Om Shanti Naturals Salt & Sugar Scrub Review

Last birthday, my sister completely broke character and told me in advance what she was going to buy me in advance. The reason she told me was because she wasn't sure what SCENT to get me.

I've been on this green beauty kick for a little over a year now, thanks to Julie Gabriel's Green Beauty Guide, which has become my bible for avoiding the noxious, harmful chemicals that cosmetics, hair products, body and facial care products dump into our delicate systems every day. (Yeah, pretty much anything you can pick up in your local grocery store beauty aisles contains petrochemicals, harsh irritants, carcinogenic compounds, and other lovely things that support your un-health.)

Anyway, Jenni was aware of this, and she did her homework. She found this company called Om Shanti Naturals, and got me a Patchouli Vanilla Sugar and Salt Scrub. The company is run by this wonderful, creative lady named Kate, who I met in person at the Collegeville Winter Farmers Market after having already used all of the Patchouli Vanilla scrub and loving it to death. Sadly, I did not get the opportunity to meet her Vice President of Marketing, an orange cat named Loiosh, but here's to staying hopeful!

The company logo. And it IS all crap-free. Not a single bad ingredient, it's all pure.

The stuff is amazing. I love it. It's basically a scrub made of sea salt, sugar, moisturizing oils and essential oils to make you soft and smelling delicious. It comes in this cute, re-usable wide-mouthed jar with a screw top, and when you're in the shower, after you've washed, you take a handful of this stuff and rub it all over your body. The result is that you get a REALLY awesome exfoliation, and it leaves the oil on your skin.

I know what you're thinking, OIL on my SKIN?? But don't panic. It's not greasy at all. The oils are natural, like grapeseed and apricot kernel oil -- these are the kinds of oils massage therapists use, the kinds that glide over your skin and feed it moisture and trace vitamins and wonderfulness.

So here's the thing, when you rinse the scrub off, the salt and sugar will go down your drain (it's ok, it won't do any clogging, I promise, but it will make your shower floor slippery, so be careful) and the oil will remain on your skin. When you dry off, it will transfer to your towel. Again, these are massage-therapist quality oils, they will not harm your towels at all. The towels will take off the excess oil that your skin doesn't need, leaving a slight amount still on your skin. Stay in the bathroom for another minute or five, and it will soak into your skin leaving you lightly scented, soft, supple, and simply lovely to touch. And you will stay SMOOTH all day long.

The other thing is, if you've never had a bathing experience with essential oils, you're in for a real treat. We're so used to synthetic fragrances in our lives, that essential oils can be a little overwhelming if you aren't expecting them. They truly are, however, a lesson in luxuriousness, and to boot, each essential oil has its own physical and emotional health benefits. When you take a bath with essential oils, they work into the steam in the room, swirl all around you, and envelop you. For me, I always have a keener, more vibrant sense of smell whenever I'm through showering with essential oil-infused body oils.

There are more scents than just the Patchouli Vanilla one, though. Personally, that one is my favorite so far, with its earthy, sweet scent-hue. I close my eyes and I'm standing under a sparkling waterfall in a magical forest with vanilla beans hanging from the lush greenery, and the smell of clean, pure soil below, nourishing the sky-high trees.

However, my boyfriend is not so fond of Patchouli. Right now, I have the Kyphi scrub, and it too is delightful; she uses a simplified, delicately beautiful balance of the main scents that make Kyphi smell like Kyphi: frankincense, myrrh, cinnamon, and spearmint. It too is delicious, but I do love the Patchouli Vanilla.

So, long story short, you need to try this stuff. And her other stuff. Up next on my list of Om Shanti products to try? I'm particularly keen on trying the Tangerine Vanilla Lip Balm, Cinnamon Vanilla Massage and Bath Oil, and the Spearmint Calendula Soap.

You can find her website here: http://www.omshantinaturals.com/ and she's on Etsy too.

Love,

<3 Sapphire Orchid <3

Totally skipping last week. J is for Jacuzzi Magick!!

Seriously. Who doesn't love jacuzzis??!

It is a pure crying shame that there is a jacuzzi in my own bathroom and yet I rarely use it, mostly because of the sheer amount of water required to fill it up. And I was brushing my teeth this morning, thinking these thoughts along with the fact that I hadn't done a PBP post for the past two weeks (oops) and I suddenly realized, I'd never really heard anything about jacuzzi magick or lore or anything.

A jacuzzi is basically a modernized version of a hot springs with lots of mini geysers. Most people would automatically tag an elemental association as water, however, the jacuzzi is uniquely poised to be associated with all elements: water fills it, air bubbles flow through it to make it jacuzzi-y and awesome, heat is applied (fire?) and of course, the jacuzzi itself is the vessel that holds it all together. So if you're doing any sort of elemental workings, it would suit particularly for water, or for a balance of all four elements.

I'm not big on spell-writing, nor too good at ritual writing, but I am decent at offering suggestions on what to do with things! So here are some ideas for using a jacuzzi in your magickal workings:
--Cleansing energy work, since jacuzzis are essentially a bath and baths are for cleaning
--Relaxation, meditation
--Beauty energy work, particularly if you also indulge in a facial and hair mask, and really let the steam set in and open everything up :)
--For energy working that may involve a hot spring of any sort, a jacuzzi is a more accessible (and sometimes safer) way of working with these energies.
--Love and sex energy work, to heat things up a little ;D
--Releasing and banishing. If you sit in the water and meditate upon shedding all of your cares into the water, then pull the plug, everything will release down the drain.

Pretty much any bath magick can be performed in a jacuzzi, except for one warning: any herbs, spicies, oils, or any form of additive to the water might gunk up or harm the motors in your jacuzzi. Don't ruin your jacuzzi. It's probably super expensive.

Love,

<3 Sapphire Orchid <3

Reading Challenge and Elemental Magick

Tim had two books on Elemental Magick lying around, so I thought I'd give them a peek. They are as follows:

Elemental Magick by DJ Conway aaaaaaaaaaand...

Elemental Witch by Tammy Sullivan.

I quite fancied both of them. I had done a post on air magick previously, even though I'd never really personally worked with air magick too much, I really just thought of various items and practices that rely on the use of air, and thought, wouldn't it be neat to work this into a practice?

Each chapter in both books focuses on one of the elements, with DJ including Spirit, which I also found helpful. Tammy's setup is as follows: each chapter gives an explanation on what kind of personality traits, interests, skills, and positive and negative attributes a Water Witch/Fire Witch etc might have. She then continues with elemental lore, including aspects of nature and creatures that align with each element (i.e. Crossroads for Earth, Birds/Bees/Butterflies for Air, etc.), including explanations and myths. The next section for the same element includes practical uses, using the element in different states of being (i.e. sea, snow, ice, rain, wells, etc for water), some useful items and recipes associated with the element, and finally, correspondences.

DJ structures her chapters slightly differently. She begins each elemental chapter detailing how the element relates to us, and a little bit of lore. She briefly touches on correspondences, and then transitions right into a detailed list of elementals, spiritual beings and mystical creatures associated with the element. The final part of each chapter consists of a guided meditation (that you can record onto a CD if you wish) and spell recipes.

If I had to compare the two, I have to say, I really truly enjoyed Tammy's book. DJ's was good, and I liked all the detailed exploration of a wide range of different elemental beings, but I felt like Tammy's writing offered more varied information, instead of just focusing on beings and spells. Tammy gave more imagery that gives you an aesthetic sense of the element, while still touching on a practical side. I really enjoyed her writing and insight.

For future reading, Sullivan's Pagan Anger Magick: Positive Transformations from Negative Energies looks particularly interesting. Not many Pagans would want to come close to exploring that area, since anger is so unpredictable.

There are most certainly some books by DJ Conway that I very much want to read.  I've read By Oak and Ash and Thorn, and Celtic Magick. I'd like to read Moon Magick, Norse Magick, Magickal Mermaids and Water Creatures, the Ancient Art of Faery Magick, A Witch's Travel Guide to Astral Realms, and a whole bunch of others.

Anyway. READ THESE BOOKS! They're awesome. (I actually paused writing this and started reading a Witch's Travel Guide to Astral Realms already on Google Books! It's neat. Read it.)

<3 Sapphire Orchid <3

Live Each Day As If You'll Die Tomorrow, and other cliche BS

The world is not going to end in 2012. Of this, I am pretty confident, kinda like back in 1844 when I told William Miller on October 21st that he was full of shit just like March of the previous year, and guess what!

Really, the point of living isn't to sit around, nervously biting our nails against the day that we're going to be deprived of the life that you're not even using if you're sitting around.

And so, I decided to do something about it. And leave my poor nails alone. Thus, I present to you,

My Magical, Whimsical To-Do List for 2012

(Conveniently separated into categories for your viewing ease)

Adrenaline/Adventure

1. Go zip-lining - http://www.skiroundtop.com/summerrates.htm

2. Go kayaking, canoeing, or sailing

3. Go snow-tubing

4. Ride all the roller coasters at Cedar Point

5. Bungee-jump

6. Ski

7. Go ghost hunting

8. Horseback Ride

Artsy Craftsy

9. Make my own Tibetan-style prayer flags, and a fabric flags for camp

10. Take 100 photographs

11. Make more collages, maybe one every two months

12. Watercolour two paintings a month

13. Mix at least 4 new perfumes

14. Hand-make gifts for people

15. Make a stone pile sculpture

16. Make Candles

17. Build cool stuff in the snow

Body

18. Lose and maintain down to 125-135

19. Go Primal

20. Get my first tattoo

Financial

21. Pay all my loans on time, like 2011

22. Have a $1000 savings account by Dec ‘12

23. Start a Roth IRA

Food

24. Explore a different culture each month through food

25. Go completely carnivore for two weeks as a test run

26. Make four cupcake recipes from Michelle Garcia’s and/or Lili Vanilli’s book

27. Make artisan bread

28. Pick Fruit

29. Make and can strawberry raspberry jam

30. Flip a pancake in the air (without making a mess)

31. Eat kangaroo meat

32. Make a layer cake

33. Make homemade hot chocolate when it snows

34. Make homemade hummus

35. Make homemade cinnamon buns for Imbolgc

36. Go salt water fishing (since Tim says it’s easy) and catch dinner

37. Make Sushi

38. Brew beer with Tim

39. Organize a recipe collection (with software? Check out http://www.dvo.com/ )

Learning

40. Apply to start for a Masters 2013-2014

41. Take or self-learn French, Dutch, or continue Italian

42. Take free courses: http://lifehacker.com/201979/technophilia-get-a-free-college-education-online

43. Take any other free classes I can find, in person or online

44. 18. Take more Belly Dance classes

45. Learn all the countries of the world and their capitals

46. Take a pole-dancing class

47. Take Yoga classes

48. Take an archery class -- http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/education/9110

49. Learn astronomy

Literary 

50. Keep a blog

51. Read 52 books

52. Keep a small ideas journal with me, for ideas for stories, paintings, etc

53. Utilize the library without forgetting to return the books

54. Read textbooks for classes I never took to see if I’d be interested in learning more

55. Make a penpal

56. Trade 52 books on Paperback Swap

57. Write three short stories

58. Write a trashy romance novel for Sherie

59.  Answer the 50 Questions to Free Your Mind: http://www.marcandangel.com/2009/07/13/50-questions-that-will-free-your-mind/

Luxuriate
60. Sleep in til 11am

61. Go to the spa for a day

62. Make my own spa treatments

63. Expand my wardrobe by 40% (lawlz statistics) and a pair of cowboy boots (shopping at awesome thrift stores!!)

Music

64. Go to a concert

65. Sing karaoke once a month

66. Go to the opera

67. Write a song

Nature

68. Grow roses

69. Hike at least once a month

70. Feed ducks (somewhere where it’s legal)

71. Skinny dip in Sideling Creek at midnight

72. Lay on a hill at night and stargaze

73. Plant a tree

74. Walk in the park 2 weekends a month

75. Participate in earth hour

76. Go to the beach in each season

Socially

77. Go out on a high-class date with Tim, tux, dress, and all

78. Find a good situation in which to say, “We’ll always have Paris.”

79. Shop locally as much possible (farmers markets, small stores/cafes, thrift stores)

80. Hold a swanky potluck picnic in the park

81. Attend awesome festivals all year long!

82. Support an artist by buying their work

83. Volunteer! Walk dogs, etc. Maybe at least once a month?

84. Send birthday cards and Christmas/Yule cards

85. People-watch

Spiritual

86. Lay tribute to my stone in the stone circle

87. Attend as many events as possible at Four Quarters

88. Write a moon ceremony

89. Start Meditating Weekly

90. Observe other religions’ holidays, and maybe a service or two

91. Attend a retreat

92. Meditate with the Buddhists

93. Find my chakras

Travel

94. Visit LA (for Jenni’s Graduation)

95. Take a bus trip to Toronto on MegaBus for $1 each way

96. Couchsurf

97. Go to NYC for a day or weekend

98. Visit the National Mall in DC

99. Go to an aquarium

100. Go to a zoo

It's gonna be big. It's gonna be crazy. It's gonna be an adventure. So... read my blog, kids.

Peace,
Sapphirescent