Book excerpt: Herbs are a way of life for us. Like you, we are distinctive individuals who are interested in using herbs from our gardens to create beauty, happiness and health in our homes. The creative herbal home is a guide for both the beginner just introduced to herbs, to the more experienced home herbalist. It contains basic and detailed information about using common household ingredients combined with herbs and essential oils to make an array of herbal products for the home. We have informative chapters on herbs, essential oils, ingredients, definition of terms, and a chapter on plant chemicals for those who want to delve deeper into the science. The kitchen is our laboratory for herbal alchemy where we create items for our pantry, as well as household preparations, gardening comforts, remedies, tinctures, and even first aid kits. You can create sensual pleasures for soothing and renewing the body in the bath and boudoir using our body care recipes. We hope that this book will give you the tools as well as inspire your own creative herbal home.