Guide to Herbal-Crafted Products
By Marie-Emma Graves
Supportive Skin Care Practitioner Resource
There is a trade-off if you want to use products that have no artificial ingredients such as emulsifiers and preservatives.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
For best results you must be willing to take the time and make the effort to use them properly.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
When using our "Functional Skin Care Line" be sure to learn the best way to mix the products and when you are supposed to use them.⠀
Guide to Herbal-crafted Products
Truly Herbal-crafted products are thoughtful, intelligent skin care products that use natural ingredients for both hygienic purposes as well as to support and offer relief to the skin.
While you can certainly use herbs medicinally, the entire point of Supportive Skin Care (and Brooklyn Herborium/Between You and the Moon) is that the products don’t really “do” anything. They are the opposite of “drugs” in that we don’t want them to affect the natural functioning of the skin as much as possible!
What herbal-crafted products are not:
Taking a raw ingredient and applying it to your skin as if it were a fully-formulated product.
Examples of this would include:
Typical uses of products may look like this:
Herbal-crafted Products + Supportive Regimen = BEST
The best option is to use well-made herbal-crafted products at the right times (in a supportive cycle), following the appropriate preparation and application usage directions.
Conventional Products + Supportive Regimen = GOOD
Second best would be to use conventional products (the simple, non-controlling kind if possible) in a Supportive Skin Care Regimen (Moisture in the AM only, Cleanse with no moisture at night) and save the special occasion products for special occasions. We make our “Advanced” Skin Care line for this purpose.
Conventional Products + Conventional Regimen = ACCEPTABLE
Next would be to use conventional products in a conventional way. Because they were made to work in this way. Use them deliberately to keep the skin “under control” while you work on the self-care principles and let go of control when (if ever) you are feeling ready for it.
Herbal-crafted (or similar) + Conventional Regimen = DANGER WILL ROBINSON!
But, the worst thing I have seen people do to their skin is to use herbal-crafted products (or those that are mimicking an herbal-style product) in a control cycle. Ironic, I know.
Gently Nudging A Regimen
When you love a product line, it may sound like a great idea to just convince your client to replace the products that they are currently using with the herbal-crafted goods that we offer so that they will just see how superior these products are and never want to look back. This, however, is not really the best approach as it will only encourage them to go so far and never really see how dramatically their skin can improve by giving it what it needs, when it needs it, removing the obstacles, and allowing it to thrive.
Regimen First, Then Product
If they have not yet caused stagnation in the oil glands by using “natural products” in a conventional regimen, then the important first step to take is to move them from where they are to a supportive regimen.
Moving someone to a supportive regimen while still using conventional products is similar.
When they are on a Supportive Regimen and they want to take it one step further by using our products
By Marie-Emma Graves
Supportive Skin Care Practitioner Resource
There is a trade-off if you want to use products that have no artificial ingredients such as emulsifiers and preservatives.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
For best results you must be willing to take the time and make the effort to use them properly.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
When using our "Functional Skin Care Line" be sure to learn the best way to mix the products and when you are supposed to use them.⠀
Guide to Herbal-crafted Products
Truly Herbal-crafted products are thoughtful, intelligent skin care products that use natural ingredients for both hygienic purposes as well as to support and offer relief to the skin.
While you can certainly use herbs medicinally, the entire point of Supportive Skin Care (and Brooklyn Herborium/Between You and the Moon) is that the products don’t really “do” anything. They are the opposite of “drugs” in that we don’t want them to affect the natural functioning of the skin as much as possible!
- Because we are intentionally avoiding the need for emulsifiers and preservatives, the users of these products need to be well informed about the proper use. Each one needs to be mixed either with another product or with hot water and at the proper ratios before they are applied. Temperature of the water for mixing masks as well as for removing oil cleansers can make the difference between gorgeous, glowing skin and just slightly better (or maybe even worse!) than what it was before.
- We use traditional methods of extraction and infusion that have to be done in small batches and do not require industrial machines. (But, of course, due to our high volume of production, we do get many of our raw ingredients from the farmers who are processing the plant material into forms that make it useful to us on the farms where they are grown.)
- Due to the high “activity” of essential oils, only 2 of our Functional Skin Care Products contain them and that is in less than 1/100th of a percentage. Not quite micro-dosing…but pretty close! We always want to use the lowest effective dose and resist the urge to use the essential oils (or any ingredient) in a controlling relationship!
- We are NEVER just taking an ingredient and applying it to the skin as though it is a drugstore product! Even in the one case where we use a single-ingredient as a product (oil cleansing with NO EVIL) the oil has already been prepared (olive-oil into squalene) and the process of massage and then removing it with a steamy hot washcloth makes it a cleanser. Not having the process part of the equation correct has been known to leave little whiteheads around the nose or cause irritation—even with the most perfectly made herbal-crafted products!
What herbal-crafted products are not:
Taking a raw ingredient and applying it to your skin as if it were a fully-formulated product.
Examples of this would include:
- Argon, coconut, or squalene oils applied directly to the skin (morning and night!) as if it was a moisturizer
- Rose hip seed applied under or a moisturizer or to a moisturizer as if it were a serum
- Straight-up hydrosols (or witch hazel) as if they were a toner
- Strong seed oils (& those with essential oils added) as a cleanser and used at the wrong times (such at the morning) and not properly removed.
Typical uses of products may look like this:
Herbal-crafted Products + Supportive Regimen = BEST
The best option is to use well-made herbal-crafted products at the right times (in a supportive cycle), following the appropriate preparation and application usage directions.
Conventional Products + Supportive Regimen = GOOD
Second best would be to use conventional products (the simple, non-controlling kind if possible) in a Supportive Skin Care Regimen (Moisture in the AM only, Cleanse with no moisture at night) and save the special occasion products for special occasions. We make our “Advanced” Skin Care line for this purpose.
Conventional Products + Conventional Regimen = ACCEPTABLE
Next would be to use conventional products in a conventional way. Because they were made to work in this way. Use them deliberately to keep the skin “under control” while you work on the self-care principles and let go of control when (if ever) you are feeling ready for it.
Herbal-crafted (or similar) + Conventional Regimen = DANGER WILL ROBINSON!
But, the worst thing I have seen people do to their skin is to use herbal-crafted products (or those that are mimicking an herbal-style product) in a control cycle. Ironic, I know.
- While I wish it weren’t the case, I have seen so many people over the years create barrier problems on their skin by using DIY “natural products” in a control cycle for anywhere from a couple weeks (if you are already in a rough spot) to 4 months (I see this often—especially with rose hip seed oil) to a few years (when someone is coming from completely the opposite direction) because it is more likely that you will do this with imbalanced DIY products than with fully-formulated (yes-simple drugstore stuff!!!) products.
- A Control Cycle (Conventional) Skin Care Regimen usually looks a little like this: Cleanse, Tone, Moisture, Morning & Night. If your cleanser is an oil, your toner a Hydrosol, and your moisturizer another oil or even a balm you are on your way to creating stagnation within the oil glands, barrier damage, and a feeling of addiction with your oil/balm and you skin feels drier and drier.
Gently Nudging A Regimen
When you love a product line, it may sound like a great idea to just convince your client to replace the products that they are currently using with the herbal-crafted goods that we offer so that they will just see how superior these products are and never want to look back. This, however, is not really the best approach as it will only encourage them to go so far and never really see how dramatically their skin can improve by giving it what it needs, when it needs it, removing the obstacles, and allowing it to thrive.
Regimen First, Then Product
If they have not yet caused stagnation in the oil glands by using “natural products” in a conventional regimen, then the important first step to take is to move them from where they are to a supportive regimen.
- Teach them why we don’t oil cleanse in the AM and why we avoid moisturizing at night. (re-read "The Control Cycle" if you have to)
- Help them understand why using an oil neat on the skin “as if” it were a moisturizer is what is making their skin feel drier and drier as they continue to put on more and more. Tell them about the Moisture Duo, even if the herbal-based products they are using don’t encourage it.
- Teach them why serums are for special occasion use only and Vitamin C is best used in short bursts of high doses–not a little everyday!
- If they have caused stagnation, simply switching to the supportive regimen may not be enough for them to see vast improvements immediately. In this case, you must use Vita-C Dry Serum (also known as “Clearing Serum”) at least once at the beginning of the process. Send them home with the worksheet "Integrative Therapy for Barrier Repair Aftercare"
Moving someone to a supportive regimen while still using conventional products is similar.
- Have them stop using cleanser in the morning and rotate cleansers (taking it off with a steamy cloth) at night.
- Have them use a Mineral Mist (or nothing at all!) instead of Moisturizing at night
- Have them use their serums as a special occasion boost
- Tell them why using Vitamin C on a daily basis is not doing them any good and explain how the best use of vitamin C is in short bursts of high-dosages that are few and far between.
- “My preferred use of Vitamin C is in intermittent higher doses as compared to smaller, daily doses. Just like when you use it internally to “turn around” a cold, the heavy topical hit triggers the immune system to “get back to work” in a way that doesn’t happen if the Vitamin C is used on a day to day basis. This occasional usage also prevents the body from getting too reliant on the easy Vitamin C from the product—leading you to discover that what what once your favorite booster no longer “does it” for you. It also prevents irritation from “too strong, too long” usage of any one ingredient! Taking time off between use just makes good sense.” -Emma Graves, Holistic Facialist and Herbalist at Brooklyn Herborium.
When they are on a Supportive Regimen and they want to take it one step further by using our products
- Introduce them to Mineral Mists. Explain why the minerals really make a difference in how the skin reacts to the formula. (Hydrosols without minerals tend to be irritating because there are “too many messages and not enough translators”) those minerals help with the translation transdermally!
- Have them Oil Cleanse (properly!) once a week with NO EVIL at night. Double-check that they are using a steamy hot washcloth.
- Explain how the “Moisture Duo” works by keeping the oil and water portion separate until you mix them into a moisturizer “on the spot!” in your hands, therefore no longer needing emulsifiers or preservatives.
- Then you can switch over to other products as it makes sense: Sow Your WIld Oats, Clay Masks, etc….