What are Simple Herbals?

Simple Herbals are a line of wild-crafted simple herbal preparations, made with my hands, love and care, with Nature’s gifts by the forest.

I refer to “simple” as a traditional way to use single plant as instead of a formula or synergies of many plants combined together, I expand more on this topic here: “simple vs formula”

That way one is able to engage with a single plant and see how they work together. Once we have engaged with many plants separately and know we react well to all, we can then create our own formulas of combined plants. This is what I do for myself and my family and I find it easy to have separate plant preparations that I can then combine in a glass instead of using ready-made formulas.

This is a personal preference that grows always stronger on my journey with the plants realm.

Simple Herbals is also a way to approach herbalism as people’s medicine, accessible to all and safe. The principle of these ways still relies on nourishing food and the use of Nourishing Herbal Infusions to nourish health and wholeness of the body.

What kinds of products are you using in your preparations?

— For the alcohol preparations like tincture and elixir:

I used a 96% ethanol made of sugar molasses that I mixed together with spring water (collected close to our home in a protected water zone area) to reach the desired level of 50% alcohol.

— When using honey, I use a local wild flowers honey collected by my neighbor Ingeborg, while waiting to be able to use my own harvested honey in the next years.

— The infused vinegars and oxymels are made with organic and raw Apple Cider Vinegar.

— The Oils I am using for now are a great quality of cold press almond and castor oil.

Almond oil is a soothing oil that is very well supported by many skin types.

Castor oil is a deep thick oil that is traditionally used for castor oil pack and can be used for any dried out skin as she is extremely restorative to damaged skin/tissues.

— I use beeswax for all balms.

— The plants are gathered ethically from the wild: “ethical harvest” or grown in my garden that is at the entrance of a forest. I use the whole fresh plants, roots and berries for the tincture, elixir, infused vinegar and oxymeI. For the oil, it will depend on the plant, sometimes fresh, sometimes dry and sometimes a place in between.

-I dry the plants very gently between linen in a warmish, dark and dry place. I do not like to use a dehydrator which I found to take away a lot the delicate aspects of plants.

I do not like to use alcohol, do you have alcohol free tincture or elixir?

A tincture or an elixir are by essence made with alcohol.

One could use a vegetable glycerine as an extractant and the result would be a less potent herbal preparation with a short shelf-life.

Another method of extraction without alcohol would be with vinegar, making an Infused Vinegar or Oxymel (vinegar and honey and plants). Vinegar is very good way to extract minerals from the plant, especially Calcium, the preparation could be taken in a larger quantity of 1 Tablespoon per day and should be used within 1 Year (always use your senses to figure out if a preparation is still edible).

If you are concerned to give it to children or take during pregnancy, know that the amount of 1 drop to 30 drops 3 times a day, will not equals more than a tea spoon of alcohol throughout the day.

A good way to do, is to place the drops in a glass with a little warm water and let it evaporate for an hour or two. There will be not much alcohol left, only the plant properties.

On a personal note I have started to make my own tinctures because I am sensitive to alcohol and most tincture found on the market are made with grain alcohol between 68% and 96%. I found this high level of alcohol to make the herbal preparation closer to a pharmaceutical and strong on my system.

Your oils smell funny, why that?

For the first user of Infused Oil, the smell may seem unusual as most users of natural products have been used to a scent coming from of Essential Oils, and users of conventional products used to synthetic scent.

I do not use essential oils in my preparation and here you can find some reasons why: "On the uses of E.O." 

To make an infused oil, I use the whole plant, sometimes fresh, sometimes dry or some places in between, the scent of the plant is then very different if she is dry or fresh and the smell that is create from the plants bathing in oil will be translated into what can be described as earthy notes.

How to take the Tinctures, Elixir or Vinegar? What about dosage?

Everybody is very different and what would work for one will not necessary work for the other.

That being said, I recommend to first get to know the plant, what does she looks like? Can I find her around my home? Where can I find good literature? I encourage anyone to be curious and rely on self-exploration and self-experience as no one know better than you how do you feel.

The dosage and period will depend on the reason for your intake: acute or chronic issue? Then it will depend on the plant herself, your constitution, sensibility and knowledge of your own body.

For chronic issues, I do find that working with a small amount for a regular and longer period gives better results than taking larger doses irregularly for a shorter time. For acute issues, a larger dose can be taken regularly and intensively until the symptoms ease.

Always take the alcohol preparation with water.

Be aware that if you are allergic to pollen you may react to plants from the asteracea family like Yarrow or Mugwort for example.

Always taste in a sensitive area of your body (inside your elbow and wait 24 hours if any reaction appears).

I am not responsible for any allergic or unwanted reaction. Please discuss with your health practitioner if you are under medication, pregnant or breastfeeding.

I am not a doctor and to not intend to diagnose or cure. All contents on this site are for informational content only. The shared information is based on personal researches and experiences as well as literature and traditional folk use.

What is your background?

I have trained and worked as an Ayurvedic practitioner and Aroma therapist in Germany. I had a studio in Berlin for 4 years, where I specialized in women’s health and offering pregnancy and postnatal support. Parallel to these one-on-one sessions, I started to hold women circles introducing Plant Communication as allyship; and offered health and women empowering related workshops and retreats.

My relationship with plants is long and cultivated through personal experience and extended research in traditional herbalism and modern analytic plant data.

I placed an order but didn’t received anything yet?

Please note that I go to the Post Office once a week on Friday. I am living in a village and try to reduce my car use to a minimum, on Friday I go to the city and group my activities.

Once your parcel is sent I am not responsible for the shipment, the Post is. Check in with them about your order.

I made a mistake in my order can I return your product?

Once an order is placed I do not accept return. Tincture last very long, you may use it at some point.