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Written by Cari Phelps

Together, We Made a Difference: 2024 Salacia Year in Review

Jan 08, 2025

Written by Cari Phelps

2024 Salacia Year in Review

Hello to my dear salt and sea lovers. What a year! I took some time to evaluate our 2024 and I have to say I'm pretty proud of these points. I'm hoping some of these actions and commitments are the reason you shop small. The reasons that small business should be big on your list. Small businesses are the heart of our country and many are able, nimble, resourceful and thoughtful and can make impacts like these. Thank you for being a VIP and for any and all support you given with us this past year!

Community Support - Near and Far

We donated $3000+ worth of products, workshops, and financial support to 2 local organizations that help those in need (Emmaus House Soup Kitchen and Union Mission). We also donated funds to help with the health, education and wellness of teenage girls in rural India. Our founder Cari also welcomed over 500 incoming students to the SCAD (Savannah College of Art & Design) summer program.

Working in the Soup Kitchen with Metro Rotary Savannah

Making Waves and New Products

We launched new products including a package-free MOISTURIZING BAR with great success, followed by a launch of a new workshop offering the same. New lip balm flavors, air freshening diffusers, a Kiss My Grits gift set and a giftware collection inspired by the iconic landmarks of Savannah were launched thanks to customer feedback and requests.

Testing out our new Moisturizer Bar workshop with friends!

Workshops + Interactive Experiences

We hosted nearly 400 guests for our workshops and off-site activities in Savannah PLUS engaged with THOUSANDS of people from 11 cities across the country as a sponsor in the Surprisingly Savannah tour over the summer. What a thrill to connect with so many that love the south and sea.

Our set up at the Surprisingly Savannah tour. What fun!

Our commitment to sustainability: Rethink, reduce, reuse, repurpose!

1. We purchased ZERO filler for our shipments in 2024. ZERO. NONE. That's because we reused packing and filling materials we received from incoming shipments and collected donations from local businesses that also save these materials for us. There's no need to purchase products that are used once and tossed - especially when they are typically foam or plastic!

2. Salacia sold 11,355 products that were completely package-free, sold in fabric, wrapped in foil, or packaged with ZERO VIRGIN PLASTICS. Yes, over 11k units! Our lip balm containers are made from 100% PCR (post consumer recycled) content. In total we refused 19,331 total units of plastic from being introduced into the waste cycle by using no packaging, cotton, aluminum or glass vessels. We will continue to work to increase this number and sell more products with no plastic.

And a wrap of our best sellers for 2024…

Aromatherapy - ShowerTime Rocks Aromatherapy Shower Steamers

Kiss My Grits Lip Balms + Scrubs

Georgia Peach Body Care - Bar Soap, Body Butter, Bubble Bath and Body Scrub

Written by Cari Phelps

We're Rollin' Into a City Near YOU

May 23, 2024

Written by Cari Phelps

Salacia is joining Visit Savannah on a summer tour across 12 great cities in the US! Join us this Summer! Continue reading

Written by Cari Phelps

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Salacia Salts

Jan 21, 2024

Written by Cari Phelps

We are all about love stories these days at Salacia. Even our namesake Salacia, featured in our name and logo, has a dreamy love story of being romantically pursued by the god of the sea Neptune before he eventually wins her over. Create a love story for your SO with a Valentine’s Day gift from […]

Written by Cari Phelps

Natural Skin Care Inspired by the Sea

Jan 21, 2024

Written by Cari Phelps

Salacia Salts is a high quality collection of salt soaks, moisturizers, scrubs and other skin care and home fragrance products made with natural ingredients.

Cari Phelps founded Salacia Salts in 2012, armed with a commitment to environmental conservation, natural beauty and holistic health. Under her leadership, Salacia Salts creates top-quality bath and beauty products using environmentally responsible ingredients and packaging.

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Salacia Salts Featured in Vogue Magazine

Jan 21, 2024

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Salacia Salts Featured in Vogue Magazine

We are excited to have been featured in Vogue as a “favorite destination” of Professor Meloney Moore, the former Estée Lauder executive leading Savannah College of Art and Design's (SCAD) new Business of Beauty and Fragrance major. It’s amazing that we are inspiring students with our experiential format in our shops, focusing on education and clean beauty!

The full article can be seen on Vogue.com.

Why Savannah, Georgia Could Be the Country’s New Clean Beauty Capital

by Jessica DeFino

There are no weeping willows in Savannah. The swooping, bending branches that tunnel the streets are mostly oak, draped in swaths of Spanish moss. Before I moved here—a few months after turning 30, searching for somewhere that wasn’t Los Angeles—I always pictured them as weeping willows.

I pictured the cliché, prim and proper women of the South, too, complexions perfected with foundation thicker than a slice of Paula Deen’s famous Brown Sugar Bacon. Would I—a bare-faced beauty journalist from California by way of New Jersey, who’s all but given up cosmetics in an effort to lower my body’s chemical burden—fit in? I pictured the over-the-top politeness (my Southern mother-in-law once sent me a thank you note for a thank you note) and my propensity for four-letter words. I pictured living in a state that came dangerously close to outlawing abortion last year and feeling powerless.

Savannah was my husband’s idea. He went to college in the city twenty-some years ago and loved it; I was skeptical but easily persuaded. I mean, I was ready to leave L.A. I wanted a place to slow down and write a book and afford a front yard. So I packed my things and said my goodbyes—to friends, sure, but also to the Moon Juice on Melrose Place, the Detox Market on 3rd, the Korean spa on Vermont. I doubted Savannah, Georgia could satisfy my craving for clean beauty and cutting-edge wellness in quite the same way.

I was wrong about it all, from the willows to the wellness scene.

I knew it the moment Rose-Marie Swift—65-year-old founder of RMS Beauty, pioneer of the non-toxic movement, professional astrologer—opened the door of her remodeled brownstone in the heart of Savannah’s Historic District. “Honey, L.A.’s not my thing, and my company’s never run out of New York, ever,” Swift told me when we talked pre-pandemic, as she ushered me inside for lunch. “I love it here.”

Swift is from Canada, although she’s traveled all over—Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami—working as a makeup artist. “I lived in Berlin and Hamburg, I was there when the wall came down,” she recalled, pulling extra-large soup bowls from her kitchen cabinet. “Then, you know, I got sick.”

The story is the stuff of industry legend, but she rehashed the highlights as she heated the broth. After falling ill, Swift had a hair, blood, and urine analysis done. “When I got the tests back they said, ‘Do you work in the cosmetic industry?’ I said, ‘Holy shit, how do you know that?’” The chemicals in her body were more commonly found in beauty products. Swift started researching the toxic effects of conventional cosmetics and launched beautytruth.com in 2004—before the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, before Goop, before anyone, really, was talking about it.

The founder didn’t settle into Savannah until after she launched RMS Beauty, one of the first organic makeup brands (and maybe the first to actually work). It’s headquartered just across the Savannah River and over the Talmadge Bridge, in Charleston, South Carolina, and not necessarily by choice. “When I started my company, I couldn’t find a lab—no one wanted to do organic,” she said. “It was too time consuming, it was a pain in the ass, nobody knew how.” Swift had her own starting formulas, chemists wanted to change them, she wouldn’t allow it. The only lab that would take on RMS Beauty, Swift’s way, was in Charleston.

Today, Swift goes back and forth between New York and Savannah because “it’s easier to get down here than the Hamptons on a summer day, and I wouldn’t want to be sitting in the Hamptons seeing all the same people.” Besides, “all my friends from New York say, ‘It’s a little bit of Europe down here.’” (That comes courtesy of the 18th century city plan from Englishman and Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. The original design is still intact, for the most part.) Savannah’s only downside? According to Swift, “They don’t get the concept of vegetables. At all.”

It’s true: In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve objectively eaten too many fried oyster po’boys from The Grey Market, and sadly, Swift’s home-cooked meal of mixed salad and quinoa chicken soup—the former drizzled with apple cider vinegar and ice-pressed olive oil, all organic—isn't available on UberEats. That’s not to say Savannah hasn’t staked a claim in the wellness space, though. In fact, it’s done so in a way no other industry hotspot has, thanks to the state’s native yaupon plant.

Stepping into Yaupon Teahouse & Apothecary, a modern café-meets-beauty boutique on Abercorn Street, feels a little like stepping back into Silver Lake. The difference? The edgy L.A. neighborhood probably hasn’t heard of yaupon yet. “This plant is our hero, our heroine,” Lou Thomann, the company’s co-founder, tells Vogue. Everything in the shop is made with yaupon. There’s yaupon-infused face oil on the shelves, yaupon-infused kombucha on tap, and yaupon herbal smokes for sale. Thomann has been working with the herb for nearly a decade.

What is yaupon, exactly? “It was the most sacred plant in North America, and no one knows anything about it,” Thomann starts. What is known of its history is fascinating: The plant is local to the southeast, and the area’s Indigenous tribes discovered countless uses for it—it’s an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory, it has cardiovascular-protective and neuroprotective properties, it helps heal wounds and increase stamina. But mostly, yaupon has a lot of caffeine, which made it a valuable item to trade in the 18th century.

When Oglethorpe settled Savannah, he did so with permission and guidance from the chief of the Yamacraw tribe, Tomochichi (apparently, the two often drank yaupon tea together). This opened up the opportunity for Native people to trade with England. “One theory is that because it was gaining so much popularity, the East India Tea Company felt threatened,” Thomann explains of yaupon’s slip into obscurity. “It could be the first case of corporate espionage.” British botanist William Aiton was asked to create a Linnaean classification for yaupon. He chose Ilex vomitoria—roughly translated, “makes you vomit.” It doesn’t, but the name served a purpose: Yaupon fell out of favor.

At the same time, “the Native American population was pushed westward, so they were taken out of the natural range where yaupon grows,” Thomann explains. “The continuity of the knowledge of the plant, we broke it.” Today, Thomann and his wife and co-founder, Lori Judge (who has Osage ancestry and is “a natural healer,” says Thomann), aim to restore yaupon’s reputation and bring its medicine to the masses. The couple owns a yaupon farm 25 minutes outside of Savannah where they grow, wild-harvest, and process the plant themselves.

Of course, yaupon makes an excellent coffee alternative, but its skin care benefits are what I’m really after. Aside from the de-puffing power of caffeine, the plant contains saponins, known for their calming and protecting properties. Topical yaupon can also help combat acne, although no one knows why, yet. Thomann has accepted a USDA grant to study yaupon’s therapeutic value, and says “the chemistry is really validating all of the ancient, traditional, medicinal uses.”

While I may not know how it works, I do know this: It works. At least, for me. I’ve been slathering on the Yaupon Daily Facial Oil for weeks—an herbal infusion in jojoba and hempseed oils, among others—and may never love another oil again.

Visitors can stock up on yaupon skin care at the Teahouse, or head to the Polished Beauty Lounge on Whitaker to experience its signature yaupon facial (ask for Kathryn). While there, why not pop into Bluemercury on Broughton Street? The downtown boutique offers clean, natural products from RMS Beauty and One Love Organics, another southern institution.

One Love Organics holds a special place in my heart and also my bathroom shelf, and has for years. When the brand invited me to visit its spa on St. Simons Island, about an hour down the marsh-lined coast from Savannah, my initial response was yes, of course. And then: One Love Organics—the decade-old originator of organic, ECOCERT, effective skin care—is based here?

“I’m from here, and when I say here, I mean Jesup, which is 60 miles inland,” Suzanne LeRoux, the company’s founder, tells me in a lilting accent, blonde bob bouncing. She looks every inch the sweet Southern lady, and she is—but LeRoux is also strong-willed and whip-smart, with a fine-tuned bullshit detector. She studied law in Texas; she had no intention of launching a beauty brand, especially not an environmentally-conscious one.

“I didn’t get into this because I was some ‘green’ person, that never crossed my mind,” LeRoux says. “It was the health of my skin.” The stress of law school was splashed across her face, and in the process of self-soothing with DIYs, she found her passion: organic ingredients, filler-free formulations, and sustainable packaging. After the birth of her sons, LeRoux’s husband encouraged her to start a skin care company in lieu of practicing law. LeRoux never really liked law, anyway.

“When we first started this 10 years ago, people thought we lost our mahhhnds,” LeRoux laughs. “They were like, ‘Why would you do green beauty?’ That wasn’t even a thing back then.” Doubt came from all directions, but mostly, as with Swift, from manufacturers. “I went to a really big lab out here, and they wanted to edit all my formulas for cost.” She met with others; the feedback was the same. Unwilling to compromise, she decided to manufacture the line herself. (See? Strong-willed, no bullshit.)

Today, LeRoux owns the only ECOCERT-licensed facility in Georgia, a small factory on the Golden Isles where the One Love team formulates, produces, and packs all of the company’s products. (The license ensures the ingredients are certified natural and organic, and the inventory is created, from start to finish, with the environment in mind.) For a time, local customers “used to pop in and buy product,” LeRoux says, as if stopping by a manufacturing facility were the most natural thing in the world. But One Love Organics has grown significantly since 2010 and moved its factory to accommodate, which inspired the opening of the One Love Organics Spa on St. Simons last year.

The Spa may be my favorite place in the state. It’s part boutique, part office, part facial oasis with a dedicated aesthetician (ask for the Detox + Glow treatment). There’s a very Instagrammable neon sign at the entrance reminding you to “Love Your Skin,” and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the water. “If it’s a beautiful day, I’ll go to the beach and pull up my laptop and research sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid,” says LeRoux.

Potential PR firms have broached the subject of relocation in the past—“They thought it might hurt [to be here], like, ‘What does somebody in Georgia know?’”—but the founder has never wanted to move to a major market. For LeRoux, it’s not about chasing the “clean beauty” trend, it’s about perfecting the craft. “So many brands will fall by the wayside, and I’ll still be making my products,” she says.

The same could be said for RMS Beauty and Yaupon Teahouse, really. In the past 10 years, the three have cemented their status as industry innovators, unintentionally turning the city into a clean beauty capital. The Savannah College of Art and Design—SCAD, for short—wants to keep it that way.

The university introduced the Business of Beauty and Fragrance B.F.A. program last year, and tapped former Estée Lauder executive director Meloney Moore to teach. “It is one of the fastest growing programs at the college,” Moore tells me over coffee at Art’s Café on Bull Street, a SCAD staple. “I started and we had seven students in the major—we have 80, as of today.” As the beauty business continues to boom, the program will likely grow in popularity. (Moore says she has high school students asking for admissions advice on Instagram, some even sending her PowerPoint presentations for consideration.)

While the program doesn’t specifically focus on “clean” beauty, sustainability is integrated into each class—on that front, Moore has even consulted with Rose-Marie Swift. “The students are very focused on it, very environmentally-conscious,” the professor says, detailing some promising projects: “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to work with TerraCycle to do this program,’ or, ‘We’re going to retain the consumer by asking them to mail back their bottles to refill and give them a discount.’”

That last one, no doubt, was inspired by a field trip to Salacia Salts, a shop founded by a SCAD graduate and one of Moore’s favorite spots in Savannah. Its bath and body care line features local ingredients—Atlantic sea salt, crushed pecan scrubs, exfoliating grits—packaged in reusable glass containers or recyclable cardboard. The store even has a bulk bar where customers can stock up on bath salts and facial cleansers, as well as a community space for classes.

To Jennifer Tinsley, founder of natural beauty brand FIELD and a 1996 graduate of SCAD, it’s these in-person experiences that will drive clean beauty forward in smaller Southern communities. “There is always online shopping, but the experience of trying out products and the educational component of brick and mortar shopping just can’t be replaced,” she says. “I am constantly amazed by customers coming into the store who are really concerned with personal care product ingredients, and are making a conscious decision to make the switch.” FIELD’s offerings are now available online at Urban Outfitters and American Eagle, but it’s the shop in Augusta, Georgia—complete with an event space for how-to workshops and a future refill station—that fuels growth. “My customers don’t just want beauty products; they are shopping at FIELD because it aligns with their lifestyle,” Tinsley says.

That lifestyle, increasingly, is one of simplicity—one that looks to do more with less. RMS Beauty’s entire range relies on a single star ingredient: cold centrifuge coconut oil. After 10 years, One Love Organics still offers only 18 SKUs. FIELD has three. “I think there’s a realization that we’ve got to get back to the roots, the origin,” as Thomann says. “I like to tell people, it’s an old Southern expression, ‘Yaupon is real as dirt.’ You can’t get any more real.”

Even in my months as a Savannian, I feel it. I’ve yet to unpack my (bursting) box of supplements; I’ve been sipping on yaupon tea with honey, and that feels like enough. My face is glowing—from the increased humidity, I’m sure, but also from paring back on beauty products. Yes, I’m still eating too many fried oysters, but there’s always an organic, simple salad waiting for me at Swift’s. (She promised.) It’s nothing like I pictured, and it’s hard to explain… but there’s something about Savannah that calls for fewer, better, cleaner things. No pretense, no extras, no excess.

“I see it in the students here,” agrees Moore. “That authenticity and simplicity and respect for what’s good and right is influencing the trends in our industry. It brings me back to the reason I fell in love with beauty to begin with.”

Written by Cari Phelps

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Best Selling, Eco Friendly Products You’ll Love

Jan 20, 2023

Written by Cari Phelps

Consumers, retailers, and even Buzzfeed (yes, Buzzfeed!) are raving about these best selling, eco friendly products that are good for your skin, and good for the Earth. Continue reading

Written by Cari Phelps

Seep the Benefits from a Sea Sponge in your Skincare Routine

May 02, 2021

Written by Cari Phelps

There are numerous benefits to using natural sea sponges in your skincare routine. Sponges are an eco-friendly renewable product, ideal for top-notch exfoliating, circulation boosting and enhancing the surface of your skin. Continue reading

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Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker

Mar 01, 2021

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Treat yourself to this mini-series on Netflix. Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker is fabulous! Great record of history and shares the incredible journey of Madam C. J. Walker.

Here’s the summary, thanks to Wikipedia.

In 1888, she worked as a laundress, earning barely more than a dollar a day. As was common among black women of her era, Sarah suffered severe dandruff and other scalp ailments, including baldness, due to skin disorders and the application of harsh products to cleanse hair and wash clothes. Other contributing factors to her hair loss included poor diet, illnesses, and infrequent bathing and hair washing during a time when most Americans lacked indoor plumbing, central heating and electricity.

She began selling products for Annie Malone, an African-American hair-care entrepreneur, millionaire, and soon Walker’s largest rival in the hair-care industry.

Following her marriage to Charles Walker in 1906, Sarah became known as Madam C. J. Walker. She marketed herself as an independent hairdresser and retailer of cosmetic creams. "Madam" was adopted from women pioneers of the French beauty industry. Sarah sold her products door to door, teaching other black women how to groom and style their hair.

In 1906, Walker put her daughter in charge of the mail-order operation in Denver while she and her husband traveled throughout the southern and eastern United States to expand the business.

Her daughter A'lelia ran the day-to-day operations and persuaded her mother to establish an office and beauty salon in New York City's growing Harlem neighborhood in 1913; it became a center of African-American culture. This is SO fascinating to learn! It started from the beauty industry!

And talk about an entrepreneur, Walker later built a factory, hair salon, and beauty school to train her sales agents, and added a laboratory to help with research! Key management and staff positions were women.

Between 1911 and 1919, during the height of her career, Walker and her company employed several thousand women as sales agents for its products. By 1917, the company claimed to have trained nearly 20,000 women. Incredible! Dressed in a characteristic uniform of white shirts and black skirts and carrying black satchels, they visited houses around the United States and in the Caribbean offering Walker's hair pomade and other products packaged in tin containers carrying her image.

In addition to training in sales and grooming, Walker showed other black women how to budget, build their own businesses, and encouraged them to become financially independent.

She hosted gatherings of women entrepreneurs to discuss business and commerce. She rewarded those who made the largest contributions to charities in their communities.

Walker's name became even more widely known by the 1920s, after her death, as her company's business market expanded beyond the United States to Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Panama, and Costa Rica!

Written by Cari Phelps

2021 Announcement: Sips & Trips Relaxation Boxes and Virtual Events available now

Jan 09, 2021

Written by Cari Phelps

One of the passions of our Founder Cari Phelps is travel. As a creative soul, she is always seeking to discover and gather inspiration wherever she goes. Traveling is the ultimate treat when coupled with a balance of adventurous exploration and relaxation.

Explore More Family Travel is a boutique travel agency owned by her good friend Jen. They specialize in cultural and authentic travel experiences. All details are handled by a travel advisor so that travelers can focus on engaging with each other while connecting to the world and making memories that will forever link them to their destination.

About Cari & Jen
Our friendship began in Savannah, GA over fifteen years ago and has taken us all over the world together. It is a friendship that goes beyond fun adventures, one that is rooted in our shared values. Our entrepreneurial paths have crossed many times, so we think it is time to join in a formal collaboration. Introducing .... Sips & Trips Relaxation Boxes and Virtual Events!

About Sips & Trips Relaxation Boxes and Virtual Events
We can't socialize as we want, and we are running out of series to binge-watch. If you are looking for ways to engage with others while spending your evenings at home, we have created a new kind of subscription service. Each travel-inspired kit will be unique and tie to a monthly theme - and each virtual event will involve relaxing "armchair travel" while sipping a beverage, engaging with others, and connecting with the world in a new way.

Please email us (cari @ salaciasalts.com) if you'd like to be alerted when our official subscription series launches. At this time we'll be posting each month's box on our site for sale and promoting on social media and through our email to our subscribers.

Our first HYGGE box is available now.

Written by Cari Phelps

15 Wellness Tips To Help You Live Your Best Life

Oct 05, 2020

Written by Cari Phelps

What a year it's been, right? If you subscribe to our emails, you know that we've periodically been sending out Wellness Tips throughout the year. We've gathered them in one place for you, so that you can easily come back and reference them as needed!

Drink more water
This might sound redundant, but the reason why this is ingrained in our brain at an early age is because it’s the truth, our bodies need water to function. Our brains are made up of 70% water, meaning water intake is essential. The more water we drink, the better we feel. Our digestive system works better, which helps us burn more fat. Challenge yourself to purchase a reusable, eco-friendly, water bottle and increase your water intake throughout the day. In general, you should try to drink between half an ounce and an ounce of water for each pound you weigh, every day. Help eliminate plastic water bottle waste for our planet, and improve your overall wellness for your body and mind.

Be Present

Be present
We live in such a technology-driven, fast-paced, instantaneous world, that at times we forget to be present in the moment. Try setting down your phone when spending time with friends or family, truly engage in conversations. You’ll notice that you will feel more heard, and you in return will become a better listener for others. It’s fun and exciting to document milestones in our lives, but challenge yourself once in a while to enjoy being present in the moment.

Be Mindful of Others

Be mindful of others.
It's easy to get wrapped up in our own worlds, and at times, we may struggle to think of others. By taking a second to think about someone else, this may make someone else’s day ten times brighter. Simplicity is key here. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, but small intentional steps may change someone’s entire perspective of humanity. Perhaps, next time you’re parking your car, park a little further back to allow someone that needs a closer parking spot to park closer to your destination. Or, pay it forward by paying for the person’s coffee in the line behind you. You never know if your small act of kindness may trigger a chain reaction.

Relax
It's a simple concept, but it can be hard to do with our busy schedules. Find whatever activity that relaxes you. For some, it may be painting or reading a book, for others it may be going for a nature walk. Many choose to take baths that promote relaxation. Whatever avenue you choose to take to help you relax, your body and mind will thank you. Carving out time to allow your body and mind to decompress will lead to an overall better well-being.

Volunteer In Community Activities

Volunteer in community activities
When we give back to our community, not only does our community prosper, but our hearts do as well. Volunteering our time, money, or expertise can benefit others. Perhaps, you could pick a Saturday to volunteer to clean up a local park, or next time you purge your closet, you could donate the items to a safe haven or a women’s shelter. These small acts of kindness leave a lasting impact in our minds, hearts and community.

Get In Touch With Nature
The natural world around us is spectacular. There’s nothing quite comparable to taking a deep breath in the open air and feeling your stressors from life fade away. In many ways, nature is medicine. Studies show that being outside in the great outdoors helps to decrease anxiety, depression, and boosts your immunity. Now that we are in the summer months, get out, go for a walk in the evening, ride a bike around the neighborhood, do an activity that involves being in nature. (Be sure to pack water and wear sunscreen too!)

Cook a home cooked meal

Cook a Home Cooked Meal
We live in an instantaneous world. Everything that we want, we want instantly. Yes, it’s easy after a long day and to be tempted to order take-out, but sometimes easy isn’t the best for your overall health. Instead, try finding a new recipe you would like to try. Make a list of the ingredients and place your order online or take a trip to the grocery store. Taking the time to prepare your meal can allow your mind to decompress from all of life’s stressors. You may find yourself grateful for the effort you put into creating the meal. This mindset will travel into other avenues of your life if you take a step back and savor every moment. Yes, it may take a bit longer, but it’s worth it.

Use Natural Products

Switch to Natural Products
There are so many harmful chemicals that are hidden in products that we use every day on our bodies. Try making the jump and investing in natural-based hygiene products, even if you just start with one product at a time. Skin is our largest organ, so being conscious of what goes on your skin is as important as what you would eat. You will feel better knowing that you are contributing to the greater good by helping our planet. For an added bonus, consider switching your soap to a natural soap with sustainable packaging. You can read more about the benefits of using natural soap by clicking here.

Practice Deep Breathing
Studies have shown that deep breathing leads to detoxifying the body. We are designed to breathe in and breathe out to function. By taking a few moments to practice deep breathing, this allows our mind to rest. Start with 10 minutes and gradually increase your sessions over time. Try to aim for at least one deep breathing exercise per day. This process leads to decreased stress and anxiety levels. Give your mind time to rest, your body will thank you. You can read more benefits of deep breathing by clicking here.

Organize
Organization can get lost in our busy schedules at times. Try picking a room or location in your house and organize the items. (ex. pantry, bathroom drawer, medicine cabinet, closet, refrigerator, etc.). Have you seen the Marie Kondo Netflix show? She is the master at organization and finding joy...just remember if you start to show, don’t forget to press pause and actually try it out what she’s demonstrating. Clean out and get rid of items that need to be recycled, or thrown away. Consider donating unused items to a local shelter. Once you begin the pattern of organizing, this will lead to an overall positive feeling.

Go outside to play!
Here is an exercise you can do by yourself, or with your children or grandchildren. Take a piece of paper and a pen along with you. Find a spot in your garden or at a nearby park or even go on a random neighborhood walk. Pay attention to your senses. What do you see? What do you smell? What do you hear? You can make notes just for yourself or record the children’s reactions for a keepsake memory of the day. Maybe the exercise will encourage you to sketch or draw what you saw or become a regular activity with children. Make sure you’re not distracted by bugs by taking along a deet-free spray that is safe for you, children and pets. Salacia Salts Nauti Bugs Insect Spray checks all the boxes – safe, natural, and effective.

Sleep
Yes. Do you need a reason to take a nap? Sleep is an essential part of your overall wellness. How to combine a good mood with better sleep? Aromatherapy! The use of natural oils is proven to affect your mood. Give yourself a treat by spraying a relaxing blend of essential oils on your sheets before bed. Do a little research about all the benefits oils can bring to you.

Sweet dreams!

Meditate
Being calm and focusing on your breathing is always available. Once you master the ability to be still, meditation can be simple and an instant de-stresser. Whether you prefer to sit or recline, there are no rules other than giving yourself a “timeout”. To set the mood for your special just-for-you time, light a candle before you begin. There are many apps for beginners to use. Meditation is as easy as enjoying a few peaceful moments while listening to a voice that can guide you feeling more serene.

Candle recommendation: Choose a 100% soy based candle for a clean burn. Salacia has a line of travel tin candles wrapped in beautiful images by Savannah, Georgia artist Tiffani Taylor. Thirteen decidedly soothing Southern scents are available.

Sweet Potato Chips
Yes, you heard right! Make time for a recipe for sweet potato chips in the microwave for added vitamins. It takes only minutes to make this a crunchy snack with lots of healthy benefits.

Combine thin sweet potato slices and olive oil in a large bowl; toss to coat. Arrange sweet potato slices in a single layer on a large microwave-safe plate; season with salt. Cook in microwave until chips are dry, crisp, and slightly browned, about 5 minutes. Cool chips on plate before transferring to a bowl.

Visit this website for the original recipe, photos and notes about slicing.

Get Crafty
Using your hands and the gift of giving can be very theraputic. Make a gift to lift someone’s spirits. Include children or teens so they can participate and enjoy the pride of giving a gift they made themselves. Create an exfoliating scrub or create a custom clay mask. Salacia offers workshops and blending bar sessions, so drop in anytime during open hours or make an appointment for a guided class.

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