Homemade herbal extracts

It is worth using homemade herbal extracts when creating natural cosmetics. You don’t know what that is? Let’s clarify it together.

Homemade herbal extracts are one of the options for enriching cosmetics with active substances found precisely in these plants. Extracts based on glycerin or ethanol (alcohol) are commonly used, and each of these types of extracts has its pros and cons. Below we will introduce methods of producing homemade herbal extracts, their dosage and use.

Glass bottles with homemade herbal extracts and herbs placed on a table.

HOMEMADE HERBAL EXTRACTS – WHAT ARE THEY?

Homemade herbal extracts are concentrated plant extracts. As the name implies, they are obtained by extracting dried or fresh herbs using various extraction agents. These are often ethanol or glycerin, which have the ability to extract certain active substances from plants.

Preparing homemade herbal extracts is not very complicated and can also be done at home. On the other hand, homemade herbal extracts differ from store‑bought ones from batch to batch, and you do not have information available on dosage, stability, pH or optimal dosing temperature and similar parameters, which under normal circumstances are provided by the manufacturer.

For this reason it is necessary to use homemade herbal extracts in smaller doses, or to prepare several samples of a product with different concentrations of homemade herbal extracts and monitor the stability of the final product and its tolerance by the skin. Since homemade herbal extracts contain plant extracts, they have an allergenic potential in sensitive people, so it is always good to carry out a patch test to detect a potential allergy to the given plant.

HOMEMADE HERBAL EXTRACTS BASED ON GLYCERIN

Homemade herbal extracts based on glycerin are gaining in popularity mainly because they do not contain ethanol, which can be irritating to the skin.
On the other hand, glycerin is a slightly weaker extraction agent than ethanol, which is why, when using glycerin, a hot extraction process is also chosen, which increases the proportion of extracted substances. On the other hand, some heat‑sensitive substances in herbs can be damaged or destroyed by heat.

HOMEMADE HERBAL EXTRACTS BASED ON GLYCERIN – HOT PROCESS

1.	Disinfect all containers and tools that will come into contact with the extract and raw materials.
2.	Prepare a mixture of distilled water and dried herbs in a ratio of 2:1 (water:herbs). For homemade herbal extracts, chop or finely blend the dried plants before extraction to speed up the extraction process.
3.	In a covered container, keep at a gentle boil for 30 minutes, but for no longer than 2 hours if it seems to you that the given plant requires a longer extraction time. You can top up water as it evaporates so that the mixture does not boil dry.
4.	Strain the mixture through a sieve or gauze and record the weight of the resulting concentrated extract.
5.	In a separate container, prepare a mixture of distilled water and glycerin 1:4. Use this mixture to thin the concentrated herbal extract in a ratio of 1:10 (extract:glycerin solution).

Finished homemade herbal extracts should, thanks to their high glycerin content, keep even without the use of a preservative. However, if microbial contamination occurs, also use a preservative.

HOMEMADE HERBAL EXTRACTS BASED ON GLYCERIN – COLD PROCESS

The second option for extracting with glycerin is to use a cold process. In this case there is no thermal damage to certain sensitive substances in the herbs. Homemade herbal extracts based on glycerin produced by a cold process, on the other hand, have a slightly lower content of extracted substances, because, as mentioned, glycerin is a weaker extraction agent at room temperature than alcohol.

1.	Disinfect all containers and tools that will come into contact with the extract and raw materials.
2	Put into a canning jar 2/3 fresh herbs or ½ of the volume of dried herbs finely chopped.
3.	Pour pure glycerin over the herbs so that they are completely submerged and there are no bubbles in the mixture. Close the container.
4.	Let the herbs extract for 4–6 weeks, shaking occasionally. Then strain the mixture and you will obtain homemade herbal extracts based on glycerin.

In cold extraction with glycerin, the resulting extract is usually not diluted, precisely because boiling – which would otherwise concentrate the extract – has been omitted.

Glass bottle with homemade rosemary herbal extract. Pieces of rosemary are lying together with the bottle on a brown‑grey wooden table.

HOMEMADE HERBAL EXTRACTS BASED ON ETHANOL (ALCOHOL)

Homemade herbal extracts based on alcohol have the advantage that you can prepare them easily by a cold process, and thanks to the good extraction performance of ethanol they will be rich in active substances. On the other hand, for extraction always use pure ethanol of at least 95 %, which is also undenatured. Undenatured ethanol is more difficult to obtain, but some denaturing agents can be toxic and unsuitable for application to the skin, so it is good to avoid them.

HOMEMADE HERBAL EXTRACTS BASED ON ETHANOL – COLD PROCESS

1.	Disinfect all containers and tools that will come into contact with the extract and raw materials.
2.	In a container, mix ethanol and dried herbs finely chopped in a ratio of 2:1. Seal the container airtight, for example with cellophane secured with adhesive tape (if the container has no lid), and let it extract for 1 week.
3.	After a week, strain the mixture through a sieve or gauze to obtain a concentrated extract. Weigh the extract.
4.	In another container, prepare a mixture of distilled water and ethanol 2:3. Pour the prepared ethanol solution over the concentrated extract in a ratio of 1:10 (extract:ethanol solution). In this way you will obtain homemade herbal extracts based on alcohol.

HOMEMADE HERBAL EXTRACTS BASED ON GLYCERIN – USE IN COSMETICS

Once you have prepared homemade herbal extracts, it is time to use them in cosmetics. The use of individual extracts in specific products depends on several factors. It is primarily about the compatibility with other raw materials, optimal pH and temperature, and maximum concentration.

Since you prepare herbal extracts at home, you do not have information from the manufacturer on the mentioned parameters and properties of the extract. In general, therefore, homemade herbal glycerin extracts are added at temperatures below 40 °C, so that valuable plant substances are not damaged.

Since glycerin is a substance that is well soluble in water, homemade herbal extracts based on glycerin belong in water‑based products or products containing a water phase. It is most suitable to add them to products that do not have extreme pH values; most extracts tolerate well a pH range of 4–7.

The concentration used of a given extract depends not only on how much your skin is able to tolerate, but the concentration also affects the stability of the product, especially of emulsions and gels. It is recommended not to exceed an extract concentration of 5 %; it is best to start with 1 % extract and, if the product is stable, prepare the next batch with a higher proportion of extract.

HOMEMADE HERBAL EXTRACTS BASED ON ALCOHOL – USE IN COSMETICS

Homemade herbal extracts based on alcohol can also be used in cosmetics. However, compared to glycerin, ethanol is a more irritating raw material for the skin, which is why the current trend is to minimise the proportion of ethanol‑based extracts in cosmetics.

At the same time, working with ethanol extracts is more demanding because other raw materials in the product, e.g. active substances, surfactants, thickeners, etc., may not tolerate the presence of ethanol well, and precipitation of substances or breakdown of the emulsion and similar issues can occur. Therefore always check whether the other raw materials in the product can be combined with ethanol. Alcohol dissolves well in water, so add the extracts to the water phase or to water‑based products.

Again, it is advisable to add homemade herbal extracts at a temperature below 40 °C, so that ethanol does not evaporate and active substances in the extract are not thermally damaged. Start, as with glycerin extracts, with a concentration of 1 %, and if the product is stable and the skin tolerates it well, increase the concentration, but do not exceed 5 %. Usually, however, homemade herbal extracts based on ethanol are used in lower concentrations than those based on glycerin.

Since this is a homemade production, you do not have data from the manufacturer on optimal pH, temperature, usability, etc. Therefore it is good to prepare several batches of a product with different extract concentrations and monitor their stability and tolerance by the skin.

HOMEMADE HERBAL EXTRACTS AND CONCLUSION

So, friends, have you already tried to make such a homemade herbal extract at home?

If so, be sure to write to us about how you did, what you worked with and how you further use these extracts. We look forward to your insights.

Until saponification, friends.