toner

Infused Witch Hazel

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I wanted to show you the end of the process since I showed you the beginning a few weeks back. This is the witch hazel after four weeks of infusion. The witch hazel has clearly been infused with all the beneficial qualities of the rose petals and calendula because the color of the liquid has turned from crystal clear to a deep, warm orange. I prepped some for a facial toner with geranium and carrot seed essential oils, and left the rest without any essential oils in case I needed it for an after sun spray, in which case I’ll use lavender and peppermint essential oils instead.

Witch hazel is anti-inflammatory, soothing, cleansing, and balancing to skin alone, but infusing it with botanicals makes it a medium for adding more antioxidants, healing, and enhancing properties to your skin. It’s also just fun and so rewarding to see the color change that takes place when infusing it with herbs, so it makes for a particularly good green beauty craft for young teens/tweens and it’s also gentle enough for them to actually use.

Thank you for reading and watching! I also added a couple of other new videos on YouTube on making natural perfumes if you are interested in actual recipes. Watch the alcohol based version first because in the oil based body perfume video I tell you how to (somewhat) alleviate a problem with essential oil perfumes that I bring up in the first one~ the fact that products made with essential oils just don’t stick around as long as chemical fragrances due to their ‘alive’ and volatile natures.

Happy holiday week to all the Canadians and Americans and anyone else out there who has a holiday this first week of July :0).

 

Toner DIY with Infused Ingredients

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Toner is used to balance the skin’s pH after cleansing, and it can be made from a multitude of natural ingredients, which makes it especially easy to blend your own at home. You can even just simply use a hydrosol as a toner, or witch hazel, or even just make green tea, let it cool, then bottle it and spray it on your face/body. (That green tea toner needs to be kept in the fridge and should be used within three days.) I like making toners that have more ingredients in them because I enjoy getting as many benefits out of my products as possible, and infusing those ingredients with herbs makes them even more nutrient dense and beneficial. My first toner recipe is very similar to the one below, but this time I first infused vegetable glycerin (also spelled glycerine) with rose buds to get all those wonderful rosy healing attributes as well as the gorgeous color and scent. You certainly don’t have to do this, but adding glycerin to your toners or other products makes them more emollient and protective because it brings the moisture from the air into your skin and adds a protective layer to the skin as well. Food grade glycerin can be taken internally as well, and makes for a kid-friendly extract because it’s sweet and alcohol free. Aloe is a firming agent and can be used alone as a mask on your face for quick toning and firming action. Witch Hazel is astringent and pH balancing and can also be infused with herbs. I used Geranium essential oil because it is good for all kinds of skin, and Carrot Seed essential oil for the vitamin A. I added a drop of Turkish Rose essential oil to complement the rose infused glycerin. Use whatever essential oils you like best, no more than 10 drops in 4 oz. of liquid though, and less than that if your skin is sensitive. This actually smelled quite nice without the essential oils but I like the therapeutic effects of the ones I added, but do start with smaller amounts if you are new to making your own skin care.

Recipe for Rose infused Glycerin:

Fill a jar 1/2 to 3/4 full with rose petals or whatever herb you are using. If using buds like I did, bruise and chop them up a bit first.

Add a mixture of vegetable glycerine and distilled water in a proportion of 1/4 distilled water to 3/4 glycerin. If you are using fresh herbs, no distilled water is needed.

Make sure the herbs are covered completely, shake them up daily for two weeks, then strain. Glycerin is ready to use.

The rose buds I used went from dark pink to white in about 24 hours. I was so surprised! Keep both the marinating product and finished product out of heat and light.

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Toner:

4 oz. Bottle (dark glass preferable)

1/4 C Witch Hazel

1/8 C Aloe Vera gel 

1 teaspoon rose infused glycerin (or plain glycerin)

Distilled water (enough to almost fill the bottle, just leave room for the essential oils if using)

1-2 drops Turkish Rose essential oil

4 drops Geranium essential oil

4 drops Carrot Seed essential oil

Put the first four ingredients in a dark glass bottle and shake it up. Add the essential oils (if using) and roll the bottle in your hands to blend. Shake before using.

Be sure to label your bottle and write down your recipe.

Making your own toner is a great place to start with DIYing your natural beauty regimen because it can be as effortless as one ingredient, and it’s hard to go wrong. Start simple and add ingredients as you figure out what works best for your skin and your sense of smell. Most of all, have fun creating, and please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share with anyone who might benefit from this article.

 

Bay Rum Aftershave and Toner

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Did you know you can make your own Bay Rum? That old school scent that men use as cologne and can be made into other things as well…? When I first ran across a recipe for it I had a small mental freak-out, along the lines of, “Wait, what? You mean Bay Rum is literally just bay leaves and rum? Of course!! Oh my gosh I have to make it!” So I did, adding cinnamon sticks and cloves along with the bay leaves, then finishing it with some vanilla extract. It smells manly and awesome, familiar in a nonspecific way. So far I’ve only made an aftershave/toner with it, but I intend to infuse more men’s inspired goodies because it’s such a traditional scent that even though it’s a tad old school, it is still so recognizable.

Making Bay Rum is the same as making any other herbal extract, just with Rum as the alcohol. As with all traditional herbal recipes, there are endless ways to do this. Here’s what I used:

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Bay Rum:

1/2 Cup Bay leaves

2 Cinnamon Sticks

4 Cloves

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After combining these into a glass jar, I shook them up daily or at least every other day for about four weeks. Then I poured the strained liquid into a glass jar and added 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

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1/4 Cup Bay Rum

1/8 Cup Witch Hazel

1/8 Cup Distilled Water

1 teaspoon Aloe Juice (or gel)

1 teaspoon Glycerine

8 drops Bergamot essential oil

8 drops Bay essential oil

Put all ingredients together into a glass bottle with either a spray top or just a screw lid. Shake before using each time and it’s best used right after cleansing and/or shaving. Can be used on face, neck, and body for its toner actions (balancing pH) and as cologne.

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It always amazes me how easy it is to make custom, small-batch, clean and green products. Looking at the old recipes of simpler times is so inspiring because they used ingredients they were surrounded by at any given time, such as the sailors who started using versions of bay rum to smell better after months at sea. Back then everyone seemed to have at least some knowledge of how to use herbs and what to do with other natural ingredients that surrounded them, and that knowledge connected them to the natural world and fostered respect and perhaps more than a little awe. This connection still exists, but the threads are thinning, and it concerns me that one day only a select few will carry on these traditions and this connection. I’d love to see an edible garden on every schoolyard and creative crafting of food and herbs in the classrooms. In a world of advancing technology and all the emphasis on STEM, it’s important to consider the role of nature, art, and creativity in the world we want to leave our kids.

Happy Creating and please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested.

 

How to Make Your Own Toner

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Toner is one of those things that I kind of hate buying but I can’t live without. It is used between cleansing the skin and putting on a serum and/or moisturizer, and it balances the pH of the skin as well as helps the serum/moisturizer spread evenly so you get the most out of those more expensive products. Since it is the first layer on your skin after washing it, it has the potential to really help your skin be its healthiest and therefore its glow-iest, but it’s a light product so there shouldn’t be too much in it. Leave it to the serums and moisturizers to pack in the heavier oils and such, but that doesn’t mean toner can’t have some amazing ingredients too. Making your own means you can tweak it for your specific skin needs and even add in ingredients that might be missing from your other skin care products. For example, if you know your skin could benefit from more Vitamin C but you happen to love your current serum which is Vitamin A based, you can make sure your toner is strong Vitamin C by using Hibiscus tea, Vitamin C powder, and/or orange peel.

One of the easiest ways to make toner is by using Witch Hazel as the base. In fact, you can just use Witch Hazel for a toner by itself or by adding essential oils to it. Witch Hazel balances skin, soothes irritations, tightens, firms, and refreshes the skin. You can use it to cleanse your skin by pouring some onto a cotton ball and wiping your face clean. To use as a toner, it’s nice to cut it a bit with distilled water, floral water, a hydrosol, or a glycerin extract of an herb such as rose or orange peels as mentioned above. You can also just use floral waters and hydrosols alone as a toner in which case Rose water is a popular choice.

I happen to be out of toner so I am making some with what I have on hand which is: Witch Hazel, distilled water, and essential oils of Carrot Seed and Geranium. Both of those essential oils have a plethora of beneficial properties for the skin from moisture-balancing to wrinkle-fighting, and are good for dry, oily, mature, and/or combination skin. Their wide-ranging benefits for all different kinds of skin types make them similar to Rose essential oil, but a lot less expensive.

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Toner Recipe:

1/8 C Witch Hazel

1/8 C Distilled Water (a floral water or hydrosol would work beautifully too)

4 Drops Geranium Essential Oil

3 Drops Carrot Seed Essential Oil

2 oz. glass bottle with a spray top

Be sure to label your product and to shake your toner before each use.

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Speaking of different skin types, here’s an infographic from Delicious Living on best natural ingredient for different types of skin. Some of these could be added to a toner, while others work better in a mask, serum, or moisturizer. Borlind_infographic_3

Happy creating and beautifying everyone! You deserve to shine with optimal health. Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested.