Margaret Roberts - Herbal Beauty for Healthy Living

Published in 2011 by Struik Nature

(an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd)

80 McKenzie Street, Cape Town, 8001 South Africa

PO Box 1144, Cape Town, 8000 South Africa

www.randomstruik.co.za

First published by Spearhead (an imprint of New Africa Books (Pty) Ltd) in 2004

Copyright in published edition, 2011: Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd)

Copyright in text, 2004, 2011: Margaret Roberts

Managing editor: Margaret Matthews

Copy-editor: Kathleen Sutton

Cover photographs: Phyllis Green

Cover design: Peter Stuckey

Illustrations: Margaret Roberts

Layout and design: Peter Stuckey

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners.

ISBN 978 0 86486 550 2 (Print)

ISBN 978 1 43170 072 1 (ePub)

ISBN 978 1 43170 073 8 (PDF)

Warning:

The content of this book is not intended as a substitute for consultation with a medical professional. Do not undertake any course of treatment without the advice of your doctor. The author and publishers take no responsibility for any illness or discomfort that may result from information contained in this book.

In 1986 I wrote my first little book in the Herb Series, published then by Lowry Publishers. The series was reprinted over and over and over again, through the years, until the next publishers, Jonathan Ball Publishers, felt it was enough!

But, as I continue to lecture to beauty schools and technikons and to aromatherapists all over the country, I have not just got older and wiser Ive got better in my experiments, my recipes and my products! So, it is for all these students as well as for everyone interested in creating simple, inexpensive, easy-to-make and effective skin and hair care and general beauty and health products, that I have put together another little beauty book, this time adding to the original by using my new recipes and ideas and incorporating all my new experiences and experiments with the herbs and fruits and flowers we grow so easily in our gardens.

It is an exciting journey, and the tried and tested recipes that I have used for all these years have stood the test of time. The recipes do not have to be complicated to be effective, and you need not be a pharmacist to put them together, nor will they break the bank!

These are the recipes our grandmothers used, and several of them are my own grandmothers recipes which I still use every day. Beauty shines from within no matter what number of expensive cosmetics we use, we wont mask a skin which is spotty from wrong eating, nor an oily skin clogged from not cleansing it properly. No amount of hair dyes and bleaches or eye drops, gels and rouges, will give us a shiny head of hair or sparkling eyes and colour in our cheeks, unless we eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and drink lots and lots of fresh pure water!

Beauty shines from within, of that there is no doubt, but if we dont have enough sleep, if we burn the proverbial candle at both ends, if we dont eat properly, if we are moody, depressed and irritable, were not going to shine in any way so its time to give ourselves some time out of our busy schedules for pampering and nurturing.

Thats what this little book is all about we can do so much to improve our mental and physical health by using pure natural ingredients and changing our negative ways into positive ones. A happy heart gives a happy, beautiful expression, and smiling a lot works facial muscles that literally give you a facelift naturally with no surgery!

Lets make a garden a health and beauty garden. Lets plant the scented flowers, the medicinal plants, even fruits and vegetables. It doesnt have to be a big garden, just enough for you to pick and enjoy, and sit in and relax and unwind, and big enough for you to dig and weed and rake, which will be better for you burning more calories off and stretching and strengthening more muscles than a work-out in the gym!

So heres to a beauty-filled future and a beautiful garden. May it change you!

Biochemic Tissue Salts are available throughout the world at most health shops and pharmacies. Inexpensive and easy to come by, these exceptional minerals that are found in the earths rocks and soil should be present in our bodies in a perfect balance, which is literally the prerequisite for perfect health.

Dr Schuessler discovered them around 1856 and there are twelve in all. They are found in mineral-rich fruits and vegetables. But stress, fast-lane living, incorrect eating and foods grown with fertilisers and hormones have all but depleted our resources, and so Tissue Salts have become great health boosters. For further information, please read my book Tissue Salts for Healthy Living, also published by Struik Nature.

My thanks go to so many who have spurred me on to write this little book. No author can do it alone. My gratitude to Annetjie van Wyk who sorts out all my writings (I write all my books in longhand for this is the way I can think!), for deciphering my enthusiastic small-hours-of-the-morning outpourings, and for always finding the time to type up my pages and pages and pages

To my youngest child, Sandra, who has grown up with these recipes and who makes and mixes and tries out and enthusiastically tests every step of the way until it is perfect, my gratitude always.

To the editing staff at Spearhead and the commissioning editors, thank you for giving me the freedom to write from my heart and not so much from my head.

To the students who, through the years, have come to my beauty classes at the Herbal Centre and who have questioned and experimented, and who have so easily embraced the natural way of making the creams, lotions, oils and fragrances, this book is specially for you.

Last, but never least, is to thank the garden staff for helping me to grow all the plants for these recipes without the garden, the very core of the Herbal Centre, nothing can exist, and the beauty sections of the gardens are proving to be the most popular with all age groups.

Few visitors to the gardens or readers of the books I write, are aware of the tremendous battle that unceasingly rages against the monkeys, the birds, the squirrels and the drought with its hot dry winds, and our bitterly small water resources, in order to grow the herbs, the flowers and the fruits that make up these recipes. Now that is where the real little miracles begin, and this book is a tribute to all our endeavours to produce, against all odds, those precious living ingredients that make the difference.

We all invite you to share and enjoy our natural beauty lifestyle.

The Herbal Centre

De Wildt

North West Province

South Africa

End of Summer, 2004.

The very first words that we need to remember and adhere to before we even think of making our own beauty recipes, is to be sure of identification of the plant when in doubt, leave out.

Do a patch test on the inside of the wrist to see if the herb or the mixture could cause an irritation or a reaction in any way. Leave it on unwashed for two hours. Many people are allergic to a wide range of ingredients, so this precaution is essential.

Should there be a reaction, wash it off with mild soap and water and then rinse with water to which a dash of apple cider vinegar has been added and consult your doctor or skin specialist immediately.