What was important to me in starting the Ritual Botanicals line and my new business as a whole was to keep it real. What was I into? What life did I want to live, what mattered enough for me to put all of my energy into day in and day out? What would be beneficial to me as a physical product, and in general as a whole? What could I stand behind and what lifestyle did I want to live? What were my personal goals? I made a list of five categories that were important to me with small tasks on how I could get more of each realistically. Well my main category was Wellness #1.
And for me it was all about self healing, maintaining wellness and spreading what I’ve learned on my journey to recovery from ptsd and dissociative disorder. How could I calm my symptoms? I know there is no cure but there are ways to manage it and stay on the wellness side. Even if you don’t have a mental illness, stress wreaks havoc on your mind, body and entire system and I know we all have stress. The whole creative process has been healing in itself. In the process of self healing for me paramount was rituals; Developing rituals that helped me feel good on a daily basis. Baths became a ritual not only for the pain associated but time for me to relax and set my intentions.
As I experimented with different concoctions to make them do more for me, it healed my skin; stress really affects your your skin. It also helped my mind and my aches and pains. And as I started setting intentions, my mind started changing to embrace more positive thoughts as it does not understand don’t, shoulds or will nots, it gets Affirmative thoughts and these positive thoughts can actually change your cells in your body.
I came up with five intentions I set regularly; to HEAL, emotionally and physically, to LOVE (self love and remind myself of the love I have for others and others have for me), BANISH; negative feelings, negative vibes, negative thoughts and well negative skin, though I do not believe you can banish them all nor is it healthy to live an “only good vibes here” mentality but a good ol’ banishment or detox is needed sometimes to rid the things that do not serve you and you do not need. CALM, for those days I just needed to calm down, and EMPOWER to make my ideas a reality and to get back on the creative horse and start riding that wave like a friggin mermaid unicorn and going with the flow!
I started with the bath soaks, a do all, cure all salt blend and powder blend of colloidal oat and coconut milk powder that soothe the skin, fruit based citric acid to slough off dead skin cells and a tea for your tub using the healing powers of botanicals as they steep. The antioxidants in this are amazing for your skin and the aromatherapy helps you set a more powerful intention.
I’ve been developing the line further starting with the EMPOWER series with the empower candles. Light your candle, full your tub and set your intentions.
The moisturizing cream, an old fashioned thick repair salve; a blend of oat, hemp and calendula butter for very dry, distressed skin and you can use the excess on your hands to calm hair frizz or to make your legs shiny when going out in a dress.
And a room spray that doubles as a hair perfume or a beach waves texturizer with witch hazel said to help hair grow longer and healthier! And it’s all natural.
Empower being the most sensual of the line with uplifting amber, grounding sandalwood and healing calendula it’s my first to get its own roll on meditation perfume that’s become the signature scent that keeps selling out. It has coconut oil that moisturizers skin and is alcohol free so creates a lovely soft scent. This can be used as part of your ritual after your bath. 
