Julie Gabriel, author of The Green Beauty Guide takes a holistic approach to winter skin care. Here, the Toronto-born nutritionist and organic skincare creator shares a favourite homemade recipe for year-round moisture-rich skin.

Herbal Coconut Body Butter
This butter can be used on face, hair and body skin. You can load up the coconut butter with whatever herbal teas and infusions you happen to have in your kitchen.

Ingredients
• 2 cups coconut oil
• 2-3 twigs fresh rosemary or a tablespoon dried leaves
• 2-3 stems fresh mint or 2-3 peppermint tea bags (preferably organic)
• 2-3 rosehip tea bags
• 2-3 nettle tea bags
• 1 carrot, peeled and finely sliced

Method
Melt coconut oil on very low heat in a metal saucepan. Add the rest of ingredients and allow simmering on very, very low heat for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally to allow ingredients to infuse evenly. Strain and pour the coconut butter into a pot and close tightly. Cool down and use as necessary.

Application
Massage as necessary into hair, skin, even nails.

Storage
Store in a refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

—Athena Tsavliris

The sculptor Rodin may have favoured raw and exaggerated textures, but his namesake cream is as smooth as polished bronze.

Rodin Crema hand and body cream ($80) is a luxurious blend of essential oils with notes of jasmine and neroli. It’s surprisingly light in texture and helps restore balance, moisture and luster to winter-pummeled skin. —Athena Tsavliris

At Gee Beauty, 2 Roxborough St. W., Toronto, 416-486-0080, www.geebeauty.com

We’ve read that Kirsten Dunst wears different scents depending on what character she's playing.

If you too are fickle when it comes to fragrance bypass the big name blends in favour of a beautiful indie scent ($45) created by Oregon-based alchemist, Heather Sielaff. Olo is just delightful. Each scent is hand-blended in limited edition batches and is inspired by the perfumer’s personal experiences.

Lightning paw (don’t you just love the name?) is subtle mix of bergamot, vanilla, jasmine, patchouli and wood. The combination of pine, juniper, cedar and vetivert in Forêt is lovely too.

And for the girl who really can’t commit, try a sample kit ($30).  —Athena Tsavliris

At Robber, 863 Queen St. W., Toronto, 647-351-0724, www.robberstore.wordpress.com

Coconut is one of those funny fruits that people love or loathe. If you fall into campo amor, have we got a product for you.

Packed with 100-per-cent organic fresh-pressed Philippine coconuts, Barlean’s extra virgin coconut oil (same oily, thick consistency of Vaseline) is as good on toast as it is on your tummy.

[Use it] “straight, in cooking, baking or frying, as a spread on toast or muffins and as a massage/body oil or hair tonic,” reads the label. Talk about multi-purpose.

And as long as you don’t mind smelling like a Daiquiri, it’s wicked on winter-worn, irritated skin. —Athena Tsavliris

$13.69 at Noah’s Natural Foods, 322 Bloor St. W.,Toronto, 416-968-7930 (and other locations) www.noahsnaturalfoods.ca

When Oscar Wilde wrote “her sweet red lips on these lips of mine” in 1881, he had no idea he was summing up a 2011 beauty product.

Fresh’s lip treatment has been a favourite for years, moisturizing and plumping our puckers with a formula that combines oils and waxes with real sugar. This fall Fresh introduced its latest spicy shade, Sugar Passion. The sheer crimson tint does what few reds have done before and flatters all skin tones.

We’ll kiss to that. —Jaelyn Molyneux

$22.50 at Sephora, ‪220 Yonge St., Toronto, 416‬-‪595-7227,‬ www.sephora.com

It is said that Cleopatra soaked in a bath of milk and honey daily. While we can’t all be this decadent, a little help from the hives goes a very long way.

Honey Pie, Hives and Herbals is a small farm-based business in Prince Edward County that produces a lovely line of balms, lotions and soaps packed with buzzy bee goodness. The Queen Bee lotion combines beeswax and propolis (another precious bee product) with sunflower and coconut oils for a cream that is really divine.  Try the lip balms too for a plump and smooth pout. —Athena Tsavliris

To buy online or see Toronto stockists visit www.honeypie.ca

Julia Restoin-Roitfeld often says that the best advice she has received from her mother is not to pluck her eyebrows. Sure, if you’ve got brows like Carine, why mess with nature?

The rest of us rely on the pros, and the ladies at Mync  are aces when it comes to perfecting arches. Once determining the right shape for your face, they will wax, tweeze and thread ($30) you to ultimate brows.

Wanna lash fix too? Options range from thick and natural ($145) to fully loaded lids ($255). Either way, your peepers will pop. —Athena Tsavliris

Mync, 104 Yorkville Ave. 2nd Floor, Toronto, 647-351-8888, www.myncbeauty.com

The best part of a pedi is getting our twinkle toes kneaded by a pro.

Suat at Jeanet Spa doesn’t make us wait until the end, but rather integrates massage techniques throughout her treatment. In between soaks, scrubs and snips,
the lovely Tunisian native gives our feet a strong-handed pressure point massage that is downright heavenly.

We leave feeling both relaxed and ready to walk a thousand miles. —Athena Tsavliris

Jeanet Spa, 140 Yorkville Ave., 2nd Floor, Toronto, 416-921-2996, www.jeanetspa.com

You won’t find the prim symmetry of a “basic French,” or the luxe trend-baiting of magazine manis, on the nail art blogfolio of local artist and OCAD grad Mahban. But the ad hoc presentation of colours, lines and patterns is what makes the completely custom, lo-fi designs so necessary.

“I want my art to be a portrait of the wearer,” says Mahban, who digs bright colours and bold patterns; she likens nails to moving, temporal canvases. Last summer she showed (and did) nails at cool contemporary art space 52 McCaul. You can e-mail her to set up an appointment, but Mahban's back next Sunday, August 28, with nail artist Michelle LeFebvre for an afternoon nail party at Dundas West creative co-op Miracle Thieves.

Just in time for the September debut of the fall clothes you've been hoarding all month. —Anupa Mistry

www.mahban.tumblr.com

Come the sun, it's easy (er, easier) to eschew junky food and eat all things green instead. Same with your face: you want to fling aside chemicals and creams and go au naturel—or as close as possible. And so! Andrea Victory, proud new owner of eco-beauty boutique Pretty Beauty & Books, shares her summer gotta-haves.

1. Scotch Naturals Watercolor Polish in "Leprechaun Lynch" ($17.50), an opaque mint crème shade that makes me feel like I'm at the pool with a margarita.

2. Tatcha Aburatorigami Japanese Beauty Papers ($12.50 for 30 sheets). These glam handmade blotting papers have gold flakes in them and mattify like magic, without adding powder. A necessity for looking sweet in the heat. Also biodegradable.

3. Ilia Lip Conditioner in "Shell Shock" ($25). This is the perfect coral pink: summery, fresh, brightens all skin types. It's all-natural and conditions like a lip balm, but goes on like a lipstick.

4. Tallulah Jane Natural Eau de Parfum in "333" ($53.50). With three types of lavender, three types of chamomile and three essences of citrus, people say it resembles lime or lemonade. Perfectly refreshing in the heat.

5. Crawford Street Skin Care Lemon Deodorant Cream ($12.50). I actually never leave the house without this! All natural and locally made, as the name implies. It actually works - I swear - my fiancé (and shop co-owner) even uses it.

—SNP

All available now at Pretty Beauty & Books, 587 Markham St., Toronto, 905-580-0285,
http://prettybeautyandbooks.com