Fragrant Blossoming Blooms: The Magic, Mystique, and Mystery of Nature’s Muse
BY SUSAN B. B. SCHABACKER
Fancy flowers? Celebrate their unfurling of spring splendor, whether meadow wildflowers, a florist’s floral arrangement, or flowers fresh from your garden! Blossoming blooms are not only aesthetically beautiful, but with their sensational scents, they can be used in beauty products that make us feel even more beautiful. Flowers are an integral part of a woman’s beauty and have frequented the spotlight as muses in artwork. Some flowers are edible and can be included in dishes and sippables. So, read on and get your full flower fix!
BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS SPRING OR ANY SEASON
From florists to meadows, flowers bloom abundantly in the spring to beautify our surroundings. Don’t pick them all but bring some in to decorate your table.
Want to hold on to their beauty? Some flowers dry, press, and preserve better than others, including pansies, violets, strawflower, and shrub roses. Hang, press, or wax them. For the creative and crafty, decorate candles or make wreaths and garlands, bookmarks, cards, and potpourri.
FASHIONABLE FLOWERS
“He loves me; he loves me not,” she wistfully whispers, plucking petals off a daisy. Don a magical meadow flower garland or tuck a flower behind your ear. Symbolically, wearing a flower behind your right ear signifies being single, and the left is associated with being in a relationship. Fashion trends come and go, but wearing flowers is timeless and classic. So, enjoy that floral print dress, flower earrings, and beautiful blooms in your wardrobe.
SMELL LIKE SPRING BEAUTIFULLY IN BLOOM
Some of the most beautiful fragrances are floral. From rosewater to lavender essential oil to gardenia perfume, there are floral aromas for every nose. With a powerful connection between scent and psychology, a simple whiff of lilacs or magnolias can trigger memories. Whether designer fragrances or aromatherapy is your forte, find your favs. Spray fragrances on your clothes or tissue for a heavenly smelling handbag.
Love essential oils such as rose, geranium, ylang-ylang, chamomile, and lavender? Add drops to a carrier oil like olive, avocado, almond, argan, or jojoba oil, and roll on your pulse points for an aroma therapeutic experience.
FANCIFUL FLORAL SPRING SCRUB – Feel fresh. Get a gorgeous goddess glow, exfoliating dead skin cells and moisturizing simultaneously. Add to your beauty routine during a shower or bath.
Ingredients: plant-based oil (coconut oil, olive, almond, apricot, or avocado oil), exfoliator (sea salt, recycled coffee grounds, sugar, or oatmeal), floral essential oil(s) of choice, rosewater, and dried flower petals (rose and/or lavender) are optional.
Instructions: Melt oil on low heat over stovetop (or microwave), add other ingredients, stir, and pour into container with lid. Dispense with a small spoon or popsicle stick.
BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS INSPIRE ARTISTS’ WORK AS FAV MUSES
Flowers are popular in art, as seen in works by Georgia O’Keefe, Claude Monet, and Vincent Van Gogh. Flower fairies flit fancifully through imaginations of kids and kids-at-heart in the fantastical world of Cicely Mary Barker. Blossoms (and buds) of all kinds symbolize universal themes, including life, love, women, beauty, purity, and spirituality.
CREATIVELY CAPTURING THE BEAUTY OF BLOSSOMS
You don’t have to be a legendary artist or renowned photographer to capture the beauty of flowers. Don’t have a DSLR camera with macro lens? Use your phone’s camera and zoom in or out. Get creative about your captures! Adjust images in an editing app or software, compile your creative captures in a digital slideshow or cover photo montage to share via social media, and/or print your favs to use as inspiration.
Spring is the season for beautiful blossoming blooms! However busy your lifestyle, beautiful, take some time to smell, pick, and wear the roses and other flowers.