Skin Food: A Holistic Approach to Crafting Botanical Skincare with Natalya King

Welcome to the Virtual Herbalism Conference. I'm your host, Lindsey Feldpausch. In this session, we are joined by Natalya King, founder of BodyLove by Tal. We will be exploring Skin Food: A Holistic Approach to Crafting Botanical Skincare for our topic today. I feel Natalya is the perfect person to be guiding us on this journey.

What began for her as kitchen experiments to get glowing skin became a path into herbalism. After Natalya's blends helped herself and her family, she knew that she was onto something. She deepened her studies and trained extensively with the Herbal Academy through our Introductory, Intermediate, and Advanced Herbal Courses, as well as our Tincture Making 101 Course. Natalya now runs an international business, BodyLove by Tal, a minority woman-owned company devoted to natural healing, self-care, and accessible botanical skincare for everyone. She even has a beautiful storefront in Parker, Colorado, offering organic herbs and over 60 clean, simple, and effective small batch all-natural products. Natalya, your journey is truly empowering. I can't wait to hear what you have to share with us today, and thank you for joining us.

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. I'd love to start off by hearing a little bit more about your journey into herbalism and the work that you do.

Yes, of course. I actually started making my own skincare products in high school. I honestly became obsessive with the healing power of nature. And so, shout out to YouTube University. I went on YouTube, googled as much as I can. And honestly, in high school, I was following Herbal Academy, and you guys always had your recipe cards and your blogs. And so I would always stay up to date and stay fresh on those. And my mom, oh my gosh, she wanted to kill me because I would have like butters and oils and everything in the kitchen, just tinkering around and making stuff. Honestly, I was really sensitive to a lot of the skincare that was out there, and I found myself breaking out and just not having the skin that I wanted. So I was like, well, I'm going to make it on my own.

My mom had transitioned us to a holistic lifestyle, and I wasn't too fond of it until I saw the changes in my body. And so she really encouraged us to go that way, even though my mom and her mom, my grandmother, grew up that way. I guess it just got lost in the sauce on down the line. I played D1 sports, so I went to college. If you know anything about sports, they're very intense. It didn't leave me a lot of space or room to really dive into the things that I loved. I forgot about it. I was so laser-focused. I was like, volleyball, volleyball, volleyball. I ended up getting pregnant my senior year, and it allowed me to really pause.

What I found was I was spending more time studying holistic health than what I needed for my tests and stuff, and just tinkering, making butters, having friends over, having them smell stuff, use stuff. And then while I was pregnant, I just was so shocked to see how toxic, specifically, baby products were. I was like, Oh, my gosh. I grew up on Johnson & Johnson and all of these brands that are specifically made for babies. I was like, Well, that's what I'll use on my child. I just deep dove into that. And once I had my child, he ended up getting some skin spots, some eczema. I was so nervous to use my formulations on him, but I did. And his skin cleared up. He was a happy baby. No really skin issues after that.

I guess around campus, it caught word that I made products. I had teachers email me. I had my friends and their friends coming over for little salves and balms and butters that I would make right in my college apartment. That's really how it bloomed for me. Then I had applied for over 50 jobs, and I think I got one interview back, and it was really discouraging, but it had nothing to do with what I wanted to do, which was somewhere in holistic health. I had walked upon an opportunity to start my own business. I started BodyLove by Tal in three months, I had a one-year-old still breastfeeding, all the things, and my mom actually helped me build my business in three months. And there, we started making stuff. I was in this place called the District Shops with over 300 other local businesses. And I would actually formulate and make skincare products on the spot as if you were ordering food. So that was different. So I had a lot of practice. I saw a lot of people. Shout out to my mom and dad and my siblings for being my guinea pigs for so long. And so a lot of it was self-taught. I read books. Ayurveda was actually a huge, huge influence over formulating my skincare products. And if you can see, I have lots of books. I just immersed myself. I watched videos. I did all the things. And fast forward, I was like, I really want to become an herbalist, a certified herbalist, because I just really wanted to learn how to respect the plants, but also respect the demographic or the people that I was serving, and I really wanted them to trust me. And so I was like, I'll go through Herbal Academy. I was so excited. I graduated, and I actually started Herbal Academy after I opened my storefront. And so really going through the course gave me the confidence to really help people when they came to the shop and when they had skin ailments that they needed help with, I was able to guide both through herbs and through butters and through oils just to get their body back to center. And so, we have BodyLove by Tal!

Yes. That is incredible. I absolutely love hearing your journey. I mean, what a powerful path you have walked. Thank you. So, Natalya, let's talk a little bit about what skin food means to you.

So skin food is extremely important. First, I really would like to say what you put on your skin matters just as much as what you put into your body, right? Because the skin eats, too. Our skin is the largest organ on our body, and what we put on our skin enters directly into the bloodstream. When I think of skin food, I think of whole foods or products and plant botanicals that nourish the skin and really don't do any harm. Would you eat poison? I'm really big on if you wouldn't eat it or you can't pronounce it, don't put it on your skin. I think that's so important. As you are looking at those ingredients, just like you go into the store, people are really big on reading the labels. You want to read the labels on your skincare because your skin's eating it. Our skin is our first defense system. It's directly connected to our immune system, so many things. It protects us from the outside world. When we give our food the skin food that it needs, it's able to thrive.

I really love the idea that what we put on our skin, our skin is eating. I think that that's such a great analogy to help people really understand the incredible absorbability that our skin has. So, I love talking about extraction. I want to hear from you, Tal. What extraction methods do you use to create your skincare products, and what are your favorite topical applications to support the skin?

Yes, so, a lot of what we do is we like to work with a lot of raw products and formulating and mixing them together. We're not doing too much. We don't want to overcomplicate things over at BodyLove by Tal, but also, I would say my ultimate favorite thing to do with oils and herbs is to heat infuse them or sun infuse them. Sun infusion can take up to two months, and then we have a lot of our heat infusion method. For example, calendula is absolutely one of my skin healing favorite herbs. It's really great for the lymphatic system. It just helps move the lymph and really bring out that beautiful glow. But I love infusing calendula in olive oil or avocado oil. I would say that is my favorite extraction method. We use heat to do that, but we do a low heat for over 4-6 hours. We more lean on the 6-hour mark, and so we're just pulling all the goodness from the plant into the oil, and then we strain it. But the amount of goodness that is in that oil once you are done infusing it with an herb—honestly, a lot of herbs. You can do lavender, rose, and we use a lot of those herbs in a lot of our skin products. But it can help with burns, scrapes, bruises, rashes, inflammatory skin ailments we found, especially with calendula. We call it the everything skin herb. So that's my favorite way. And my other favorite way is to simply just take the herb, blend it, make it to a powder, and then activating it with hydrosol, water, filtered water. You can activate it with honey, things like that. I absolutely love just the raw herbs straight on the skin. And then we also like to use different clays and powders to go along with that. And so I think they call it Ubtan, where you take the herbs and the clays and then you put it on your skin. And so we do a lot of that with our face mask. We don't use any water. It comes in the powder form just so we can really stay away from preservatives. Then you activate a little bit of it at home and it really spreads and lasts a long time. I would say those are my favorite ways.

The vulnerary properties of calendula cannot be overstated at all. I want to hear some more about your core plant allies for your skincare philosophies and what key constituents make them truly shine for the skin.

Okay, so I want to start by saying we've been in business for over seven years at this point, and we've helped thousands of people with their skin, and my favorites to use is turmeric and manjistha. Those two, even together, it's like, whoa. I do a manuka honey, turmeric, and manjistha mask. That's it on my face about three to four times a week, and it naturally just keeps that beautiful glow. Depending on your skin type and just how fair or dark your skin is, you can up the turmeric. I just put a whole bunch of turmeric in there. Sometimes I dye my nails, but what I found is the glow that I carry with it after even putting it on. I get a lot of compliments on my skin, but more than ever, we use it in some of our face masks, and it really just helps the skin go from this dull, just lackluster to this beautiful just sun kissed glow. I would say that's it right there. That's one of my skincare secrets. I don't blast it everywhere, but I do use that a lot. That's something that you can make easily at home. If you don't have manuka honey, you can use regular honey and you get the consistency just like you like it, like a paste-like, and you just slap it on your face.

Yes. Well, I'm sure I am not the only one thinking that your skin is absolutely beautiful. We all want that glow that you have achieved with your routine. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Tal, let's talk a little bit about your approach to the skin as a barrier. What botanicals or lipids do you reach for it to support skin barrier function?

When it comes to our skin barrier, it's extremely important, like I said, to protect us from the outside world. We don't want to disturb it. We want to work with it. I'm really big on a routine. The biggest three is you want to cleanse, tone, and moisturize. When you do those three things and you layer it the way that I said, you're able to protect your skin from a lot of just pathogens and toxins, especially in the world that we live today. And so what you're doing when you're doing that is you really just set your skin microbiome for success and also with just using natural plants and herbs and oils. So when it comes to the skin microbiome, we want a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria, the fungi, and the little mites that are on their skin. I know that sounds scary, but they are really important and crucial for protecting the skin. And so what using natural plant oils and herbs is just really going to help keep that natural balance.

The skin microbiome is so fascinating and so important, so I'm glad you brought that up within this barrier functioning. We're going to walk through a formulation flow, Tal. Let's go through formulating a face product, from concept to jar. Where do you begin?

Okay, so herbalism is extremely spiritual for me. I've gone through some things within my own personal life that I look to God, I prayed, I fasted. And so when formulations, even when I was younger, I would just get these dreams. And I was a little bit nervous about sharing that because it's just like, you know, but I have to speak to my truth and I have to tell you guys what it is. And so the way that God speaks to me is God puts an idea or a dream on my heart, and I'm just constantly nudged. It won't get off my mind. And so this is my process flow. I sit with the recipe. I just ask God, what are you wanting me to formulate? What are you wanting me to make for my people? And I sit with it and I just start. I have my handy dandy notebook. I don't go anywhere without my notebook, and I just will sit and write stuff out. So that's my first process is just sitting with the thought and really diving in. Now, if I'm doing my own research, I have all my books sprawled out. I'm reading this, and I'm reading that, and I'm writing stuff down, and I'll go tinker in the kitchen for days on end, like I'm a mad scientist, honestly. My kitchen at times looks absolutely crazy. But for some of my best, most successful, just like the shakers that I've made that have really made an impact on people's skin and their bodies is when I dream about them and God really talks to me. And so the first process is writing it down. And then the second process is just collecting all the ingredients that I already have at my shop and that I've collected over the years. I put them together and I get into this flow state and I just formulate and I flow. And most times when it comes to me in that way, I get it on the first or second try. And it's really about immersing yourself into the process. Like I said, it's more to me than just ingredients. Plants are our allies. They're here to help us. They were here before us. They'll be here way after us. I ask myself, how can I be that vessel to then make something to then give it to my community to really help propel holistic healing? And so I would say that's my process. It's not the normal process, I'd say, but it's worked for me.

I think it's absolutely beautiful, Tal. Thank you for sharing. And as a fellow formulator, I absolutely have those moments where a formula feels like it's just sent from somewhere than me. Then those are the times where just like, Oh, wow, that absolutely worked.

Yes, definitely just reflection and praying on it because we have to respect the plants. We have to respect everything about them. Just because it's natural doesn't mean you could just throw stuff together and call it good. You have to do your due diligence on researching and all the things because at the end of the day, this going into somebody's house and home and they're using it. Anything that we do, I do, BodyLove by Tal does, we want to make sure that it's helping and not harming at any point. That's really huge for us. I think that's where good education comes into play. You have the education and you do the research, and the knowledge that is held by us formulators is then a stop gap. Where it's like, Oh, we're not just just pulling these formulas out of nowhere, we actually do have the foundational knowledge necessary to create, but it's cool to know that they can come in these beautiful ways. We are going to shift over towards hydration and moisturization. Can you talk a little bit about this aspect of your skincare process and products and how you layer specific aspects of moisturization or hydration? Because, you know, hydrosols are different than oils and different skin types and different needs for those skin types.

Hydration, I like to tell people, it starts internally. You have to drink water. Like I said, just as much as it is important of what you put on your skin, it's important what you're doing internally. Then it can basically propel the powers of the skin botanicals to then work better. It's all working together. But I'm really big on staying hydrated, both through your water and your foods, whole foods, eating the rainbow, eating all types of fruits and vegetables is extremely important for skin hydration. But the biggest thing for us and what we have found is we do—and I've learned this from Ayurveda—is this process of... Sometimes it's five steps, seven steps. Even in Chinese medicine, they're really big. In Korean skincare, it's really huge. So I pulled a little bit of both and then made it into our own. But it's really important to layer and do the steps correctly. And so I will put it like this. If you are doing your routine, and everybody's skin is different so you're going to go through a process of going through things that work and going through things that don't. Certain oils are better for certain skin types. For example, jojoba oil is non-comedogenic. So if you have really oily skin or you deal with a lot of just clogged pores, jojoba oil is a great start for you, and it really mimics the natural skin sebum that we have already on our skin. And so you're going to go through that process. And then sometimes your skin will go through this purging process, but just know it'll find its balance once you figure those things out. And so you really want to start with a cleanser, right? We're really huge on oil cleansing. And a lot of people find that so taboo. It's like, why would I clean my skin with oil? And if my skin's oily, wouldn't that make it oilier? Well, oil and water don't mix. And so when you have dirt on your face and you're putting water on it and you're not really using... You're using a cleanser, it's not really deeply cleansing your pores because your skin is made up of all these natural oils. And so what the oil cleanser does is it penetrates deeply into the pores, and it's able to attract all the dirt and the pathogens and the toxins from the air, and it's able to pull it out. But also it helps balance the oil, the sebum production. It's able to help balance that out. And so I'm really big on oil cleansing. And if you're like, okay, Tal, I'm down with the oil cleansing, but I just need a little more, then we call it double cleansing. You go in with a more water-based foam cleanser or just a skin cleanser. Then that right there alone is already hydrating because you're using the oil cleanser and then you're double cleansing And so what that's giving us is a fresh palate or a fresh face to work on. So then the hydrosols and the oils can deeply penetrate and hydrate the skin. And so we got the oil cleansing, we got the double cleansing. Now it's time—and you're going to want to do this maybe 2-3 times a week because the oils and hydrosols can't penetrate the skin if there's a bunch of dead skin cells on it, so that's where exfoliation comes in. I'm all about gentle exfoliation. And so, like I said, we use a lot of herbs and clays and even fruits. We have blueberry powder and strawberry powder in one of our face masks. And so this is a great gentle exfoliant. And like I said, people should be exfoliating once or at least two times a week, but every week, honestly. And then after that, you rinse everything off, and then you go in with your hydrosol, and you just let the plants do its work. Hydrosols are different than plant waters. Hydrosols are amazing at really hydrating and penetrating the skin. And we use... Rose is my favorite hydrosol. Rose hydrosols will forever be my favorite, but we use a little bit of rose hydrosol, hibiscus hydrosol, lavender hydrosol, and so we go in and we spray that on the skin, and it's leaving you with a damp face. And so you don't want to wait too long, and then you want to go in with the serum. And a serum is literally skin food. Just how thin it is, it's able to really penetrate the skin. I think I said penetrate the skin so many times, but it's true. And so you go on with the moisturizer. That's what we call our moisturizer. And if you need something thicker, you can go on with a salve or a cream. We love salves because at BodyLove by Tal, we don't use a lot of preservatives. I think we only use one natural preservative, if even that. But we really are big on not using water in our products because we know that we have to use so many more preservatives. So I'm really big on salves. If you're doing the hydration process, you don't have to think about all these creams and this and then that, and then subject yourself to a lot of chemicals or toxins, you're able to just use the serums and the salves. So that is my biggest advice for skin hydration is you have to have a consistent and a thorough skincare routine.

Beautiful. I'd love to hear a little bit more about the carrier oils that you like to work with and maybe talk towards what your favorite cold-pressed oils or what your favorite butters are and how you like to utilize them in your products.

Okay. I would say my favorite oil is to work with, for infusion-base, I love working with olive oil and avocado oil. I feel like a lot of herbalists can relate to that. But my favorite cold-pressed oils, I would say, are jojoba oil. Then you have your primrose oil, your hemp seed oil. Mind you, we work with all these, and they're in our formulations. But I would say probably my favorite out of all of them is rosehip and pomegranate seed oil. I'm not sure why I like working with them, but I like the way it feels on my skin. I like the way when we are using them in our formula, it really provides that hydration that you're looking for without the overpower and also where the oil is not sitting directly on your skin. Then I would say as far as butters, I mean, cocoa butter and shea butter. We use raw shea butter in our soaps. We use shea butter in our magnesium butter, which is our top seller out of everything that we sell. We have mango butter, shea butter, cocoa butter. We even use coconut oil. And so it's really hard. I think that is one of the hardest questions you can ask a skincare formulator because herbalism and skincare formulation is so inclusive. In being inclusive, you have to make sure you're making something for everybody, and everybody's skin is different. And so what will work for me won't work for the next person or will work for the next person. That is why it's so important to really keep an open mind. I have not explored everything. I've explored a lot. If you put an oil in front of my face and was like, smell it, feel it, Tal, what is it? I could probably get it right. But I have so much more to learn, but I'm really, really big on keeping it simple and not doing too much, but just bringing everything together to make something beautiful, sustainable, and just skin-friendly. I would say. Honestly, cocoa butter, though, because it smells like chocolate. It smells like chocolate. It smells like chocolate! Oh, my gosh. You can make chocolate out of the cocoa butter wafers that we use. So I just think it's so cool that a lot of what we use in our products, you can literally eat. And I think that's amazing. Literal skin food. Literal skin food. Yeah.

I love how you're... you know, I feel like as an herbalist, I feel you could put so many herbs in front of me and I could be blindfolded and smell them, taste them, touch them and be like, Oh, that is this herb, right? You're saying you're saying like that with the oils and butters. That's super cool. They have different profiles, right? They have different smells and they have different feels and they have different fatty acid compositions and the ability to absorb quickly or to sit on the skin for so long. They are different products. They have different offerings.

Yes. We mentioned the microbiome already a little bit ,Tal, but I would love to hear more from you about why it's so important and how it's impacted by the actions we take upon our skin.

Yes, the skin microbiome is a microbe universe. There's so much going on, and a lot of the practices that we have today really destroy it, just like our gut microbiome. And it's so important for us to feed it to things like prebiotics, probiotics, feeding it the rainbow. It's almost the same with the skin. But if our skin is our first line of defense and you're just basically essentially dropping atomic bombs with these products that have parabens, phthalates, fragrances. Those are the big three that I would wholeheartedly stay away from, especially when it comes to fragrances, because sometimes that is over... It could be 200, 500 ingredients in just the word fragrance. In our society today, we wake up and we're already exposing ourselves to thousands of chemicals. We have to ask ourselves, if we're destroying our first line of defense, which is our skin microbiome, what is that doing to us on a cellular level? And what is that doing to our overall health. Then you have your hormone disruptors, your endocrine disruptors. Studies have shown that a lot of the parabens and the phthalates and the fragrances are causing cancer. The sunscreen, there's so much conversation around sunscreen and things of that nature. What I try to tell people, because this is not to fear monger you, but this is also to just really stress the importance of what you put on your skin matters. So much so that if pregnant women are putting all these chemicals on their body, in utero, the baby can be affected and have those hormone disruptors or certain issues that we can all avoid just by cleaning up our skincare. And there's so much. Do one at a time. But skincare is a huge one. Think about it. You're using shampoos all day or every day, conditioners, makeup, skincare products, even down to what you use in your mouth, dental. You're just exposing yourself to so many chemicals. But there's a beautiful side of all these products where it's all the natural stuff. A lot of the things that we have on the market are derived from all of these beautiful natural products. Just this shift in mindset and just a shift in focus on really being intentional of what you put on your skin, because a lot of skin issues are the chemical pills, the retinols, and just the really harsh things that we put on our skin. It might work for that moment, but then it exasperates the issue further down the line. Our skin is the biggest map to what's going on with us internally. I'm really big on, okay, I'm having this issue, or for example, I'm having hyperpigmentation. It's like, okay, let's see what's going on. Let's really dive deep in. What I found is it's a stagnant lymph and a sluggish liver. I'm really big on lymphatic massages. I'm huge on lymphatic massages. I'm huge on liver cleansing herbs because once we get the liver doing what it needs to, like, weirdly, people stop smelling. Like, they don't need as much deodorant. I know, right? And they also, their skin just clears up and it glows. And the body is able to really flush and do what it needs to. And detox pathways are huge, right? And so when you have your detox pathways open, you're using the right things on your skin, your body is able to detoxify properly. But if we're over-exposing ourselves to these chemicals every day, it's going to be accumulation of all of these toxins and chemicals in our fat, right? And a lot of people aren't doing fat graphs. They're doing urine samples, and you won't find a lot of these chemicals in the urine samples. So it's like, Okay, this is actually inside my body. How do I get it out? How do I change my mindset about skincare and literally seeing it as something that is just as important as what you put in your body? And so back to the original question, the skin microbiome is affected by all of these things, and we want to keep it as balanced as possible with our botanicals, herbal, your fruits and your vegetables—and I'm talking about powders. We use a lot of fruit and vegetable powders in our products, too. So we have kale in some. We have, like I said, strawberry, wild strawberries, So there's so many things that your skin just naturally loves, and it won't fight you too much on it once you make that transition. Your body is going to be like, Thank you. Thank you. So it's extremely important.

I love this because your skin is eating the rainbow. You have kale and strawberries and turmeric. So cool. I think it's so important, Tal, that you brought up the internal aspect of skincare because absolutely, the pathways of detoxification are huge. I would even go further to say that the health of our gut and based on diet, which you've absolutely touched on, is so important. If we want to heal our skin, really, we're working in those internal environments, healing the gut, supporting the liver, working on elimination processes. Absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing. Another aspect of skincare that is so big these days is the anti-aging movement, which I don't super love that term because aging is a natural process that we all go through. But we know that sun and pollutants and stress all accelerate the visibility of this process. What antioxidant rich plants are most reliable in your experience and how do you use them in formulation?

I would say a lot of the herbs that we use and the oils that we use have their natural anti-aging properties. But I really have found that things like helichrysum and frankincense and myrrh, the old-time essential oils that have been around for forever have been really crucial in anti-aging. But I really do want to touch on the process of aging because when we age, it's more than just what we put on our skin. There's so many aspects and things that go into aging. I think as much as we need to embrace it, we also have to get really serious with ourselves on what's causing the aging. Like you said, is it stress? Is it this? Is it that? Just honestly, switching over to a more plant-based skincare line is already going to eliminate a lot of the issues that these conventional or commercial skincare products are causing on down the line. The more you're using them, the more you need. And the more products you need to buy with plant skincare or botanicals or plant-based, you're going to get to a point where you're using less, especially if you're doing what you need to internally. And a part of that is what you put on your skin because it's going directly into your bloodstream. I would say when it comes to anti-aging, we can talk about all the things that have a lot of antioxidants, like strawberries or blueberry powder or spirulina or even turmeric. All of them have those properties. But I think the biggest thing is creating a routine that will then support the skin so it can be hydrated because hydration is huge when it comes to aging. You want the skin to be bouncy and happy and hydrated and just supple, right? And so I would say dry skin is the quickest way to age your skin. You want to slather it on. If you don't look like a grease Krispy Kreme donut by the time you go to bed, I don't know what to tell. You got to grease it up. You know what I'm saying? You should see the way I go to bed, okay? This is a lifestyle for sure, but you want to really protect the skin. What we've talked about, protect your skin barrier. But more than anything, I think if you're staying hydrated and you're sticking with a routine, you're naturally going to see your wrinkles aren't as deep. Your hyperpigmentation isn't as dark. You're lightening up your skin. But yeah, definitely embrace aging. But skincare is huge. Moisture, moisture, moisture is the biggest thing that I can say.

Well, I think that's really great advice. Tal, how did you address inclusivity in herbal skincare and designing for such a broad spectrum of skin tones and types and concerns as well, avoiding the one-size-fits-all myth.

Yes, so, a little bit about that. A while ago, I saw Herbal Academy, honestly, talk about energetics. And I was like, I've never seen anybody talk about the energetics of anything. A little bit of what energetics is, is the embodiment of the herb and what it does and how it works with the body. Would you say, energetics, I would say in a way? I like to explain energetics as the qualities that a person or a plant or even a pathology or condition can hold. It's simple, basic things that we can know through our senses. Hot, cold, wet, dry, toning, relaxing. Yes. I became infatuated with that. Then I started studying. That led me to Ayurveda. So through that study, I learned that literally everybody is different. So when somebody comes in, I'm not necessarily looking at their skin color. I'm not necessarily looking at a lot of the just what meets the eye things. I'm asking about their constitution. It's like, do you run hot? Are you cold all the time? Are you sweating? Are you oily? So I can look at these things, and obviously it really does come with practice. But I do know what to pair and what oils to use for certain skin types and elements based off of their constitution and based off of their energetics, because I do feel like certain elements have their own energetics as well. When you have skin inflammation, it's hot, and so you need something that's going to cool. If it's hot and oozy, you need something that's going to cool and dry it up. I've really dove into that. Again, over seven years of doing so, I feel like I've been able to really learn people and learn just after seeing things so much on what to do and what works. And if this doesn't work, I have my second, third, and even fourth option. Okay, we got to ramp it up. We're like, let's tone it down a little bit. Before I even had my skincare brand where I had actual products, I would customize each and every face system. And honestly, it was a great learning lesson. I don't think I'll ever go back to that. That was so much. And even through, I would work the farmer's markets and pop-ups. I hustled before I had my storefront. I was just introduced and talked to so many people. And when you start collecting the stories, not that they all sound the same, but you start to then see patterns in the skin, and you see patterns in the habits, and you're able to then put it all together. And so when it comes to our plant allies, they're directly there to help us through life. And so when I think of inclusion, I just think of how diverse and beautiful plants and the different oils are. And then I see a human body, and I can just put it together in my head and then bring it to the person. I hope that makes sense. But yeah, I would say it's really important to listen, too, and see what's going on. But the plants don't discriminate. That's the beautiful part about working with plants and just learning people's skin and learning about the person. Honestly, I look at people as more plants than I do people. I know that's crazy, but it's like, what's going on with this plant right now? Do I need to prune it or add this to it? Just what can I do to then give to this person to make it the healthiest, most blooming plant? Then I relate that to skincare. Then we have a formulation or even a tea or skin tea or anything that we can do to really help them. But the basis of my... I have three face systems right now. We have our anti-aging face system. We have our clarity face system, which helps with acne prone skin. And then we have our skin talk system. And so the way that I formulated those was based off of Ayurveda and the skin conditions and the energetics of that skin condition. And so I use oils and herbs to then help really remedy and really help with the inflammation of that skin element or condition at the time. And so you can start putting things to boxes, but there's a lot that people need.

Yes. It's really great to hear about your energetic applications, Tal, of the plants to the people. Also, that's pretty incredible. I mean, you had so many years of experience looking at all of these individuals and then formulating directly for them, which is like such a clinical herbalist way of approaching skin, but I've never heard of anyone just focusing right in on the skin solely. So I think that's pretty cool. Do you have any favorite stories you want to share with us?

I have a couple I would like to just touch on. But when I opened my store, I was reached out to by a mom, and she had no idea what to do with her baby girl. And she would have the most restless, awful night scratching, link scratching sores into her skin, scratching just everywhere. And she's like, I can't get her to stop scratching. We put socks on her hands, but she just sleeps.. I mean, she doesn't sleep all night. And we have tried everything, the steroids cream and all of these other things that sometimes when you go, that's what they prescribe. And they were like, We don't know what else to do. Nothing has helped. I was like, okay, I felt called to just send them a calendula salve on us because I was just like, you know, when you have DMs, this was in the beginning, and so it's hard for me to check all of my DMs now. But if it was honestly up to me, I would give all my stuff away for free. And my team talks about that to me all the time. But I just feel like people deserve great skincare products. People deserve that relief. And so I sent it to her on us, and she sent us these before and after pictures that literally brought me to tears. And it's just like when you have a baby, my son is eight years old, but when you are seeing your baby in pain and agony, there's nothing that you wouldn't do. And so it's extremely unsettling that in that moment, you don't know what to I do. I was just so happy that our salve brought relief for her and her baby. But the before and after pictures were absolutely insane. They were sleeping. And this was in the beginning of my process. I was like, oh, my gosh. Sometimes you need convincing that, Oh, your products do work. You're just like, Oh, my gosh. That was one of the most shocking transformations in before and afters that I think I received. There's nothing like a non-sleeping baby, like you're going to go crazy. The baby is going to go crazy. It's just a lot that goes on behind the scenes. A lot of what we do at BodyLove by Tal and a lot of the reasons why we post recipes or have our blogs is because I want to empower people to become the healer in their homes. I'm really big on giving you the tools and the things that you need. Yes, I sell skincare products, but my favorite part about what I do is teaching people how to make stuff to the point where I've taught you guys some of our own that we use to sell, and I've taught you guys how to make them. I would say that. But overall, the product that has really not only changed my life as a business, but has been, I mean, anywhere from not sleeping, high blood pressure, hormonal imbalances, just energy levels is, I would say, our magnesium butter. We basically turned into a magnesium factory. Oh, and pain. I did a video of my Papaw and it went viral, and he was having leg and hip pain. Our magnesium butter was the highlight product in there. And the amount of people that are dealing with pain in our society broke my heart. And so in a span of two months, we made thousands. And I'm still in the shop. I still go into my shop and I still bust products. We made thousands of magnesium butters because the video went so viral. And once we sent out all the products and to hear the feedback of my pain went away, or it helped manage my pain. I can finally sleep. I was on all these medications and I started using magnesium, and magnesium is so crucial. And so this is one of those things where God was nudging me. I was like, I don't... Magnesium butter... like, you know? I already had a formulation for a butter, and so I added magnesium oil to it. It's this great foundation with all the added benefits. But just to see, even if you go right now and see our testimonials on that, that is a product that is beyond me. This is one of those products that is like, I'm literally just the vessel because I'm using everything that God has created in a product, but this product is going to be pivotal. Honestly, to this day, I'm still so shocked about how much magnesium butter we sell and just the testimonials behind that. I'm obviously way more grateful in selling a product that's actually helping people. That helps with my imposter syndrome. It helps with my morale as a business owner because as herbalists and being a business owner, we're great at the creativity. We're not great with the numbers and all the businessy side of things. And so that product is like, I guess, the people have spoken and made it our bread and butter. And so I'm grateful. I'm grateful for all of our testimonials. You can go and look at it all. We have so many testimonials. And till this day, I'm just so shocked at like, oh, my gosh, like something that came from my head is now in physical form, and then it's now helping someone. I think that whole thing... And so I can't even take credit for that. I will not take credit for that. I'm literally just a vessel to distribute the healing powers of the Earth and the herbs and the plants. That's all I have to say, honestly.

You are doing really important work, Tal, and I'm so glad that you're seeing it reflected back in the people that are buying your products. It sounds like you have done great work outside of just the product purchases. That calendula salve story was really moving, so thanks for sharing. Now I want to hear from you. If somebody wanted to start crafting their own skin food at home, could you offer us a simple, high impact beginner recipe? And how would you coach them to personalize it from there?

Yes, absolutely. So if you wanted to go in, and I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible, I would say a lot of us cook with olive oil, so we'll pick that from our arsenal of things. You have probably some type of rosemary that you cook with, I'd say. A lot of people, when they start their herbal journey, they don't have the calendulas and the lavenders. Maybe. If you do, you can infuse it. But a lot of people have rosemary in their kitchen. So we're going to take the olive oil, we're going to take the rosemary, and we're simply just going to get a double boiler or make your own. I am great at makeshifting my own double boiler, and you're going to put the herbs and the oil together, and you're going to heat infuse the oil for about 4-6 hours. And then you have just made an herbal hair growth serum. So I know we're talking about skin, but the scalp is part of the skin. That's probably the most simple thing. Or you can just do a honey, turmeric, face mask. Just simple. You probably have honey, you probably have turmeric, and just mix those together and make a great pace. But if you're fair skinned, chill off the turmeric a little bit. You will be orange. You will be yellow. Yes. I have seen that in action for sure. It won't come off for a little while. You're definitely walking around oompa loompa like for a while.

Okay, Tal. I feel like we are all inspired by you and your business and the work that you are doing in this world. I'm so honored to have all of these wonderful shares. Can you please tell our audience where they can find you out in the world?

You can find me on all social platforms at BodyLove by Tal. I'm active on Instagram, TikTok, now Threads is what they call it. I try to keep up! Really active on Instagram. And most importantly, which is my favorite part, is on our website, we have a blog, and we do two blogs a month where it can be... It's always recipes. We're always giving back in that way. So if you're wanting to start somewhere, we have so many blogs up already. Right now, it's great for cold and flu season or skincare or anything that you need. We have a blog on it, or we're working towards having a blog on everything that you need in this world, in the herbal world. Also, we just came out with our eBook, and it's Herbal Recipes for Holistic Health: Tal's Guide to Holistic Health. And so we have that with our kits involved. And so we have our calendula salve is one of the products for our kits, so you can make it at home. There's three recipes in there. And so that's another way that you can get started and find out more about us. We have a lot of great stuff in there. And I would just say, if you're ever in Colorado, come and visit us in person. We would love to see you. My team and I would love to meet you. And we love that person to person because as you know, online, we don't get that all the time. And so we would love, love, love, love to see you in person.

And that's Parker, Colorado, right?

Parker, Colorado. Thank you so much, Tal. This has been so much fun to hang with you and hear your journey and all the information that you had to offer up today. So thank you.

Thank you. I'm so honored. I absolutely love Herbal Academy. You guys have been such a pivotal person—or entity, right, I talk to a lot of people—entity in really excelling and propelling me in this herbal space. And so I really just want to say thank you and thank you to everybody watching. I just feel so honored and grateful. And I'm just, I'll remember this moment forever. So thank you.