After spending this morning sorting out receipts and trying to get my tax return organised I was more than ready to pass a bit of time in the garden and then come indoors to make up some nice nurturing body care recipes.
First up was some face washing grains. Washing grains have a long history of use in various cultures and are essentially a mix of powdered clays often with ground almonds, oats or similar gently exfoliating natural substances. My first encounter with them was when I was a teenager and used The Body Shop’s Japanese Washing Grains (anyone remember them!). Rosemary Gladstar also has a lovely recipe which she calls her ‘Miracle Grains’ which this version is loosely based on.
Ingredients:
1/2 tbsp dried chamomile flowers
1/2 tbsp dried lavender
1/2 tbsp dried rose petals
1/2 tbsp dried calendula flowers
2 tbsp porridge oats
2 tbsp ground almonds
2 tbsp green clay
2 tbsp kaolin clay
Grind the herbs and oats in a blender to a fine powder then stir in the clays and ground almonds. You can substitute the herbs for anything you fancy, elderflowers and cowslips are two of my other favourite skin herbs. I made double this quantity so I could store half the powder dried to be mixed up at a later date. The other half I mixed well with the following ingredients.
10ml herbal infused almond oil
4 tbsp vegetable glycerine
2 tbsp honey
This gave me a thick paste which can be easily mixed with a bit of water and massaged onto damp skin, then washed off. Don’t mix your grains with water in the pot unless you plan to use them up within a week as it will encourage spoiling. This way they should last a couple of months as long as they are kept in a cool dry place.
I used them this evening and my skin now feels very smooth! My husband has just tried them too and his verdict was ‘amazing’, which is always good to hear.
Being a general disliker of dentists, I’ve wanted to make up a herbal mouthwash for a while and finally got round to it this evening.
I used the following tinctures and essential oils which I’ll keep undiluted in the bottle, mixing 2.5 ml with a little water just prior to use. I will then swill for as long as I can manage and spit out.
Herbal Mouthwash Ingredients:
25 ml Calendula tincture
25ml Myrrh tincture
25ml Lavender tincture
25 ml Echinacea root tincture
5 drops each lavender and peppermint or spearmint organic essential oils
This, if used regularly, should keep the gums and teeth in good nick and prevent any unnecessary trips to the evil ones in white coats with their frightening array of torture implements.
I hope you had a good Sunday too.
N.B. Mint essential oils should be avoided by anyone with epilepsy and in pregnancy or with children under 12.
So cool! I wish I had a stash of all of those different tinctures to make a bottle of the mouthwash with but, alas, I will likely have to wait until next year. Thanks for the recipes! 🙂
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Hey Ayra,
You don’t have to use all the tinctures, I should have made that point in the article, sorry! Just calendula or lavender alone would be lovely if you don’t have everything to hand.
Thanks for stopping by x
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I enjoy your blog so much. I have worked with nature and her gifts for years. No formal training, just with education from books.Your recipes a and insights are valuable to me.
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Thank you so much DeLene. I think the training that nature herself gives us is so often the best!
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Hi Lucinda…..Ha, you have me smiling from ear to ear :0)
I am glad my grand-children do not read your blog, they would be running away from the dentists door.
Your face grains and mouth wash sound amazing.
Perks of the job, having everything to hand to make your own wonderful potions…….
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Hi Cheryl,
Yes we all have our silly phobias don’t we! I can cope with dentists mostly, I’d just rather avoid them if possible. 🙂
It is true that once you have built up a stash it makes it so much easier to make up recipes but most things can be done much more simply. For example you could do the washing grains with just kaolin, ground almonds and powdered chamomile for example. they don’t have to be so complicated, I just get carried away!
xx
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Ugh, tax returns! I think you did need a little herbal pampering after that!! Lovely recipes, I’m a big fan of miracle grains – indeed I think they changed my life back in my early twenties when I discovered them 🙂 I’m impressed that you got Mark to try them too – beauty care is one area Mike has yet to let me experiment on him 🙂 He doesn’t know what he’s missing!
I’ll have to try out the mouth wash too! Once I made one for someone with goldenseal, forgetting about the fact that it dyes everything it touches yellow. Whoops!
Glad you had such a lovely Sunday 🙂
D
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Hey you,
Yes you have to get Mike onto the face grains. Mark didn’t used to use anything but I have got him using exactly the same home made face wash and moisturisers that I do now! Once you get them open to the idea, there’s no going back. 🙂
Ah yes the yellow goldenseal… I bet it did the job though!
Lots of love xxx
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Great recipes! I think the face wash grains just might end up under the Christmas trees of friends and family this year. 🙂
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Hi Amber,
Yes they make the perfect gift. My colleague and I were talking about herbal bath salt recipes for Christmas presents today, it’s the first time I’ve mentioned the C word but I know it will be sneaking up quick! xx
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The Body Shop’s Japanese Washing Grains – I remember those well!
Your grains sound fantastic. Where do you get the clays from?
Dan
-x-
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Hi Dan,
I think I just got these ones off the shelf at Neal’s Yard but I’d probably get them from Aromantic if I was being organised as it’s a bit cheaper. They have everything under the sun including a lovely gentle pink clay though the quality of some of their oils isn’t that great in my experience. Here’s the link:
http://www.aromantic.co.uk/
xx
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Yay I remember the Japanese washing grains I loved them!
Thank you I’ll try these 2 especially as putting off dentist visit for sensitive tooth! x
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They were great weren’t they! Good luck with your tooth. x
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Pops by waves and looks sheepish! Missed you flower!!! The face grains sound super and I’ll be giving them a go when I’ve picked up some rose petals, have run out! Lots of blogging to catch up with and I will from next month, my business is finally closing down this month so I’ll have more time and I now have more inclination hope to catch up with everyone soon xxx
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Hi Debs,
How are you? Lovely to see you back in blog-land, I hope al is well with you. That is great that your business is stopping, will you be picking up the Herb Society stuff again?
Take very good care xx
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Hi flower 🙂
I’m ‘getting there’, not quite my old self but I’m getting back to me daily, I’m drawing a line under 2011 and making plans for 2012, lots of promise on the horizon. Herb Society stuff yes but not until the new year and even then there will be changes. My ‘time off’ has given me cause to reflect on life and what I want to do herbally. Will email you properly soon, my main PC is ‘dead’ at the moment so I haven’t got access to everyone’s email addresses. However I’ve set up a ‘forwarder so if you email debs@herbal- you know the one… I can pick up the mail and email you back so to speak.
Hoping main PC will be fixed by the end of next week, the PCB on my hard drive fried, my techy chap reckons if we get a new PCB the data on the drive will remain intact! I do hope so!
Just ordered some rose petals and some other herbs to play with and also some tinctures and base oils. Come next week I’ll be playing a lot more and hopefully blogging about what I learn!
Much love and herbal hugs – Debs xxx
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What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon! Sounds fab. Have been so busy with the collecting and drying and infusing this summer/autumn that I haven’t really got round to making anything with my herbs yet, and that’s the fun bit.
Definitely time to start thinking about making for Christmas presents – I usually try to in October halfterm so that I can then forget about it again in November and completely ignore that horrible tinselly adverty shopping hell in December, lol!
Lovely post, thanks for generously sharing your recipes.
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Hi Hedgewitch,
It’s nice that you have lots of the fun bits to look forward to still. I hope you’ll blog about some of your creations, I am feeling a little uninspired for Christmas this year!
You are very wise to get everything organised so early. When the shops get too hellish I usually resort to Amazon – you can’t have too many books after all. 🙂
x
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Thank you for sharing Lucinda:) Very nice recipes indeed! Simply lovely you turned to making these lovelies after dealing with tax things:) Have a wonderful weekend xxxxx
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Yes it did lighten the mood a bit… but I still haven’t finished the dreaded tax return. 🙂 Hey ho, every year I say I’ll get it done early and every year I leave it till the last moment! Hope you have a lovely weekend too xxxx
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Oh my goodness I’d forgotten all about the Japenese wash grains, they were a staple of my teenage years! And Rosemary Gladstars miracle grains, I haven’t made them in years either, thanks for the reminder.
Love your blog, came across it a few weeks ago….
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Oh thank you so much! The Japanese washing grains were a classic weren’t they, I still remember their little container! x
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