More Gorgeous Free Botanical Illustrations

Hello natural beauties and scent lovers from far and wide. I hope you’re all well and happy. The past couple of weeks I’ve written about beautiful free botanical illustrations from the 19th Century book by Kolher, and my free resource about essential oils and tarot. Continuing on from that theme I’d like to share another beautiful online resource for flora and fauna illustrations from the past. Alerted by a Facebook post, an article by mymodernmet.com, showed me to the flickr stream of the Biodiversity Heritage Library showing so many absolutely gorgeous illustrations. Check some out below. 

 

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Buy my 100% natural and organic botanical perfumes, and paperback book here: suzannerbanks.com.au

Digital downloads of my book Revelation! Reveal your Destiny with Essentials Oils:

Barnes & Noble      Booktopia AU      Amazon UK

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Myristica moschata – nutmeg and mace

Papaver rhoeas – poppy

Coffea arabica – coffee

Citrus limonum – lemon 

Citrus aurantium – bitter orange

Pinus laricio – Corsican pine

 

Phoenix dactylifera – dates

 

Viola tricolor – viola

Cucumis melo – musk melons like cantaloupe

Nymphaea nelumbo – lotus

 

Agericus campestrus – gilled mushrooms

 

I think I love the lotus the most. How about you?

 

My Fragrant Saigon – Vietnam Blog 1

Hello natural beauties for the next month I’ll be blogging from my phone while I travel Vietnam. Please forgive any typos or mistakes as it’s slightly more difficult doing this from a little device than it is from laptop. I’ll be searching for some fragrant moments for you and here is what I’ve found on my first few days …


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Buy my 100% natural and organic botanical perfumes, and paperback book here: suzannerbanks.com.au

Digital downloads of my book Revelation! Reveal your Destiny with Essentials Oils:

Barnes & Noble      Booktopia AU      Amazon UK

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The most aromatic moment so far has to be the Vietnamese coffee.  The robusta bean is mostly used which is more bitter than the arabica. Coffee culture is a serious thing here and being a diabetic vegan I have to drink it black without sugar – on ice! Iced coffee and iced tea are what most of the locals drink and I’m down with that because it’s soooooo hot! I’m surprised how much I love it!


Ca phe den da (iced black coffee) 


So many beautiful teas – literally dried flowers at the Ben Thanh Market






A little star jasmine flower on the streets of Saigon


A Vietnamese orange – the rind smells like a mix of mandarin and orange and the  fruit has a mild mandarin flavour.



Incense at the Buddhist Jade Pagoda was absolutely divine



Fragrant Lilies at the jade pagoda 



And finally a trip to Villa Royale Antiques and Tea Room for a fragrant jug of Iced Sillver Moon (peach) tea


I’ve loved my first few days in Vietnam in the beautiful city of Saigon.

Stay tuned for the next episode where I’ll be posting pics from the Mekong Delta and the beachy Nha Trang.

 

copyright-2017

It’s Easy to Make Your Own Body Scrub

Sneakily borrowed from iodizedsalt.india.com

It IS easy. I recommend using sea salt as a base and adding ingredients to that. Use fine grade as the coarse grade will scratch your skin.

If you are a lover of essential oils then try adding about 5 drops (or a few more) of the oils you choose, into 2 cups of salt and slosh in some oil to make a gooey, grainy paste. It can be olive oil, almond oil, coconut oil, sesame oil or anything you have in the cupboard. You could even try coconut milk or coconut cream to take you away on an island holiday in your mind.

Essential Oil Suggestions

Lemon – fresh wonderful scent, alpha hydroxyl acids to help get rid of dead skin

Orange – sweet and gorgeous and also has alpha hydroxyl acids to help get rid of dead skin

Lemongrass – invigorating

Lavender – an all purpose oil which helps skin regeneration and is fortify to the spirit

Peru balsam – great for the skin and has an amazing soft honey-like scent, similar benzoin in it’s healing ability

You can use any oil really so go with your intuition and your vibe. You will be giving yourself a skin scrub and an aromatherapy treatment to nurture your emotions and ease toxic thoughts.

The best way to do your body scrub is in a bath. After a 5 minute soak, stand up in the bath and scrub each part of your body with care. You are not trying to scrub oil off a baking pan so take it easy. The salt is the medium that will ease off old skin so don’t press too hard. After you have completed your ritual you can then soak in the treatment until your heart’s content – or until you get all pruney. If you only have a shower like me, wet yourself first, do the scrub, then shower off.

Get Creative

Cinnamon

This is the fun part. There are so many things you probably have in the house that could turn your salt scrub into a tropical delight. Try:

A teaspoon of vanilla extract

A few tablespoons of almond meal will make the scrub a little milky and leave your skin feeling soft

Grated lemon rind – or the rind of any citrus fruit will really make your scrub zesty, natural and alive with energy.

A tablespoon of coffee – some claim it helps get rid of cellulite and while I’m not sure about that, it will stimulate your skin and your senses

Herbal tea – either grind up a loose leaf tea or rip open a teabag and use the contents

Go on give it a whirl at Spa You. You don’t have to travel very far and it wont cost a fortune. Good luck my friends, scrub on.