What is Glycerin

There really isn’t a mystery about what glycerin is. It is the glycerol part of triglycerides that make up all oils, both vegetable and animal. All oils and fats are combinations of triglycerides, which are three fatty acid molecules that combine with a single glycerol molecule. In the soap making process the fatty acids and the glycerol molecules are broken apart and reformed to make “soap.” In industrial soap making processes the glycerol molecules, glycerin, is separated out and used in industry, in cosmetics and in foods. In the handmade soap making process called cold process the retained glycerin in the soap bars help condition the skin, keep it from drying out and are beneficial.

Glycerin is a clear sweet tasting liquid and is about ten to fifteen percent heavier than water. It is not a whole “food/substance” since it has been separated from its wholeness in the original oil but other than that it is a useful ingredient when used appropriately. Glycerin is termed a humectant, which means that it is a substance that draws water to it. An excess of glycerin used on the skin can draw water out of the cells and towards the glycerin but in small quantities it can draw water to the skin from the atmosphere. An old fashioned recipe for hand lotion was Rosewater and Glycerin that women made them selves before the onset of mass marketed body care products. Glycerin is also used to make Glycerites of herbs, glycerin and water used in equal quantities to extract the herbal properties as a non-alcohol base for use by children and adults who are sensitive to alcohol.

In my body care products I use glycerin in wash off formulas because I don’t like the sticky feel of it in creams and lotions that stay on the skin. So it is only found in my cleanser, scrub and wet masks, all products that are washed off after a relatively short period of time. I also make a few herbal glycerites for people who want them. The vegetable glycerin that I use is made from palm oil.

It is what it is - a useful ingredient that is not made from petroleum products. Some of the alternatives to glycerin in the synthetic world are propylene or ethylene glycol, Dimethicone and carbitol, serious chemicals that I would never want to use on my skin.
August 4, 2009

FLOWER ESSENCES

Making flower essences – the transferring of the vibrations of the flower to a water medium – is not complex or difficult. This profound act of tapping the healing nature of the natural world can be accomplished with a few simple tools and the intent to capture the restorative powers of the plant world in drops of water.

All elements of Nature have a chord or a note that is innate to that element. Each flower has a vibration like a musical note that emanates from the blossom to the area surrounding it and it is this vibration that has healing potential when made into a flower essence. Dr. Edward Bach pioneered these new forms of healing in the 1920’s in England and made the first 38 remedies and his well-known Rescue Remedy at that time. In the intervening years his marvelous healing drops have helped many people and sparked an ever growing wave of new flower essence producers, practitioners and related healing modalities. There are essence producers who live in all regions and climates of the globe producing new essences and making them available to their regions and worldwide; Australia, Alaska, East Coast, West Coast, Desert, Northwest and Hawaiian are a few of the regions producing new essence collections.

To make an essence you will need flowers, pure water, spring well or filtered, a clear glass bowl and a bright sunny morning preferably with out clouds. I like to make my essences between the hours of eight AM and eleven before the noonday sun hits them. I get up and if I have already decided which flowers I am going to make I go to that plant and greet it often saying good morning! I gently cut or pick the flowers handling them as little as possible and using chop sticks gently place the flowers in the water in the glass bowl. When the bowl is full of flowers I carry it to a place in the garden where no shadows will fall across the bowl while the essence is being made. Why? Because the water that the flowers are floating in is in the process of being imprinted with the vibration of the flowers and everything else that passes between the sun and the water. The shadow from your power line will also imprint, as would your dog walking by – or drinking from the bowl!! I do not worry about garden insects that fly around but I do try to avoid person made or large animal imprints when making essences.

Place your bowl in an unobstructed area in the sun and see or sense the flowers imprinting the water. Then go about your morning. Around 11:00 I bring the bowl in under my outdoor umbrella or indoors if the weather is cold. Using the chopsticks I pick the flowers out of the water and pour the essence water into a storage jar that is clean and ready sieving out botanical material if necessary. Then add a good quality brandy – many essence makers like Korbel – about one-third to two-thirds essence water to preserve your essence. This is your mother tincture essence. From this you can make stock bottles by adding twelve drops of the mother to a one third brandy, two thirds water mix in a one or two ounce dropper bottle. It is from the stock bottle that you can then make dosage bottles for yourself, your family and friends or clients.

Sun and the body - wise or not?

SUN – summer is coming – why are we so afraid of the sun? It’s too bad because without it all life on earth would perish. And we need the Vitamin D that is wisely made in our bodies by the action of the sun’s rays on our skin. And Vitamin D prevents cancer; so what gives?

It is a long and involved story, our relationship with the sun and the medical and advertising industries. My take on this is that our undernourishment of necessary nutrients and over abundance of unnecessary additives in our diets and personal care items are where the blame should be laid.

Nature, in her wisdom has given us many tools for living on this great and glorious planet of hers. One tool is the presence of local plant materials that both feed and protect our bodies in our home environments. She also provides plant medicines but that is another book!

In my years of amateur study on oils – I come across so many – I discovered that the tropical oils – the oils that are often saturated and solid at room temperature and grow in the tropics have sun protective properties that have been used by indigenous peoples of those regions for lifetimes. There are a few unsaturated oils, liquid at room temperatures that are also sun protective. Two come to mind, sesame oil which is the oil of India and Ayurvedic practices and Jojoba oil of the Southwest US and Mexico where the natives both ate the nuts and used the oils for cooking and eating.

Growing up in the Hawaiian Islands many years ago I remember that my first “sun lotion” was a mix of coconut oil and cocoa butter – hmmm…it smelled good and we were able to tan well and protect our skin from drying out. Then, as I got a bit older, baby oil (mineral oil and scent) was substituted on the erroneous assumption that tanning was enhanced by this new choice. The result of that experience was not pretty. Going back years later and seeing the skin of those who went to the mineral oil was a primary lesson for me in going natural! Their skin looked like leather, well tanned leather, thick and not pliant, as skin wants to be.

So the message I want to impart is to stay as natural as possible. There is a wealth of lovely oils that can nourish the skin as well as bring some sun protection for the times when you are out in the elements. Shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, mango butter and sesame and jojoba oils – these are the kind of protection and nourishment that your skin will love. And thank you for.

And loose the chemicals that come in commercial sunscreens. They could be causing as many problems as they claim to solve. Love your skin, feed it well and it will love you back and protect you. Have a great summer.

Age Spots - how to get rid of them!

Age spots; we all dread the dark spots that develop on our hands and arms as we age. We don’t have to let them develop - a simple change in diet can fade old spots and will prevent new ones from forming.

I am often asked if I make a cream that will remove the age spots that appear on the face and backs of the hands and arms in women, as they get older. Men get them too but they don’t ask for creams! I wish there were such a cream as it would be so easy to hand over a jar and lucrative too! Age spots are formed on the skin by the foods that we eat and more specifically the oils. They are the result of oxidative damage to the cells in the skin. These damaged cells are also on the inside of the body where we can’t see them and are one of the factors in the aging process. A simple change of cooking techniques and if necessary improved quality of foods will help these darkened areas fade to be almost unnoticeable, a big promise but one that I have witnessed and experienced.

To begin, let’s acknowledge that oils are an important part of the diet and of a healthy functioning body, so it figures that the kinds that are consumed will make a difference in the quality of health that you enjoy. Olive oil, flax oil, fish oils are all part of a good diet but when it comes to cooking foods a saturated oil such as coconut and butter are superior because of that saturation. And, NO, coconut oil and butter will not contribute to heart disease!

Saturated oils are hard at room temperature in temperate climates because they do not have broken bonds that keep the mono and polyunsaturated oils liquid. These broken bonds on the carbon chains of oils are unstable and will attract an oxygen molecule when heated or exposed to strong light. This is the process of oil going rancid, it ‘dries,’ and is called oxidation. This is the source of dark spots in the skin – oxidative damage to the cells – so called age spots! Oxidation is in essence a burning in the body – a ‘fire’ in the cells that results in brown spots in the skin.

So for cooking, coconut oil is superior to the usual omega 6 oils; olive, canola, sunflower, etc. Cooking with saturated oils will protect the cells from oxidative damage from oxygen attaching to a mono or polyunsaturated oil. What about the health benefits of olive, flax, borage and the other healthful oils that we hear about? By all means, eat them as dressings, as dips, at the table but do not use them in cooking where heat and light will break them down and cause damage in the body.