Well Being: Rejuvenating Recipes for the Body and Soul [Hardcover]

Barbara Close (Author), Susie Cushner (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2000

From starting a busy day with an energizing juice boost to squeezing in a yoga class after work, rejevenating personal rituals have slowly become part of our daily lives. Luxurious beauty treatments such as aromatherapy, herbalism, and massage are no longer limited to special occasions and the day spa. Well Being takes an intimate, sensual approach to self-care, with simple recipes and ideas that will make you feel as if you're pampering yourself from the inside out. Slide your toes into an aromatic rosemary foot bath, sip a restorative pear elixer, ease dry skin with a soothing herbal balm. Just a small pantry of herbs and essential oils are needed to prepare the health and beauty recipes in Well Being. Arranged seasonally, it offers recipes for all that ails: steaming teas and cold soothers ease the winter chills, refreshing baths and mists counter the climatic fluctuations of spring, cool tonics and compresses quench summer's dry skin and sunburn. Lavishingly photographed throughout, Well Being is an irresistible volume of refreshing daily comforts that will nurture the body as well as the soul.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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

About the Author

Barbara Close is a certified aromatherapist and the founder and owner of Naturopathica, a full-service holistic spa in East Hampton, New York. She is also the author of Aromatherapy A-Z.

Susie Cushner is a Boston-based photographer whose work has appeared in House Beautiful , Metropolitan Home , and elsewhere.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (June 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811825930
• ISBN-13: 978-0811825931
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #355,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great recipes, makes a great gift, June 26, 2000

By 

Angel Lee "Liocorno Amethyst Moonstone" (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Well Being: Rejuvenating Recipes for the Body and Soul (Hardcover)

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.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a beautiful book!, May 20, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Well Being: Rejuvenating Recipes for the Body and Soul (Hardcover)

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!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just Skin Deep, May 21, 2008

By 

Rebecca M. Matheny "music snob" (oshkosh, wi) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Well Being: Rejuvenating Recipes for the Body and Soul (Hardcover)

This book is beautiful!
I love this book. I have my own natural beauty product business, and this book has so much to offer. I also love that it isn't sectioned by product type, but by the seasons, and furthermore, that it doesn't just have body care recipes, there are Teas, Elixirs, Soups and Tonics as well. It really brings home the idea that it's not just what you put ON your body, but in it as well.
Just looking at it and reading it really creates this atmosphere that urges you to be relaxed and creative.
Very good information on ingredients and Aromatherapy as well.
A great find!