Nourish & Glow
Skin Care
As the years have unfolded, I have come to understand that caring for my skin is far more than a beauty ritual — it is an act of self-honouring. Hydration and nourishment have become a cherished and intentional part of my daily self-care practice. Here, I am delighted to share a curated collection of the products I have come to love and trust.
July 29, 2026
A Homemade Hand Cream
On July 29th, a morning at the Rockwood Farmers' Market yielded one of the quiet delights of this sabbatical season — a jar of grass-fed beef tallow. There is something grounding about sourcing an ingredient directly from the people who raised it — a small exchange that honours both the land and the hands that tend it.
Returning home, I set about transforming that simple, honest ingredient into something of my own making. With the addition of avocado oil and a few drops of Massuet Niagara Lavender essential oil — distilled just over the lake in Niagara-on-the-Lake — I whipped the tallow until it became something altogether different: a silky, nourishing hand cream, fragrant with the calm of lavender and rich with the goodness of the earth it came from. A little alchemy of the kitchen, and a small reminder that beauty need not always be bought; sometimes it is simply made, with intention, in our own hands.
I am still exploring this hand cream — refining, testing, and learning as I go. Once I find the perfect ingredients that don't smell like beef, I will market the product I love to create for fun. Making it has become a right-brain creative activity that brings me much joy, and a reminder that the work of our hands can be play as much as labour.
Barrie, ON
Victoria Park Medispa — Two Bella Facials
During my sabbatical I indulged in two Bella MD facials at Victoria Park Medispa in Barrie — a small, intentional extravagance that became a cherished part of my season of self-care. The Bella MD treatment is a medical-grade facial that gently resurfaces and deeply hydrates the skin, and each visit left my complexion renewed and my spirit quietly restored.
To be tended to in such a calm and professional space was its own kind of rest — a reminder that tending to the body, and to the skin, is one quiet way of practising gratitude for the vessel that carries us through every sacred and ordinary day.
Visit Victoria Park Medispa Barrie
