5 Herbs to Grow for Homemade Beauty Products

Growing your own herbs to use in homemade beauty products is fun, easy and very cost effective. Plus, when you grow your own ingredients you know exactly what is in your balms, scrubs, soaks, and hair products.

Herbs have been used to make cosmetics for centuries, and growing those herb plants is an important part of the process. If you are interested in starting your own beauty garden, the following 5 herbs are easy to grow and maintain, and can be used in to make a wide variety of beneficial homemade beauty products.

Lavender
Lavender might be the most widely used herb for beauty and well being products, and it is an easy herb to grow, harvest and add to hundreds of beauty recipes. Lavender can be grown to be used in beauty products for several different reasons and in many different ways. The flowers of this herb are very fragrant and in addition to giving your products a great scent, it also serves to promote calm and relaxation. Flowers leaves and stems can be used in hand and body lotion, facial toners and cleansers, salves and foot soaks.

Chamomile
Chamomile is easily grown from seed and then transplanted into your garden once the weather has warmed up. Because of the size of the flowers, it is a smart idea to grow several chamomile plants at the same time so that you will be able to gather enough flowers to use in as many homemade beauty products as you need. Best grown in a well drained garden bed, chamomile can also flourish in a container if you only have a porch to grow your plants on. The flowers of the plant are great for applying to your skin and hair in lotions or shampoos, with the leaves and flowers being gathered for their scent. A chamomile soak is a pain-free remedy for sunburn and wind chapped skin.

Parsley
This popular cooking herb has a special place in every cook garden, but it is a great addition to a beauty garden. Its popularity makes it easy for you to find both seeds and plants in garden centers, but it does require some patience to grow parsley from seed with a long germination time passing before you will spot any seedlings. The Greeks and Romans used to use parsley to cover up odor, but now the leaves are mainly used in beauty products meant to help with acne and in hair shampoo and condition to strengthen and enrich your locks.

Lemon Balm
Easily grown on a windowsill, lemon balm is an herb that when added to the garden can quickly take over every bed, so try and confine it to one bordered bed or pot. Because it is a perennial, you only need to buy one plant and keep it healthy, but remember to bring it back indoors when fall comes around. Gather the bright green leaves for their crisp citrus scent that can be added to just about any homemade beauty product recipe. It is most often used as a hair rinse to remove other hair products,in face washes to relieve acne with its antiviral properties and in salves and lotion for dry skin.

Aloe Vera
You cannot grow a beauty garden without adding an aloe vera plant. Purchase one plant and collect the offshoots to transfer to pots and share with friends and family. Even if you have never made any beauty products of your own, you will no doubt be familiar with this herb because of its strong skin healing properties. Aloe vera can be grown to use in lip balms, balms and lotion for dry, chapped or burnt skin and to apply to dry summer hair. Most surprisingly, the healing gel from aloe vera is now being grown to treat radiation burns. It is a great idea to always have some on hand because using it is as easy as plucking a leaf and applying the gel that's inside.