Thursday, October 30, 2008

A Look at Herbal Skin Care Products

By Lindelwa Maseko

Herbal skin care has been practiced for thousands of years when only natural products were available. Unfortunately, the advent of the synthetic skin care preparations all but killed the herbal based products. Unfortunately many of these natural formulas where never written down as they were handed down by word of mouth so only a small number remain, there are even people that have never use a herbal product.

There are a number of reasons why we have gradually turned our backs on natural skin care products but probably the biggest is the huge commercial market which herbal preparations could never keep up with. Even herbal skin care products have been commercialized and many commercial herbal skin care products have to be mixed with preservatives in order to increase their shelf-life, hence making them less effective than the fresh ones made at home.

It seems that increasing numbers of people are becoming more discerning and using herbal skin care products again from companies that are specializing in making small batches of these products. While commercial manufacturers can produce them cheaper then that is how the majority of us will buy them but do you know what they actually are?

Almost everyone has heard of aloe vera but did you know is an excellent skin moisturizer and can treat sunburn, cuts and other skin problems? If you have ever wondered why tea has other herbal additives like dandelion, chamomile, lime flowers and rosemary then it is because they are cleansers and often work better when they are combined with other herbs.

You may not know about the herbal antiseptic qualities of other herbs like lavender, marigold, thyme and fennel and the use of lavender water and rose water have been known to have skin toning properties for a very long time. Products containing extracts of tea have also been found to be very effective treating people that have received too much UV radiation from the sun.

You may also be familiar with herbal oil extracts like tea tree, primrose and lavender which are the most popular and used for a variety of reasons. Certain skin conditions can also be helped with oils extracted from plants in herbal skin care preparations.

Obviously the greatest benefit of using natural products is there is hardly ever any reaction to their use, something that the synthetic products cannot claim. While herbal products will probably remain popular as there are so few reactions to them that there will be times when synthetic products will be necessary for certain skin disorders.

We all need to look after our skin by whatever means we can as it is the main barrier against disease and takes a great deal of punishment in the modern climate we all live in. - 15252

About the Author: