Episode 32
Transcript
Welcome back to the Fully Nourished podcast, a place to explore where female physiology and feminine energy dance together to shape our life experience. I'm your host, Jessica Ash, functional nutritionist and integrative health coach and I'm inviting you to journey with me through both the scientific and spiritual facets of what it looks like to awaken our feminine radiance and become deeply and fully nourished despite living in a society that is increasingly desperate to erase our female set-apartness. You ready?
As a reminder, everything in this podcast is for education and inspiration only and is not intended as medical advice. Please talk to the appropriate professional when necessary. And please use common sense before making any changes to your diet and lifestyle.
Introducing Arielle de Martinez
Today's guest is Arielle de Martinez. Arielle is an herbalist and a hair healer who helps women all over the world free themselves from the industries that benefit from women not claiming their own autonomy, from the beauty industry that breeds insecurities and toxicity and the allopathic systems that don't seem to actually know how to truly be and stay well. With her guidance, women are taking responsibility for their health and their hair using ingredients that come straight from the earth that they can make at home. Her No Poo method has developed a cult following of women ditching the shampoo for good and her Instagram is dedicated to taking the fear out of using herbs so that everyone can be their own confident healer. Through following Arielle I have learned so much about herbs and natural products that I can use to complement my haircare. I've also really gained a confidence about using whole herbs, where before there was a lot of fear and overwhelm. Through her I am forever grateful about being set free, and I see it as being set free from the use of essential oils. Before her education, I really didn't grasp the power of these super powerful, yet volatile and unsustainable compounds that are so recklessly used in the health space. And the interview we can on topics such as natural haircare sovereign beauty, safely using herbs during pregnancy, and just safely using herbs in general, essential oils and so much more. So I hope you really enjoy the interview. Hi, Arielle, thank you so much for being here.
Arielle: Hi, how are you?
Jessica: I am so happy to talk with you. I think I originally followed you forever. And I think I originally found you when you were one of the only people speaking out against how essential oils might not actually be that healthy. And you revolutionized the way that I looked at herbs. It's like duh, of course, we want to appreciate the whole herb. But I don't think I ever really thought about it that way until I learned from you. And so I think of you as just just like herbal queen. But I'm sure there was a huge journey getting you to this point and a lot of probably trial and error and learning lessons. And I just want to know kind of what is your background? What got you here to be this like herbal queen, I guess?
Arielle: Thank you. I'll accept that title. Happily. Yeah. So, you know, I grew up in like, what I would say like a holistic household. You know, like, my mom always was giving us natural remedies. And, you know, like food as medicine and all of that first, before kind of outsourcing to like allopathy. But, you know, I grew up in my early 20s, I was kind of like, you know, you rebel against what you know. So for sure. I remember being at work, I used to be a hairstylist, and I remember being at the salon, and I was like, so sick, and I did not feel good. And my friends were like, You need to go to urgent care, and you need to go get a Z pack right now. And I like had no idea what that was. And so I went there, and I took my first little pill. And two hours later, I felt so good. And I was like, what's going on? So I was introduced to all that light. And so then I was like, oh, antibiotics are great. This is also amazing. Like, you know, whatever, yeah. And then I met my husband and we got married, we decided to start a family and which I think happens to so many women, once they start, you know, kind of thinking about creating life and, you know, having responsibility for something else besides yourself in terms of their well being, you know, I got snapped out of that reality really quickly. And I was like, Oh, this isn't what I want. You know, like that was fun, whatever, but it's time to go back to like what I know and what's good for me. And I was I ended up having like a pretty dramatic birth in the hospital. And I had hired a CNM certified nurse midwife to attend me during labor but it was going to be in the hospital and ended up just going super out of control and I ended up with an emergency C section and I just remember like laying there in the hospital holding my daughter and just being like, the only person that can really actually truly has this little baby's well being at heart is me and nobody else is going to be able to take care of her without an agenda besides me. And so I knew that like, I didn't want to put us back in that position of having to rely on someone who profits off of our distress and poor health. And so that was what really just like lit a fire under me to like, just learn everything I could. And I was lucky that I never ended really ended up getting into essential oils, I think I was gifted like a little essential oil at my baby shower. And I think one of my friends, a friend of mine, like mentioned that I had it. And she was like, Oh, I wouldn't use that, like, you might want to look into essential oils a little bit more. And she sent me a couple of articles. And it was just like, before it even started, that was over. Because you know, if that wouldn't have happened, there's probably a pretty good chance I could be some lead sales rep for the central oil company right now, you know, but luckily, my friend guided me off that path. And I was just able to just go full on into herbs and yeah, so you know, my daughter has never had Tylenol or ibuprofen. Neither of my girls have. My second has never, I mean, my second was born at home and never even seen the inside of a medical office, which is pretty cool. But you know, everything. My motherhood continues to test me in ways that like, even funny things, like we got lice a couple of years ago when I was like, am I gonna get, am I gonna go buy tea tree essential oil? Like, is this gonna? Am I gonna be able to do this? I continuously, like, amazed our capability to heal and with like, using whole plants and just what nature and God truly provide like, at its core, you know?
Jessica: Wow, that's amazing. Like, I feel like the love of the mother, like awaken something inside of you that just, it's unstoppable.
Arielle: Yeah it really is. And I see it with so many women, you know, like, we get pregnant and we find like our purpose even like, like all that creative creation energy, just like birth so much.
Jessica: Right. Right. So you're a hairstylist, and then how did that journey come to where you are now? I mean, you have this incredible company Sub Luna.
Arielle: Yeah, so I started my herbal company when I was still doing hair behind the chair. And you know, that always happens really organically. I feel like because you're making medicine and then you're sharing with your friends and family and people want to buy from you. So I opened a little Etsy shop that's now just like a giant into like so much more. But I was selling remedies to my clients. And you know, as I was really beginning to embrace my inner healer, and kind of come into myself as that part of my identity, you know, my clients behind the chair are recognizing that too. And so, you know, we were having a lot of conversations about their health that we hadn't before. And you know, conversations like I think I have PCOS, but my doctor keeps telling me I don't or I have endometriosis. And you know, I don't know what to do, like, you know, where do I start? What should I, what should I start looking for and as I'm realizing like, as what's coming out of my mouth, and I'm telling them things to like start looking into I'm shampooing their hair with these artificial fragrances and endocrine disruptors as I'm telling them, like you have to get rid of all your endocrine disruptors. So it was just a really weird reckoning for me because in my life, you know, I had eliminated, I was always very like natural and I didn't have a lot of excess, you know, toxin, whatever, you know, like I didn't use I wear a lot of makeup and I didn't use like scented detergent, because my mom never did you know, but the haircare because I was brought up in the haircare industry. You know, I graduated high school a year early and went straight to hair school. And I worked for a manufacturer that taught us what every single ingredient does and why and why their products are so great compared to everything else out there. And so I had that conditioning of like, I'm giving my client the best in like the hair world, you know, like these are the best products that they can use their professional and also it's probably harming their health. And so like how do I carry being a healer and being a professional hairstylist at the same time. So long story short, I ended up at the same time I was kind of messing with my own haircare and so I decided I was just going to like stop using all of it and see what happened. And it was great. After a couple of months, my hair just like had never been better. And it was like so soft and shiny and had so much volume and my clients were like complimenting me all the time. And so I started telling them what I was doing. And I ended up that I was by that point I was kind of making some products like haircare products and selling them in the salon and stuff like that. And I think when I got pregnant with my second daughter, I knew that it was like my period to rest, you know and like not work behind the chair 40 hours a week. And so I quit my salon job but right before I did, I was getting really busy with clients who were like hearing this woman will wash your hair with clay. And they were so excited about it. So I just I think there's just a huge need for this, especially like in our industries where a lot of women are like they want to use, you know, like shampoo is really hard to find, like a true non toxic shampoo. And when people discover that there's just ingredients you can wash your hair with in your kitchen or your garden, they get so excited, you know, and so it's just it's a really fun thing. And so that was one of the things that Sub Luna has kind of morphed into is not only with herbal remedies, but also herbal haircare too, and it's cool that I can take this message now, globally, instead of just like beyond my little chair, you know, and my little one shirt.
Jessica: So yeah, oh my gosh, that's so incredible. I didn't know all of that. Because I do think because I have like wavy/curly hair. And I, I feel like with the explosion of Tik Tok and all of this, you know, it's like, there's like many layers of beauty care. And now this the curly girl method or like the wavy girl method, and it's like these, I feel like it's like rocket science, you have to, you know, dip your hair in a bowl, and I just, I can never get behind it. And what kills me is when you're using all these products, the amount of just plastic you're throwing away, the amount of products you're going through, and it's like if I don't use this perfect product, my holy grail product, my curls just fall flat. And there's something about it that just feels very like almost like a prison like I am stuck using this stuff forever. And to be free of that you are the first one to really at least expose me to the idea of sovereign beauty. This idea of like sovereign haircare and i bought your sovereign curls guide and your and your hair guides and just using like the Rassoul clay and what is what how do you say it the Shikakai powder? I think in my head I always call it like Shikakai but I'm like I know it's not that I just call it that anyways. Yeah. So it's it's crazy, like how bouncy your hair can feel and how clean it can feel when you're just like I'm washing my hair with dirt. Yeah, literally. It's so amazing. So amazing. I guess I'm like asking this because I selfishly but I want to know what your haircare routine is because your curls are always so beautiful. You always just have this like natural glow about you. But what is your routine like? What is your haircare look like for a week just so women can really understand. It doesn't have to be this way. Like I don't have to be a slave to my hair.
Arielle: Totally Well, let me tell you that when I worked at my salon and I was immersed in the the shampoo world and all of the things all the the big side rock star hairdresser world, I still would go like forever without washing my hair. I think I'd gone like one time I went like 27 days in between shampooing. And so which is like crazy, you know. And though I was always very used to being low maintenance with my hair. So now my haircare routine doesn't look like much at all, like I wake up and I might spray it with a little water. But otherwise I just kind of let it do its thing. And I'll get it wet when I'm in the shower. And then I'll use maybe an apple cider vinegar rinse. My hair tends to get more dry and dull than it does like oily. And so I'll use like an apple cider vinegar rinse in the shower once in a while. And it literally takes like 30 seconds. I used to back in the day when I use shampoo. I mean, you have a lot of hair, I'm sure you know, like washing your hair is like a chore your arms suffer and you're like going through all the tangles and all of that. And now I just do an apple cider vinegar rinse, run a wet brush through it super easy. And then you know, when I start to feel like I need a deeper cleanse, I'll go for like a rhassoul clay or like a soap powder. It just kind of depending on my mood and what I feel like my hair needs.
Jessica: That's awesome. So like very intuitive. It's not like the structured routine.
Arielle: Yeah. And that's the whole part of like, what I think is so cool about this is, I think, haircare and like what you do can be very comparable in the way that we really want like a protocol, like there's a part of our body of like our mind, that's just like, give me a list tell me exactly what to do send me the products and I'll do it. But that's still like outsourcing in a way, you know what I mean? And like, I don't think it's possible to have true sovereignty, true wellness, in that mindset. And of course, sometimes it's wonderful to have someone hold your hand or like walk you through it or like you know, guide you through the process, which ultimately is what you and I are here for in our roles, but it's introducing this deeper concept of like body literacy and for the first time women are able to feel what their hair truly feels like when they're not assaulting it with chemicals essentially. And like what that means for like their internal health you know, what does it mean when my hair, my scalp gets really dry out of nowhere? You know what I mean? What does it mean when my hair all of a sudden my hair fall increases? You know and they can they can realize that like this is a language of your body and like that your body is teaching you and then you can respond. And you know you can reach for different herbs and you can choose different cleansers if you need to and you can change your nutrition a little bit or start taking bitters before meals. And then all of a sudden, like, it's beyond just like washing your hair, you're just like changes the landscape of how you relate to yourself completely. And that's power. You know, like, that's powerful to not need someone to tell you to not have to go to a hairstylist, pay $75 for a haircut that you maybe didn't even need to ask them about your dry scalp and then leave with $100 for the products that you didn't need, and they're probably not going to help you know what I mean?
Jessica: Right, right. And I feel like so many hair stylists nowadays, they hear you're going to school to learn about hair, but you're not really learning about hair, like you're learning about how to manage hair, but not to actually really read the hair and read the scalp. And it's really confusing. It's like, why do you not know how to support my hair in the way that I need it to be supported? I think once you realize that, and you start to realize like, okay, my hair stylist is gonna know how to cut my hair, know how to kind of prescribe me product and color my hair, but not actually tell me what's going on with my hair. Truly, it can be very freeing, like you said, like, I love that idea of everything that our body tells us it's a message. It's a message. And I think women right now, we're still see that there's so much fear, not just fear surrounding our bodies, like oh, no, what is my body doing? Oh, no, like, How can I fix this, if there's not that realization of my body is not against me, my body is for me, it's just telling me it's just it's speaking a language that I don't understand quite yet. And instead of freaking out, let's learn to read that language. But I also think there's a fear of I think herbs specifically, there's definitely a lot of fear mongering around herbs. I feel like even in my trainings that I've I've gotten over the years, it's so it's like, be very careful. You know, like herbs are very scary, yet. They're recommending these supplements that are like full of essential oils, like blast the digestive tract with these, like essential oils. But herbs are scary. Why do you think that is? I think, of course, there's probably some type of agenda there. But what have you seen?
Arielle: Well, I mean, if you want to like boil down to it, you can't patent a plant, right? You can't trademark anything, you can pull a constituent out of a plant and patent that mix it with a couple other things, petroleum whatever and patent that you can pull a constituent out of a plant and turn it into a pharmaceutical med and patent that you can even like pull a constituent like Berberine out of a plant and do something with it, extract it in a special way or you know, mix it with something in a special way and patent that but you can't patent go into your garden cutting some chamomile and boiling it on the stove for five minutes and straining and giving it to your kid before bed. Right. So I think there's two pieces. I don't think coal plant medicine is profitable for like the big industries. And I also think that there's also this lens of authority where practitioners and hair stylists and doctors and pretty much anything anyone you know, as a formerly licensed hairdresser, I feel like I can speak to my personal experience thing. Most people with a license or like a special certification. There's always that lens of authority to let people that you're serving. And I feel like, you know, in hair school very much, we weren't really told why we were told horror stories of like, Don't ever let your client take care of their hair on their own, because then they don't need you anymore. So it was my responsibility to explain to them the big bad grocery store shampoos and the big bad box color and like make it really scary, right? And I think sometimes I even see a lot of herbalists doing this, where it's an I don't agree with this way of teaching, being like, you know, you still need me to teach you how to use herbs safely. And like it puts that authority, that power dynamic there, I'll always know more than you and you are going to need. And you know, essentially, I'm always going to be profiting off of you in some way, whether it's just like an e, okay, or like you actually paying money for me to teach you how to like safely use these things.
Jessica: Right? Yeah. Oh, I like that. Yeah, I see it both ways. It's like it's not profitable. But it's also there is this kind of heirarchy or this like it needs to be? There's gatekeeping a little bit going on. And I love you know, you're probably the first person I've ever heard talk about use of herbs during pregnancy, and breastfeeding and being very intuitive about it. Herbs are not going to all of a sudden cause a huge problem that you're never you're not going to be able to stop, you're going to be able as long as you're aware. And you're mindful. If your body is shifting, you can stop and just stop. It's not. But I want to hear a little bit more because I think that's one of the biggest worries is like, Oh, is this safe during pregnancy or breastfeeding? It's like I am this, this whole other creature that needs to be you know, in a very incitive physician.
Arielle: Yeah, even in pregnancy, you know, I don't subscribe to that idea. You know, we're obviously like in our demographics and the women that we work with, a lot of the women we work with are happy to eat raw milk and cheese during pregnancy, they're happy to be, you know, eating seafood and sushi and the things that they say aren't allowed, you know, in the mainstream world. But when it comes to herbs, there's just not enough knowledge. So they're always wondering, so I've had women ask me if it's safe to use culinary herbs in their cooking while pregnant, because they just don't know, you know, or can I drink this cup of tea. And so for me, I strongly believe and I feel like I've had enough research and experience and talking to people, and you know, all of this experience and knowledge and wisdom to come to the conclusion that when there's a healthy host and a healthy baby, the body is designed to create life, like, ultimately, that's what our bodies are created to do. They're created to create and sustain and nurture life. And so this idea, you know, you have women delivering healthy babies during famine, and war, and all these really, really intense things going on, or you have women who didn't know they were pregnant, and they're doing drugs, and they're drinking and all of these things, and their babies are born perfectly fine and healthy. I mean, that tells a lot. And so I became really interested in this idea of Okay, so what happened really is, and my interest came before I got pregnant with my second daughter, but what really drove it home for me was, I live in the Dominican Republic now. And so herbs are called different things and in a different language. And I was really sick, and I was drinking this tea. And every time I would drink it, I would get really nauseous. And I thought it was peppermint tea. And it turns out, it was Penny Royale tea, which is like, a famous abortifacient and I drink it for like a week straight. And even though it was making me nauseous. And then later, I figured out what it was. And I was like, Well, no wonder it was making me nauseous, like my body was telling me no, you know, right, my daughter is perfect. But I was studying, I decided to study herbal abortion with the intent of learning like how far what actually makes a healthy mother's body just lose a pregnancy intentionally with the use of plants. And what I learned is that it's very, very, very difficult. Hmm, you actually because you're, you're essentially using plants to mimic certain hormones and physiological processes in the body. So you're using a combination of different plants, you know, one thing to mimic oxytocin and another thing to mimic something else. And another thing to help start the uterus to contract. And so it's like a very specific combination of herbs with specific herbal actions. And the dose for these herbs are quite high and quite frequent. So in order to, in order to make the body specifically just abort a pregnancy, you have to be like, I'm talking like, you're setting your alarm for one o'clock in the morning to take your dose of herbs. And this is happening for several days, maybe even, like I've heard of it happening for weeks sometimes. And it doesn't always work. It's a very fine window between a certain amount, like I think it's like between six and eight weeks of pregnancy, or like four and eight weeks of pregnancy where it can, it can actually happen. It doesn't always happen. And most women who do this type of work actually usually will advise that women go a medical route before they try herbs, unless there's a reason that prevents them from doing that, who are seeking this out, because it's not actually very reliable. The thing I think that's most important to know. And what really gave me permission to nail in the coffin on my opinion about using herbs during pregnancy is that women who tried to abort their pregnancies with plants who it did not work, and they went on to have their babies, all of their babies were born perfectly healthy, there's no evidence to suggest that those herbs harmed the baby in pregnancy. And so I think that's really powerful and important to understand that the perspective of like, my something external is going to cause my body to spontaneously just lose this pregnancy. It's just, it's not it doesn't serve us during pregnancy. And it's not actually true. And I think, you know, we could get into the medical model, saying that maybe that AI mindset is promoted, because it makes us more reliant. You know what I mean? It makes us more reliant on them. And when we go to if you know, a woman has a loss, and she's devastated, and she goes to the doctor, because of course, she wants to know why. How easy is it to be like, and they probably don't even realize because their training says the same thing. Oh, you said you had a cup of peppermint tea yesterday. That's probably what did it. You know what I mean? Because you claim what you don't know when you blame what you don't understand. And you know, it's just it's really it's really sad that this is kind of the mindset because now I can only think of maybe just a couple herbs off the top of my head that I don't actually, I'm actually not okay with using during pregnancy and it's because they're just like really strong, anti parasitics or things like that, that are kind of hard on the gut.
Jessica: …like Wormwood or like, I think of like black walnut. Like those types of herbs.
Arielle: Those are the two. Yeah. And it's just it's like the the microbiome is so important during pregnancy and your microbiome is simplifying during pregnancy. So that baby gets all that good lactobacillus bacteria. And I personally don't want to like mess with that process.
Jessica: I love that. Yeah.
Arielle: So everything else, I feel like it's fair game. And if you Yeah, you just lean on your intuition. You know, if you're feeling called to take an herb that normally is a no, no during pregnancy, and you want to do it, try it. And guess what if your stomach belly starts tightening, and you feel you're having a contraction, you're like, Huh, that's interesting. And then you take that herb again, and it happens again, you're like, Okay, maybe this herb isn't for me right now. I'm gonna try something else. But guess what, you can just stop taking it. And then you're fine. herbs have a quick half life, you know, it's not going to set something in motion that you can't come back from unless you're setting your alarm at one o'clock in the morning and taking it alongside a bunch of other different herbs and like, you're really dedicated with that intention. But, you know, I just, we need to build that trust in ourselves in our bodies in that way. Absolutely.
Jessica: That's so empowering, your take on it. It's so empowering because it takes away the Oh no, like, I am going to make a wrong a misstep. You know, and very rarely, like you said, it takes a lot of intention to cause any problems. Exactly. Wow. I love how you said “called to a certain herb.” Do you feel like herbalism and just use of herbs in general is a very kind of intuitive, instinctual process. How do you approach herbs? Because there's so many out there, and they all have such amazing benefits? I think sometimes when people think I want to get started with herbs, but where do I even start? Like what does that look like?
Arielle: I think it can be very intuitive. You know, I think that generally it's important to like pick up on just like the signals that like the universe is sending you, you know, so maybe for a lot of women and you know, there's a lot of herbs that are a big deal right now like Reishi or ashwagandha. And I'll have women come to me and be like, I keep hearing about ashwagandha like maybe I should try it and I'm like, Yeah, that's probably a good idea, you probably should look into it. Because if you're hearing about it a lot, maybe you're supposed to be taking it, you know, or there's like the herbalist saying that like the herbs that grow in your backyard are the ones you need the most. So like, you know, oh my god, this, this dandelion plant just started growing in my backyard. And I've never had that before. Well, why don't you look up dandelion and see if it could be supportive to you. But I think the most important, like, the best way to start is yeah, just taking it one at a time. And, you know, you hear about an herb that you've all of a sudden feel like your your pure interest is piqued you know, or like you feel like excited about trying it. Then read about it. And also like take it you know, order some dried herb online, order a tincture, and take it and see what happens to your body when you take it you know, and you'll learn more. It's like meeting a new friend. If you you can, I can like read about your I can read about your Instagram all day long and think I know who you are right? But then I can have an hour long conversation with you on the phone and know you way more after an hour than I have two years of following you on Instagram. So reading about the herbs are great. And it's great to like have that foundation, but like using them is what's really how you're gonna get to know them because you're learning how they interact with your body. And like you can read that cinnamon as a woman Earth. But it's not until you've been a little bit of cinnamon off when you're using it in hooking that you feel that warming on your time and you realize what that really means, you know,
Jessica: Right, right. Wow. Yeah, I love that idea that I'm looking at as a new friend. I think that's so cute and so beautiful. So I love how you mentioned the microbiome and I guess that brings us into the essential oil conversation. I think a lot of women say well I use herbs all the time. I'm using essential oils, you know, I have all the therapy grade essential oil collection on the pretty little shelf. And so I you know, I am so into herbs. But for those that maybe don't know the difference between essential oils and herbs, can you just kind of give like a 101? On the difference?
Arielle: Yeah, so essential oils are extracted from herbs. So herbs are made up of hundreds and hundreds of chemicals and constituents and kind of divided into different categories. So you have alkaloids, which are, they're responsible for a lot of medicinal properties. There's tannins, which your, a lot of us are familiar with, like if they tighten tissue, so like if you've ever overstepped black tea before and drink it and you feel that tightness on your tongue, like that's from the tannins, there's, you know, obviously, nutritive constituents like vitamins and minerals. And then there's what we call volatile oil constituents, which that means that it sounds very aggressive volatile oils, but essentially what it means is that it dissipates into the air easily, it's volatile, right? It can, it can evaporate easily. And those are the part of the plant that's typically responsible for the fragrance, aka, the what we've what we've kind of rebranded into calling them essential oils, because that sounds so much better than volatile oils. And essential oils, I mean, they have been studied, there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of studies out there talking about how medicinally powerful they are, right. And that's not a lie. It's that is true. Just like alkaloids are very powerful. And tannins are very powerful. And nutritive herbs, nutritive constituents are very powerful, like all of that power is in the plant. And that's why they work so well. But the issue that I have with essential oils, this is just not with essential oils, it's isolating any plant compound, but is when you take essential oils away from the plant, you know, there's a vital intelligence of nature that's kind of a set of checks and balances against one another. And their constituents are formulated. If you look at it on paper, it appears to be formulated like very intentionally. So for example, like the herb nettle, a lot of women like to drink nettle infusions. And one of the things about nettle is that it's a diuretic. And so it makes you lose a lot of liquid very quickly. And so the problem with taking a diuretic is that you typically tend to lose a lot of potassium. And that's a problem. But nettle is very, very rich in potassium. So you're replacing the potassium that you're losing from the diuretic action, right. So there's no need to worry about that when you're using nettle as a diuretic. Meadowsweet, which is an herb that we derive aspirin from, it's rich in salicylic acid. And salicylic acid is naturally very hard, it's very hard on the stomach, right? We know that taking aspirin too much in the stomach can cause issues. And you know, it can be hard on the stomach, well, meadowsweet naturally contains a lot of a constituent called mucilage, which coats the lining of the stomach. So the salicylic acid can irritate the stomach. So there's like nature has its own set of checks and balances in whole plant medicine. And it's like intact, perfect world. And so when we take a constituent out of that plant and give it to somebody on their own, that's when you can exploit the properties of that particular constituent. So, essential oils are found in a very, very small amount of the plant. If you distill a pound of mint, you might get one drop of essential oil. Wow, yeah, it just you know, it's different when all of them like every every, you know, plant or fruit or whatever, we'll have a different percentage of essential oils, but they're generally less than 1% in the plant. So you know, beyond the idea that like, think of how much mint you'd have to distill to fill up a little bottle, that's a lot of waste, right? But also, like you would never come across that much mint naturally and you wouldn't like you know, you put a drop or two of mint in your water, you wouldn't eat that much mint in real life. So you're like exploding those properties and the amount of essential oil that you were supposed to, you know, come across after drinking mint tea every day for a month, all of a sudden you've gotten in one dose. Wow. And so essential oils are antimicrobial and that can be really beneficial when you're you know, using whole plant lavender and you want a little bit of antimicrobial action. But when you're taking lavender essential oil all of a sudden that antimicrobial action is magnified so much and because it's volatile and because you know it easily goes into the air and a lot of us are diffusing it and putting in our skin and breathing it in and you know putting them in neti pots and doing all this stuff. You know, you're you're you're getting those in your mucous membranes, your your those aren't your breathing them in, they're going into your lungs into your mouth, on your skin and you know, that's your body's first line of defense against everything you know I was your mucous membranes, and that has its own microbiome specific to defending you from external pathogens that look completely different than the microbiome in your gut. And obviously, you have a different microbiome in your skin. And all of that has the potential to be altered in a negative way by using essential oils. So casually, this is the biggest experiment. This is a huge experiment. I mean, once people kind of woke up to the idea that fragrances are harmful, essential oils have replaced everything, you know, you can't walk down the natural aisle at Whole Foods, the natural personal care aisle and not find something without essential oils, and it's in your shampoo, it's in your lotion. It's in the body wash, it’s in the toothpaste. It's in the children's classrooms at school, it's in your chiropractor's diffusing it when you go in their office, even your doctor who's like a little bit more natural minded might have an essential oil diffuser. I mean, you really it's hard to escape that in the natural world. And we actually don't know the long term consequences of bombarding ourselves. We're doing it quite the same way that you know, people were doing with fragrance, yes, 20, 30 years ago, when your toilet paper scented your paper towels, things that don't make sense to be scented, everything scented, and then we're having problems, right.
Jessica: Yes, yes. And I think the argument and I hope, anyone that's listening, that kind of has the argument that says, but my essential oils are therapeutic grade, you know, so it's different. I think that's what I hear more than anything else is just like, well, it's different. And I think that's really powerful kind of MLM Marketing that has been done. But in reality, it's not about if you're the quality of the essential oils is, it's more about, would you come across this amount of the essential oil of this plant in nature? And the answer to that is No, right?
Arielle: And we're talking about the true properties of the pure plant, like lavender is antimicrobial. So it's, it's not like you're taking lavender essential oil and diluting it with a bunch of crap and selling it for $5 at Walmart, and it's the crap that's hurting you, the crap will definitely hurt you. But the lavender essential oil on itself is also even like the one drop of you know, the pure, they have the actions that we're talking about.
Jessica: Right. Right. And I know once I learned this from you and kind of woke up to that I've come across I mean, I just think that a lot of people use essential oils, especially around their children, so recklessly, I would go as far as to say recklessly, almost as if like this can do no harm. But are children more sensitive to these volatile compounds than adults?
Arielle: I think so. Yeah, I think the younger they are the more sensitive they talked about earlier. And I know you know a lot about this too. as infants, we are colonized with the vaginal microbiome of our mothers when we pass through the birth canal, which is why a lot of women find during pregnancy, that their vaginal pH shifts, and they might be prone to a lot of infection, or they might have a sensitivity to something that they've been using before. And it's because that our microbiome shifts and starts to prioritize lactobacillus strains of bacteria so that our baby can get a lot of those. And once the baby is born, and they pass through the vaginal canal, and they have all of our all have our, you know, liquids and fluids and everything on their body, there's even a strain. I think this is so cool. And I love to talk about it. There's even a strain of probiotic that babies get from fecal matter. When you know, the mother has a bowel movement during labor, that actually goes straight into the gut and starts rapidly producing vitamin K, which I think is so because like, you know, babies, the doctors will say babies are vitamin K deficient, but it's all nature's design, right? So they're supposed to get colonized with everything that we have. And about an hour to two hours after being born, what happens, you know, ideally, they come they're born, you know, they get their first couple of drinks of colostrum. And then about three hours after birth, their body, their gut creates, it gets sealed, and that creates their first microbiome, right, that creates the microbiome. And that's that microbiome starts to flourish. And it's going to adjust and evolve. And you know, just kind of start growing. It's like baby seedling garden stage, up until 100 days of life. And then that is like kind of like sets the stage for their microbiome for infancy. And then up to to two to three years. It's going to continue to evolve based on, you know, what they eat, what the child is eating, you know, the health of the mother, environmental factors in the home, etc. And then they say that the microbiome that a child has between the age of two and three sets the stage for their gut health for the rest of their life, like that is their seed, like that is their core, right? Yeah. And so, you know, doulas love their lavender essential oil on their little handkerchief that they have mom breathe during labor, you know, they tell you in Hypnobabies classes to bring your essential oil diffuser to the hospital, so you don't have to smell the hospital smells. If you go to look at the natural baby products, all the baby bubble bath has essential oils in it and think about that important physiological moment when your baby is born. And all you don't we don't see their gut that to their microbiome forming that there could potentially have for the rest of their life. But now imagine maybe taking their first breaths, and they're supposed to be breathing and all this like bacteria and fluid and important stuff that's going to scrape their gut health. And instead, they're getting hit with lavender essential oil that's being diffused in the air. Yeah, that's, that's like scary, right? Because that's essentially like, you can be wiping out that whole…you're, you're you're messing with physiology, you know what I mean? And so, you know, I just, I think that it can be the use can be very, like thoughtless, and a lot of people The thing is, a lot of people don't know what I just told you, no, you know what I mean? And like, think of if more moms were pregnant and knew how important like their vaginal microbiome was during pregnancy and knew that process, I think they would do a lot more to ensure that that first hour of life that's fostered. Yeah, my first daughter was born during the C section via C section, like I said earlier, and I actually gave her like infant probiotics in the hospital within the first hour of her life, because I knew about that. I knew that she didn't get the bacteria that she was supposed to. And so I gave her those. And, you know, neither of my kids have ever had gas like never. Wow, they've never had gas. They were all both very calm babies. No, no, like major spitting up, no discomfort.
Jessica: Wow. And like, what a simple, simple thing that you did. It's not like I think if any, every mom knew that, it would be like, Oh, that's so simple. Like, of course. I'll have it in the bag. Man, I yeah, I think I think as women hear about this, I think there might be like some programming that, especially when you hear the talking points over and over again about how amazing essential oils are and how natural they are. But once you hear this, it's like it really comes down to are we messing with our biological design? It's not necessarily if something is natural or toxic, it goes deeper. And is it supportive to our physiology or not. And I know personally, I have just a few acquaintances who this has happened multiple times, to a few acquaintances I've heard, but they're their baby had a just a regular cold, and they started diffusing peppermint essential oil. And it escalated to a respiratory distress situation. And not recognizing that these oils can be so distressing for these respiratory tissues that are already in a little bit of distress, or imbalanced. And it escalates very quickly. And I think mothers just don't realize it because essential oils are promoted as natural, like, why wouldn't we use them? They're almost promoted as medicine, not realizing how powerful they really are. Yeah, well, oh my gosh, I think just all of that alone, listeners are gonna be like, Oh my gosh, that that is crazy. So maybe we'll move to something a little bit, a little lighter. And I mean, I have just seen, I have loved watching you build sub Luna, I just am in awe of, of you having this kind of small herbal shop and have it just explode and all of your products are amazing. When I scroll your shop. I mean, first of all, every time it drops, I think the drops happen on Friday, I'll get an email and by the time I'm in there, I'm like oh sold out, sold out sold out, which is an amazing problem to have. But I am like, Oh, I missed out. There's so many incredible products in there. It's like I want all of them. I want to have like a whole apothecary of just all your products. So I'm just curious for people listening, what are some of your favorite herbs for let's say beauty?
Arielle: Oh my gosh, I love my two favorite herbs for beauty right now. Tremella mushroom is one. And a lot of people don't know about tremella mushroom. It's a it's a big like TCM, Traditional Chinese Medicine or, but you know, we hear a lot about Reishi and Turkey Tail and Chaga. But tremella mushroom is the coolest mushroom like when it's not dried. It's very, like gelatinous and jelly. And it's essentially like what it looks like in real life is what it does for the body. So it enables the body to hold moisture. And so it's very, very hydrating. And it allows the body to produce its own hyaluronic acid. And it helps with certain enzymes in the body that it helps fight certain enzymes in the body that you know, reduce our elasticity. So basically everything it's doing is like if you think about like that beautiful skin like it's very hydrated, it's very glowing. There's no it hasn't lost elasticity yet. The hyaluronic acid keeps everything nice and full. It's just like that essence of use. And it's because it's so hydrating. It's really really good for the gut. It's really good for the stomach and it's really good for the lungs because essentially like a lot of us, which I'm sure you see in your practice. To is like a lot of us are really chronically dehydrated, we don't really, you know, it doesn't matter how much water we drink, it doesn't matter how much raw milk we're pounding, like, if our bodies can't, our cells aren't hydrated enough to hold on to all of the wonderful things we're putting into it, then we're not going to get as much benefit of like all of that nourishment that we're putting in our bodies. And so Tremella mushroom can really act as hydration on like a cellular level for the body to just like revitalize our cells and allow them to hold on to so much more. So that's my favorite herb. So really old profile. And my favorite way to prepare it, if you can order maybe like looking on Etsy, order, just like one dry tremella mushroom and just like simmering on the stove until it turns into jelly and then combine it with equal parts honey, and put it in the fridge. And you can just take like, take a spoonful of that whenever you want. And it tastes so good. And it's just like so it's just like such a simple tonic, you know? Yes.
Jessica: Yes, that is amazing. I'm going to do that today. Do you put it on topically as well?
Arielle: Yeah, and you can put it in your hair, you can put it on your face, our matcha that we have in Sub Luna, it's like green tea, rose and tremella. And you can do that as a face mask too. And it's like so amazing for your skin. Yeah, I love using tremella topically too,
Jessica: But that one that's like gold, right there is gold.
Arielle: And then the other one that I'd like to talk about is schisandra. It's called the beauty berry. It's another TCM-er, but it acts it's super, super high in antioxidants, which are always a good thing, you know, help fight free radicals and cellular aging and also has a really strong liver action. And so you know, it helps support UD basically, from the inside out helping the body move through anything that's like stagnant, that can kind of tend to spill out through the skin. So that's like, you know, acne or eczema or whatever stuff like that that's caused maybe from that stagnant liver action. People need sometimes need a little bit of support with but it doesn't do it on like a really intense detox level. It's more just like a gentle nudge. And so I think you can shake it for a little bit like you don't really feel like you're detoxing and you don't have a lot of like the big symptoms that you'd have from taking those stronger skin herbs that are gonna like purge you, you know.
Jessica: Yeah, I I've heard of it. And I it's, it's mentioned in a lot of like hormone balancing circles. A lot of people will say that it boosts progesterone. And so I find that really interesting that it is considered a beauty herb, I did not know that. Just a question for sourcing herbs. Is it important where you source them? Like do you usually source herbs from I know, you probably have your sources. But let's say for somebody that is trying to source some herbs just for their own personal use? Do you usually turn to like smaller growers like on Etsy? Or are there places that are reliable to go? Like does sourcing matter?
Arielle: Yeah, I mean, it can. So it's I mean, it's definitely important, obviously, I think Etsy is a great place to shop for herbs, because you just you get access to a lot of small makers and small farmers and stuff like that. And so that is always it's always like, if you don't know, if you can't find something, check Etsy, because they'll probably have it and it's it just it's and it's a big network of small local people, right. But even just like going to, you know, if you live in a place that has like a really nice health food store, a lot of times they're gonna have a bulk herb section. And even if you talk to them, like chances are they can order whatever you want. You know, and there's also like, there's so many good small online, herbal farmers that do some sort of either they sell online, or they have a list that they'll email you every month. And you can tell them what you want or things like that, that you know, it's really easy, especially in the age of Instagram to find people who to like who have a really good quality farm with like good solid foundations who are making and are growing and selling herbs. So awesome. Awesome.
Jessica: Yeah, that's super, super helpful. I mean, I know you have you are, I can't imagine how making are you making all of the herbs yourself or all of the teachers? Or do you have a team working because I have seen, we had a balloon explode. And I'm just like, oh my gosh, that is so much. Do you feel like as you've expanded your company, were there stressors and big decisions that you had to make? Like how do you manage your stress and keep yourself balanced as well as being present as a mother?
Arielle: I mean, yeah, so I especially live in Dominican Republic now and my business is based out of Omaha. So I've had to really learn the art of delegation. I've really lucky that I've always had some really powerful female entrepreneurs in my life that I've watched from a young age run their businesses really well. And I've also watched a lot of women run their businesses and get totally burned out because they're doing so much. And I do have a really strong like persona that says that like, “Nobody can do it as good as me.” And that could be my worst enemy if I let it but I think I've really had some good people teach me the art of delegation and learning how to, through like mentorship and leadership versus just like hiring someone to do a job and like not caring how it gets done. But like, so like, I have my shop manager for Sub Luna, who, you know, she cares about the brand as much as I do. And it's been really great to grow the company with her. And we have an intern that is doing really well and really loves. She loves being there. And we love having her and then, you know, I'll everyone on my like, you know, back end team, like the admin work and stuff like that, like, everyone's just really invested in the brand and its growth and our customer service and everything. And so it just, it's kind of like a little family. And so I feel really safe to like, not do it all by myself, you know, like security, because I have the confidence in the people who I choose to delegate to.
Jessica: That's so beautiful. Like, I think a lot of my listeners are always thinking, I want to follow my passions, I want to follow my dreams, but I'm afraid you know, it's going to be too much or how am I going to get there. So it's always inspiring to see women that are doing, you know, really, you're doing it all. But you are leaning on just a strong community for support. And I think that's important for anyone listening.
Arielle: We need other people. It's not just going to be a one man show. It's not just an island, or so many things.
Jessica: Exactly. Exactly. Well, I appreciate you so much. Is there anything you want to share with the audience? You have just been a wealth of information. I'm sure everyone that's listening has just been eating this up. I appreciate you so much.
Arielle: Thank you, Jess, you I appreciate you having me. And it's a joy to get the in chat with you a little bit and again in the future at some point.
Jessica: Absolutely. If people want to learn more about you, where can they find you?
Arielle: So I'm on Instagram. @arielledemartinez is my handle. And then our website is shopsubluna.com, Sub Luna, just Sub Luna and that's where we have our apothecary and all of our hair healing resources and herbal haircare products. And I have a freebie on my website about the microbiome that talks about some of the birth stuff that I talked about today, if people will probably want more information on that. So maybe, absolutely.
Jessica: Thank you so much. Thank you so much for everything and everyone go check her out. If I mentioned any links or resources in the episode, they are always included in the show notes for your convenience.
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