What are botanicals?

Botanical are primarily plant-based formulas used for personal products, household products, food products and clothing. Botanicals are enjoying a lot of attention because they are green products - safer to use in your home and the environment. Botanicals can be in personal products for your hair, skin and clothing; they can be cleaning products for routine housecleaning, as well as cars and other vehicles.

Botanicals are also gaining popularity in medicine. More and more people are exploring the health benefits of tea, berry juices, extracts, salves, serums, oils and other herbal/botanicals.

Not all botanical products are created equal

Companies go to great lengths to protect their exact formulas. As a result, they will use proprietary nomenclature (names given to the ingredient by the company). However, in the U.S., they are required to list the chemical nomenclature of the botanicals used in their products.

As we get further along, we'll have an entire section on what to look for in botanical products - what's popular and what's poisonous!

Beautiful botanicals

Most of us aren't aware of all the products that contain botanicals. Even many pharmaceutical products are plant-based, and researchers are constantly seeking additional uses for plants.

We may be most familiar with perfume products, as they an obvious use of botanicals. However, botanicals have been used for centuries for a multitude of purposes - we're going to confine ourselves to bath uses here but trust us when we tell you - botanicals are beautiful wonders of nature.