Witch's Night In

I've decided to begin trying new recipes for when I eventually create my herbal store. I've had an Etsy store for it for a really (almost preposterously) long time. Now that my herbal studio dream will be realised, I'm motivating myself to hammer down the details and just have fun with herbs and herb crafting. Last night I thought I'd give a go a couple of recipes that had been on my mind. The madness had begun.

Whipped Body Butter

It smells delicious as it sounds! And surprisingly easy to make. The recipe I used was from one of my favourite herby sites Wellness Mama. I halved the recipe and still ended up with a rather sizeable batch of body butter. Because the coconut is cold pressed and not refined, the butter has a wonderful coconut scent. 

The ingredients

Getting it all together

It's all melted together

The finished product.

The finished product is fantastic, I love it. It's a little hard to beat because it goes hard, so you may have to hold the bowl (carefully - this idiot managed to whack her fingers with the beaters) so it doesn't spin while you loosen it up. Or alternatively, as I am considering given I am the world's greatest klutz, you could use a bowl mixer instead.

Activated Charcoal & Clay Face Mask

I read about the benefits of activated charcoal and after perusing several different recipes, decided to massively simplify and use charcoal and clay with water in a face mask. I just did a couple of capsules with just under a teaspoon of clay, added a teaspoon of water and mixed it together. My skin felt fab when I washed it off but be warned, it does take a bit to clear the face of it. I used charcoal capsules from the chemist (and yes, I just realised that 'flatulence' is blazoned across the front of the bottle - photo fail Stacey), they're not exactly super cheap but it was convenient.

Test Tinctures

I've been trying out some new test tinctures to get a feel for different herbs, my newest victims were Chamomile Flower, Liquorice Root and Whole Echinacea plant. I've been doing a bit of research and came across an interesting idea on Wellness Mama of adding a bit of hot water to the herbs to loosen them up (dry herbs) before putting the alcohol on them. I thought I'd give it a try this time and see how it went, I figure it'll either work or it won't.

So there you have it, my Saturday night herbal adventures. This is just the tip of the madness iceberg. I have so many different recipes I want to try out - lip balms, herbal smokes, soaps (I'm going to do using a crockpot - should be interesting). I'm also going to be doing a Holistic Skincare Products course in order to broaden my knowledge base. I'm looking forward to it, the next few months should be a definite learning and experimenting time for me.