The Bare Bones Basics Of Herbal Skincare


Herbal skincare is another way of saying aromatherapy skin care products, concentrating just the essential oils or infusions of herbs rather than the flowers, fruits and resins. Herbal skincare is a flexible, ancient and proactive way of helping yourself either get better or stay healthy. Everyone has different reactions to each herbal preparation, so be ready to do some experimenting and note how you respond to your herbal skincare products.

Already Made

There are many herbal skincare products that are already made and available in organic whole food stores, health stores or specialty grocers like Trader Joes. They are also easily available on web stores. If you live in England, lucky you, because you can just pop down to the nearest chemists and be spoiled by the choices of quality, safe herbal skincare products.

Before you buy an already made herbal skincare product, you should know if you are allergic to plants. You also should have some information about the herbs you want in the ingredients of your herbal skincare products. If you dont or cant invest in an aromatherapy or herbalist book, there are many of those kinds of books in your local library and lots of information on the web.

For example, perhaps you want something with rosemary. Rosemary promotes energy, remembrance and hair growth. If those qualities appeal to you say, if you have an exam coming up and are worried that you will be too tense to remember what you studied -- then using a rosemary-infused body lotion can help you on the day of the exam.

Herbal skincare products you can buy include body lotions, face cream, bath teas, bath salts, acne preparations and anti-itch lotions. Some aloe Vera gels are infused with herbal essential oils.

Home Made

If you are familiar with aromatherapy and using herbs or love to experiment creatively, you can make your own herbal skincare products. If you cant get a hold of the essential oil, then you can use fresh herbs, preferably those you grow yourself. The herbs must be free from contamination with insecticides or excessive car exhaust fumes. If you decide to harvest herbs in the middle of the woods (like this writer did), invest in a good COLOR field guide for the plants in your area. Always try a tiny sample first before making a great big pot of tea with it.

Put a cupped handful of herbs in a cup of water and bring to a boil. Let it steep like a tea for at least ten minutes, cool and strain. The tea can be added to your bath, used as a face wash or hair rinse or even drunk if you happen to like the taste and do not have an allergic reaction to it.