Blackberry leaves for brightening the skin
The blackberry plant scrambles through hedgerows putting on enormous growth each season, seemingly stretching out more and more each day. All this growth is fuelled by the powerhouse of energy contained in the blackberry leaves. Use these leaves in creating your own skincare and see that plant power taking effect on your skin. Blackberry leaves add vitality, brightness and strength to skin.
Here’s one way to use them (you’ll probably also love my blackberry and honeysuckle lotion, a wonderful moisturiser that you’ll find in my book ‘Vital Skincare’) :
Blackberry Bath Splash
A combination of blackberry infused water with Castile soap – either buy the soap or make your own.
Natural ingredients
Rainwater
For this recipe, use rainwater if you can – simply put a clean bucket or jug out next time it rains and see what you can collect. It’s typically soft water, great for softening skin and hair (try using it to wash your hair too).
Blackberry leaves
You’ll need just a handful of blackberry leaves for this recipe. Gather them as you need them, although they are at their best in spring, when the plant’s energy is going into the leaf, not the fruit. You can gather supplies in spring and dry them for future use throughout the year. It’s always good to have them handy to throw into the bath when your skin needs a brightening lift.
Castile soap
Castile soap is made from pure olive oil. It’s generally available from good chemists or health food shops, or you can make your own.
Ingredients
A handful of blackberry leaves
1 litre rainwater (you can use tap water as an alternative)
5 tbsp Castile soap, grated
Make
You’ll need to prepare the blackberry leaf infusion a little while in advance, but most the time is just infusion or cooling time, which doesn’t need your attention. You need no more than 10 minutes to give in preparing this.
Put your handful of blackberry leaves into a saucepan and pour over the rainwater. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 3 hours before straining and discarding the leaves.
Return the liquid to the pan, bring to the boil and whisk in the Castile soap. Keep whisking until it has dissolved, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
Pour into a bottle, seal and label.
Use
Use in the bath or shower as liquid soap for the body.
Store
Keep in the refrigerator and use within one week.
