Do you love high-quality skin-care products, but hate the expensive price tag? Do you favor natural remedies over chemical solutions? Perhaps you just want to be more in control of what you put in and on your body?
Many top beauty brands boast botanical and plant-based extracts as the principal ingredients in their high-priced products. There's no secret in the fact that plants contain many constituents that support healthy skin: but the big secret is that many of the plants the big brands use are easy to grow at home.
Plants can help moisturize, clean, tone, heal and combat the signs of aging. You just need to know which plants do what, and how to transform them from green things into potions that will look after your skin - the natural way.
Herbs might pep up a pot-roast and spruce up your spaghetti, but the garden is host to a handmade beauty arsenal, and you never knew it!
Most of these plants can be used in infusions, balms, creams, and lotions.
In This ArticleCalendula covers around 20 species, and are part of the daisy family.
This flower has been used for thousands of years as a culinary and soothing medicinal herb. The medicinal properties help reduce inflammation; heal burns, such as sunburn; treat acne and eczema; as well as helping to heal cuts and grazes.
Calen dula can be made into a tincture that can help reduce inflammation on pimples.
Aloe Vera requires a warm climate to thrive outside, but do particularly well in pots inside the home. Aloe Vera leaves are succulents that contain a gel that soothes burned skin, reduces inflammation, and makes for a completely natural skin moisturizer.
You should be careful to not over-use aloe vera as a moisturizer as it can, ironically, dry out your skin.
You simply cut the leaf open and scoop out the gel. Simple! The gel can be used completely solo, or be incorporated into creams and lotions.
Echinacea is a stunning, hardy flower and grows in most climates. It's said to support the immune system but can also help to speed up skin regeneration, treat acne and reduce skin inflammation.
Echinacea can be taken by creating a decoction (a concentrated liquid from heating or boiling plant matter, used as a medicinal preparation), to drink, or in lotions and creams.
For acne and psoriasis sufferers, Comfrey may just provide some relief. A tincture made from the root of the plant can be applied directly onto the skin to treat acne, while the flowers and the leaves have powerful anti-inflammatory properties.
Comfrey is a self-seeder, so can spread around the garden quickly. If you want to contain the plant, dead-head the flowers once they're past their best. Bocking 14 is a sterile variety that won't self-seed.
Although we associate tea growing with huge plantations in India, Green Tea (Camellia sinensis) will grow in temperate zones , and contributes antioxidant qualities to improve aging skin, prevent bacterial growth, and reduce inflammation.
For those with particularly oily skin, green tea can help to control the skin's natural sebum production.
An infusion of dried or fresh leaves can be used in lotions, facial toners and creams.
Lavender is easy to grow and has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. Oil extracted from the plant helps to speed up healing in cuts, grazes and burns.
I t smells really good as well and has natural sedative properties. Both fresh and dried flowers can be used to add to creams, lotions, or as a facial toner.
Dandelion and Burdock might (or might not) be your favorite childhood tipple; but Burdock is an incredibly cleansing herb that actively helps heal psoriasis, acne, boils, and eczema.
Drinking a prepared decoction of the root every day for a month will help.
Thyme is a delicious herb that goes perfectly with meat or fish, but recently, studies have demonstrated that thyme is better at clearing acne than Benzoyl Peroxide - the constituent that literally burns the skin out of its acne phase.
T hyme can be quite drying when infused with alcohol as a tincture, so infusing thyme with witch hazel can be less harsh.
Toning and Astringent Herbs
Witch Hazel
Yarrow
Lemon Balm
Rosemary
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