HERB - RECIPE: Munenori's Astringent

[Gaylin Walli]

My husband saw me one evening with all the herbs piled
around me fresh out of a shipping box (it was a GLORIOUS
day, much like a holiday). This was not long after the
thievery of the sniffy bags, so I was still a little
wary of my treasure and looked at him skeptically as
he stood about 5 feet from me lounging amid the bags
of herbs.

He got this cute little pouty face and finally said
"Honey, is there a way to make an astringent better than
that evil blue stuff? One that doesn't make me want to
hold my breath every time I have to use it?" He has
really oily skin. If he even *stands* too close to
french fries, his pores start leaking. So I came up
with a mix of herbs that smelled good to me, that
had some decent astringent properties, or that were
known for working well with skin problems.

Don't tell him I used the leftover herbs, okay? -- Jasmine


Munenori's Astringent

Equipment:

   a small jar with a sealable top (I used a pint-sized
     canning jar) to hold all the ingredients
   a wire mesh filter
   one or two coffee filters
   a container with a pour spout
   a dark glass bottle in which to store the astringent

Ingredients:

   1 cup distilled or filtered water
   1/2 cup vodka or grain alcohol, pure alcohol only
       (DO NOT USE THESE: rubbing or isopropyl alcohol)
   1/8 cup witch hazel (try to find the unscented, undyed,
       kind; I sometimes use the variety with aloe in it)
   8 teaspoons of any combination of chamomile, lavender, lemon balm,
       peppermint, rosemary, sage, spearmint, strawberry leaves,
       and yarrow

The herb combination I used for my husband:

   1 teaspoon dried chamomile (omit this is you have a
       history of ragweed allergies)
   1 teaspoon dried lemon balm
   1 teaspoon dried peppermint
   1 teaspoon dried rosemary
   1 teaspoon dried sage
   1 teaspoon dried spearmint
   1 teaspoon dried strawberry leaves
   1 teaspoon dried yarrow

Instructions:

Place all the ingredients in the small jar and store in a cool,
dark place for at least four weeks. After four weeks, use the
wire mesh filter to strain out the bulk of the plant material
(coffee filters clog quickly at this point) into the container
with the pour spout. Rinse out your original store jar. Pour
the once-filtered mix back into the jar.

Once the major particulate matter is filtered, strain the astringent
one or two times through coffee filters back into the container with
the pour spout to remove the smallest of the leftover plant material.

Pour into your dark bottle, seal well, and store away from sunlight.

Notes:

I've had one batch of this astringent go bad on me. No bad as
in moldy or slimy, but bad as in a complete change of scent.
I firmly believe this was due to an improperly sealed storage
container. The cork I used to close the bottle was old and dry
and let in a considerable amount of oxygen, thus changing the
chemical composition of the mix and altering the scent considerably.

Don't use isopropyl or rubbing alcohol. Although these are excellent
disinfectants and would cleaners, they should not be use in
quantity and on a daily basis on the skin because they absorb to
readily and can poison you.

If you can find witch hazel leaves, you may try substituting them
for the liquid witch hazel. I've not done this myself, but I'm
told the results are quite pleasant. My favorite witch hazel in
liquid form is the kind that doesn't smell like witch hazel, is
not dyed yellow or green, and contains a small amount of aloe
vera.

Of the various batches of this that I have made, I've been most
pleased with the one that I made for my sainted mother-in-law,
which used lavender in place of the chamomile (this was right
around the time I discovered my developing allergy to raw, dried
chamomile).
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