There is nothing new about skin care, it is just in ancient times, herbal products were the only ones available. However, it was the advent of mass production techniques and chemistry that changed the skin care market and lessened the use of natural skin care products. Unfortunately many of these natural formulas where never written down as they were handed down by word of mouth so only a small number remain, there are even people that have never use a herbal product.

Perhaps it is our fast paced lives and the ease with which we can purchase just about any synthetically produced item that has helped with the decrease in using natural preparations. Large skin care manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon that has come about in all things natural but their herbal preparations have to be mixed with some kind of preservative if they are to last which means they are not as good as home made ones.

It seems that increasing numbers of people are becoming more discerning and using herbal skin care products again from companies that are specializing in making small batches of these products. Still it will never be a huge market an as no-one really wants to make them in their own home, commercial products are likely to continue; below are a few that you may or may not know of.

Although one of the more common herbal products, aloe vera has other properties other than just helping sunburn; extracted fro the aloe plant it also hydrates skin and can be sued on cuts as well. Other household herbs like dandelion, chamomile, lime flowers and rosemary are good at cleansing but usually when they are in combination with other herbs.

To protect from infection and help the skin, the herbs lavender, marigold, thyme and fennel can be used, all of which have antiseptic properties. Tea plays an important part in herbal skin care and tea extracts are used for treatment of skin that has been damaged by UV radiation.

Many herbal products contain oils taken from the plants themselves in diluted and undiluted for like tea tree, primrose and lavender oils. Certain skin conditions can also be helped with oils extracted from plants in herbal skin care preparations.

Obviously the greatest benefit of using natural products is there is hardly ever any reaction to their use, something that the synthetic products cannot claim. While herbal products will probably remain popular as there are so few reactions to them that there will be times when synthetic products will be necessary for certain skin disorders.

If you want your skin to look for your whole life, you will take care of it irrespective of whether it is with herbal or synthetic skin care products.