Something Delicious, something Beautiful and something Vibrant.

We've all experienced that dull, lackluster feeling our skin can take on during winter months. But instead of reaching for yet another intensive scrub or mask, try incorporating dry body brushing into your routine for natural, long-lasting skin improvements.

This simple technique has been used for centuries across various wellness practices to supports detoxification, circulation and cell turnover. By gently sweeping a natural bristle brush across your skin each day, you can reveal a naturally glowing complexion. Curious to learn more? Read on for all the skin-loving benefits of dry brushing.

How it Works

Dry brushing helps stimulate your lymphatic system, which plays a key role in waste removal and return of fluids back to the circulatory system. By sweeping the brush towards your heart, you're helping this network properly drain toxins and fluids that can lead to cellulite, bloating and skin dullness when stagnant.

The bristles also function as a physical exfoliant, sweeping away dead surface skin cells to reveal smoother skin underneath. This improves skin appearance while allowing products to better absorb to nourish your whole epidermis.

Better yet, some report it provides a relaxing effect too. Incorporating a few minutes of conscious brush strokes into your daily routine can help unwind tension and boost both blood flow and that gorgeous innerskin glow we all want.

Try It For Yourself

To experience these skin perfecting benefits, invest in a high-quality natural bristle brush. We love our 100% sustainable Wooden Body Brush for its soft touch and ability to massage away dry flakes without irritation.

Simply sweep the brush in long upwards and circular motions with dry skin, starting from your toes up towards your heart. Feel free to apply a natural oil after for added nourishment.

Do you want silky smooth skin from head to toe this season? Discover radiance from the inside out with daily dry brushing. Shop our Wooden Body Brush and experience a simple way to better beauty from the skin out.

I was given this recipe quite a few years back by a friend. Well actually I had one of her freshly made biscuits and demanded that I have the recipe. These biscuits are just how I like them, firm, crunchy, nutty and Moorish. They satisfy all your craving requirements, yet they are really wholesome.

If you use good quality ingredients, there’s no guilt at all involved. I’d suggest using organic ingredients where possible, especially the grains. I use spelt here as spelt is an ancient grain and much easier to digest than modern day wheat. It imparts a beautiful nutty flavour all on it’s own. If you cannot tolerate wheat, you could use buckwheat flour instead. I use buckwheat flower in most recipes to reduce the gluten load and sensitivity that it can cause.

Aluminium free baking powder is also easy to find, especially in health food shops. Most people don’t realise that they add aluminium to baking powder to prevent caking. We certainly don’t need to be eating heavy metals as these accumulate in the cells.

Maple syrup and the coconut oil combined, act as wetting agents to hold the mixture together and impart a beautiful natural sweetness to the mixture.

Don’t be tempted to use crap chocolate chips. Source at least 70% chocolate from a good supplier, it is well worth it. Flavour is better and you won’t be ingesting toxic fats. 

These biscuits keep well in a sealed glass jar for a couple of weeks. If they last that long. Enjoy!

Ingredients & Method

1 ½ cups rolled oats

1 cup almonds

1 cup plain spelt flour

¼ teaspoon aluminium free baking powder

1 cup good quality chocolate chips 70% cocoa

½ cup coconut oil (melted)

½ cup maple syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius
2. Spread oats onto a baking tray and bake for 5 mins, remove to let cool
3. Do the same for the almonds
4. Put oats into a food processor and grind to a course meal, place into a mixing bowl.
5. Roughly grind the almonds and add to the oat mixture
6. Add all other dry ingredients
7. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well
8. Form into balls and place onto a lined baking tray, flatten and bake for 10-15mins or until golden.
9. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before eating.

The arrival of spring brings with it warmer weather and longer days. The bitter bite of winter air seems to be waning and the urge to get something lighter on or even stripping down to the bikini top seems to be the trend.

Throughout winter the skin needs more love in the form of hydration, to keep from drying out and going scaly. This is because the humidity drops in winter and humidity is like an external hydrator. Think of tropical weather, you can barely keep dry as the moisture in the air is so high that you sweat. This is the humidity. Similarly, in winter when the humidity drops, so does the moisture in our skin, cue crocodile skin.

Have you ever looked in the mirror in winter and thought that you have aged 10 years?!!! Whereas in summer, you might notice that you have a lovely dewy complexion which brings about confidence.

As the earth tilts on its axis the sun gets higher in the sky, we know we are on our way back to gorgeous skin. Here’s what we can do to transition through the seasons.

It may take a few attempts to recover from the reptilian look but by adopting a few tricks you can speed up the process.

Water - In winter we need water more than ever but rarely drink the required amount. As it warms up it is easier to guzzle down a little extra.

The best tip I have is to fill the desired amount into bottles and have them on your bench. That way you have a visual cue to grab one and drink it down. Rather than leaving it until the end of the day and then trying to “cram in” your water only to be up all night peeing.

I like to have 2L at least, ready to go.

Within this blog post, we will focus on the body and later go deeper with facial skincare.

Exfoliation and Moisturisation - Now is the time to start your exfoliation regime. If you have neglected the body during winter, the warmer weather will surely inspire you to get your skates on. 

Dead skin needs to be removed otherwise you are just moisturising dead skin. Dead is dead and there’s no way of bringing it back. Think about a dead plant. You can’t water it back to life. You’d look like a fool watering something that is beyond repair.

Here’s an easy DIY recipe to shed away those winter scales and reveal a softer dewier complexion. 

• 1 cup natural sea salt or granulated sugar (or ½ of each)
• ½ cup cold-pressed oil
• 6-8 drops of essential oil
• 1 Tablespoon of honey (optional)

I could go on and on with other ingredients but for now, let’s start with something really simple.

Method

1. Mix your choice of salt or sugar or both into a clean bowl, 
2. Add the honey if using and then pour in the oil
3. Add you're essential oils. Now, these are optional and your skin may be sensitive to pure oils. 
4. Mix it all together and scoop into a clean glass jar, ready for use.

Note: Only use pure cold-pressed oil and not vegetable oil from the supermarket. These oils are hydrogenated and toxic. Olive oil is the cheapest good quality oil but it's strong in aroma and quite heavy in consistency. It’s great for really dry skin. I love avocado and grapeseed oil, both easy to find.

Honey is a humectant. Meaning it attracts moisture to the skin and smells delicious.

Salt is great to use and cheap. Only pure salt once again, not table salt which is full of anti-caking agents. The only drawback with salt is if you have a cut - ouch!!

Sugar won’t sting but may dissolve in the mixture over time. Because this recipe is only enough for a couple of uses, there’s no risk of that happening.

Use the mixture by scooping some out and rubbing it all over the body in gentle circular motions, concentrating on the thigh area for promoting circulation. Rinse away or submerge yourself into the bath. Once you finish, gently pat the skin dry to avoid removing all the oil. We want the oil to moisturise the skin.

Repeat a few times a week and you will soon start to notice beautiful soft, healthy-looking skin.

With COVID in full swing I had plenty of time to ponder the future. All of a sudden, no-one had any certainty in their lives, and nobody knew what lay ahead. For the first time ever, we all seemed to be in the same boat, and we all were back at the start of the race.

 As events started to unfold, I sat back and watched what was going on in the world and more closely in my home town. Toilet paper ran out and things like sanitisers became scarce. This opened a door of opportunity and I jumped onto it. I started to make sanitiser for the local community from resources that I already had and blended a delightful essential oil blend with (WHO standards) alcohol. People were coming to the door or (fence) in droves to get their hands on my protective blend and I finally had a job to do in the face of the crisis.

As restrictions started to ease within the state, people were coming back to the area to visit after being in lock-down for so long. This was a blessing to us as just before COVID, we were ravaged by the bushfires at Christmas, so businesses had already taken a huge hit to the pocket, as we missed summer trade.

As I sat and observed what was happening over a couple of months, I had the strongest urge to move my home-based-business to a larger space and get in front of all these people that were pouring into town every week.

Things were still a little bit dicey as Victoria went into full lock-down, but the urge was as strong as ever.

I decided to take the plunge and rent a space in Milton. I spoke with the land lord about my desire to open a beauty space and set the wheels in motion. Milton is the place to be. It’s a quaint country village with a pulsing atmosphere, good coffee, food and retail. Since the bushfires, the town has grown considerably and it seems, that everyone wants a piece of it.

The plan was to set up a lab/workspace in the back half of the shop and put a few things on the shelve to help cover the rent. As things started to unfold and the building was getting underway, I realised that this space needed more than just a few things on the shelves. It needed a heartbeat of it’s own. It needed to shine. The Delicious Vibrant Beauty, botanical beauty and wellness store was born.

With years of working as a health coach and yoga teacher tied with 20 years experience in concocting cosmetics, I felt that everything was finally coming together. I now had a space to educate people on healthy living while providing products to compliment those lifestyle choices. The inner beauty world and out beauty had finally come together in one beautiful space.

As this was the beginning of December, I didn’t have much time to secure accounts with brands that I loved in order to get the shelves full for Christmas trade. I knew it was going to be a race to the finish line, just to be ready. Along with that, I still had to make all of my own products and get them on the shelves as well.

Luckily, I had an amazing cabinet maker (my ex-husband) who worked tirelessly to get the cabinetry done and my clever daughter who designed all of the shelving and styled the shop. I couldn’t have done it without them both. The combined effort was huge and something we are all proud of.

One month into the shop I am happy today that things are going along nicely. I survived the Christmas rush and now pacing nicely through summer. My biggest concern was not having enough stock as suppliers shut down over Christmas and into the new year. Good news is I think I will make it through until I can order again.

What I have learnt from this experience is that I was always capable of achieving this but never willing to put myself forward. Since I made that decision to open the store, I told myself and others that “There is no such thing as fail in my vocabulary.” I truly believed it and never once doubted myself. Being a single mum with one income coming into the house, puts you into a situation of sink or swim and I was never going to sink.

Plans for the year are very exciting. The shop has given me even more confidence on what is possible for the future. I plan to launch a new line of products that really tie in my experience on inner beauty with the outer beauty world. Think superfoods, broccoli, kale, collagen, polyphenols. I want a range that really encompasses wholefoods and blends it with outer beauty. The wheels are in motion and I look forward to sharing what we have coming.

We plan to launch and focus on our online platform to inspire and educate the audience on the brands philosophy about health and wellness. Beauty is not found at the end of a bottle, it’s the culmination of good food, pure water and air, nourishing relationships, movement and mindset. Beauty has many facets and I look forward to sharing my knowledge with our community.

Welcome to Delicious Vibrant Beauty. xxx

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