This post is sponsored by The Herbal Academy. All opinions are my own.

Expand your knowledge of herbal skin care and discover the relation between nutrition and your skin with the Botanical Skin Care Course from The Herbal Academy. Keep reading to learn why I recommend this in depth course, plus how to make a vanilla whipped body butter recipe for dry skin.

When we think of back to school, our thoughts instantly go to school buses, packed lunches and hopefully a little bit of peace and quiet. That’s not always the case however. I have several acquaintances, also in their forties, who have gone back to school recently in order to start new careers. While my sister-in-law recently finished her teaching degree and just started teaching pre-k students in low income areas – something she’s always wanted to do.

Unfortunately, not all of us have the luxury or the means to head back to college later in life. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to further our education. In fact, I love learning! It’s one of the reasons I became a blogger. Being a blogger encourages me to research new ingredients on a regular basis and explore new techniques in my field. While the internet offers a wealth of information online through an unguided quest, not everything is readily available with a keystroke. So how do I gather further insight and the knowledge I need to go further my craft? The answer is an easy one. It’s The Herbal Academy.

Botanical Skin Care Course Review

I didn’t realize how much more there was to learn about natural skin care and whole body wellness until I enrolled in The Herbal Academy’s Botanical Skin Care Course. This online course offered so much more than I expected. I can honestly say that I learned way more than I’d expected. As it was thoughtfully and well presented, I found myself wanting to learn even more after I completed the course. The Botanical Skin Care Course not only offered in depth information on the natural ingredients used in skin care, it also taught me the biology behind our skin and how its makeup relates to herbal skin care. 

Why I Love (& Recommend) The Botanical Skin Care Course

There are number of things I really loved about this course.

• For those new to The Herbal Academy, a video tutorial was available to make the process of navigating the course even easier.
• There were notable facts about the history of cosmetics and skin care that were especially intriguing and found throughout the course lessons.
• As this course offered in depth information on skin biology and whole body health, I felt this was definitely a college level course.
• The information was broken up into different lessons and sections, so it was easy to stop at any time and pick it back up later.
• There was no endless reading. The informational sections of each lesson were broken up with instructional videos and recipes, as well as graphics and herbal knowledge.
• All of the information provided can be printed or viewed as a PDF. So everything is printable including the lessons, graphics and charts. 
• The Herbal Academy also provides printable pdf transcripts of video lessons to refer back to later.
• The course is much more affordable than taking a college course and can be completed at your own pace.
• Once you start the course, you have full access to that course for a full year from the day you begin.
• There’s a private facebook group for additional help as well as to share tips and recipes. (I checked it out and signed up. It’s pretty awesome – plus zero drama.)
• The course offers a brief overview of terminology on how to share the benefits of herbal skin care products without making medical claims.
• If you want to further expand your knowledge on a topic covered in the Botanical Skin Care Course, there are additional resources provided at the end of each lesson.

Some of My Favorite Information from The Course

There’s so much information to soak up through the Botanical Skin Care Course. Therefore, it’s really hard to share a full overview of everything it entails. However, some of my favorite things were learning how to use herbal allies to care for skin – as well as how skin care connects to whole body wellness. (ie. Gut-Brain-Skin Axis.) I also like that this course covers herbs that address acute and chronic skin ailments with special consideration for anti-aging skin care. And there aren’t just skin care recipes to accompany the lessons. There are also herbal remedies AND food recipes that offer nutritional support for skin. You’ll also love their chart on skin-friendly dietary guidelines!

I loved learning about the basic energetic categories of Western herbalism—hot, cold, damp, and dry—to provide a more nuanced view of skin health. It was highly enlightening as were the sections on Ayurveda skin care and skin care in Chinese medicine. One of the more important lessons, however, covered the commercial ingredients we should be avoiding and why they are harmful. I was most surprised to learn that retinol, which is practically a staple in anti-aging skin care products, should be avoided due to its numerous negative side effects.

In contrast, the Botanical Skin Care Course from The Herbal Academy, also educates you on the carrier oils and butters that you SHOULD be using in your natural skin care products. Fatty acid content, comedogenic ratings, properties, shelf life and absorption rate are covered for each ingredient. There’s also a printable chart so you can keep this information handy when referring back to it later. Additionally there is information on salts, waxes and emulsifiers, clays and natural skin safe pigments, humectants, natural preservatives and essential oils.

For those of you just getting started with essential oils, you’ll find the chart for essential oil dilution guidelines especially helpful along with the properties and aroma of common essential oils used in skin care. I also learned the right way to make herbal vinegars, while expanding my knowledge on hydrosols, salves and oil infusions. There are a number of great recipes in the lesson on making botanical body care products. This section also offers video tutorials, troubleshooting information, additional graphics and printable charts as well as information on storing your products.

Botanical Body Care Recipes Within the Course

In fact, you’ll discover video instruction, printable property charts, troubleshooting tips, preservatives needed and recipes for making a number of botanical skin care products. These herbal skin care recipes include:

• Natural bath care product recipes.
• Recipes for creams, lotions & body butters.
• Instructions for crafting herbal gels.
• How to make herbal soaps with recipes.
• Hair care recipes.
• Cosmetic recipes.
• Recipes for herbal vinegars.
• Information on making herbal hydrosols.
• Herbal salves and balm recipes.
• How to make oil infusions & recipes.

The sheer volume of information provided throughout this course is priceless. I know that I will personally be referring back to this course throughout the year.

Botanical Skin Care Recipe Book

You also have the option to add on the Botanical Skin Care Recipe Book with this course. It’s filled with 194 favorite tried and true herbal skin care recipes. Inside are recipes for pretty much everything you can imagine – eye shadows, toners, face masks, deodorant, foot scrubs and baths, body butters, facial serums, homemade soaps and more. (You can also purchase this book separately here.) I really love this book and would definitely recommend it as an addition to your collection.

Now that you’ve decided to sign up for the Botanical Skin Care Course, be sure to also check out the recipe for making a daily moisturizer for acne prone skin. You can find this natural skin care recipe both within unit 4 of the course (for support for chronic conditions) as well as inside the Botanical Skin Care Recipe Book. 

Vanilla Whipped Body Butter Recipe

The great thing about body butters is that they don’t contain any water-based ingredients. This means there’s less potential for microbial contamination (such as bacteria) which gives body butters a longer shelf life than lotions and creams. Because the ingredients used can be damaged by exposure to air, light or excess heat – causing the oils to go rancid, vitamin E or rosemary extract can be used to help prevent oxidation. 

This vanilla whipped body butter recipe is adapted from Plant-Powered Beauty by Amy Galper and Christina Daigneault. The finished whipped body butter is both fluffy and decadent with a fragrance reminiscent of an orange creamsicle.

Ingredients:

¼ cup (2 fl oz) coconut oil
¼ cup shea butter
¼ cup cocoa butter
¼ cup (2 fl oz) jojoba oil infused with vanilla (Vanilla planifolia) bean
35 drops sweet orange (Citrus x sinensis) essential oil and 5 drops ylang ylang (Cananga odorata) essential oil (optional)

Instructions:

Make the vanilla-infused jojoba oil using the instructions in the herb-infused oil tutorial (found in the Botanical Skin Care Course) using ¼ vanilla bean and ¼ cup jojoba oil. Note that ¼ cup is the amount of finished herbal oil to include in the recipe—you may need to start with more oil when making the herb-infused oil, as the herbs will soak up some of the oil (if you forget to do this, just top off with some plain oil as needed for this recipe).

Gently heat coconut oil, shea butter, and cocoa butter in a double boiler over low heat (or a glass or ceramic bowl or canning jar over a small saucepan of simmering water) until melted.

Add the vanilla-infused jojoba oil, stir until mixture is melted and consistent, and turn off the heat.

Let cool for approximately 10 minutes, and once it is still warm, but not hot to the touch, cover and transfer to the refrigerator for approximately 1 hour, or until there is no longer a semi-liquid center.

Using an immersion blender or electric mixer, whip the mixture on high for 5 minutes or until it changes color and looks fluffy. You may need to periodically scrape the mixture from the sides of the bowl.

Add essential oil, if desired, and mix.

Label, and store in a cool, dark place. This vanilla whipped body butter recipe will keep for up to 1 year.

Not quite ready to commit to the Botanical Skin Care Course? Then be sure to pin this post for later! Otherwise, you can sign up for the Botanical Skin Care Course here.

For more botanical skin care recipes like the vanilla whipped body butter recipe from the Botanical Skin Care Course, be sure to follow my boards on pinterest. You can also find and follow me on your favorite social media platforms, including Blog Lovin‘, facebook, twitter and instagram. Or sign up to receive my newsletter to stay in the loop.