Healing Dry Skin Naturally – All Natural Skin Calm Cream with Chaga

Amandha: Thin creams can do this, too. One of the creams I want to talk about today is called Sweetgrass, Chaga & Lemon Balm Skin Calm Cream. Now, I know Facebook doesn’t have the best technology yet, so forgive me if there are delays or things are not looking so clear. I can’t help that yet.

Amandha: I’m working on it. I was trying to get a live video feed on YouTube today, and it wasn’t working for me, so I’m going to do this for now and figure it out. I want to get this information out there and get practiced and comfortable speaking because I’ve not really done this before.

Amandha: So, you know, any helpful feedback is really welcome, because I’m going to be starting an online television show soon. I’m kind of getting my feet wet, if you will, because I’m a little bit shy about speaking on video, believe it or not. Anyway, this particular cream I’m going to show you – and I said that because you might not be able to see it too well – is a more recent creation of mine.

Amandha: I make about 70 natural care products, and I enjoy creating them. The ingredients in this one include sweetgrass. The sweetgrass was grown locally, and I did two different types of extractions on it. Sweetgrass is very calming and soothing to the skin.

Amandha: I took the sweetgrass fresh and extracted it into olive oil. Then I also took it dried and extracted it as well, so I was working with the different constituents in the fresh and dried plant. It’s a beautiful scent, because when you do this with fresh sweetgrass, it’s glorious.

Amandha: I mean, if you know anything about sweetgrass, it’s beautiful. So that’s in there. Then I’ve put in lemon balm as well. Lemon balm is another calming botanical. This particular cream was designed for red, inflamed, hypertrophic skin that won’t calm down – we’re talking sunburns, chemical burns, or other types of skin inflammation.

Amandha: Rosacea. You know, rosacea is a classic inflammation of the skin, right? That it won’t come down and it’s hyper hypertrophy. It’s making too many cells like psoriasis. Same thing with psoriasis. It’s making too many cells. Eczema, I have like, four or five different creams for eczema.

Amandha: eczema. There’s a lot of different formats of eczema, how it can present. So I’ve made a few different ones for that. But even radiation, people who are doing radiation for what? Reason because they don’t have other options or they’re not educated on other options that can irritate the skin. And this can calm it down.

Amandha: And yeah, any type of chemical irritant that has touched the skin, that’s what I designed this particular cream for. But it will also create a barrier on the skin too, which is going to help reestablish the skin and the terrain around the skin again, and get that to come back. So that’s important too.

Amandha: Okay, back to lemon balm. That’s very calming. It was grown locally here and extracted fresh into olive oil. Then I used chamomile flower distillate because, again, chamomile calms, soothes, and eases inflammation. That’s the focus. When I design, I try to use multiple botanicals that move in the same direction, because you get synergy when you do that.

Amandha: That’s how you make something that’s very effective. I get really great feedback on my products. I wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t rewarding – not only because I enjoy making them, but because of the feedback and knowing that I’m helping people and that people feel good after they use the things I make.

Amandha: I mean, it’s just, it’s a way to live, it’s a way to feel good about what you’re doing. You know? If I can have a baby that has inflammation of the skin and get them away from cortisone, and they’re healing and they’re doing well. And I get that feedback that feels really great, right? So it’s my motivation as well.

Amandha: Okay. And then chaga mushroom, I think I have some here.

Amandha: So this is chaga mushroom. I do sell it at my store, and I can actually pick it locally, which is great. It grows on birch trees, and I use it as immune support. I was doing a lot of research on chaga and found information discussing anti-inflammatory effects.

Amandha: So, topically, I discuss washing the skin with chaga for an anti-inflammatory effect.

Amandha: So I made it basically in a very strong brew.

Amandha: And then I mixed it in with this cream.

Amandha: So this is a cream with oil, fractions and water fractions.

Amandha: So it’s a really nice whipped cream. I’ll show you the consistency here. It’s very whipped and it feels awesome. This is one of my favorite creams. I love making it when it comes together into this frothy, beautiful whipped cream. It’s almost like kneading dough. It’s very sensual, and I really get into it. It’s awesome when you make something so precious like that.

Amandha: Anyway, this is one of those creams. So what else? The chaga is in there, and then there’s MSM sulfur.

Amandha: So the chaga is in there, and then MSM sulfur. Sulfur is in every cell of our bodies. It’s an essential mineral, and I discuss it for skin support and tissue repair.

Amandha: So MSM sulfur you can take it internally. I take it internally to help with skin externally, but you can also do it topically and it will kill., it will kill if there’s any infection, right? It will take care of infection. You can take it homeopathically. I mentioned this in my article. You can take homeopathic sulfur, especially if you have itch, because that’s what it’s very much known for in the homeopathic milieu and understanding.

Amandha: You get that really itchy. Even stinky, like where the skin is smelling bad. It really helps with that. So that’s a homeopathic aspect of it, but the mineral aspect also should be addressed. And so I put that in the skin cream as well. And it also helps to preserve the cream itself from having fungal issues, right?

Amandha: Because I don’t use conventional preservatives in these products, I’ve had some shelf-life issues over the years, especially when I first started making creams about four and a half years ago. Some batches might have lasted around nine months, so I kept learning from that.

Amandha: Vitamin E helps a little – it’s more for oxidation prevention. But for preventing mold or fungus, colloidal silver has been the best natural preservative in my own cream-making experience.

Amandha: For skin-cream makers out there, that’s something I use. My creams can last for a long time on the shelf. The main time they start to degrade is if dirty fingers are put into them, or if customers open a jar and handle it while smelling it.

Amandha: Right? And then they’ve infected my cream. So, you know, having some awareness about what that is.. But otherwise they’re great. They’re long lasting. And so this particular one has a lot of colloidal silver in it, and that I make colloidal silver. It’s very easy to make at home.

Amandha: Okay, what else? Raw cacao butter. Raw cacao butter is amazing as a barrier. It’s a great skin barrier and it smells amazing because it smells like chocolate. I mean, hello – can you smell like chocolate? Yeah, I can. Great. I can be healthy and smell awesome.

Amandha: Yeah so raw cacao butter is one of my favorites. I put it almost every skin cream. Not everyone. I use shea butter a lot too. Shea butter’s a little trick. Shea butter can make things grainy and make them crystallize, which I don’t like in my products. But when you’re getting a natural product, sometimes that happens.

Amandha: Sometimes separation happens. It can be very tricky to keep oil and water happy together, so it’s both an art and a science to make that work in a long-lasting way. Then there’s beeswax. The beeswax I use is usually local and smells amazing on its own.

Amandha: Sometimes I don’t use raw beeswax because, if I’m trying to get a particular scent, I don’t want to make the scents confusing. Raw beeswax has a very strong scent, so I’ll use deodorized white beeswax if I’m concerned about where the scent is going or preserving some of the more delicate aromas inside.

Amandha: Yeah, and then I put essential oils, obviously vitamin E in here, and then essential oils of lavender and rosemary.

Amandha: Rosemary is a great natural preservative.

Amandha: I put it in a lot of the creams and it doesn’t seem to be dominant, so I don’t have, not everything smells like rosemary just cause I have rosemary essential oil in it.

Amandha: And the lavender, in this case, is used therapeutically because it’s calming. So, so you see how that’s been designed? To have a direction to calm things down and soothe things and have a barrier. So this is one of those creams that can be used to repair, like chronic dry skin, really itchy skin.

Amandha: The other thing that I didn’t think about when I designed this cream that customers were giving me feedback about, which is kind of cool cause sometimes I really get into my creation.

Amandha: I’m like, this is synergy. This is happening. And then I go, oh. It happens to have this other effect. So I had some customers tell me that they had a wound and that wasn’t healing or old wounds that weren’t healing and they used this particular product and it healed it very quickly. And then I realized that, oh, it’s probably because I had so much colloidal silver in there.

Amandha: And I connect some of these ingredients with antimicrobial properties and support for the skin’s outer environment. In Chinese medicine, which I’m very trained in, there is also a way of thinking about the protective energy on the exterior of the body. Someone asks, ‘Can you have skin like me?’ Okay, sure, yeah – I’ll give it to you.

Amandha: Well, use my creams – that’s what I do. I don’t just design them for other people. But the main thing is that when your wei qi, as it’s called, or your protective system on the outside of the body is compromised, the barrier is gone. You’re like an open door to all kinds of things going wrong.

Amandha: We have healthy bacteria on the outside of our skin too. One of the creams I’ve been looking at designing for about a year, I’ve been looking at it and doing research on it, is a probiotic skin thing. A skin cream that’s alive. Woo. Yeah, I know it’s a bit daunting because you’re like, now I’m actually not putting things in it that are preserving and killing bacteria and stuff.

Amandha: I’m actually making a product that’s alive and is teeming with bacteria and how do I control that growth and how do I have an effective product that isn’t going to, you know, go downhill on me? So that’s been something I’ve been really looking at because in truth, when you keep putting chemicals on your body, you’re going to kill this bacteria.

Amandha: Even this kind of product can affect bacteria. I haven’t found that to be a secondary problem in my own experience, but people who are using products like Polysporin are also affecting microbes on the skin. If the microbes are not working for you, you can get difficult infections.

Amandha: MRSA is one example of a serious infection that’s hard to eradicate. So I think about putting probiotics back on the skin when the skin environment has been seriously damaged. Another thing I consider for wounds or slow-to-heal issues is one of my favorites. I’m in Minden, Ontario, Canada, and it grows everywhere in my backyard: plantain.

Amandha: Plantain leaf is in one of my creams. I call it nature’s Band-Aid. Traditionally, you can break it down and put it on a wound, even making what is sometimes called a spit poultice: chew the leaf, apply it to the area, cover it if you want, and let it dry. I describe it as drawing heat, pain, and pus from the skin.

Amandha: My daughter actually had an injury involving her elbow. She fell off her bike in a very strange way because her leg got caught. She was getting off the bike, twisted, and landed with her whole body weight directly on her elbow on the asphalt.

Amandha: I went, ‘Oh my gosh.’ She freaked out, and I looked at her elbow. It wasn’t broken, but it was white – almost a scaly white – from the impact. I thought, okay, my first instinct is plantain.

Amandha: I went right behind her, where there was a lot growing, grabbed some leaves, crushed them up, laid them over the area, and wrapped it with gauze. I also gave her homeopathic arnica, which is something I commonly use in my own approach after injuries.

Amandha: In my framework, I use homeopathic arnica after injuries. I also had an arnica salve, so I put that around the area.

Amandha: So that’s an organic arnica salve, and I put that around the area, not directly on top of the injury.

Amandha: It doesn’t have to be right on top of the injury for how I use it. I tend to carry arnica with me. I remember witnessing a car accident and thinking immediately about arnica as part of first-aid support.

Amandha: Just to recap, arnica as the raw plant should not be eaten. When I talk about taking it internally here, I’m talking about a homeopathic preparation. Topical arnica preparations are another form I use.

Amandha: But topically you can, you could use it from the flower extract or you can use it homeopathically topically. So that’s a way to take arnica. Anyway, so the next morning I took off her bandage. Honest to God, it was like nothing happened to her, like nothing. No bruise. Normal skin tone movement. Fine. She reports no pain.

Amandha: Those leaves were dry and crispy when they came off. So don’t forget about plantain as an amazing skin healer. In my experience, it can be profound.

Amandha: Sometimes injuries and fractures in children can also heal quickly. They’re kind of bouncy and have a lot of growth and repair capacity. I think children were designed in such a way that they can get through certain bumps and injuries more readily than adults.

Amandha: They can learn the hard way, but the easy way, if you know what I mean. I think it’s good to let them get dirty and have normal childhood bumps and scrapes, because injuries can be more severe when we’re adults.

Amandha: But anyway, back to skin. The cream I mentioned is the Sweetgrass, Chaga & Lemon Balm Skin Calm Cream. At the time of this recording, I had it in the healing cream section on YummyMummyEmporium.org, along with the blog article I’m talking about.

Amandha: Okay, for those just joining, what else did I want to talk about? Internally, when you’re trying to support the skin, I mentioned sulfur, but you also want to make sure you have enough oils. When I put creams on top of my skin, I’m trying to regenerate and rebuild oils because oils are part of that protective barrier.

Amandha: So healthy and good oils. Now, a lot of people think that coconut oil is good for skin. Just like, you know, get a big tub and just like go to town. Right. The thing about that is from some people that might be okay, but for most people it’s not because coconut oil does give a barrier and I do use it in lots of my creams.

Amandha: It’s amazing. It’s amazing. But my point is that it will create such a barrier that air will get underneath. So the coconut oil is there, but air will get trapped underneath. And when that happens, you can actually dry your skin out further. So it’s not a really excellent barrier in and of itself. If you want to take coconut oil and mix it with like cacao butter or shea butter, or even olive oil or grape seed or something else that will help moisturize the skin under.

Amandha: Then you’re getting somewhere, right? You’re not just leaving the skin with a barrier and nothing underneath it. You’re putting oils on, and then you’re putting a barrier on top. If you’re on a budget and want to work with simple ingredients, that’s one way to think about it.

Amandha: You know, coconuts great. It’s great to eat it, you know, eat a couple tablespoons of a day. It’s really important oils that will help you from the inside out other oils to use would be omega-3 fatty acids and make sure you get your pufas as they’re called. So they’re like polyunsaturated fatty acids and you can get those from fish.

Amandha: I try to get them from foods like walnuts. Apricot kernel oil is also great for the skin. I focus on getting good fats into the body because, in my framework, that’s part of rebuilding the barrier. If you’re low in water, you’re also going to have issues with your skin.

Amandha: Now, I’ve seen this in a couple of males, but it’s more so in menstruating women, we can have what’s called blood deficiency. So the body is not producing enough blood. The blood volume is low. Now, it could be from, again, hydration. You can have low blood volume, but you could also have low blood volume because you’re iron deficient.

Amandha: Okay, so your body’s not making enough red corpuscles, so there’s that issue. You could have blood circulation issues from a chronic immune system issue where you’re having too many white blood cells in the blood making it kind of slow to get the oxygenation transfer from the red blood cells.

Amandha: That’s another issue I think about. I also discuss vitamin C for skin and immune support. If there’s something else going on that affects circulation or the liver, I start looking at how the body is processing and moving blood.

Amandha: The liver has a big role in processing blood. In my framework, the liver also has a strong relationship with blood and skin. So any time I see a skin issue that seems to be coming from an internal source, after the external factors have been addressed, I start looking more deeply at the liver and the overall terrain.

Amandha: That’s when I look at the liver and ask, ‘What’s going on here? What am I ingesting that’s causing congestion? What am I not doing that’s supporting normal enzyme activity and circulation?’ Those are the kinds of questions I ask.

Amandha: So supporting your liver and your bodily terrain, right? In general by being more alkaline with your meals. Meat, for example, is very pro-inflammatory. Okay. It just is, I mean, it’s just not healthy. I’m sorry. Mostly for the most part. Like there’s certain aspects of it that do, are used in health, but I mean, as a general diet it just really is hard for the body to break down those proteins.

Amandha: It takes a lot of your own nutrients to extract what you need from food. In my own approach, when someone wants to focus on healing, I encourage fresh vegetables, organic and local where possible, along with nutrient-dense foods, fresh salads, juices, smoothies, and fruit.

Amandha: Like, that’s what’s going to help you be healthy in general right? So that’s going to get your minerals up. It’s going to get your, all your vitamins up, and that’s what runs to your body. I mean, it’s kind of cut and dry, right? Your body needs minerals and vitamins to work. It’s kind of a fact of life.

Amandha: So get nutrients into you and try not to clog up your digestion with hard-to-digest foods. If you’re sluggish in your digestion, you might need a probiotic. You might need an enzyme before you eat your foods. In my framework, those are ways to reduce digestive burden.

Amandha: Some people fast, you know, fasting is also healthy.

Amandha: There are also people who do dry fasting. If you don’t know what you’re doing, do not do that, because that’s intense. Fasting without anything is a lot. I tend to talk instead about water fasting or juice fasting as ways of giving the digestive organs a period of rest.

Amandha: In my view, that gives the organs a little period to rest and do their own internal cleanup.

Amandha: And there’s lots and lots of things you can do for your liver. I mean, lemon water in the morning. Just make sure you clean your mouth afterwards so that you don’t damage your tooth enamel. That’s one thing.

Amandha: Apple cider vinegar that’s mixed one to one with water, you know, before each meal can also enhance digestion by raising the pH of your own acid.

Amandha: That kind of approach is part of looking at what’s going on internally when the skin is healing slowly, is dry and itchy, or is expressing conditions like acne, eczema, or psoriasis.

Amandha: I also have my own perspective on autoimmune issues. In that framework, I ask what the body may be reacting to in the tissues and how elimination and immune regulation may be involved. That’s the terrain-based way I think about it.

Amandha: And then after that you have to settle down immune system too. So it’s a few steps to heal that. But that’s your, you know, eczema for example. You want to draw out, and I talk about that cream that I make in another video to help extract the toxins out and take the burden off the liver that way.

Amandha: I make another cream for that purpose, and it’s a difficult cream to make because it has both water extracts and oil extracts of botanicals. I have to merge the two very carefully, and it took me years to develop that art.

Amandha: And sometimes, it still doesn’t hold together. So it’s definitely tricky to do without binders and preservatives and things that the rest of the industry just does.

Amandha: So I’m trying to make these products preservative-free. When I research the process, I don’t find many people doing it exactly the same way.

Amandha: More people are making products from home now, but I’m talking about trying to make something shelf-stable without conventional binders or preservatives. I use my chemistry background and keep learning every time I make something. I actually made a beautiful cream last night that I’m very proud of.

Amandha: The one I made previously is being discontinued – this is my last jar of it. But this one here is the Dandelion Supreme Hand Corrector Salve. I pick dandelion heads and soak them in oil. I also like to pick the little purple violets, which are edible, and put them in sweet almond oil to extract them.

Amandha: I put them in sweet almond oil and extract them into the oil. Then I put the ingredients together. It’s for hands, but it’s like a butter – very heavy and thick. You can’t get away from the dandelion smell. I’ve put ginger essential oil in there, and fennel is in it too.

Amandha: I put some turmeric in it because I wanted another anti-inflammatory botanical in the formula. But it’s going to smell like dandelion – there’s just no way around that. The dandelion green scent is very dominant. It’s very thick and heavy, and I love how my hands feel after using it.

Amandha: I’ve been putting it on my skin as well. It’s a very heavy cream, so it’s something I would use overnight or when I want a barrier to last a long time. I’d probably add this cream to the article I wrote because I think it fits well with the dry-skin discussion.

Amandha: It’s very rich and gives that barrier a pronounced feel. So, okay, I’m just going to look quickly to see if there are any questions, and if not then I’ll say bye. Let me look. Oh, you guys are talking – sorry, I wasn’t really paying much attention to that. Hello. You’re welcome.

Amandha: Awesome. Maybe there aren’t too many questions. Someone mentions that her son’s buckle fracture was overlooked. I’ve read that one. And you’re welcome. I’m glad you like my creams – thank you, Lisa. Someone says we need you to speak at the Conscious Life Expo next year in L.A. Woo-hoo. Actually, I’ve been to that conference in L.A. one time.

Amandha: I used to date an awesome guy named Kevin Miller, a documentary filmmaker. And yes, Diane, I did make the dandelion cream. I just made it last night. I haven’t labeled it yet, but it’s there.

Amandha: It’s beautiful. You’re going to love it. But sorry, back to the conference question. It was cool and a great conference, if it’s the same one I’m thinking of. Kevin took me there, and that was really fun. I think that was the only time I’d really been in L.A. It was kind of daunting for a little country girl.

Amandha: Woo. It’s like intense energy. So. Yep. Yep. Yippy. It’s made and it’s beautiful. And I’m very proud of that cream and I’m getting better at it, you know, I think when you keep practicing and you don’t give up, You just, you keep learning every time. And if you have that attitude that you’re just going to keep learning, you just do.

Amandha: Occasionally I have creams that don’t come together properly. When that happens and I’m frustrated, I walk away from them. Usually I’ll cover the batch, put it in the fridge, and come back to it when I feel inspired again.

Amandha: and then I’ll come back to it when I feel inspired again. And it turns out to be the most amazing cream I ever made. You know, that I almost could never do it again. And that’s the hardest thing about making creams like this is the consistency, not the consistency of the product itself as much as being consistent with each time I make it.

Amandha: So I write very detailed recipes when I make these things, but sometimes I’m out of a specific beeswax or oil, or I’ve received a one-time gift of an oil that I don’t have again. So sometimes things change around, and each batch can be a little different when I come back to it.

Amandha: Sometimes I say to people, ‘If you really want this batch, get this batch.’ I’ll have people come in and buy several jars because they know the next batch may be a little different. That’s part of the art of making these creams. I think I’ve gone through everything I wanted to cover about dry skin.

Amandha: If you didn’t get all the details, go to the blog on my website. There’s a comment section there if you want to ask questions about dry skin or something stubborn in your own experience.

Amandha: I think that’s about it unless there are other questions. I’ve really enjoyed sharing this time with you today. We had a flood here in Minden, so the bridge is closed and my store is very slow, which gave me time to speak with you. Anyway, have a wonderful rest of your day.

Amandha: Hope it’s sunny and warm where you are, and we’ll talk to you again soon. Bye for now.