Make your range of products stand out by including professional herbal extracts.
Series of Specialist Online Classes
LEVEL: For formulators, retail brands and people with experience making their own natural cosmetics (not suitable for beginners)
Est. 2019
Some of the Topics & Key Questions Vivienne Covers:
Weekly Lesson Guide:
WEEK 1: An Overview of Types of Herbal Extracts
* Herbal extracts that are suitable for use in skin and hair-care products e.g. water infusions, aromatic waters, hydrosols, tinctures, vinegar extracts, infused oils, powdered herbs, glycerites, CO2 extracts, essential oils, fixed oils etc.
*Which chemicals and compounds are known to extract into various solvents e.g. which chemicals are best extracted in water, oil, alcohol, glycerine etc.
*Which herbal extracts it is practical to make yourself and which ones you would be better to buy.
* Examples of various ways to add herbs/herbal extracts in to a formula/recipe e.g. an emulsion face cream, a topical hair treatment.
* How to create very different finished products (e.g. a light emulsion suitable for oily skin or a rich emulsions nourishing for dry skin) simply by selecting different herbs rather than using a different formula or technique for each product.
WEEK 2 : Herbal infused oils; a step-by-step guide to making your own extracts
*How to make your own herbal infused (macerated) oils suitable for professional use.
*Trouble-shooting what’s gone wrong with your oil (if you’ve made them before).
*Guidelines to avoid issues with oils so that you produce a lovely, stable and beneficial ingredient.
*How to combine infused oils in to cosmetic formulae and use them safely.
*How to write up your paperwork for extracts that you make yourself (the same process is used for other types of extracts e.g. herbal glycerites, decoctions etc.) so that it is legally-compliant and can be sent to your cosmetic chemist.
WEEK 3: Aromatic Waters & True Hydrosols (also known as distilled waters, hydrolats, floral waters)
* Clearing up confusion about these (the same INCI refers to various different methods of producing waters so you need to know and understand which one YOU are using.)
* Why some waters can be problematic ingredients in professional retail products; how to recognise and avoid these.
* How properly test for bacteria and contamination (and avoid them in the first place).
* How to prepare them to ensure high quality and a stable ingredient in your products.
* Chemistry of aromatic waters (what we know so far about what is in them).
* Comparing aromatic waters and other herbal water extracts e.g. decoctions (therapeutics and chemistry).
* Therapeutics of aromatic waters and why they are so beneficial in natural cosmetics.
* Recommended reliable suppliers of high quality waters.
* Recommended suppliers of distillation equipment (should you want to make your own).
WEEK 4 : Herbal repertoire for the natural cosmetic-maker; safety (dosage/reactions/pregnancy)
*A look at lesser known herbs for skincare, haircare and deodorants: a change from the usual ingredients.
*Exploring the potential of lesser known herbs for enhancing your products and giving them the edge to help them stand out from other brands.
*Details about each herb including: which chemicals they are known to contain, how best to extract these, which cosmetic products they tend to work well in, skin types they suit, products/skin types they might not be suitable in etc.
* Medical skin conditions e.g. eczema, psoriasis, roseacea etc: how to deal with questions about these when customers ask for you to recommend your cosmetic products for them.
*Ingredient safety, concentrations and dosages.
*Pregnancy: understanding natural ingredients; my guidelines to help you to determine if your ingredient is safe to use and how to use it.
*Reactions and sensitivities: how to avoid them; how to deal with them if they happen.
Save:
Time
Worry
Fear
Money
Wasted ingredients
The drain of endless online searches that generate conflicting info
Avoid:
ROOKIE ERRORS and the time, money, ingredients and stock that they waste.
BOOK NOW:
October 2021: course full, booking closed
January 2022: Booking open, places available
The benefits of actively learning in small, specialist groups:
- While it is not vital to attend to attend all of the lessons live and video recordings will be available to all students, I think that people tend to gain more benefit when they actively learn by engaging in a live class because the questions that other people ask can stimulate more ideas and lead to very interesting areas of further discussion.
- We live in an age of passively collecting information and end up with too much information, much of it poor quality and conflicting, and lots of it that we won’t ever read or use properly. This is not genuine learning. Storing information is a not the same as having true knowledge and understanding of a topic.
- Committing to engage together in a class on a focused subject is usually a much more efficient, active and productive way to learn.
- They are an inexpensive way to learn.
- I’m keeping the group size small so that everyone gets a fair chance to ask their questions and I can help more by following up on issues that people have.
Here’s What Some People Have Said About This Series…
“Thank you so much for your detailed responses to my questions.
You put a lot of time and effort into answering me, and I really appreciate it.”
“Yet another fantastic lesson yesterday! Thank you!”
“I would like to thank you first for the amazing course, you are very generous in sharing the information and I really appreciate the effort and time you put into it. “
“The debut online series was fabulous!”
“Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us in this class. I found the class informative and I can’t wait for spring to start infusing cleaver, chickweed, red clover and daisy.”
FURTHER QUESTIONS
*If you have any questions or if these classes have already sold out when you try to book then please email me to get on the waiting list for the next class.
Email: info@theherbalhub.com
Tel/Text/WhatsApp from within Ireland: 0868899168
Tel/Text/WhatsApp from countries outside of Ireland: 00353868899168
Why learn from Vivienne?
- Vivienne has taught herbal classes since 2004.
- She is a qualified medical herbalist [BSc (Hons) 2003].
- She started her own natural skincare range in 2010.
- She consults for professional natural skin and hair-care brands.
- She knows the process of legally producing cosmetics for retail, the challenges this can pose when making your own extracts and how to do so safely, consistently & reliably.
- She gave a lecture and Q&A for the professional organic skincare school Formula Botanica.
- She understands herbal ingredients very well and especially the issues that natural cosmetic-makers can have with them e.g. trying to find suppliers of high quality ingredients, whether or not ingredients are suitable in pregnancy, medical conditions that can cause skin problems and which cosmetic ingredients to chose that are least likely to cause problems with these, how to extract herbs to get the most benefit from them etc.
- She takes foraging walks for natural skincare makers and professional holistic therapists.
- She is passionate about introducing people to the potential of using long-forgotten, little known local wild herbs as dynamic, effective and unusual ingredients for natural skin and hair-care.
- She aims to teach people in a way that is informative, reliable, practical and enjoyable to enable people to use herbal ingredients with confidence and joy.
- You can read more about Vivienne here: https://theherbalhub.com/about-vivienne/
