The Most Beautiful Thing I've Learned All Summer

Three days a week, we train with our Serbian boxing instructor here at the house. It’s a family affair. The kids ride their bikes around us while we train or put on their own boxing gloves and join in for fun. But I cherish these moments with Tikka because he grew up high in the mountains of Serbia, living the old way—without electricity or running water, relying simply on water from the wishing well. He was raised by his grandmother and grandfather, who taught him every folk remedy, herbal tradition, and ancestral ritual you can imagine. So between weight sets or rounds of boxing, I’m constantly picking his brain.

If you’ve been here for a while, you know I’ve gone utterly down the ancient beauty rabbit hole. I’ve gone full Projector (Human Design) on it, so I simply can’t get enough. As an herbalist, I’m captivated by it in a way I never could have imagined back when I was first learning to make herbal medicine. It’s become baffling to me that we’ve let these old ways disappear.

For instance, my hair has never looked shinier, felt softer, or grown as quickly as it has since I ditched shampoo, conditioner, and every modern hair practice two months ago. Instead, I turned to herbal rinses, scalp oiling, daily massage, and a boar bristle brush. Or how I traded modern skincare for Japanese mochi skin practices and skin fasting. And, perhaps most unexpectedly, how these rituals have made me feel more intuitive and connected to my channeling.

All of this is to say that working with herbs and flowers on this level is multifaceted. Not only is it incredibly nourishing and beautifying for the hair, skin, and nails, but once you begin to feel their energetic properties, it becomes baffling to think we’ve replaced them with something lifeless from a plastic bottle.

Today I’m back with yet another ancient ritual, inspired by a deep dive I went on after Tikka told me about the way his grandmother prepared flower water each evening to wash their face with the next morning for “good energy”, natural perfume, and soft, moisturized skin.

Let’s get into the flowers used, the process (including dew), and the how to of this enchanting fairy practice below.

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