I have tired hands.  Working hands. Old hands.  And it shows.

When I was in my thirties, someone told me that you can always tell a woman’s age by her hands.  Looking at my mother at the time, I knew that was true and as I have aged, I am starting to see my own hands become thin-skinned, spotted, and knarled a bit. 

I suppose I should consider myself lucky since although I have bumpy arthritic fingers (which can happen at any age), they do not hurt.  That said, I have always taken pride in my nails.

I do my own manicures, topping my mid-length nails with a coat of clear nail strengthener.  Side note: my toenails are pink but that is another story entirely.  Sadly, though, something happened over the summer months and by September my nails were in shambles. 

There were severe cracks and ridges that ran the length of the nail and as soon as there was even the tiniest bit of length, they crumbled.  Knowing that my eating and nutritional intake from real food was sound, I decided to attack the problem externally using essential oils.

Voila! 

My nails are now back to normal with very few ridges and cracks.  Even though my hands are not as attractive as they used to be, my nails look great.  Today I share the nail serum I came up with.  It uses just three, inexpensive essential oils and olive oil. 

Are you ready to have beautiful nails?

Last week I was asked about how I am currently using CBD and specifically, how my husband was using CBD to conquer arthritis and joint pain.  This was a timely question given that I recently developed a simple to make and simple to use rollerball/roller-ball formula using CBD oil, essential oils, and fractionated coconut oil. 

Why a roll-on formula? 

As much as I love using all manner of salves, including CBD salve, a rollerball bottle is super portable.  Furthermore, concocting a rollerball is as easy as adding CBD and essential oils to an empty bottle then topping with a carrier oil. There is nothing to melt, mix, or dissolve.  Not only that, chances are the CBD you already have on hand is an oil and not a powdered concentrate or isolate.  That means there is one less thing to buy.

I am thrilled to share my rollerball and essential oil formula with you and if it helps just one person get relief, the effort will have been worth it.

For almost six months, I have been trying to formulate a topical version of CBD that can be used to mitigate the toughest forms of pain and inflammation.  With my understanding of how the endocannabinoid system works, I was convinced that a topical CBD salve would provide relief from both chronic and incidental muscle and joint pain.

It seemed simple enough since all I thought I needed to do is add some CBD oil to a base carrier, similar to what I do when making an essential oil salve.  As it turned out, it was not so simple. 

Most of my attempts became expensive and messy failures as batch after batch was either too greasy, too firm, or simply too messy to use.  I finally resorted to purchasing a pre-made CBD salve and it was perfect in all ways except for cost.

I did not give up, however.  About six weeks ago I went back to the drawing board, this time using a CBD concentrate in powdered form. Within days, my resident tester (husband Shelly) told me that not only was this DIY version better than the purchased salve, but when layered with essential oils, it was “unbelievable”.  His words, not mine.

So here you go.  I am thrilled to share with you a  homemade CBD salve that is perfect for back pain, sore knees, wrenched shoulders, sprains,  pinched nerves and more.