[.ca] Well Being: Rejuvenating Recipes for Body and Soul (ISBN 0811825930)

From Amazon.com:
Nowadays Western spa treatments go far beyond skin deep. As Eastern spa owners have known for centuries, the best way to achieve health and beauty is to offer a spa experience that cares for the whole person, not just a person's skin, nails, or weight problem. As a result, meditation classes, herbal tonics, and aromatherapy are now commonplace spa offerings. In Well Being, Barbara Close (cousin of Glenn), the founder of Naturopathica, a full-service holistic spa in East Hampton, New York, teaches readers how to bring these remarkably healing and seemingly elusive spa remedies into their daily lives. Close starts with an inviting chapter on beginning meditation and then moves into practical discussions on how to use fresh herbs for replenishing spirits and healing the skin. She arranges her advice around the four seasons, offering ideas for cold soothing teas in the winter and homemade sunburn salves in the summer. Although this is a practical, hands-on book with very specific advice, it's also exquisitely lovely to look at. Photographer Susie Cushner offers a wide range of sensual images, such as a woman washing her hair, a still life with a cup of herbal tea, and numerous seasonal landscapes. --Gail Hudson

Great recipes, makes a great gift:
This is a wonderful book that teaches you how to use essential oils and herbs to cure common ailments. After reading this book and trying some of the recipes I truly believe that by sensibly using aromatherapy, herbalism, massage and healthy food you can live more naturally and improve your quality of life. The book starts out with a brief history. Then you find first aid charts, one for herbs and another for essential oils. The charts include the name, properties, common uses and any hazards of each item. Instructions for preparing and using them in teas, infusions, decoctions, tinctures, ointments, inhalations and vaporization follow. There is also a great list of carrier and herbal infused oils. Next, there are forty recipes arranged by seasons focusing of different aspects such as rejuvenation and sensuality. Spring includes recipes for a delicious pear elixir and calendula salve. Summer features a natural pleasant smelling insect repellant, a tea tree oil antiseptic and a citrus body splash. Autumn includes a wonderful grapefruit exfoliating paste and rosemary infused massage oil. Winter contains a tasty recipe for garlic soup, a chamomile face serum and a peppermint thyme inhalation. Association, education, and resource directories are a nice bonus. I liked that the resource directory listed places to find herbs and oils as well as bottles and jars to put them in. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to pamper themselves. It is packed with information and is easy to follow. It would also make a great gift.

What a beautiful book!:
I bought this on a whim when it was recommended to me and couldn't be more thrilled with this purchase! What a beautifully presented book, packed with rejuvenating recipes for inner and outer health and beauty, and written with the beginner in mind. It is very informative, easy to follow, and the ingredients can easily be found by anyone near a health food store or internet access. It's apparent that Barbara Close knows what she's doing as an aromatherapist and I can only imagine that her holistic spa must be absolutely wonderful considering the attention, care and fine taste that went into this book. I plan to give copies of this as gifts and am sure anyone who receives it will be as enthralled with it and ready to try their own recipes as I am. Five stars!

Well Being:
Great recipes and this book will be an inspiration for those long winter days and evenings. What a great way to take care of yourself!