The Heart of The Matter - Organic Skin Care is Better

Did you know that there is a profound difference between organic, food grade ingredients and cosmetic grade cosmeceuticals?

Organically grown plants and oils, cold processed for food consumption are holistic by nature and their minimal processing allows substance integrity (literally the heart of the matter) to remain intact and vital. These substances nourish and better absorb into the skin because their molecular structure has not been disturbed and hardened through high temperature refining, bleaching, decolorization, standardization, etc. as are many cosmetic grade ingredients. Commercial over-processing of ingredients results in a less expensive, devitalized substance, and though not optimal for the skin, renders a longer shelf life, an essential feature when mass market saturation is the driving force.

Starflower Essentials assures skin vitality and organic beauty. At the heart of Starflower's preparations are rare extracts of organically grow/wild-crafted medicinal plants, food grade plant oils and waxes, flower waters, aloe vera, rare essential oils and a myriad of other special ingredients, chosen for their harmonizing effect on the skin. Each of our ingredients separately, could be considered a "wonder" ingredient, and marketed as the core of a product line. Our formulas are produced in small, frequent bathces to deliver potency and freshness to you, the conscious consumer, whose skin knows and shows the difference! And remember, the most vital skin care in the world is organic and food grade!

*The average shelf life of our products is 1-1/2 years from date of manufacture and a healthy 8 month vitality quotient once the product is opened.

Starflower Healing Salves and Body Powder

Our premium healing salves and body powders are hand made from medicinal grade, organic or wild-crafted essential oils and herbs. Masterfully synergized formulas are designed for fast, healing effectiveness.

Starflower Healing Hot Ice and Herba Salves

Starflower's Body Salves are organic, medicinal grade, handmade, and effective. Whether it be a rash, irritation, scar, or sprain, our Body Salves will help to soothe, reduce inflammation, and relieve pain. They are also useful for those suffering from arthritis or stiff joints.

Our premium quality Body Salves are handmade from medicinal-grade organic essential oils and organic or wild-crafted herbs. These masterfully synergized formulas are designed for fast relief from a variety of ailments ranging from chapped lips to sprained ankles. Ingredients such as arnica and St. John's wort make Starflower's Body Salves naturally effective. They are available in two varieties, Herba Salve and Hot Ice. 

Herba Salve

Starflower's Herba Salve is an all around healing salve for all manners of skin conditions such as red, irritated and inflammed skin. Herba Salve is also effective in the treatment of rashes, minor burns, scars, eczema, insect bites and chapped lips. Our healing slave is also excellent as a shaving aid. Apply to legs after shaving or waxing to quickly soothe and relieve any redness or irritation.

Hot Ice

Hot Ice is an analgesic healing salve to help you transcend the pain of injury. It also gives effective relief from arthritic joint pain and stiffness. Hot Ice contains herbal extracts and essential oils of comfrey, ginger, arnica, horsetail, goldenseal, cajeput, benzoin, peppermint, clove an black pepper.

Herbal Body Powder

Starflower's Herbal Body Powder is an organic skin care must. Highly absorbent herbal powders such as yarrow, marshmallow, rosemary and lavender smell wonderful and feel silky smooth on the skin. This all herbal body powder will absorb excess moisture, relieve itchy skin, deodorize, keep feet dry and help with oily scalp and hair.

For more information on Starflower Healing Salves and Body Powders, please visit our website. You can also reach us on Facebook and Twitter or through Email.

Keeping Your Skin Youthful

Not too long ago I was reading a testimonial that we have in our Starflower brochure that we send out to our retail and spa clients. As the Social Media director for Starflower Essentials, I read several reviews and testimonials of our products every day, but this one got me to thinking and it got me thinking hard. If you have a brochure it is on the bottom of page seven and if you don't, I will post it now.

I'm into all organic, but I've never tried anything so vital. I'm 64 years old and your products have made such a difference. I think every young woman using your products could really keep their skin youthful and beautiful on through mature age. - Rosy L., Phoenix, AZ

I'm 27 years old, about to turn 28 and after reading this testimonial, it got me to thinking about how I've treated my skin since my teenage years. Although the days of using Noxema and Oxy-something or another are quite a ways behind me (along with the teenage angst and glitter nails), I realized that even as I have aged, my skin still wasn't being treated with the care it deserved.

For the past 5 or so years I had fallen into a routine of a simple drug store cleanser that I could pick up on the fly, a department store toner which made me cringe every time I smelled it and a bottle of moisturizer that has been labeled liquid gold. I would occasionally exfoliate and get a facial here and there or when my husband surprised me with a gift certificate. I wasn't overly concerned with my skin, therefore I wasn't treating the issues that were popping up with my skin: aging, pregnancy, rosacea, dryness, etc. I also wasn't paying much attention to the chemicals that were going onto my skin either.

A few years ago, I met Cherylyn Van Kirk, the owner of Starflower Essentials through my husband. She was so passionate about skin care and I got to see all of the effort and thought that she puts into her products. Yes, I have seen the exclusive expert formulation that goes into Starflower products and let me tell you... WOW!! But, even after meeting the Beauty Guru herself, it still wasn't enough to wake me up to pay attention to my skin.

Last year I was having a lot of health issues and skin reactions. Unable to handle the rashes and stomach issues any longer, my husband convinced me to go to the doctor. After a nice round of tests which involved lots of needles, we had our answer. I was allergic to gluten!

Out went everything gluten in our house and that included makeup, skin care products and bath products. There are some people that will say that the gluten in beauty products isn't enough to worry about, but for me it was better to just toss it out and start fresh.

I was lucky, shortly after our findings, that we were headed to Florida. I stopped in to see Cherylyn at her new Spathecary and had a nice long chat about my skin care routine. She gave me tons of literature, not only on her products but on the dangers of the chemicals in beauty products and their effects on the skin. It only took me a day or so to get back to her and when I did, I walked out of the Spathecary with a lovely bag of Starflower gluten-free products and a job. :)

The first time I used my 5 Steps to Organic Skincare Kit, I was hooked. My skin felt amazing, not only texture wise but supple wise. Fast forward to now (6 months) later and my skin looks ten years younger (no joke) and is brighter and shining! People that I haven't seen in a year or so actually ask me if I've had cosmetic surgery! Thanks to Rosacea Clear I am now able to skip foundations and powders to cover up redness! With my Bright Eyes Regenerative Eye Gel I was able to throw out my concealer. Most importantly though is that I know what's going onto my skin. I feel safe knowing that there are no chemicals in my beauty products. I guess the way I should put it is that I feel safe knowing that my 4 year old daughter could eat it without any type of side effect whatsoever (maybe a bad taste in her mouth).

I now wonder how my skin would be today if I had known about Starflower Essentials when I was younger.  Could I have skipped all of the weird rashes on my skin? Would the crows feet around my eyes now be less noticeable if I had taken the time to educate myself on skincare? The possibilities are endless!

I urge you to educate others, especially younger women about the chemical dangers in beauty products. I urge you to share your knowledge of Organic Skin Care with those around you. If you would like information to share with others or to re-educate yourself, visit our website, Facebook, Twitter or even email us  with any questions or concerns.

Nourish your skin, protect it! It's the only set of skin that you will have.


*Starflower Exfoliants and Bath Emulsions do contain a small amount of organic wheat. Cherylyn assures that it will not effect those with Gluten Sensitivities and I can agree!.

All Natural Fragrances For Your Home

At Starflower, we love the smell of the holiday season and how it can transport us! There are so many scents out there for sale that try and replicate the warmth of the season, but they don't last and most of them contain dangerous hormone-altering chemicals. At Starflower, we are always aware of what goes into the products we buy and how they can impact our health. To avoid nasty chemicals we like to create our own holiday scents using a simmer pot. 

You don't need to go out and buy a simmer pot, although there are some simply gorgeous ones out there, like this lovely one from Claire Burke. If you don't want to spend anything, you can use an older pot on the stove that you don't mind getting messy, an old crockpot, or a ceramic bowl on your radiator (not recommended if you have children in the home). 

There is a lot that you can put into your simmer pot to get that lovely holiday smell to permeate through your house. Most of the ingredients, you will find, you already have in your home. We like to use pine needles from the tree, evergreen sprigs, essential oils, cinnamon sticks, apple rinds, orange rinds and cloves to achieve that warming holiday scent. 

To get your pot together, fill your container of choice about halfway with water. Next add your ingredients and set the temperature on a low setting. Don't let your pot get too hot or it will burn and make not only for nasty clean up, but a bad, lingering smell as well. When your water and ingredients warm up, the scent should start filling your home with warming scent that is sure to make you sigh with content. Be sure to check your simmer pot throughout the day to make sure that your water hasn't evaporated away. 

Simmer pots also make for a wonderful humidifier. The steam that rises from your pot will help rid your home of horrible dryness that comes from the heating of your home through radiators and heaters. 

For more recipes on simmer pots, you can find them here and here. For quality 100% organic essential oils, visit our website. 

Do any of you use simmer pots? Do you have any recipes you would like to share?

Happy Holidays from Starflower Essentials

Star Flower Christmas Card

The Therapeutic Use of Essential Oils

"The way to health is to have an aromatic bath and scented massage everyday" thus spoke Hippocrates, the father of medicine, as far back as the fourth century B.C.. He reported then that the medicinal and healing qualities of essential oils protect the body from contagious disease and other spirits.

Synergy
Today we know that essential oils consist of chemical compounds that have hydrogen, carbon and oxygen as their building blocks. these can be subdivided into two groups: the hydrocarbons, which consist almost exclusively of terpenes, (monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and diterpenes); and the oxygenated compounds, mainly esters, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, phenols and oxides; acids, lactones, sulfur and nitrogen compounds are sometimes also present. It is worth mentioning here that whole natural essences are found to be more active than their principle constituents. Moreover, those constituents which form a smaller percentage of the whole essential oil are found to be more active than the principle constituent (an excellent example of synergy).

Natural Affinity
The blood and essential oils have a natural affinity for each other and are therefore very compatible. One could imagine that the spirit in the blood and the spirit in the plant enter into a polite and loving conversation, whereby the oil asks where it can best serve the body. The red carpet rolls out and off it goes to areas where it is most needed. There are seven areas of influence that essential oils have on the body. They are: skin, circulatory, respitory, digestive, genito-urinary, immune, nervous.

Immune System
Because essential oils are so small molecularly, they have the ability to enter the blood stream via the skin and lungs, carrying valuable nutrients to every cell in the body, increasing cellular vitality and delivering valuable support to the immune system. In essential oils we find trace elements of nutrients, hormones, enzymes, minerals, antibodies, and anti fungal, antibacterial, anti-infectious, antiseptic and immune-stimulating properties.

Three Modes of Action
It is also important to recognize that essential oils have three distinct modes of action within the human body:
Pharmacological-  concerned with the chemical changes that take place when an essential oil enters the blood stream and reacts with the body's hormones and enzymes, etc.
Physiological- concerned with the way an essential oils effects the various systems of the body, namely the seven systems listed above, and the physical changes that are brought about.
Psychological- effect takes place on the emotional level of the body, which has to do with moods and states of mind.

Have you ever experienced an aversion to a particular essential oil but with another oil you cannot get enough of the scent? Never under estimate the power of the nose. By your sense of smell, your nerve-sense faculty lets you know which oils will be most therapeutic and beneficial to the body - physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Furthermore, a scent can transport you, by associative memory, to a past experience when the same scent was present. Whether the experience was pleasant or not will influence how you feel when you smell the scent again. To change an undesirable response you can repeatedly smell the scent under different circumstances to have your desired emotional response. It wasn't until 1989 when it was discovered that a part of the brain, the amygdala, plays a major role in storing and releasing emotional trauma and only odor stimulation has a profound effect in triggering a response with this gland.

To have an inkling of just how complex our sense of smell really is, the nose and brain have the capacity to detect a hundred thousandth of a millionth of a gram of aroma substance. In each nostril there are 400 million nerve endings concentrated in an area the size of a tiny button each side behind the bridge of the nose, under the brain. The micro-fine, vaporized oil particles are received by the olfactory hair like nerves and transported to the olfactory bulb. The impulses are then carried to the limbic system and olfactory sensory center at the base of the brain and then the amygdala, which is the memory center for fear and trauma. The impulses the travel to the gustatory center where the sensation of taste is perceived.

Indeed when you say, "This tastes good," it would be more accurate to say, "This smells good," because your taste buds can only distinguish between salty, sweet, bitter and sour, while your sense of smell is at least ten thousand times more sensitive. It's your nose which distinguishes between mango's and limes- not your good taste!

Essential oils are extracted from plant material by two main methods: expression by pressure as in citrus rind oils such as lemon and bergamot (it is advisable to choose only organically grown citrus oils to avoid pesticides in the peel). The second method is by steam distillation, which isolates by heat only the volatile and water insoluble parts of a plant. The remaining flower contains often valuable water-soluble constituents such as tannis, mucilage and bitters and is sold commercially to the food and skin care industry.



For all its ancient origins and modern research, essential oil therapy, popularly called aromatherapy, is still in its infancy. Fortunately, more and more people are taking their health into their own hands and turning to a much more holistic approach, using essential oils for healing and self health care. The many uses of essential oils include air diffusion, bath therapy, body massage, face care and in certain cases, internal use.

Cherylynn Van Kirk
CEO Starflower Essentials

For more information on Essential oils and our ingredients list, please visit us at http:www.starflower.com.