Aron - Fresh & pure: organically crafted beauty balms & cleansers

ALSO BY JULES ARON Zen and Tonic: Savory and Fresh Cocktails for the Enlightened DrinkerVegan Cheese: Simple, Delicious, Plant-Based RecipesNourish & Glow: Naturally Beautifying Foods & Elixirs In the vastness and beauty of nature,
heres to rekindling our love affair with green living
and rediscovering our own powerful brand
of beauty.

Living in a modern world, with state-of-the-art technological advancements promising youth and beauty with every jar, treatment, or injection, it is easy to understand how weve moved so far away from simple holistic herbal practices. But it is also easy to see that we feel better when we rely on real food, spend lots of time outdoors, and bring elements of nature into our daily lives. Our plant world has bestowed on us an incredible array of fruits, herbs, seeds, and flowers that have been used for generations for improved authentic beauty and well-being. Whole foods and botanicals are nourishing, pampering, cleansing, and balancing. In Fresh & Pure, well nourish our skin with the same loving care we use to prepare our meals in Nourish & Glow.

Together well explore holistic self-care rituals and rediscover natural beauty products for a beautiful, vibrant body and soul. Embrace the ideas on these pages and have fun rediscovering your true beauty with simple, wholesome body care recipes and the many wellness inspirations peppered throughout this book. May this collection help us rethink our routines, seek out better habits, refresh our outlooks, and reconnect with nature and our true beautiful selves.

Our skin is a living system that includes the hair, nails, glands, and receptors. It performs nine essential functions for our body: Excretes salt, water, and toxins through sweat Protects from physical, chemical, and biological damage Regulates moisture Responds to heat, cold, pain, and pleasure Helps maintain a steady temperature Prevents mineral loss Converts sun rays into vitamin D3 Metabolizes fat Secretes sebum It is also the largest organ of the body, capable of absorbing topical products directly into the bloodstream. The truth is, many of the ingredients in commercial beauty products just arent that pretty.

With weak regulations and the FDAs limited role, personal care products are laden with industrial chemicals, including carcinogens, pesticides, reproductive toxins, and hormone disruptors. We have been led to believe that the more it foams, the more it cleans; the more slippery it feels, the more hydrating it must be; the more we lather on, the more effective it will be. Yet cheap and easy ingredients, such as alcohol, sodium laureth sulfate, and mineral oil, which give us the sensation of being clean and moisturized, are the very same ingredients that slow the skins ability to create healthy cells and strip it of its natural moisture. It is time to take back our glow. By returning to nature and simplifying our beauty routine, we can begin to make better choices.

The Pretty Zen philosophy is deeply rooted in finding, balancing, and maintaining wholesome beauty in a modern world.

Part philosophy, part lifestyle, Pretty Zen takes natural healing modalities, Eastern philosophies, integrative nutrition, and an overall holistic approach to well-being and applies them to a modern way of life. It is a natural outlook with an underlying belief that there may be no greater pursuit than a life well loved. The following beauty lifestyle elements are at the core of the Pretty Zen philosophy. Incorporating these in the form of personal wellness practices will nurture your lasting beauty.

Satisfying our daily nutrition and hydration needs is essential for our beauty and health. It is important to discover our own individual dietary needs.

For recipe inspiration and more on essential nutritional needs, please pick up Nourish & Glow, the sister book to this one.

Our bodies thrive on movement, yet we all require different types of exercise and these needs may change over time. Its simply a matter of finding the right option for you. Stay open-minded and youll find a routine that will nourish you on a regular basis. When it comes to your beauty routine, sleep may be the closest thing to a fountain of youth. The quality of our relationships greatly influences the quality of our lives. The quality of our relationships greatly influences the quality of our lives.

It is important to cultivate healthy, loving relationships that support our individual needs, wants, and desires.

There is something very nourishing about feeling deeply connected: feeling the vastness when looking up at the sky, the sense of the infinite when sitting by the ocean, and taking the time to reconnect with our natural surroundings can all bring us great peace and nurture our well-being. Armed with a well-stocked beauty apothecary and a few simple techniques, youre ready to elevate your beauty care regimen to glowing proportions. Aloe vera: Anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, moisturizing, and soothing. Reach for aloe vera gels cooling effects when you have a sunburn or an itchy scalp. Avocados: Avocados omega-3 and omega-9 fatty acids hydrate and moisturize the skin while their plant nutrients, minerals, and vitamins work to repair existing damage.

Baking soda: Add to your bath to ease sunburn, itching, or inflammation. Castile soap: Plant-derived, mild biodegradable soap used as a base in shampoos, body washes, and household cleaners. Clay: Rich in minerals, clays are known for their ability to draw out oils, toxins, and impurities. Used in masks and scrubs, they also tighten and tone skin. Cocoa butter: With an enchanting chocolate scent and vitamin E content, cocoa butter improves skin elasticity and stimulates collagen production. Essential oils: Essential oils are the concentrated vital essences of aromatic plants.

These botanical distillations with healing properties penetrate pores deeply to nurture skin from the inside out. (For more about essentials oils, see pages 108109.) Lemons: Astringent, disinfecting, and stimulating, lemon juice works to purge waste from your cells. Maple syrup: A natural humectant, maple syrup draws moisture from the air into the skin and ensures its retention in the layers where its needed most for penetrating, long-lasting hydration. Maple syrup is especially high in skin-loving minerals, such as calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, and zinc. Oats: Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant-rich oats promote healing and skin hydration. When used in cleansers, oats natural saponins exfoliate skin and draw out toxins.

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