Gentle Nectar Apothecary

Excited to announce the first Happy Cat Herbs bundle is up for sale in the Gentle Nectar Apothecary! 🥳🐈🐈‍⬛ 🌼

This one is for folks with multiple cat friends. Do you live in a house with more than one cat? Do they get along or is there friction? 🐈🐈‍⬛

Cats are naturally territorial beings and we all know a feline that thinks they're top cat! This selection of organic Jasmine, Lavender, Lemon Balm and Calendula is simply purrfect to help smooth out tension if you're dealing with dominant, bullying or male 'macho' cat behaviours. This blend of feline flowers is nurturing, uplifting and helps to ease nervous anxiety and stress. 🌼🐾🌸

When you offer your cats a selection of Happy Cat Herbs, you give them a voice by allowing them to choose which plant medicine they most need in that moment.

All Happy Cat Herbs are infused with powerful reiki healing energy to support your feline friends to be happy and well 💚💜 Visit my Etsy shop for more details: https://gentlenectar.etsy.com

🐾🌿🌸 COMING SOON: HERBS FOR CATS 🌸🌿🐾

Aside from the popular cat-friendly catnip, do you know our feline friends can enjoy many herbs and flowers in their environment? 🌼 As intuitive and vibrational beings who sense energy at levels far beyond our human range, they’re smart enough to know that nature’s bounty is good for their wellbeing. When they roam outside cats are naturally exposed to the scents, oils and healing properties of the plants around them.

To be clear this is not about cats eating plants. Even though my cats do love to eat fresh grass and catnip! It’s about letting them choose the plants, energy and scents they most need that day from a selection of dried herbs and flowers you offer them. It’s another example of vibrational healing at the energetic level that can help our beloved stay well.

When we give our much-loved felines a choice of herbs and flowers that support them to feel well and happy, we are allowing them to self-select what they need most in that moment, in a gentle and safe way. This is especially helpful for indoor cats seeking extra enrichment, and for anxious/nervous cats who need calming reassurance.

My Happy Cat Herbs range of organically grown dried flowers and herbs will help you tackle a range of common cat quirks and conditions in an all-natural and safe way. Coming soon to my Etsy shop! Follow me here & my Gentle Nectar shop for updates: https://gentlenectar.etsy.com

🎵🌺 VIBRATIONAL HEALING 🌸🎵

It’s a vibe, tribe! 💚 Everything is energy, a frequency, and our emotions are often described as energy in motion. Vibrational remedies work on the understanding that the human body has energy fields that influence our physical, mental, and emotional health. Vibrational healing seeks to restore balance and harmony to the body’s energy fields, which supports your body to heal itself. Here are some examples:

🎵 SOUND THERAPY uses sound waves from tuning forks, sound bowls, gongs, singing, chanting and more to produce specific frequencies that promote healing. If you’ve been to an immersive sound bath experience, you know how this can feel! 🌟

🖐 REIKI uses a Japanese healing technique that channels universal life force energy through the hands to help stimulate the body’s natural healing processes, helping to restore physical and emotional wellbeing. 🙏

🌸 FLOWER ESSENCES use the energetic imprint of fresh flowers infused in water under sunlight (or moonlight) to capture the natural healing essence or spirit of the plant. These energetic signatures can help balance our emotions and improve overall wellbeing. As highly energetic beings, our pets love them too! 🌺

💠 CRYSTAL THERAPY uses the unique frequencies of different crystals and stones on and around the body, often working with the body’s chakras (energy centres) to promote healing. 💎

Gentle vibes matter, now more than ever, as evidenced by our enduring fascination with the healing power of nature and the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit. My Etsy shop is open 🥳 Flower essences infused with Reiki healing are coming soon plus an exciting all-natural herbal offering for our beloved kitty cats! 🌸 More on that soon 🌺

Crystals are another type of Mother Nature’s gifts that we can use for healing. Love this colourful guide from Kyle Gray 💕

🌼💚 CALENDULA & CHAMOMILE 💚🌼

These two pretty ladies have endless healing plant magic to offer us 💛🧡 Calendula and chamomile are both super soothing for the skin as they reduce inflammation and irritation, as well as being full of antioxidants that help to protect the skin from oxidative stress caused by free radicals. What's not to love?! 🌼

I grew them both organically in my garden this past summer and they are an absolute delight, so generous and giving...and of course much loved by the bugs and bees! 🐝 I infused their dried flowers into organic sweet almond oil over many months to capture their potent healing magic. As a herbalist this is the slow and steady way I choose to co-create with Mother Nature's gifts 💚 🌼

My all natural, organic, luxury lip balm featuring Calendula and Chamomile is now for sale in my Etsy shop! Catch it while you can. Always small batch and handmade with so much love at https://gentlenectar.etsy.com 💚 🌼

Here's to moving slowly and gently this weekend as we enjoy the last hurrah of the Autumn colours out in nature 💚🍁🌼🍂🍄🍁🍄🍂🌼💚

💚🌿 CLARY SAGE 🌿💚

The lovely Miss Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea) is an over-achiever in the plant world in my humble opinion! Always abundant with big, soft, fuzzy green leaves, and in flower her scent is divine and travels far and wide across the garden. Look at her gorgeous regal flowers! 🤩
💚
I've been growing her organically for more than two years now and she remains one of my favourite plant friends 🌸 She has traditionally been used in herbal medicine for her calming and soothing properties. My plant-infused oil contains all the healing power of her leaves steeped in organic sweet almond over many months. This is the oil I use to craft my all natural lip balms 💚 My Etsy shop is opening soon! 🥳

💚 WHOLE PLANT INFUSED OILS 💚

To create my soothing lip balms I favour the use of whole plant infused oils instead of essential oils. This involves grinding up the dried plant matter & letting it soak in organic oils for months, shaking the jar daily & heating it gently if the plant requires it (such as calendula flowers do). You can see in this picture just how much the infused oil has changed its colour after soaking up all the calendula goodness! 😍🌼
🌸
The slow, extended infusion process extracts the full range of beneficial compounds from the plants into the oil, maximising the potency of the pure plant magic that is captured 🌿🌟 A great deal of love and healing energy is also gently infused 💚

AKA grounding….it gets a little trickier as it gets colder outside! 🥶 But there’s always a way….we have grounding mats on our beds and I even have some funky grounding boots! Grounding barefoot in nature is still my fave 🌺🌿🐸🍄💚

Added health benefit: Garden without your shoes on!!

Happy Aussie Halloween, friends! Yep, you read that right 🙃 It's traditionally an autumn celebration and that's the season we're in here in the southern hemisphere 🍂🍁

This turn of the wheel of the year is known as 'Samhain' and it's a great time to reconnect with nature, walk outdoors and feast with loved ones around a fire. We are cyclical beings. Mother nature works in cycles. We are part of nature and nature is part of us 💚

Samhain Blessings Witches 🕯️

tonight is when our veil in the southern hemisphere is at its thinnest connecting us with the Spirit World.

It’s a time to celebrate the dead, our ancestors & begin fresh new cycles.

Honour them, love them & light a candle. Raise that beautiful vibration. 🙏🏼🖤 🌙

Happy Beltane to our sisters & brothers in the Northern Hemisphere celebrating Beltane festival ☀️

I’ve always loved handcrafting delicious herbal creations that nurture body & soul. I’m so excited to share them with you all soon! 🥳
🌿
You won’t believe how good this minty balm feels on the skin! I am beyond fussy when it comes to lip balms which means my recipe has been tried and tested many times over…now refined to perfection!👌🏼 I added a little peppermint essential oil to this blend but typically I don’t as I like to let my slow-infused whole plant oils do all the talking 🌿🌸🌹🌼🪻🍃☘️🍄💚

May we all learn how to thrive & flourish in harmony with nature 🌿🌸🌻

Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, understood that true healing extends far beyond the physical remedy; it encompasses empowering individuals with the knowledge and tools to nurture their own well-being. 📚💚

In a society often reliant on quick fixes and temporary solutions, the herbalist’s mission is profound. We strive not only to alleviate symptoms but to address root causes, fostering a deeper understanding of the body’s innate ability to heal itself when given the right support. 🌻

Ancient physicians were often herbalists, and used natures pharmacopeia as the medicine for prevention and diagnosis. Ancient physicians also drew from medical astrology, including Hippocrates, who use it as an additional tool, to assess energetic imbalances. 🐍⚖️ Somewhere from then, and now these truths got lost. Herbalism got suppressed, and medical Astrology became illegal at one point. Thankfully, now these powerful practices are resurfacing and it is our collective job to preserve their stay. 🪷

Through education, we sow the seeds of self-care, encouraging mindfulness in lifestyle choices, nutrition, and herbal remedies. By empowering others to take ownership of their health, we cultivate a ripple effect of wellness that extends far beyond the individual. 🌊🌿

Let’s embody the essence of Hippocrates’ timeless wisdom to illuminate the path toward true healing for everyone. By teaching others how to thrive, not just survive, may we all flourish together. 🌟💚

We are deep into Autumn here in Melbourne which means it’s Hawthorn berry season! One of my fave supportive plant friends who belongs to the rose family…she has big sharp thorns that hint at her protective loving nature 🌹❤️
❤️
Hawthorn is regarded as a sacred tree and can help us with all matters of the heart like grief, loss & heartache. She has been used for centuries as a heart tonic to help with palpitations, cholesterol, circulation, pressure…basically anything to do with your cardiovascular system 🫀I’ve made these berries into a yummy syrup for my family as winter approaches 😋
❤️
I mostly wild forage my hawthorn flowers, leaves and berries from around Eltham. I love seeing how the trees change throughout the seasons. I always ask permission before taking anything from the trees & say thank you for their healing offerings 🙏🌸🌿 Any good herbalist knows to ask before taking.

My beautiful nurturing Hawthorn flower essence will be for sale in my Etsy shop - opening soon, watch this space! 🌟❤️

Let’s talk balms! I’ve been working to perfect my herbal lip balm recipes for the best part of a year! Did I mention I’m super fussy about lip balm? 😉 I make these all natural and organic lip balms with my slow-infused herbal oils that gently capture the whole plant magic 🌿🌼🌟 All with an ingredient list you can read and no nasties ✅ Small batch and handmade with love 💕

These colourful beauties are off to my son’s school for this year’s Mother’s Day stall 💕🌸

A warm hello & welcome to Gentle Nectar Apothecary 🌸 I have always believed in the natural healing power of plants, herbs and flowers. We buy flowers to lift the emotions of people we care about. We know that grounding our bodies on the earth helps us stay well.

Traditional herbalism still holds many of the keys to keep our body, mind and spirit well. I infuse flowers and leaves slowly into soothing oils over a long period of time - often months! - shaking them daily. A lot of love and healing energy is captured this way, as you can see in this amazing calendula sweet almond oil 💕🌼

I love nurturing the plants in my garden and watching them change. I move slowly through this bustling world. Why rush? Even saying the name of my apothecary out loud forces you to slow down, just a little 🌻 Welcome to my gentle sanctuary, I hope you enjoy it here 💕