Herb Farm
Product Range
The gnome garden was created for children
Herbs and garden ornaments are also available at the Herb Farm
Herb Farm’s formulas are based on an oil phase and a water phase. Oil-based ingredients such as cold-pressed oils and waxes, anything that is oil soluble, go into one container. Water soluble ingredients, such as tinctures and liquid extracts, are in another container. Lynn uses emulsifying agents to combine oil and water based ingredients in a cream.
“When I first started the most difficult thing I had to learn to do was to get a product that was beautiful and creamy and would go right into the skin without feeling oily.
Development was trial and error and took time and patience so we don’t tell people our formulas. I have developed a base formula that I can change to add different ingredients but still keep that creamy consistency.
Once I figured out how to get oils and water to mix I was able to adjust the active ingredients such as tinctures and oils so the cream will have the effect I want it to. It’s really simple once you get the base knowledge of how the tinctures and sun infused oils are made.
Anybody can do it at home if they spend the time trialling and they have the passion and of course having the backing of a qualification is important. You have to be aware of all the regulations and legally you have to have an herbal qualification to formulate remedies. Herbal remedies must be sold by someone with an appropriate qualification so that when a customer comes and tells you about their problem you are giving them informed advice. That’s why you shouldn’t see healing creams in the supermarket. There are restrictions as to what you can put on product labels.” The Herb farm controls the sale of its products to ensure that the customer gets information along with them and they publish information leaflets for each product.
Lynn believes that science has sped up the process of identifying and determining the effectiveness of the healing properties of herbs. This knowledge would have been handed down from person to person based on experience but now the chemicals in herbs can be identified and tests can be done to determine how much of a chemical is in a plant.
Lynn says she doesn’t want to produce standardised extracts, “I believe that nature knows best and that the body will draw what it needs from what you put on it so I guess I have a real low scientific approach. It’s good to see the scientific angle to understand what a chemical is and what it does.
Lynn developed the recipes for her first range of products during a course at the Australasian College of Herbal Studies. “Recipes were based on what I’d read and trialled. I’d tried things out on family and the animals with the backing of the study which comes from generations of use of herbs and has ethics approval. I’d made products which people used and came back for more so gradually the demand was there… We use Arnica, calendula, comfrey, and echinacea and we have about six skin creams. Some are for itchy skin such as psorisis, some for cuts or bruises and those sorts of things. We also have a range for aches and pains. We have extracts that are designed to be anti-inflammatory and analgesic to take the pain away. The formulas have been trialled and changed. Up until now we’ve added new products to the range as we’ve thought there’s been a market need for them. We’ve listened to what customers have asked for and if we haven’t got a suitable product I go and research herbs that might help and work from there.”
