Making Love in the Kitchen: The Blog

Elana, who I introduced you to on Tuesday, uses only the bestest of the best essential oils for her practice. Those oils, that carry the name Living Libations, are the enchanting work of Nadine Artemis. Nadine and Ron, who makes only the most amazing raw chocolate you ever did taste, live in the sweet paradise of Haliburton, just a hop and a skip away from my family cottage.

Elana mentioned that she would be out in Haliburton for the event that Ron and Nadine were hosting with David Wolfe. Low and behold, I found myself in their forest, being sprayed from top to bottom in a Jasmine love potion, sampling the deliciousness of Love Butter indulging in raw blueberry and chocolate pancakes,  and meeting an absolutely beautiful couple.

Spending time at Ron and Nadine’s for the weekend was a sweet reminder of how perfectly simple life can be. To wake up every morning with the lake in your front yard and the forest out the back, you don’t need much else. The products they create are so pure and made with complete love. If only they could bottle up and sell the calm that comes from spending time in their paradise. Their oils, beauty products and chocolate are the next best thing.

Everything we put on our bodies will end up inside. If we wouldn’t eat it, do we want to use it?

It only makes sense to use quality, minimally processed nutrients in effective concentrations to improve our health externally as we would internally. A bonus to this holistic view of beauty care is that it not only improves our own health and but also our environment.

Whether it be our food, our cosmetics or our cleaning products, we might consider the source of the ingredients we use and aim to support local, organic and sustainable growing principals and/or the businesses that support them.

Nadine’s oils are completely pure without a drop of synthetic nonsense. They are good enough to eat, and you can do that too if you like. Again I will ask the question that came up with David Wolfe, why wouldn’t we want the best ever?

Get some of your favourite essential oils, mix it all up and have some fun. My current fave blend is lemongrass and ylang ylang mixed in with some coconut oil. The following are my choice carrier oils that join me in both the kitchen and the bathroom (and perhaps even the bedroom).

• Coconut Oil: Often added to cosmetics and toiletries as it does not go rancid easily and is a good natural cleasning agent. It has low-lathering detergent properties and can be used to make shampoos and gentle washing up liquids. It can be used on its own as an effective skin moisturizer.
• Almond Oil: Contains trace minerals, vitamins D and E and linoleic acid. This oil contains natural sunscreen properties, filtering out approximately 25 percent of the suns rays. Almond oil is excellent for itchy skin conditions and is an important ingredient in moisturizing soaps, creams and skin treatments. It can even be used as a nourishing hand and nail massage oil.
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil:  Contains essential fatty acids and linolenic acid, Vitamin E and lecithin, great to be rubbed on sore, dehydrated sunburnt skin to aid in healing and inflammation. It has natural sun screen properties.
• Sesame Oil: Best when warm pressed from the plants tiny seeds, which themselves are a good source of iron, calcium and protein, soothing on the skin and is used widely in home-made natural cosmetics.
• Avocado Oil: Rich in essential fatty acids and contains good quantities of beta carotene and vitamin E. It’s powers to penetrate and aid in skin regeneration are wonderful, and often used by those who have very dry and aging skin.

Tags: Health, Living Libations, Meghan Telpner