Anyone who strives to achieve a peaceful, natural final appearance knows how frustrating dehydration spots or dark discolorations can be, especially on the face. Whether caused by dehydration or injury, these unnatural areas can be challenging during final cosmetic work. For situations like this, I rely on Frigid’s Mint Color Corrector. It works beautifully on all skin tones and creates a smooth, flat base for cream cosmetics. Like many embalmers, I can sometimes be a little heavy-handed with a sponge. On emaciated decedents, this may result in dark brown, leathery patches on the cheeks, clear signs of dehydration. If I create a problem, I create a solution, and the Mint Color Corrector makes that solution easy. To use it, simply apply the Mint Color Corrector over the darkened area. Then apply a cream cosmetic: Either slightly darker than the decedent’s natural skin tone (for dark skin tones), or slightly lighter than what you would normally use on a light-skinned individual. The color corrector lifts and balances the tone, allowing the cosmetic to blend naturally back to the decedent’s true complexion. This method has proven effective every time I use it. Once the cosmetic work is complete, I finish with a light spray of Lanol Care. The result is a smooth, natural appearance with discoloration fully masked, no harsh or unnatural tones. Voilà. I highly recommend that every embalmer invest in Frigid’s Cosmetic Kit, which includes the Mint Color Corrector along with other essential shades. If you don’t feel you need the full kit, at the very least, purchase the Mint Color Corrector, it’s also sold separately, just like the other items in the kit. Paired with our popular Lanol Care, this product is a must-have in every embalmer’s makeup kit. You’ll be grateful to have it on hand the next time you encounter dehydration spots or visible discolorations on the face, arms, or hands.

When someone we love dies, our brain has to do more than acknowledge the fact, it has to accept it. That acceptance isn’t just an emotional milestone; it’s a neurological process. Viewing the body can be one of the most important steps in helping the brain navigate from the shock of loss toward healing. The Brain’s Need for Reality Confirmation: Seeing the deceased provides what psychologists call reality confirmation. It’s the moment when the brain’s prefrontal cortex (our logical decision-maker) and hippocampus (our autobiographical memory center) reconcile what we’ve been told with what we can see. Without that sensory input, parts of the brain can remain in an unresolved “search mode,” driven by the nucleus accumbens and reward circuits that still long for the person. Engaging Memory and Meaning: Viewing also activates the amygdala, the brain’s emotional hub, and stimulates the retrieval of memories stored in the hippocampus. These memories help weave the loss into our life story, a function supported by the medial prefrontal cortex and the default mode network, which are responsible for self-reflection and meaning-making. Molecules of Grief In acute grief, the brain and body release a cocktail of stress and attachment-related chemicals: Cortisol – Heightens stress and alertness. Norepinephrine – Triggers emotional arousal. Oxytocin – Strengthens feelings of attachment and longing. Dopamine – Keeps the brain “seeking” the lost loved one. When the loss is processed over time, cortisol levels stabilize, dopamine-driven searching subsides, and serotonin increases, supporting emotional stability. How Embalming Contributes to Grief Resolution: This is where the craft and science of embalming play a vital role. A restorative presentation, natural skin tone, peaceful expression, dignified appearance, helps the mourner’s brain integrate the reality of death without being overwhelmed by trauma or distress. In neurological terms, this reduces the overactivation of the amygdala and allows the prefrontal cortex to remain engaged in emotional regulation. Without restorative work, distressing visual cues can imprint themselves in the hippocampus, making it harder to reconcile the loss and potentially contributing to prolonged or complicated grief. In contrast, skilled embalming creates an environment where the mourner can engage memories, say goodbye, and begin to release the longing that characterizes unresolved grief. A Healing Encounter: Viewing isn’t just a tradition, it’s a neurobiological intervention. It helps the brain confirm the loss, engage in meaning-making, and regulate the intense emotions of bereavement. Embalming ensures that this encounter is not defined by shock or distress, but by dignity and peace, conditions that allow the mind and heart to take the first steps toward acceptance and healing. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Cardoso, A., Arias‑Carrión, Ó., Paes, F., & Pinho de Oliveira Ribeiro, N. (2014). Neurological aspects of grief. CNS & Neurological Disorders – Drug Targets, 13(6), 930–936. https://doi.org/10.2174/1871527313666140612120018 O’Connor, Mary-Frances. “Bereavement and the Brain: Invitation to a Conversation between Bereavement Researchers and Neuroscientists.” Death Studies, vol. 29, no. 10, Dec. 2005, pp. 905–22. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/07481180500299063. O’Connor, Mary-Frances. “Grief: A Brief History of Research on How Body, Mind, and Brain Adapt.” Psychosomatic Medicine, vol. 81, no. 8, Oct. 2019, pp. 731–38. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000717. Chapple, A., and S. Ziebland. “Viewing the Body after Bereavement Due to a Traumatic Death: Qualitative Study in the UK.” BMJ, vol. 340, no. apr30 2, Apr. 2010, pp. c2032–c2032. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c2032.

Grief is a natural response to loss, but when a loved one dies after a prolonged illness, the grieving process can become more complicated. This form of grief, known as "complicated" or "prolonged grief disorder," involves persistent emotional pain, difficulty accepting the loss, and an inability to move forward. Modern neuroscience reveals that this type of grief is not just emotional; it's also biological. It changes how the brain functions, especially in regions responsible for emotional regulation, memory, and social connection. One powerful yet underappreciated tool that can aid in this healing process is high-quality embalming and restoration. For families who have watched a loved one suffer through illness, seeing that person restored in death can bring a sense of peace and closure that aids in emotional and neurological healing. The Brain’s Role in GriefWhen someone experiences loss, their brain engages multiple areas responsible for processing emotions, memory, and social bonds. The amygdala, a small almond-shaped part of the brain, lights up when we feel fear or sadness. The anterior cingulate cortex, which processes social pain (like loneliness or separation), and the prefrontal cortex, which helps us understand and regulate our emotions, are all deeply involved in grief. In complicated grief, the brain doesn’t adapt as it normally would. Instead, studies show prolonged activity in a region called the nucleus accumbens, which is associated with longing and attachment. In simpler terms, the brain remains "stuck," still searching for the person who has died, unable to accept the new reality. A prolonged illness makes this worse. Families witness daily decline, disfigurement, and suffering—images that are often seared into memory. These traumatic visuals are stored in the brain’s emotional centers and can replay vividly, intensifying grief and anxiety. Neuroscientists have found that visual cues are powerful in how we process loss. Seeing a loved one at peace can help the brain reconcile the finality of death and begin to release the emotional hold. How Embalming Supports HealingThis is where embalming plays a critical role. Embalming is not just about preservation—it’s about restoration. For someone who has died from a long illness, the physical toll may be evident: sunken features, jaundice (a yellowing of the skin), dehydration, or pressure sores. A well-trained embalmer can reverse many of these signs, allowing the person to look peaceful and familiar. Modern embalming uses a mix of chemicals designed for specific effects: Formaldehyde or glutaraldehyde: These are preservatives that slow decomposition by "stabilizing" proteins in the body. Humectants: Ingredients like lanolin draw moisture into tissues, rehydrating dry or emaciated areas. Surfactants and emulsifiers: These help distribute the embalming fluid evenly throughout the body, even in areas with poor circulation. Dyes: Non-cosmetic colorants like eosin or ponceau restore a natural, healthy tone to the skin. Special techniques are also employed: Restricted cervical injection allows the embalmer to manage delicate blood vessels by carefully injecting fluid into each side of the head and neck. Surface packs and cauterant gels treat bedsores and ulcers, drying, bleaching and deodorizing the tissue to allow for cosmetic application. Tissue builders, injected into sunken facial areas, can restore contours lost during illness. The Psychological Impact of RestorationFor families, seeing a loved one restored in death can change everything. Neuroscience shows that visual confirmation helps the brain accept reality and begin the grieving process. This process, called cognitive reappraisal, is how the brain rewrites painful memories in light of new, more peaceful information. In recent surveys conducted by the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), families who viewed their loved one’s body reported significantly more satisfaction with the funeral and greater emotional resolution. They felt that they had truly said goodbye. This is especially crucial when the person has undergone a long and visible decline. Restoration helps replace painful images with peaceful ones. ConclusionEmbalming is often misunderstood as a purely cosmetic or outdated practice. In reality, it is a deeply human and scientific process that bridges body and mind, chemistry and compassion. For families grappling with complicated grief after a prolonged illness, seeing their loved one at rest, looking like themselves, can be a vital part of healing. As embalmers, funeral directors, and educators, we must continue to advocate for restoration not as vanity, but as therapy for the heart and for the brain.

As embalmers, we often witness final trauma and physical signs of illness of those that died and are now laying on the table before us. Sometimes these are lesions or tumors which they had to endure for some amount of time until their death. There’s one case that will always stay with me—a constant reminder of why our work matters and the importance of doing everything we can to support grieving families. As embalmers, our sacred duty is not only to disinfect and preserve, but also to restore. For this case in particular, this meant restoring a gentleman back to his days where he was “healthy” and not marked by his illness – an obvious sign by the over 100 tumors that grew upon his face, neck, and chest.   Upon opening the sheets that shrouded his body in the prep room, I was overwhelmed to see the vast number of tumors that riddled his upper body and head – immediately thinking how painful that must have been to endure. The overwhelming smell of them hit me quick upon revealing them too. Although I did not know his cause of death, I could see that these were fungating wounds that were certainly an active part in his ultimate death. His wife, upon learning it was a possibility, pleaded for them to be removed – for “his sickness to be taken away.” I could sense how deeply she longed to restore his true self after all he had been through, and how much peace it would bring her to see him free from the toll of his suffering. So I promised to do everything in my power to bring her husband back as she remembered him.   Fungating wounds or tumors are often a complication of metastatic cancer as the tumor infiltrates layers of the skin, tissue, or lymph vessels and extend or grow without successful treatment to abate them. They can be identified by their cauliflower appearance as they rapidly proliferate and often manifest areas of necrotic lesions. Besides being painful, the physical symptoms can include malodor, bleeding, and exudate seeping from them.   Though I did not know what he died from, identifying these wounds was helpful as an embalmer so that I could research and better know what these masses may have been like underneath the thin, and often broken layers of skin adhering them to his body. This would better educate me on what types of fluids (and chemicals) to embalm him with and how to treat these tumors prior to removing them.     Considering the common anatomy of exudate within them made me realize that I needed to decide how to treat that before just haphazardly dissecting them since I wanted to safely contain that as much as possible. Therefore, I needed to make sure to fixate them as best as possible prior to removal. Although I embalmed prior to treating the tumors, I realize that in other countries there is often a limited amount of time for preparing a body before services so if I had a time constraint, I would have treated the tumors prior to embalming. Due to the anatomy of how the tumors were situated within the body, the capillaries that infiltrate them are often fragile and compressed by the weight of the tumors. This fragility and compression often cuts parts of them off from receiving embalming fluid through the arterial system.   In order to fixate the tumors, I injected a strong cavity fluid methodically throughout all of them and between them with a hypodermic syringe – such as Pharos (containing Phenol). I then let the fluid sit for several hours before I ultimately began to excise them. Because of needing time to let the injected cavity fluid fixate the tissue and exudate within the tumors, this is why I suggest doing this part prior to embalming so that the process can be done more efficiently under time constraints. Once the tumors were no longer as pliable to the touch, I started the tedious process of excising them one by one with a scalpel and forceps. As I did this, I had to remain conscious of the decedent’s natural body curvature for his jawline, neck, and shoulders.    Once the tumors were removed, I thoroughly bathed him – something he likely hadn’t been able to do himself in a long time. The newly exposed tissue needed to be cauterized, so I saturated sheets of cotton with a cauterizing chemical, such as Frigid’s Cauterant, and laid them over those areas. I then covered the saturated cotton sheets with plastic to contain the fumes, and then let his body rest overnight. The next morning, the areas of exposed tissue were much drier. I removed the cauterized cotton and glued fresh, clean cotton sheets down over the areas on his chest and then glued a sheet of plastic over them before dressing him.   After dressing him, I placed him in his casket before restoring his neck and face. I cut the back of his collared shirt so that I could more easily work on his neck, and then could put it back in place once I was finished. Since the surface area that I was going to wax was so large across his face and neck, I wanted to create a “toothy” surface for the wax to better adhere to. I did this by saturating the exposed tissue with liquid super glue, and then spraying it with Tech Bond’s Accelerant so that it dried instantly. I could then easily apply the way over it, and it would stick better to the rough patches of hardened glue.   Since he was relatively young and did not have any wrinkles, I needed to smooth the areas of wax as best as possible. I used a flat brush and would dip the bristles of it in Dry Hair Cleaner before brushing it against the wax to smooth it out. I constantly moved around the casket to check all angles on his jawline and face while comparing it to his photo. Once I felt I achieved his natural structure of his face and neck, I began mixing the first foundation layer of cosmetic in my airbrush. To determine his foundation hue, I compared his photograph to a chart of varying browns based on having warm or cool undertones. I was able to determine that he has warm undertones in life, so I had to make sure to blend more orangey tones into his foundation color. As I began airbrushing, I also paid attention to areas of wax that caught the makeup and I therefore needed to smooth down even more. After finishing his airbrush cosmetics, I sprayed them with the Setting Spray and then replaced his collar back around his neck as it should be.   I did a final check, again from multiple angles around the casket, comparing him to his photo. I was satisfied with the result and eager for his wife to see him. She was overjoyed to see him looking like himself again, no longer showing signs of illness. It meant so much to her, that she left the casket open for his large church service as hundreds of people came to honor him. This is exactly why we do what we do, even with the long hours – because of the peace it can give others while beginning their journey in grief at the death of a loved one.  

There’s always a lot of discussion amongst embalmers about the chemicals they use, the cosmetics they like, and the techniques they deploy in restoration. When we think of embalming, we can easily call to mind that related sciences are chemistry, biology, anatomy, and microbiology, but what about physics? Occasionally you will see someone post a question in an online forum about what pressure people like to use during injection, and invariably the answer is “slow and low.” The “slow” is in reference to the rate of flow or speed of the embalming solution and the “low” is addressing the pressure of the injection. Let’s take a look and decide if this answer is a reasonable one.   To understand the concept, we have to remind ourselves of Bernoulli's Principal which explains that when pressure goes up, rate of flow goes down. Simply, the faster fluid (or gas) moves the less time it has to press on something. Makes sense so far, right? An example of this that you may be able to picture in your mind is letting the air out of a balloon. The air inside creates static pressure that decreases when you let the air out of it, thereby increasing the rate of flow. Remember, pressure is relieved by a change in rate of flow. Now, in embalming it is not an either-or situation because of the pump inside the machine. Many embalming machines make use of a centrifugal pump. The way that this works is that fluid is sucked into what is called the “volute.” The volute is a spinning wheel, that you may be able to recognize when thinking about the Gravitron ride at the carnival. This is the one that pins its victims to the wall due to the centrifugal force exerted on them as it spins at top speed. In this case however, instead of people, its liquid and it has an outlet for the fluid to flow. The dynamic between pressure and rate of flow in this case is disrupted by what is known as Euler’s Pump Formula, which is several letters and numbers long so we will not get into that here but what you need to know is that complicates the simplicity of Bernoulli’s “if one goes up, the other goes down” idea. The kinetic energy produced by the volute is used to increase or reduce rate of flow based on its speed.   So how does this relate to embalming? Very early on in our training we are taught that using too high of a rate of low can cause swelling, and to understand this, we can once again return to the analogy of the balloon. This time however, we will start with a balloon with no air in it. If we blow it up slowly, the balloon takes longer to fill up because the rate of flow we are producing is low. However, if we give one good breath, the rate of flow we produce will blow the balloon up very fast. The same can be said of our embalming solution. If we rush the solution into the body too fast before the tissues can absorb it, or if they are already saturated, it will begin to swell. Think of an elevator where a crowd of people try to get on at once, and invariably some people are left standing and waiting for the next one.   Besides avoiding swelling, using a low rate of flow means that there is more time for the tissues to absorb the solution. Unlike a balloon, the vascular system is an open system as it allows for the movement of gases and liquids from the arteries into the tissues via the capillary beds in a process called “diffusion.” A lower rate of flow in this case allows time for this to happen with better effectiveness. Examine if you will, the activity of your neighborhood paper boy on his route. If he rides by a customer's house and whips the paper from his bike on the street, he may make the delivery but who knows if that paper will hit the ditch, the porch, or a hapless dog minding their own business. But if he rides up the driveway and purposely places the paper on the stoop, his delivery is more accurate, and he is likely to get better tips at Christmas. In this case, his rate of flow is slowed, and he is able to apply more pressure to each of the houses.   But what about the “low” part? Well, this is kind of tricky considering what we just learned about pumps disrupting our buddy Bernoulli. Factor in that some embalming machines have back flow valves built in to allow for fluid pressure to be relieved in order to protect the machine. Also, how do we quantify “low pressure?” Some models have pressure that goes up to 160 psi (pounds per square inch) while others only go up to 30. The Frigid Embalming Machine (SKU: 3 EMB03) has a safety feature that stops the rate of flow when it detects a pressure of 105 psi. This also has the added benefit of alerting the embalmer that there is a clot or other blockage in the decedent's vascular system. There are also machines that automatically set their own pressure based on the rate of flow set by the operator and others that do the opposite. On top of that, pumps act like any other machine and wear out, thereby being inconsistent with the pressure they produce. We all know that embalmers famously pride themselves on having the oldest embalming machine they possibly can, so pressure and rate of flow is always questionable.  So, is the adage of “slow and low” good advice? Well, it would seem that “slow” is good advice, but “low” remains to be seen. Perhaps a better way of thinking about it is remembering the relationship between rate of flow and pressure, and understanding what that means in the context of your own machine.    

It’s with immense excitement that I share this milestone with you – Frigid Fluid Company has recently reached a significant achievement, shipping our 200th embalming machine.