Herbs have been employed in cosmetics for thousands of years. However, for a long time they were suppressed by synthetic factory-made cosmetic products. It is only the last few years, attributable to the demand for pure natural cosmetics, that a number of manufacturers commenced to incorporate herbs and herbal extracts into their merchandise.

While it is at present possible to purchase many herbal beauty products, it is likewise easy and efficient to make them yourself and worth trying out a few formulas. If you grow your own herbs or purchase them will make no difference, though the fresher the herbs they are the more effective the outcome.

Wherever a concentrated oil is called for, you must purchase it from your herbalist or through your health food shop. While at first this could appear to you costly, the truth is that the amount needed in the formulations is so small that the oil turns in to a long term investment.

It is worth recalling that herbal cosmetics only work externally. Eating the right way including good fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs in your diet and daily physical exercise, will assist you to advance beauty from the interior which is as important as the use of cosmetics.

In the coming pages I will provide numerous herbal preparations from original recipes that you can follow to make the product yourself. You might even, in time, devise your individual mixtures that exactly suit your individual requirements and may wish to share with us.

Herbal Infusions

Pour boiling water all over the appropriate herbs and allow infusing as you would if making a tea. The proportionality should be either 3-4 tablespoonfuls of fresh herbs or 1 teaspoonful of dried out herbs, to 300ml (1 and 1/4 cupfuls) of boiling water.

Utilize a china or earth ware pot but not metallic and let the herbs immerse for at least 30 minutes prior to filtering out and bottling in screw-top jars. An infusion will preserve in the refrigerator for a week. If you made more than you need for a particular recipe don’t discarded it, you could use the rest in your bath water.