A weekly Cleansing/Boosting Massage practice with this Renewal Botanical Body Oil is meant to clear out blockages of all sorts in order to allow the body to restore the balance of energy, enhancing well-being and (hopefully) longevity. This careful routine is stimulating enough to budge stagnation where it has accumulated while purposefully grounding in order to relax the hyperdrive reaction in those who tend to get overworked.
Your Ritual Could Look Like This
Sit or stand comfortably in a warm room.
Start with body brushing
Gently stroke the uppermost surface of dry skin from the extremities to the lymph nodes using a soft body brush.
Lovingly anoint yourself from head to toe with warm oil
You will need 1/2-1 oz (or even more depending on your size and preference) of massage oil over the entire body. You may want to measure it into a small cup or even warm it by putting the cup in a basin of hotter water first. Check the temperature on the inside of your wrist.
If you wish to include your scalp and hair, apply oil first to the crown of your head and work slowly out from there in circular strokes—spend a couple of minutes massaging your entire scalp.
If you would like to “oil cleanse” your face, massage in upward circular motion on your forehead, temples, cheeks, and jawline- have a separate facial cloth handy to remove the oil.
Use long strokes on the limbs (arms and legs) and circular strokes on the joints (elbows and knees). Try to keep your massage strokes moving toward the direction of your heart.
Massage the abdomen and chest in broad, clockwise, circular motions. On the abdomen, follow the”question mark” path of the large intestine; moving up on the right side of the abdomen, then across, then down on the left side
Finish the massage by spending at least a couple of minutes massaging your feet.
If possible, sit quietly with the oil for 5-15 minutes.
Enjoy a warm shower
Gently using a cloth or sponge to “buff” the oil off the skin. You may need something extra to remove the oil from areas such as your hair.
Finish the last 20-30 seconds of your shower with cold water on just your feet.
Step out of the shower and towel off gently.
You may want to spray 6-12 sprays of Instant Alchemy on a large area of your body and press it in with your palms—particularly if you want to support your nervous system or improve your ability to rest.
Renewal Botanical Body Oil
We’ve made an oil especially for this cleansing and boosting massage. This aromatic blend of nourishing oils is the ideal balance of fatty-acids and antioxidants to entice the senses while providing ample lipophilic (“oil-loving”) action on the skin to encourage a beneficial response. We have carefully infused our oils with Gotu Kola, Calendula, Comfrey and Yarrow, offering the skin a diverse, yet pinpointed, array of plant-based intelligence. As always, each ingredient is meticulously sourced and certified organic.
- Nourishing hempseed oil infused with gotu kola leaf, calendula flower, comfrey leaf & root, yarrow for the unique properties within each whole plant
- Jojoba and olive squalene for their large molecular structure that resembles human sebum (the oil that your skin makes to protect you)
- Fresh pressed oils from the seeds of Raspberry, Black Currant, Grapes, Sea buckthorn, Pomegranate, Sesame, and Carrot for their fatty acid content and as nourishment to the microbiome (the organisms that naturally live on the surface of your skin)
- 1/100th of a percentage of our unique essential oil blend. We use essential oils in this manner, because we think of them more like “medicine” than food. Too much essential oil use can disrupt the microbiome and/or irritate the skin. They are precious resources that are extremely potent and should be used as such.
Benefits of This Cleansing and Boosting Technique
- When we take the time to nourish our entire being and truly provide loving care, we can potentially decrease the effects of overwork, stress, and the continual weathering of the body, mind, and spirit that leads to the loss of vitality. This is especially necessary if you have been caught up in a control cycle for most of your life, face oppression on a regular basis, or you do not get ample time for rest.
- Massage in general is known to improve muscle tone and vigor to body tissues, we believe that it is because the stimulation and gentle manipulation of the tissue creates a response in the body/immune system to “take a look” at the area and clean up any old damage, stagnation, or loss of structural integrity. This is why we refer to it as a “renewal” oil for a “boosting” massage.
- Twisting and turning to reach around your body stimulates the internal organs of the body.
- Purposely and systematically moving the entire body in an effort to reach every part of it as you brush and then massage stretches and exercises the body as a whole which in turn, imparts firmness to the limbs, lubricates the joints, and increases circulation.
- Focusing on moving your lymph during the dry brushing step (by making sure not to press hard—gently touch the brush to the outmost skin so that it does not go deeper than the lymph vessels) aids the body in detoxification without taking over control.
- Dry body brushing also gently exfoliates the outermost layer of skin, temporarily improving the body’s ability to eliminate through the sweat and oil glands.
- Oil massage, followed by water and then buffed off with a cloth acts like oil cleansing (pulling out oil-based toxins from the skin) at the same time as allowing some oil to mix with water and stay on the skin acting like a moisturizer.
- Calms the nerves and could even benefit sleep. Many people report experiencing deeper, better sleep simply by incorporating this type of treatment anywhere between once a week and once a month. (When it comes to this particular technique, more is not necessarily better! Do the simple “basic needs” on a daily basis and this type of cleansing/boosting massage intermittently)
- Teaches your brain to accept self-love. Caring for yourself head to toe in this way is a crucial skill to learn in a climate that constantly teaches us to bounce back and forth between the idea that we are selfish if we need tender-loving care and the idea that we can only fulfill our needs by “treating ourselves” to mass-marketed products that promise fulfillment. You do not need our fancy body brush or lovingly-made oil to learn, use, and benefit from this technique, the only investment you need for self-love is the time and care you take to do it. Do the best you can with what you have wherever you are.
- Peace and quiet as you close the bathroom door and lock the rest of the world out, if only for the time it takes to complete the process.
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Writing by Emma Graves
Emma, a certified herbalist & highly skilled aesthetician who has been working in natural skin care since 1998, originally developed the Between You and the Moon product line to serve her clients in finding a method of natural, holistic skin care that provided tangible results. A 4+ generation holistic practitioner, her love of skin care and holistic methods was chronicled in her early blog “The Pimple Whisperer,” some of which is still available on this website.