Herbs, Infusions and Nourishing Extras for Your Home-made Skin CareBlack tea (creates a dark caramel colour in soap) - renowned for its antibacterial and astringent qualities. Used black tea bags are a traditional cure for puffy eyes. Calendula (creates a golden yellow colour in soap) - due to its natural healing properties, calendula was traditionally used as a healing ointment on cuts, scalds, grazes and other surface wounds. Chamomile - reputed for its healing qualities, chamomile is antibacterial and analgesic. It calms skin conditions and irritation, helps with headaches and general aches and pains, eases restlessness and promotes sleep. The petals can add colour and texture to your soap. Green tea (creates a light caramel colour in soap) - renowned in the orient for its antibacterial and antioxidising properties, tests have shown that when applied to the skin may inhibit skin cancers caused by harmful UVB radiation - many cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies are supplementing their skin care products with green tea extracts. Alkanet root - this can give natural soap a lavender-blue colour. Infused in olive oil, it is a rich crimson, but when mixed in soap mixture it reacts like litmus paper and turns blue. It was also much used for skin-care in the middle ages. Calendula petals – create lovely bright yellow flecks when added to your soap. Calendula petals – create lovely bright yellow flecks when added to home-made soap or skin care products. Milk - as Cleopatra bathed in ass' milk, so we can bathe is milk too and reap the benefits of its replenishing and moisturising properties! If making soap with milk, the soap created when milk is used is pale to dark caramel in colour – the cooler the temperature, the lighter the soap. Goats’ milk and sheeps’ milkcreates a lighter soap than cows’ milk due to the fact that cows’ milk contains higher levels of carotene. Grapefruit Seed Extract - a strong anti-oxidant, we use this as a preservative in our products. In itself, this oil has wonderful beneficial properties. Grapefruit seed extract naturally detoxifies, enhances and supports the immune system due to its high levels of vitamin C and E and bioflavonoids. Ground anatto seeds - used to give a strong yellow colour while also having skin conditioning properties.
Honey - locally produced from free range bees, honey is replenishing and full of natural antibiotic and antiseptic qualities. Lavender buds – contain healing lavender oil and can be exfoliating in body and face washes and scrubs. Spirulina – this is a blue-green fresh water algae and has recently been heralded a ‘super-food’ due to its high vitamin, mineral and nutrient content. In relation to the skin, it is known to have moisturising and tightening properties, as well as the antioxidant and replenishing properties from its protein-rich constitution. This creates a lovely deep green in soap and skin care products, and is unusual in that it stays green through saponification – a lot of things deteriorate during this process and end up brown. St John's wort tincture - renowned for its antidepressant qualities, St John's wort is also known to have antibacterial and antifungal qualities when applied to the skin. Thyme - fresh from the garden for extra vigour. Thyme has a strong, pungent aroma which aids concentration and focus, as well as being an excellent bronchial and lung stimulant, making it valuable in bronchitis, coughs, colds, asthma and the like, while the warming qualities are great for rheumatism, sciatica, arthritis and gout. Turmeric - In ayurvedic medicine, a preventive medical system practiced in India, turmeric (or haldi) is called the ‘spice of life’. It has many beneficial properties such as anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and anti-bacterial. The beneficial properties of turmeric are now being recognized by the western researchers. Ground pumice - pumice is a natural soft stone which makes a fine powder which is great for exfoliation when added to soaps as it give a very gentle abrasive action. Beeswax – sometimes people use this to make a hard bar of soap, or as a thickener in creams, but it is not particularly beneficial for the skin and can be a skin irritant. If you are going to use this, you should use no more than 25% in your soap or skin care recipe. Oats – oats are an effective emollient, conditioning and moisturising the skin. It is possible to harness their great qualities without actually including the oats themselves in your skin care products or home-made soap by soaking the oats in cold water and then squeezing them in a piece of cheesecloth or an old tea towel, capturing the fluid. Use this to replace a portion of the water in your recipe. Oats are also a great as a face wash and you can create a conditioning exfoliating pad by placing some oats in a flannel and tying it gently closed. Use this oat ‘cushion’ when you are washing your face, and you will feel the smooth oat water coming through the cloth to soothe and condition your skin. Or use as a face scrub, but this might get a bit messy! Oatmeal – this has the same properties as oats but, as it is in smaller, harder pieces, it can be more exfoliating. Garden Herbs – add any garden herbs you like to you your skin care recipes for their scent and herbal properties. Vitamin E oil - Vitamin E protects our skin cells and allows reactive molecules to strike the cell without damaging it, protecting the skin from ultraviolet radiation. Vitamin E-rich foods, when consumed, can directly travel to the skin cell membranes and protect the skin. Vitamin E is not an oil as such and comes in the form of gels, capsules and carrier oils. Oils and gels can be applied topically to help protect the skin and also for scars. The active ingredient in vitamin E is alpha-tocopherol which, in its natural, form is powdery and thick. Hence, it is mixed with a carrier like olive oil and then termed ‘vitamin E oil’. In soap making, vitamin E oil can be used as a skin nutrient and also as a preservative as it is an antioxidant thus helping the oils in your skin care products or soaps last longer. Rosemary Extract – another natural preservative, rosemary is well known for its strong antioxidative properties which, when added to soap, help to inhibit the soap from going rancid. Rosemary extract is also effective in the protection of colour and flavour in natural products, and improves the stability of natural color extracts. Ground almonds – almonds are rich in protein, zinc, potassium, iron, B vitamins and magnesium so adding ground almonds to your soap allows your skin to benefit from these qualities, along with the skin moisturizing quality of sweet almond oil. The texture of ground almonds creates a gentle exfoliating soap, and ground almonds are a great facial scrub, especially for teenage skin, helping to slough away dead skin cells whilst adding natural sweet almond oil to moisturize – good for skin with acne. Lemon verbena – this is an aromatic herb with astringent properties. Its antibacterial and antiseptic qualities allow it to treat skin conditions such as acne, boils and cysts. The scent of lemon verbena is calming and de-stressing, calming the mind and alleviating insomnia. Helps reduce puffiness of the skin and can be used as a hair tonic. The fresh or dried herb can be added to soaps or an infusion made from the leaves of the plant. Flower Buds – rose, chamomile, lavender and other flowers provide dried flower buds which can be used in your skin care products. Rose and chamomile are great with re-milled soap as they tend to discolor during the saponification process. Orris Root – orris root is from the root of a type of iris and is used mainly as a fixative in perfumes, soap making and other areas. The powder, which is made from the dried root, develops a unique scent similar to that of violets when it ages. Essential oil can also be extracted from the dried root. The powdered root is an ingredient of toothpaste, breathe fresheners, face and body powders and also food flavourings. In soap making and natural skin care it can help fix scents. Natural Spring Water – this should be used if you are making soap rather than tap water (unless yours comes from a spring) as the chemicals and minerals in most tap water can effect your soap. Things like chlorine and the minerals which make water ‘hard’ may stop your soap turning out how you want it to. Also, it's much better for your skin so if you can, use it for your skin care recipes too.
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