Botanical extracts are a multi-billion dollar industry and growing all the time. In fact, there is a whole range of beauty products referred to as cosmeceuticals, as they combine cosmetic enhancements with natural chemicals from plants that benefit your skin and health.
It’s no surprise that people want more and more of this, and the beauty industry is responding with new products all the time. That said, just because a cosmetic has some natural ingredients doesn’t automatically make it the best thing for your skin type.
So, what exactly are botanical extracts? What mother nature has to offer is almost endless, and for this reason, it can get very confusing and overwhelming. In this article, we’re going to talk you through some of the main botanical extracts and how they affect your skin and health.
Soy You Want to Try
Soy is very popular as a non-meat protein and is widely incorporated into drinks and food. However, soy also has some awesome properties that will benefit your skin. Soy is associated with anti-aging benefits, improving the elasticity of the skin, helping to regulate oil levels, as well as slowing down hair re-growth.
If the above list is not enough, when soy is applied to the skin it can protect from the harmful effects of the sun, moisturize the skin, and even help to prevent skin cancer. You’ll see that soy is being widely used in many skincare products for all of these reasons.
Go the Extra Chamomile
We tend to think of chamomile as a relaxing tea before bed. It is well known for its herbal benefits for mild ailments, such as soothing a cold or easing stomach symptoms. However, as an extract applied to the skin it has anti-microbial properties and can serve as an anti-inflammatory.
Chamomile can help to ease redness, puffiness, and soreness in your skin leaving it to feel rejuvenated and refreshed. It is also used as an analgesic for skin irritations and even burns. As wonderful as chamomile is, you need to be careful if you’re taking any anticoagulants like warfarin as interactions between them have been reported that can put the consumer at risk of bleeding.
Get Minted
This has got nothing to do with getting rich but it’s got a lot to do with having beautiful fresh-looking skin. Mint smells wonderful and makes a refreshing drink, but when you apply it to the skin it helps cleanse the pores and prevent spots and even treat acne.
The key to this herb is that it contains salicylic acid. This has the effect of breaking down dead skin cells so that they don’t end up blocking the skin’s pores and then getting infected. Mint is another good example of how the benefits of botanical extracts can help cleanse and protect your skin.
Aloe Vera Goodbye Sunburn
Aloe Vera is already well known by many people as an amazing botanical extract. Its soothing and restorative properties are a great aid to sunburn or just anyone after sun exposure. It’s great for moisturizing the skin and it’s not oily.
However, one of the lesser-known benefits of Aloe Vera is that it’s packed with beta-carotene. We normally associate this with carrots. This natural chemical is a super antioxidant which means that it protects the cells from breaking down and producing harmful by-products that can cause cancer or other serious health issues.
Tea or Coffee?
Common to both tea and coffee is of course caffeine and that’s one of the reasons why we drink it in the morning for that extra mental boost. Caffeine consumed orally is already associated with anti-carcinogenic benefits. Yet, it seems there is great potential for caffeine helping to protect the skin from developing cancer.
Green, black and white tea when applied to the skin are all associated with anti-inflammatory properties and cancer-reducing agents. They are high in anti-oxidants and again these are associated with slowing down the aging process.
Talking of anti-oxidants, one of the highest sources is the coffeeberry. This extract offers similar benefits to tea but also is associated with a high production of collagen and reducing wrinkles and lines in the skin. Like all of these natural agents, there is ongoing research to specifically identify the chemical interactions involved.
Botanical CBD — What’s That?
There seems to be a lot of confusion about this particular type of extract and it can be mixed up with cannabis or other plant-related drugs that cause a mental high.
Bottom line is that this is derived from the cannabis plant but it is not the same chemical used to stimulate a mental high. That said it has a lot of health benefits such as reducing stress, relieving inflammations, and helping improve mood.
Benefit From Botanical Extracts
In this article, you have learned that botanical extracts are the derivatives of many different plants and herbs, including many that we like to use in our drinks. When these natural chemicals are put to work on your skin or even on your hair they can strengthen, restore and protect.
Your skin is your largest organism and often exposed to harmful sunlight. As you’ve read, many of these extracts can help protect the skin from the sun and cancer-causing agents; this also has the effect of helping to slow down the aging process in the skin.
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