Move Over Dr. Hauschka!

Natural Face Products Workshop

Having perused the Bristol Folk House website for inspiration I decided to go 'au naturel' with the Natural Face Products Workshop. I arrived after a stressful Tuesday afternoon to the calming aromas of lavender and rosemary, ahhh that's lovely, that is, headache disappearing. Laid out on the table in the centre of the room were apples, bananas, spinach & mint - among other foodstuffs. I wondered, firstly, if I had walked in on a cooking class and, secondly, why I had not eaten dinner?!!

The workshop was run by Claire Day, a wonderfully serene lady with immaculate skin. Nice one I thought, good sign, (not like when you have your hair done by someone with 'flock of seagulls' hair and you get a bit nervous) I was in good hands here. Claire went on to tell us how the natural ingredients that we all have in our kitchens can make fantastic beauty products, while saving waste. If you have something going off in your fridge, whack it in the blender and slap it on your face for a nice relaxing mask. Hmmm, all I could think of here was the lonely red pepper and half jar of wholegrain mustard I had knocking about in mine - note to self, go shopping.

So we started off with a Honey & Banana Face Mask. Making this reminded me of preparing my nephew's lunch, however this was destined to be slathered all over my face....wait, no, still rather like nephew's lunch. Maybe this is the reason why a baby's skin is so soft! So back to the banana mush, I mean, mask. I had a little try, slapped that bad boy on and waited for youthful skin to emerge. Verdict was that my face certainly felt like it was being treated but that banana was a bugger to get off! Next came the Rose Water Moisturiser. Now, this surprised the hell out of me. It was so simple to make! And there I was, just a few weeks before, queueing up & waiting to part with £16 for a tiny tube of gunk that claimed to restore all sorts of abbreviated nutrients to my skin (science was never my forté). This homemade moisturiser took minutes, was all natural and could be tailored with a few drops of essential oil to whatever you want it to be. I made a marjoram and rosemary face cream and a peppermint foot cream, flippin' lovely.

Added to these products was a Green Honey Mask (which looked rather like a soup recipe I've tried), exfoliating Baking Soda Facial Scrub (so easy I almost let out a little yelp) & Apple & Lavender Facial Toner. With the varying properties of oils & fruits, these products can be altered to make whatever you require, ie spot zapping/cellulite kapowing/dryness busting moisturiser.

After this workshop my fridge will be extra stocked with all sorts of concoctions (just hope they don't get spread on flatmate's toast) while my wallet will be a little fuller, not to mention that emergence of youthful skin, hoorah!

http://www.bella-bees.co.uk
http://www.bristolfolkhouse.co.uk
Image © Sinead Millea

Oh, To Be A Mystic, Loving, Queen Warrior!

The Inner Goddess Workshop

This month, Sinéad Nua has brought me to The Inner Goddess Workshop at the Bristol Folk House. I thought, "Ey up (evidently I've turned Yorkshire all of a sudden), haven't heard of this before" so what better reason to try it out? I had no idea what to expect but, boy, was I surprised....pleasantly.

I arrived on a meltingly hot Saturday morning to be greeted by a cheery lady, we'll call her C. 10am arrived along with all of the 13 people booked in, it's a popular workshop so even the 27 degree heat didn't keep them away. I figured this was a positive sign. We began by introducing ourselves and C explained The Great Goddess in Neolithic culture. I'll spare you the details and my typing fingers by giving you the brief run down...
In neolithic times the feminine was revered, women were very powerful, eg giving life & holding intuitive knowledge (without the accusation of being dramatic and emotional, sounds flippin' wonderful doesn't it?!) These matriarchal societies had no weapons, they were peaceful and rational (yes, that's right boys, rational). However the warlike invasion of the modern religions changed all that. The Goddess culture was overthrown, women were vilified and regarded as unclean. Male Gods were worshipped and the rest is (bloody) history.

Some believe that the Goddesses exist in all of us, we each have a Goddess type but not all of us acknowledge her. I can sense the tuts and eyes being raised to heaven as I type but stay with me for a moment. You've heard of personality types right? Well, this is similar. There are four Goddess archetypes and we each have one or more of them in our personalities - Lover, Mystic Maiden, Warrior & Queen. The weakest Goddess in us is called the Missing Goddess and she must not remain neglected! Depending on the archetype and the qualities of the Missing Goddess, there are ways to call her forth. If you're still not with me, they sound like a fun girly night in at least.

So, back in the room, C distributed a Goddess Type Indicator Quiz (© Sharon Turnbull). Some were surprised to see the results. For the record I'm equally Mystic Maiden & Queen and a little bit Warrior. I'm working on the Lover ;)
It was an interesting exercise in recognising qualities in ourselves that we should be proud of, and also, the ones we need to improve on to be more balanced and fulfilled. I'm still to be educated on the spiritual side of this but the personality type bits really rang through for me. It was a wonderful way to get to know myself a bit more. I may or may not find the answers to life's questions by burning incense and candles but referring to this quiz every now and then will surely point out what side of me is being neglected and we all deserve time spent on ourselves right?

Whether or not you think this is hippy nonsense you can't deny there's something there we can all take from it. So I'll leave you with this, "Achieving psychological maturity requires that we reclaim this missing Goddess. To be whole - and thus fulfilled - we must acknowledge those traits we rejected and integrate them into our lives." (C. Campbell). See you at Glastonbury Tor for the next full moon?

http://www.bristolfolkhouse.co.uk/

Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Swifnf.jpg