Thursday, October 30, 2008

A Look at Herbal Skin Care Products

By Lindelwa Maseko

There is nothing new about skin care, it is just in ancient times, herbal products were the only ones available. However, it was the advent of mass production techniques and chemistry that changed the skin care market and lessened the use of natural skin care 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. Still it will never be a huge market an as no-one really wants to make them in their own home, commercial products are likely to continue; below are a few that you may or may not know of.

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.

Many herbal products contain oils taken from the plants themselves in diluted and undiluted for like tea tree, primrose and lavender oils. Certain skin conditions can also be helped with oils extracted from plants in herbal skin care preparations.

Although it is not something that is mentioned very often but herbal skin care products rarely have any adverse effects on the user and as you can produce them at home, they are very attractive to people trying to avoid anything synthetic. 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. - 15275

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