Beauty With 6 Herbals Article Summary

Beauty and skin care products now almost promise eternal youth, but many women prefer to trust natural Beauty products.

Below are a few time-tested ideas for making herbal beauty and body care products.

1. Facial cleansing Rose-water alternative to water and soap.

Boil 6 cups red rose petals in 4 cups of water for 15 minutes, Cool, strain and keep in a glass bottle in the refrigerator.

2. To remove heavy make up

Melt one measure of anhydrous lanolin and half a measure of aqueous cream in a double boiler, stirring continuously, adding 3 measures of almond oil and one measure of rose-water, then removing from heat.

3. Astringent lotion

Simply mash some strawberries and apply to the face for a bracing toner.

4. Moisturizer

Melt 1 T beeswax over low heat and in another container melt 1 T lanolin and 1 T cocoa butter. Gradually stir the lanolin mix into the beeswax. Now warm 1 1/2 T calendula oil and 1 teaspoon glycerine together and then stir it slowly into the beeswax mixture. Dissolve t of borax in 2 T warm comfrey infusion (steep one cup comfrey in 2 cups boiling water, cool, discard comfrey leaves) and mix well into beeswax mixture. Stir until the mix is thick and cool. Stir in 6 drops of petitgrain essential oil.

5. Hand and body cream

Whisk together: 2 Tablespoons lanolin, one T liquid paraffin, 3 T aqueous cream and 2 T herbal infusion. Make the infusion by steeping one cup of a scented herb such as geranium flowers, lavender, or basil in 2 cups boiling water until cooled, then strain and discard the leaves.

6. Herbal bath

Make herbal bath bags of gauze or muslin and fill them with up to four herbs of your choice. You can use fresh or dry but obviously the fresh ones have to be used immediately. Close the bag and hang three or four bags over the hot water tap so that the water flows through the bag into the bath. For relaxation choose chamomile, jasmine, of lime flowers. For stimulation, choose basil, bay, ivy, lavender, mint, rosemary, sage or thyme. To combat fatigue, use fresh grape leaves.

There are recipes for all kinds of beauty and body products. Once you have the basic non-herbal ingredients, you can have a lot of fun. Do remember that just because it's natural it does not mean that you can not have an allergic or sensitive reaction to some herbs. Be particularly careful with agrimony, cowslips, cucumber, henna, ivy, lime blossom, lovage, nettles, pennyroyal, primrose and violets.