Natural additives & bases for homemade herbal items

Natural additives & bases for homemade herbal items....

Butters

Shea
 Shea butter makes luxurious body butters, soaps, and lotions. It’s also great just straight out of the jar, and does things for super dry skin like nothing else can.

Cocoa
Raw cocoa butter smells like warm chocolate…and makes beauty body care products? It’s one of my favorite fats.

Clays

Bentonite
($4.50, 4 oz)
Inside and out, bentonite clay is a must-have for my healing pantry. Its uses range from clay facial mask to oral health to intestinal and full body detox. The absorption properties give bentonite its toxin-removing abilities and I wouldn’t want to be without it!

Clays — like most other ingredients — are super intriguing to me! In addition to bentonite…French green, Fuller’s Earth, Red Moroccan, and White Kaolin all hold a special place in my heart.

Hydrosol (flower water)

Lavender
($4.50, 3 oz)
Mountain Rose Herbs puts it best, “This is one of the more relaxing and balancing hydrosols from our collection of flower waters. It is ideal for oily and combination skin, and is an excellent coolant for minor burns, rashes, and hot sores. Mentally refreshing and marvelous on the emotions!”

Lavender has been used for centuries and in a multitude of cultures traditionally for its effectiveness as a antibacterial, antifungal, and antiseptic agent. Learn more about lavender’s medicinal value here…

So, you see why it’s used daily in my home. There are mini-mister bottles of lavender hydrosol everywhere…the bathroom, kitchen, living room, work-space, and bedrooms!

Oils

Organic Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil
($7, 15 oz)
This is a must for soaps, healing salves, lip balms, deodorants, and the like! Among its countless blessings, coconut oil is a staple in the healing pantry as it gives thick bubbles to soap and nourishment to the hair and skin.

Sesame
($6, 4 oz)
I’m starting to really fall in love with sesame oil! I’m using it more and more in my salves, lotions, and hair care remedies due to its extremely stable nature and highly medicinal properties. Now I’m not talking about the toasted, walk around smelling like fried rice sesame oil. No, this stuff is amazing!

I encourage you to read more about the benefits of sesame oil!

Liquids & Menstruums

Menstruums are used primarily to preserve and extract healing properties of a variety of plant materials. They can be made into tinctures, lotions, astringents, and masks.

• Witch Hazel – ($6, 16 oz) Used topically to clean and protect the skin.
• Vegetable glycerin – ($8.50, 16 oz) Glycerin is a humectant – attracting moisture out of the air and to your skin – perfect for use in handcrafted lotions and creams. Just make sure you never use it straight on the skin, or you could end up with the reverse effects and super dry skin! It also a wonderful menstruum used in herbal tincturing.
• Aloe Vera juice – ($7, 32 oz) I love using this instead of water for making lotions and facial masks. And, if you’ve ever had a burn, you probably know that aloe is a great remedy.
• Apple cider vinegar – ($5, 32 oz) Apple Cider Vinegar – a.k.a. ACV – can be use for everything from weight loss to detox to hair conditioning to facial astringent to herbal tincturing to cooking. Pick your poison!
• Raw honey – ($10, 14 oz) Go local it possible with this stuff. It’s ability to preserve and restore are simply unmatched! The healing properties of raw honey — along with beeswax — in all of its natural glory, has yet to ever be recreated by the hails of science. Another miracle of nature!
• Beeswax – ($8, 6 oz) Highly antibacterial, this skin-protectant when purchased should smell like honey and be a beauty golden color. Buy it raw and locally, if you can. Beeswax is used to give hardness in body butter, lip balm, lotion, medicinal salve, and some soap recipes.