Little luxuries

The horizontal rain pelted the windows last night to the point where I thought it would break them.  There was a puddle on the kitchen counter because somehow the roof over the kitchen leaks in eastern winds.  This truly is not my time of the year.  By January my body has finally succumbed to the oppression of the dark, refusing to wake up and generally behaves like a teenager.  I have learned to give it space and wait it out patiently.  I don't expect to be as energetic as at other times and find that this time is more bearable if I try to pamper myself.

One of the things that I like to do at this time of the year, apart from sleeping late, is to use all the herbs and plants that I collected over the previous summer.  I have a lot dried herbs and I make my own herbal mixtures and put them in capsules.  I make up my own mixes in attempts to inject some herbal goodness into my body.  Some of my dried flowers get used on top of soaps, at least before Christmas and my infused oils get used in creams and lotion.  But since I haven't had the energy to do much more than my weekly yoghurt and sourdough bread I started to use the oil as they are.  And I really like them like that.

I am especially thrilled with the Rumex oil that I infused late last fall.  It is the most perfect dark golden yellow and smells lovely.  I use it at night on my face and neck.  The yellow colour is very strong and even if I spread it out there is a bit of a yellow tinge to my skin.  I am convinced that it is an excellent anti oxidant and it really does make my skin feel very nice.  Remarkably my pillow doesn't get stained and my husband hasn't made a comment yet.  I have never had dry skin, so I was a bit surprised how much I like to use the oils on my face.

For the daytime I tend to use the Yarrow oil.  Yarrow is one the traditional medicinal herbs and is wonderful for the skin.  Even if the oil is slightly green, it doesn't color my face at all.  Both of those are infused in Olive oil.  I find that it just glides on my face really smoothly and absorbs quite quickly.  I use mineral make up and find that occasionally it can sometimes look a bit dry when first applied.  Now I usually mix it with oil to make a kind of make up and apply it that way.  It gives a nice dewy finish.

The last of my oils is the Rose oil.  I actually have a Rose oil infused in both Olive oil and Peach kernel oil.  Infused three or four times, the oils really get a good rose scent.  The one I'm using now is the Peach Kernel oil and I like that as a body oil after bath.  It really makes spring seem just around the corner then I emerge from the bath all dewy soft and smelling like a bed of roses in the dead of winter.