Lily Diamond, Founder of Kale & Caramel Blog
We met Lily at her LA book launch party with Phoebe Lapine and Pamela Salzman earlier this year. After seeing her speak (and trying her magical vegan Cardamom Rose Coco Whip!), we fell in love with her, her food and beauty recipes and lyrical writing style. Lily grew up in Maui surrounded by plants, flowers and a mother who was an aromatherapist and herbologist, providing Lily with a truly innate connection to plants and their healing powers.
She is the founder of the popular (and inspiring) blog, Kale and Caramel and recently published her vegetarian cookbook and DIY manual Kale & Caramel: Recipes for Body, Heart, and Table. We are so excited for you to get to know her and learn the top 3 herbs and flowers she can’t live without!
BONUS! We also have a detoxifying Synergie [4] Kale and Caramel #MySkinCocktail Masque recipe below that we cannot wait for you to try!
Tell Odacité beauty lovers a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to launch your wellness blog Kale & Caramel.
I grew up on Maui, surrounded by an abundance of lush plant life. My mother was a passionate home cook and a consummate aromatherapist, as well as an entrepreneur and the author of two books about flowers. Telling stories—about love, sex, heartbreak, loss, grief—and sharing food that nurtures have always been the two most important parts of my life. Stories remind us we’re not alone, even in our deepest pain, and food (for the body and the skin) sustains us through all kinds of trauma, physical and psychospiritual.
You recently published the Kale & Caramel cookbook, which celebrates the healing power of herbs & flowers. Can you tell us why plants are necessary in every meal?
The aromatic qualities of fresh herbs and flowers are transportive and healing—whether it’s lavender for soothing anxiety or mint for energizing. Scent is also the sense most closely tied to memory. Its evocative powers can conjure the sweetness and challenges of the past, giving us an opportunity to reconcile and renew. Adding aromatic plants like the twelve herbs and flowers I feature in Kale & Caramel to salads, desserts, soups, sauces, and drinks is the most immediate way to tap into those healing properties even as they activate our sensory awareness.
We admire your biodynamic approach to food and skincare. What are your top 3 herbs and/or flowers, and how do you use them?
I love mint, rose, and jasmine. I find these three flavors and scents to be deeply healing and transportive—mint is refreshing, awakening, and calming, whether in a fresh salad, infused into ice cream, or made into an atmospheric spray with its essential oil. Rose is heart soothing at a sub-cellular level—in times of heartache, I douse smoothies and fruit salads with rosewater, and add rose essential oil to baths and nighttime chest anointings. Jasmine is luscious and sensual in fragrance, a perfect aromatic song for summer. At the same time, the flavor of steeped jasmine flowers in green tea is energizing and luminous, delicious with fresh fruit.
Lastly, could you tell our beauty lovers what your all-time favorite Odacité product(s) is and how you use it in your skincare regime :-)
Each Odacité product is a symphonic experience in its own right, opening portals to distinct elements of skin healing. That said, the Synergie[4] masque is the perfect match for my whimsical tendencies, allowing me to mix and create new potions according to what my skin needs in the moment.
ODACITE X KALE & CARAMEL #MYSKINCOCKTAIL
SYNERGIE[4] GREEN BLOSSOM MASK
*makes 2 applications
Ingredients:
1 1/2 teaspoons Synergie[4] mask blend
1/4 teaspoon spirulina blue-green algae
1/2 teaspoon plain yogurt
3/4 teaspoon orange blossom water or 3/4 teaspoon water + 1 drop Odacité Ma + N Serum
How-To:
Mix all ingredients together and apply on freshly cleansed skin for 15 minutes. Use this time to: drink some tea, read your horoscope, water your plants or meditate! Rinse off, pat dry and moisturize with your targeted Serum Concentrate of choice.