You’ve slaved over your plant pots. You’ve pulled some weeds. Fussed with the perennials. And now you’re all sweaty and achy. You could make a reservation at the spa where you would be pampered and revived with an herbal mask and other goodies, or you could treat yourself to an inexpensive, but just as refreshing, spalike pick-me-up — without leaving home.
If you grow cucumbers, rosemary, lavender, borage, mint, lemon balm, roses, chamomile, clary sage, calendula, fennel, parsley, raspberries, tomatoes or lovage, you have some of the ingredients for making all-natural treatments to soothe your skin, hair and nails. You easily can whip up facial toners, moisturizers, masks, fragrant hair rinses, nail cream and other products with these plants and a few other items, such as witch hazel — sold by the bottle at drug or grocery stores — and essential oils, available at health-food and grocery stores or a pharmacy.
“There are all kinds of things you can make from the garden,” says Stephanie Tourles, author of “The Herbal Body Book” (Storey Books, 144 pages, $14.95). “Cucumbers are one of the best mild hydrating skin tonics you can use.” She peels and slices half a cucumber, adds 1/2 cup of bottled witch hazel and puts it all in the blender. The mixture gets dabbed on her face with a cotton ball. No rinsing needed. “After you’ve cut the grass and you’re all sweaty, it’s clean and refreshing.” Kept refrigerated, the toner lasts for three days.
Homemade herbal treatments are free of chemicals and preservatives that sometimes irritate the skin. “The biggest reason I make my own products is that I have red hair and very sensitive skin,” says Marcy Lautanen-Raleigh of The Backyard Patch in Elmhurst. She steeps rose petals from her garden in witch hazel, strains the concoction and it becomes a gentle rinse that softens and adds body to her hair.
Time out
“We’re so busy, we tend not to take time for ourselves,” Lautanen-Raleigh says. “If you can make a ritual out of doing something — make a blend, enjoy it and treat yourself — it has measurable benefits. She makes herbal bath oil with a bottle of almond oil to which she adds lavender stems and flowers or apple-scented geranium leaves.
“You use the geranium leaves fresh or dried, set them in the oil a week or two and strain it. It’s not used for cooking so you don’t need to refrigerate it.” A capful is all you need for a relaxing, stress-reducing bath.
Anna Pamula, owner of Renu Day Spa in Deerfield, tends gardens at her home and at the spa. They boast flowers, vegetables and fruits — tomatoes and strawberries — that are used in the spa’s moisturizers and masks.
“When we do special treatments, I’ll chop fresh violets and put them in moisturizer. They smell beautiful and are so appealing,” Pamula says. She makes a simple skin toner at home by putting fennel leaves and a little distilled water in the blender. The toner, which lasts in the refrigerator for about three days, has a fresh, spicy scent.
Grow tomatoes? Have a few bites but save the rest for a facial. “Tomatoes and garlic are excellent for calming the skin,” Pamula says. “Put a tomato in a blender and put the mixture on your face. It’s excellent for acne and for exfoliating the skin.”
Get steamed
Facial steams open the pores and soften skin. Tourles prepares a facial steam by boiling 4 cups of distilled water. After removing the pot from the heat, she adds 1 teaspoon each of calendula and chamomile flowers and 1 teaspoon each of the leaves from raspberry, peppermint and strawberry. She covers the pan and lets the flowers and leaves steep for five minutes.
With the pot moved to a safe, stable place, Tourles drapes a bath towel over her head and shoulders. Keeping her face about a foot away from the pot, she closes her eyes, breathes deep and relaxes. “An herbal face steam hydrates and softens the skin,” she says.
Pamula makes facial cleansers with dried or fresh marigolds that she adds to cocoa butter, lanolin and apricot oil (available at drug or health-food stores). She also mixes cucumber with rosewater and glycerine (also available at drug or health-food stores) to use as a moisturizer. And she whips up a skin cleanser made from an inch of cucumber, 1/3 cup of milk and 4 drops of tincture of benzoin. It’s cooling and refreshing and leaves your skin feeling very smooth, Pamula says.
If the thought of whipping up your own spa treatments sounds intriguing, think about setting aside a spot to grow your own spa plants. “All of these herbs are easy to grow. Just beware that some are very vigorous and can take over,” says Jill Yeck of Harvest Moon Herb Farm in Geneva. “Mint, lemon balm, oregano, dill and feverfew can be aggressive.” Herbs grow best in fast-draining soil and at least six hours of sun each day.
Many herbs grow well in pots on a sunny balcony, but Yeck cautions to avoid drowning them with water, which can cause roots to rot in drought-loving specimens such as lavender and rosemary. The best time to harvest herbs is early morning just after the dew has dried.
In addition to making a minty lip balm with almond oil, fresh mint leaves, beeswax, honey, calendula petals and some essential oils of mint or apple blossom, Yeck makes body scrubs from honey, oatmeal and rosemary. “It really makes the skin soft,” she says.
“You can make body butters and facial scrubs that might cost hundreds of dollars in large quantities,” Tourles says, “but you can make them for pennies at home.”
And that means more money to spend on plants.
– – –
Making your own spa potions
Our experts share their favorite at-home treatments:
Anna Pamula’s Grapefruit and Parsley Face Mask
This leaves your skin feeling new and refreshed. Parsley is particularly good for oily skin, Pamula says.
3 tablespoons fine oatmeal
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Juice of 1/2 large grapefruit
Place oatmeal and parsley in bowl. Mix in enough grapefruit juice to make paste you can spread. Let soften for 5 minutes. Spread mixture evenly over face. Lie down and relax for 15 minutes. Rinse off mixture with tepid water. Pat dry, tone and moisturize.
Jill Yeck’s Rosemary Honey Face Scrub
Yeck uses this scrub to soften, exfoliate and cleanse skin.
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon finely ground cornmeal
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
Thoroughly combine ingredients. Pat on face and leave on for 5 to 10 minutes. Lightly massage face and rinse with warm water.
Marcy Lautanen-Raleigh’s Bath Balls
Soothes dry skin and relaxes the senses.
3/4 cup Epsom salt
1 cup dried rosemary
1 cup dried lavender flowers
1 cup dried rose petals
1 cup dried comfrey leaves (optional)
1 cup dried lovage or lemon balm
Combine dried herbs in jar. Cut 4 squares of fabric. Place heaping teaspoon of herbs in center of each square and tie with ribbons. Suspend ball under tap and let water run through it or steep it in 1 cup boiling water for 15 minutes and add liquid to bath.
Stephanie Tourles’
Old-fashioned Lavender Toner
A sweet, floral toner for normal and dry skin.
Yield: about 48 treatments.
1 tablespoon fresh lavender flowers
1 cup witch hazel
6 drops essential oil of lavender
Combine ingredients in tightly lidded jar and store in dark, cool place. Allow lavender to steep for 2 weeks. Shake jar vigorously every other day, then strain and bottle. Use about 1 teaspoon; no refrigeration needed. Follow with moisturizer.
— Nina Koziol
– – –
Your skin will thank you
Anna Pamula, owner of Renu Day Spa in Deerfield, shares her favorite spa ingredients — most of which you can grow in a Chicago area garden:
For all skin types
Chamomile: Anti-inflammatory, cleansing, soothing, toning
Marigold: Astringent, cleansing, moisturizing, soothing, toning
Strawberry: Toning, moisturizing, acidic, softening
For oily skin
Mint: Astringent, soothing, toning
For normal and oily skin
Lavender: Antiseptic, invigorating, soothing, toning
Parsley: Cleansing, soothing, toning
Rosemary: Invigorating, soothing, toning
Sage: Antiseptic, astringent, soothing, toning
Thyme: Antiseptic, cleansing, invigorating, soothing, toning
Tomato: Cleansing, exfoliant, acidic, moisturizing
Yarrow: Astringent, soothing, toning
Other remedies
Here are a few more of Pamula’s favorite ingredients — though these come from your grocer rather than your garden:
Grapes: Toning, moisturizing, acidic, softening; for all skins
Horseradish: Cleansing, toning, moisturizing; for all skins
Sour cream: Moisturizing, softening; for normal and dry/mature skin
— Nina Koziol
