — are not currently banned by the FDA. Thankfully, we have resources like the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep® Cosmetics Database, where you can read more about the chemicals below (and many others), plus toxicity ratings for over 60,000 beauty products. I’ve included their ratings of each ingredient below — 0 is harmless and 10 is highly hazardous. Do yourself a favor and chuck out any beauty products that contain these: 1. BUTYLATES (BHA & BHT) — These endocrine-disrupting preservatives are found in food and beauty products, including cereals, cookies, shaving creams, deodorants, and antiperspirants. According to its Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), prolonged exposure to or repeated ingestion of BHT may affect the liver, kidneys, thyroid, and central nervous system. EWG Score: 6-7 2. COAL TAR — Derived from burning coal, coal tar is primarily used as a colorant in hair dyes and textiles. It contains a mix of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chemical compounds deemed by the EPA to be environmental pollutants and carcinogens. This might be hidden in ingredient labels as tar, coal, carbo-cort, coal tar solution USP, crude coal tar, estar, impervotar, KC 261, lavatar, picis carbonis, naphtha, high solvent naphtha, naphtha distillate, benzin B70, or petroleum benzin. EWG Score: 10 3. ETHANOLAMINES (DEA, MEA, TEA) — Ethanolamines are used in soaps, shampoos, lotions, paraffin waxes, and makeup as emulsifiers or foaming agents. These chemicals have been on lists of known carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the National Toxicology Program for decades. Look out for ingredients that say DEA, MEA, and/or TEA, especially cocamide DEA and diethanolamine. EWG Score: 5-10 4. FORMALDEHYDE — Used in many nail polishes, hair-straightening treatments, and nail and eyelash glues, formaldehyde is most infamous as an embalming chemical. If that’s not enough to creep you out, it’s recognized as a human carcinogen by the United States National Toxicology Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. But the FDA still permits it and many formaldehyde-releasing preservatives (FRPs) in our beauty products. Look out for FRPs quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate, 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol (bromopol) on labels. EWG Score: 10 5. FRAGRANCE — If you see the word “fragrance” or “parfum” on a beauty label, with no description of what’s in that fragrance, put it down and walk away. Because fragrance recipes are considered “trade secrets,” cosmetic manufacturers do not have to disclose what’s in their fragrances. Many of them are created from petrochemicals and contain phthalates (see below). Fragrance oils can irritate the skin, strip it of its natural protection, give the wearer headaches or asthma attacks, and have negative effects on the reproductive system. EWG Score: 8 6. OXYBENZONE — UV light inhibitor oxybenzone and its sibling benzophenone are common in sunscreens. The ironic thing about these two chemicals is that they cause photoallergic reactions — they release chemicals into your body, which sunlight converts into toxins, which your body then has to fight off. This will typically result in a rash or increase your chance of getting sunburn. EWG Score: 8 7. PARABENS — These tricky chemical preservatives sneak themselves into a lot of otherwise “natural” beauty products – even LUSH (I know, I’m heartbroken too). As endocrine disruptors, effects of continued paraben use are as mild as rashes and as lethal as cancer. Hundreds of scientific studies have linked parabens to cancer, and topical parabens have been found in human breast tumors. AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS. They’ll show up on labels as butylparaben, ethylparaben, methylparaben, and propylparaben. EWG Score: 7 8. PHTHALATES (DBP, DEHP, DEP & DMP) Endocrine disruptors commonly found in manmade fragrances and nail polishes. The most common is dibutyl phthalate (DBP), a plastisizer that prevents nail polishes from becoming brittle. The European Union classifies DBP as very toxic to aquatic organisms. In humans, DBP has shown to cause developmental defects and impair fertitlity. EWG RATING: 10 9. TALC Primarily found in baby and body powders, talc (talcum powder) is similar in compesition to asbestos and can even be contaminated with asbestiform fibers, which are rated 7 by EWG. This poses a risk of respiratory toxicity and cancer. Even non-asbestos talc has shown to be toxic and carcinogenic. EWG Score: 3-7 10. TRICLOSAN You’ll find this in many antibacterial gels, hand washes, and lotions, even though the EPA has registered it as a pesticide. Scientific studies have shown triclosan to be an endocrine disruptor even at very low doses. EWG Score: 7 Want to learn more about how to avoid toxic chemicals in your cosmetics, and how to make your own 100% natural, 100% safe beauty products at home? Get my eBook, DIY Natural Beauty on a Budget.