The " Back Story" of Voluptuous V™

Sometime in early 2014, a friend requested support with menopausal vaginal symptoms. I did a Google search looking for a product to help soothe and lubricate her vulva and vagina. I found several that were sort of natural but nothing that met my standards of a product I would put in or on my own body. I have a deep commitment to health... if I would not eat it, I will not use it for body care. 

I gave up and told her that I would create a 100% natural and organic product to soothe her vagina voluptuous again. We had a good laugh in my kitchen and over many conversations since. 

2 days later I had whipped up a batch. I called it Voluptuous Vagina™.  VV™ for short. I wrote about it in many blog posts on my "other" blog that is exclusively for female centered health topics: WiseWomenRedTent   

For 3, 4 years... maybe longer, my gal friend used it. I gave out jars to friends and clients locally and in various places about the USA.

Forwarding to May 2017... I tell Shelby Connelly of Five Elements Living that I am thinking of finding someone to make it in big batches and sell under my label: Paula Youmell, RN, Wise Woman RN®. 

Shelby said without hesitation: Hell No! We are making it! 

I said: Seriously?

To which she said: YES!

Shelby is an amazing front end woman: designing product packaging and marketing our business/product together. I get to do what I love: create in the herbalist's kitchen.

Long story short... Five Element's commercial kitchen is where I hang my hat and herbalist's apron 2 days a week to make this luxurious formula for soothing the female anatomy. 

To learn more or purchase your 2 oz jar of Voluptuous V™, visit our website pages:

https://fiveelementsliving.com/shop/voluptuous-v-2-oz-jar/

http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/voluptuous-v-luxe-feminine-emollient/

We are committed to woman's health, topically & internally, for whole body-mind-spirit health. 

Goodbye to Plantar Warts W/O Chemicals!

Are you pestered with nasty plantar warts? They can be painful, irritating little villains on the bottom of our feet.

Below you see my son's foot plastered with several plantar warts and a big cluster on the ball of his big toe.

Here you see his foot with thin slices of raw, fresh garlic (organic and local, from Birdsfoot Farm, of course!). 

How these warts got so out of control you ask? They inhabited a teen's foot. He never bothered to tell me until the collection had become overwhelming. 

Here is how we managed to get rid of them in just about 2 weeks time. 

Night Time Wart Therapy:

• place thin slices of raw, fresh, local, organic garlic over each wart.

• Apply duct tape to hold garlic slices in place.

• Apply thin, well fitting cotton socks to kid's foot.

• Send kid to bed.

Day Time Wart Therapy:

• After showering put 1 drop of essential oil onto each wart.

• Sit still until essential oil dries on foot.

• Get dressed and head out for the day.

Essential oils I used: Rosemary, Tea Tree, and Oregano as seen above. A couple of times I used Thyme essential oil.

Repeat Night Time and Day Time Wart Therapy until the warts literally peel off in layers. Underneath will be beautiful, new, pink skin. This wart be gone process took about 2 weeks and was relatively painless. Well, except for the groaning and moaning of a 13 year old because I was making him take care of these viral buggers. 

This garlic and essential oil therapy would work on regular skin warts as well. 

The Sun Radiates Life Into Everything!

Some Of The Sun's Awesome Gifts:

• warms us every day even when we can't see the glorious sun (When you lift the corner of the cloud, the sun is ALWAYS shining." Eli, my 14 year old at 8 had figured this one out!), this solar warmth drives weather patterns
• stimulates photosynthesis
• stimulates Vitamin D production in your skin and many other living being's skin as well.  Vitamin D is needed for bone health, skin health, mood health, immune health (think cancer, MS, metabolic disease-diabetes, & auto-immune disease prevention)
• promotes the production of melatonin so you can sleep well every night and the production of serotonin so you fell happy & energetic during the day

The list of the sun's contributions to human and planetary health is a very long one. Without the sun... we would not be here; everything would not be here!  It is time for some Common Sun Sense.

                   Yoga Sun Salutations to the Rising Sun

Getting out in the morning sun helps you move through the day with flow, ease, and grace and supports sleeping better every night. All living things are meant to be exposed to the sun's light all day; from sun rise to sun set. (obviously being wise to not burning our skin... but more on that in a minute). Think of the cultures who begin their days with some form of AM exercise (movement magic eCourse), prayer, or meditation that is outside and facing east to the rising sun. Wisdom from the ages kept people healthy, wealthy (before wealth was measured in dollars and cents), and wise. 

Being Sun Wise:

• Get out every day and get sunlight on your eyes and your bare skin
• Avoid sun screens that are chemical based. The chemicals that prevent sunscreen are toxic, period. Most sun screen bases (the actual lotion the sun screening chemicals are in) are loaded with many other toxic chemicals. Check out Environmental Working Groups information on toxins in your cosmetics and body care products...http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/
• If you must use a sunscreen find one that is in an all natural lotion base and uses zinc and/or titanium dioxide for the sunscreen function. Avoid nano-particle sunscreens.
• When you have spent your time in the sun to promote health but avoid over exposure, sun burn, and sun damage... find shade and cover with clothing and a hat. 
• The high hot times of the day are approximately 10 AM to 2 PM depending where you are in the world (proximity to the equator) and the time of year. Be smart, use common sense, and get healthy sun exposure. Your vibrant health depends on it. Think of a plant and its need for sun. Put that plant in the closet and shut the door. How many days until that plant is dead? Bottom line: we need the sun... the sun makes us happy!

Sun Related Blog Posts:

Naked Sun Time!

Creating Inner SunShine!

Natural Skin Care For Prevention And Healing Sun Damage

Join My Movement Magic eCourse to

• increase your inner movement wisdom, 
• inspire yourself to make movement a daily priority,
• learn the many benefits of movement to each and every body part and system (all of your amazing body cells),
• and support your body in its need to move.

As Dr. Mark Hyman states: Exercise (Movement Magic!) is the biggest drug to reverse or prevent heart disease.  Here is the link to his video explaining this: click here.  If you want to hear just the part of exercise (it is a 10 minute video on food, supplements, & lifestyle) scroll to 6:30 and you will be at the start of his exercise chat.

The benefits of daily movement, moving all day long, are profound and beckoning you much like the sun is beckoning you outside! Moving, outside in the sun, is a double body healing bonus.

Click here to check it out and join this body, mind, and spirit moving eClass: Movement Magic eCourse   Class tuition this week is $30, (5 bucks off for Sun Celebrating) and if you have taken any other eCourse with me, I offer this course at $25 for you. 

Need more motivation to move? Check out this 96 year old man and what moving his body has done for him: Click here

The Rabbit Hole Of Personal Hygiene

My initial thought was to do a post on Smart Shampooing.  My immediate response to myself was that the chemical issue runs so much deeper than just shampoo. I also held back as a part of me thinks this is all common knowledge. The more years I work with clients and students with cancers, auto-immune diseases, skin and respiratory ailments... disease after disease, I speak with them about the products they use. So many people really never thought that their personal care items were an issue: "I don't eat them."

Every day Americans and people all over the world slather lotions, potions, elixirs, cleansers, shampoos, deodorants, anti-perspirants, toothpastes, and on and on all over the outside and inside of their bodies. Few people scrutinize the labels; really scrutinize the labels for what exactly is in these products. They march up and down the grocery, drug, and department store aisles grabbing products off the shelf and tossing carelessly into the shopping cart or basket.

All of these products are loaded with synthetic ingredient that tax the work of your liver's detoxification pathways.  Ultimately, these chemicals do not all get detoxed from the body. Over time these chemical ingredients contribute to all manner of ill health symptoms. Toxins in the body are not a positive thing. Think about an over taxed liver, immune system, lymph system, circulatory system, excretory systems... seriously, every cell of your body is affected and burdened with the toxic load. We expect our bodies to function at top notch health but we do not provide top notch food or body care.  It is an equation that is not balanced. Eventual breakdown of health is the result.

Think about all of the products you perhaps buy and use:

• hair care: shampoos, conditioners, and various products to hold hair stiffly into place
• facial makeup of every variety for face, eyes, lips, etc.
• toothpaste, mouth wash, teeth whitening products
• menstrual care products: pads, tampons, etc.
• deodorants for feet, armpits, and genital areas
• various over the counter (OTC) medications to slather on fungal, bacterial, or some other microbial issue
• anti-perspirants
• lotions meant to moisturize skin for the long haul
• facial wrinkle erasers, wrinkle prevention
• household cleaners you use on your clothes (fabric softeners and toxic bleaches), dishes, floors, tubs-sinks-toilets, etc. These all come in contact with your skin and respiratory passages and they are then a part of your whole being
• then there is chlorine and flouride in drinking water, bromine is flour products, toxins in OTC and prescription medications altering cellular function.
• hair coloring, hair bleaching, perming & straightening   *****(Get ready for Five Elements Living's Organic Beauty Spa. Shelby Connelly, Licensed Acupuncturist, is opening Five Elements Living Retreat and Healing Arts Center in Colton, NY. There will be organic hair and beauty care treatments, coloring, perming, nail care, and products for purchase. Woo-Hoo!)

What IS in these products?

Just as I encourage clients, students, family and friends to not eat anything that is not 100% natural, well, the same goes for personal hygiene. If you are putting a product on or in your body (toothpaste, tampon, hemorrhoid cream, etc.) you are essentially eating it. The product's ingredients end up in your blood and lymph circulation and eventually a part of every body cell. 

Read labels on everything you buy, every time you buy the same product. Small companies, with the right attitude about offering whole & natural products, start up companies. The company and its products become very successful (making tons of $$$). This entices major corporations to want this small company for their own bottom lines. The natural minded company gets sold out to a big corporation and the products are changed. Ingredients are swapped out for cheaper versions. The big corporations function in a "cheapest ingredients into the product for the largest profit margin for our wallets" mentality. So this product you have grown to trust suddenly is not the same high quality ingredients.

ADVICE: Read labels on everything you buy, every time you buy it. Accept nothing but high quality whole ingredients in both your food and your personal care products. Nature intended it this way... human corporate greed is the only thing that has changed it. Take care of you. Nature wants you to... you are nature.

Great resource is the Environmental Working Group: http://www.ewg.org/consumer-guides

Even better resource: Your own common sense

Company's Products I trust, like, and use (yes, I read labels every time):

• Aubrey Organics  If you live in St. Lawrence County, NY, these products are available through Nature's Storehouse, Canton, NY.
• Just Natural Skin Care
• Morrocco Method Hair Care
• Weleda   Also available at Nature's Storehouse, Canton

This is just a few companies I have used and continue to use their products. No, I do not receive kick backs for suggesting these products.

Natural care products, much like real / whole / and organic food, are more expensive. When we feed our bodies real food, we eat less. Our bodies do not cry out for just calories, hunger is about nutrition. When we feed our cells with whole foods, our bodies require less. Real food may cost more but we eat less than when we stuff ourselves over and over with nutritionally depleted factory made foods and our cells continue to cry for nutrition.

When we care for our bodies with natural ingredients, we are not loading our cells with toxic chemicals. The pay-offs are huge and worth the extra expense. Many body care products are easily made, at home by you, with natural ingredients.

How I save money:

• I always order when the company has a promotion: % off or free shipping (or both!)

For example, I use and love Morrocco Method 5 shampoos. The 5 bottle package is $129, which seems pricey as an all at once purchase. The 5 bottles last at least 7 months which would be $18.42 a month BUT I buy when there is a 20% discount and free shipping over $100. My last purchase, under these special terms, was a total of $103.20 costing about $14.74 a month. I can live with this cost. The shampoos are very gentle on my hair requiring absolutely no conditioner. Figure your cost for commercial shampoo and conditioner (and whatever other products get slathered and sprayed onto your hair) every month and I bet the $14.74 is less $$$ out of your pocket. 

http://shop.morroccomethod.com/5-Elements-Shampoo-Package?sc=43&category=6454

Read labels. Know what you are putting in and on your beautiful body and into your body cells. Cellular health is the foundation for whole body health. 

Natural Skin Care for Prevention and Healing Sun Damage

Last week I wrote some quick tips for caring for your skin within a whole food - whole health lifestyle: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2015/5/17/holistic-skin-care   (yes, go back and read it if you missed it. Skin care begins on the inside my friends!)

This week: Natural Sun Screen & After Sun Skin Repair Recipe

I avoid commercial sunscreens as they are loaded with chemicals; the chemicals in the base lotion as well as the chemicals used for the sun screen affects. Any chemical put onto the skin that can alter cellular function in a way to stop sun burning... hmm, sounds like a chemical I do not want on my skin changing the way my skin cells function.

Natural sunscreens with zinc and titanium dioxide you ask? Nah, I will pass on them as well. First of all the base lotions, again, are loaded with chemicals I do not want on my skin. The zinc and titanium are sticky and white filmy on the skin. Yes, they make nano particle zinc and titanium sunscreens but I will pass on them as well.  Read on for my sun protective recipe.

My Natural Sunscreen Recipe

To make a natural sunscreen I start with an *organic, unscented lotion (no chemicals in this base lotion) and fill a 4 oz glass cosmetic jar almost to top... leaving room for:

1/2 - 1 tsp. organic instant coffee powder and 1/2 - 1 tsp. organic cocoa powder. Mix both into lotion very well. 
And essential oils, see below.

*Check massage supply websites for organic, unscented base lotions. You can buy them in 8, 16, 32, and 64 oz sizes. Read labels carefully to make certain you are comfortable with the ingredients going on your skin and therefore into your body.

And...

1 tsp. Wild Pansy extract powder and 2 droppers of wild pansy extract tincture. Again, mix in well. 

I use this sun protective lotion on my face, neck, and hands. I am very aware that I can not slather this on, head to toe, and think for a second that I can spend all day in the sun and not burn my skin. Life and sun exposure just does not work that way. This is my preventative for any more sun damage to my face and neck. I figure my teen years, living in the sun all day, have done enough damage. Now I do damage control.

I also try to do these things most of the time:

1. limit my sun exposure during the high, hot time of the sun 11 AM to 2-3 PM

2. Wear a wide brim hat when I am out in the sun

3. slather my face with my aging and sun damaged skin lotions.

Aging & Sun Damaged Skin Lotion

Summer Base: Aubrey Organic Aloe gel

Winter Base: Aloe plus 1-2 tsp. organic, unrefined, extra virgin olive oil (if you can make a comfrey infused olive oil... even better)

Using a 4 oz. glass cosmetic jar, fill it up leaving head space for olive oil in winter and drops of essential oils.

Anti-aging essential oils to add 6-8 drops of each (as per the Male Herbal by James Green)

• Lavender

• Frankincense

• Carrot Seed

• Immortelle (Helichrysum italicum)

I also add a Rosemary essential oil, 6 drops

The Anti-Aging Team of essential oils

Use on your face and neck after washing with water only in AM & PM. Apply a little extra around eye area to crows feet.

The aging skin remedy can also be made by adding the drops of essential oils to 4 oz. of the above mentioned unscented, organic lotion.

I sometimes add essential oils of rosemary or oregano as they all increase circulation to the skin. Increased circulation means more oxygen and nutrients to skin cells and better removal of cellular wastes.
Peppermint, in very small amounts, also aids circulation. Peppermint does cause / exacerbate reflux and it will bother reflux in your face lotion. If reflux is an issue, skip using peppermint.

The finished sunscreen and sun repair remedy.

Skin Care the Whole Food Way (and support for teen acne)

Those who know me know that my eating habits revolve around only real, nature made foods for this gal. No Ho-Hos, Twinkies, Doritos, and sodas for me.

I take care of my skin in this same Wise Woman way. If I would not put some substance in my digestive tract, why would I put it on my skin?

Call to Action: Take a very close look at the ingredients in the products that you slather on your scalp, face, arm pits, and overall body skin to cleanse, moisturize, deodorize, medicate, etc.

Would you put all of the ingredients in those products onto your plate?

Every ingredient will soak through your skin and be circulated around to every body cell. That's correct, every chemical becomes part of your cell makeup.

So what is a wise person to do to avoid all this crap in their skin care products?

1. Read ingredients like a chemical, refined ingredient detective, just as you do with your food.

2. Buy 100% natural products.

3. Make your own skin care products. 

4. Re-evaluate all the products you keep in cupboards, drawers, and medicine cabinets.  Are all of these lotions, potions, gels, sprays, deodorants, etc. really needed? I bet you can pare down to the bare necessities and save $$$ as well as chemicals on and in your body.

Good Skin Care Consists of:

• Whole Food Feeding your body to prevent skin diseases, rashes, aging (wrinkle), and pre-mature degeneration of the skin. If you understand these whole food principles... skip clicking on the link back there and move along.

• Whole Health Lifestyle Choices: Your skin is one of the first areas of the body to show signs of poor nutrition and lifestyle habits.  The advice about the link above is the same here... if you are well versed in whole health living just move along.

• Wise sun exposure. We need skin exposed to the sun to make Vitamin D. What we naturally make in our own skin is readily available for the body to use. Low quality Vit D supplements are not so easy for your body to use and add to toxic build up.

• Avoiding soap. I know, sorry on this one as I am certain I will be ruffling some feathers. Your skin has a slight acid mantle. This acidity is your first line of defense against foreign invaders (i.e. micro-organisms). Soap is alkaline. Soap on the skin changes the acid PH and decreases your skins immune function. Your skin has to work harder to repair this acid mantle. Keep soap out of the picture and you protect and assist your skin as it goes about the task of covering and protecting your beautiful body. On another note: the slightly acid mantle of the skin keeps bacteria at bay... natural zit protection. 

Occasional zits are one thing, acne is a whole other issue. Acne is a symptom of an unhealthy interior, poor food choices, a liver that is taxed and needs nourishing. 

Onto Teen Acne... (truly anyone's acne will benefit)

I cannot emphasize the need for real, whole, natural foods to care for teen acne (to care for everyone all the time). If a kid is eating junk food crap that food is what is creating their cellular health, every body cell, and the toxins in junk food are excreted through the skin (through your digestive tract and urinary tract as well). Unhealthy skin is a symptom of unhealthy diet and lifestyle.

Yes, kids will have some zits with the craziness of teen hormonal shifts and their growth spurts. Acne can be seriously diminished and also prevented by a healthy lifestyle. Healthy living also balances teen hormones so they are not so all over the place. Modern living and eating has wrecked havoc on human health, teens included. See good skin care recommendations above.

Using low dose anti-biotics and birth control pills to deal with teen acne is an attempt at quick fixes that has disastrous long term consequences: serious disruption of healthy gut microbes, anti-biotic resistant bacteria, nutritional deficiencies, and so much more. Teen's skin (and bodies) are so much healthier when we function from a space of natural healing and avoid caving to quick fix pharmaceuticals with long-term damaging effects.

Teen Medicinal Infusion (Herbal Tea) OR Tincture

To compliment a whole food diet clearing toxins from the body and helping to heal acne, you can make your own herbal tea or tincture. Teas are easy to make and use within 30 minutes. Tinctures take a month or so to prep but last years.

To properly make herbal teas, infusions, go to this link

A simple formula I made for my kids, when they were teens, is my Zit Zapper Potion.

• Red Clover for blood cleansing

• Burdock & Dandelion Roots for liver nourishment of the detoxification pathways

• Stinging Nettle Leaves for cell nourishment

• Milk Thistle Seeds for liver nourishment to build liver health

To make a tea, see link above, you will have to follow the instructions for a decoction when infusing the hard plant parts of the Burdock & Dandelion Roots & the Milk Thistle Seeds.

• I chop the roots into very small pieces and put them in the blender with the Thistle seeds. I blend quickly into rough chunky powder and then use for the decoction. I would chop 1 Tbsp of each of the 3 hard herb parts and make about 1/2 gallon of the tea.

• After VERY gently simmering the hard parts for 20 minutes or so, shut off heat under your pot. Add the tablespoon of Stinging Nettle leaves and tablespoon of Red Clover flowers. I have both of these measured out and ready in a bowl. I use my fingers to break them into smaller pieces before putting into the root / seed decoction.

• Once the soft plant parts are in the pot, stir gently, put pot cover back on, and let it sit and steep over night. The heat is off under the pot, no simmering of the soft plant parts.

• Strain & refrigerate. Squeeze all tea from the wet plant parts.

• Drink 2-3 cups daily. Measure out 6-8 ounces at a time, not a 12-16 oz. mug.

To make a tincture:

• have 2 tablespoons of each of the 5 herbs in this formula

• toss all into the blender and gently blend into soft, chunky powder

• add 8 ounces of organic 100 proof vodka to blender and swirl around to get the plant pieces off the sides of the blender pitcher. No wasting plants!

• Pour the plant vodka mixture into a pint or quart canning jar. Plastic lids work better than the 2 piece metal lids as the alcohol tends to eat up & rust the metal.

• Get all materials out of the blender

• label your jar with the herbs in it, date you made it, and the vodka you used. Store the bottle in a cupboard away from heat and light.

• gently swirl the contents every day for at least a month.

• After the month, carefully strain to preserve all of the liquid. Squeeze the herbs to get every last drop of your precious tincture.

• Store the finished bottle in a cupboard away from heat and light.

• Start of slowly taking 10 drops 2-3 times daily. After a week up to 20 drops 2-3 times a day. 3rd week: 30 drops 2-3 times a day. Skip one day a week. If some days you take twice and other days three times, that is perfect!

• Now if you want to get really fun, learn how to make tinctures with the phases of the Moon. Some are made from Full Moon to Full Moon, some from Dark New Moon to Dark New Moon. Herbal medicine making is a gift to your healing adventure.

Teen Skin Wash

Put into a clean 8 oz jar:

• 3/4 cup water

• 1-2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar (the raw, unfiltered variety)

• Optional: 1-2 drops of tea tree oil or oregano oil

• Keep cover on tightly

• Shake this jar well before using every AM & PM. Simply wet the corner of a thin cotton cloth (thick, fluffy wash clothes absorb too much of the liquid and waste it) and wipe across your entire face, neck, back, shoulders... wherever pimples plague you.

• If you are showering, shower before using this vinegar wash.  Splash your face with clean water, skip the soap, before applying if you are not showering. 

Another Homemade Product suggestion:  add 1 - 2 tbsp. of unrefined sea salt to above liquid and use as an underarm deodorant. The salt, vinegar, and essential oils work to prevent bacterial growth in your arm pits. Bacterial growth is what creates odor.  This will not prevent perspiring like antiperspirants do. Antiperspirants are a whole other toxin to learn about, consider not using, and get out of your life. Stopping a natural process, perspiring, is never a wise choice. Perspiring is one way your body rids itself of toxins. Having bowel movements is another. How healthy do you think you would be if you used a daily anti-BM pill? 

Questions, comments, some tried & true skin care thing you do? Please share in the comments.

More skin articles to read:

• Naked sun time

• Naked skin care: apple cider vinegar products that maintain your skin's acid mantle (yes, you can also make your own!)

• Secret face lift for making your own lotion

Stay tuned for next week's blog post on making your own natural sunscreen and anti-aging face cream.