After more than 10 years admiring the casual issue, I finally started a subscription to the Herb Companion. I’m beside myself with delight – it’s well balanced, interesting and it always gives me a new way to think of and look at plants that I might have looked at a million times before. Ever-greedy for some print to read, this sent me on a hunt through other publications and I believe I’ve found my “top 10″ herbalist/aromatherapist subscriptions for 2009.¹ Not all of these are herb magazines, some are to keep up on trends, and others are to ensure a well-rounded inspirational palette.

You already know why I love the Herb Companion. If you’re not sure, pick up a copy at your local bookstore and check out the recipes. That may well sell you.

This magazine condenses some of the most recent medical studies on herbs and also tracks what might happen with them under FDA regulations. Extremely useful and important information, nicely packaged in a quarterly magazine.

This hefty semi-yearly publication is a hit to the wallet but also gives you some important data on the materials you use. Some public libraries to carry it, but if you like to thumb through pages and mark things up, this just might be the journal for you.

The Utne Reader is a time-saver among independent publications. This magazine takes the best of indie articles and presses them all into one neat package so you can see a sampling of what’s going on in American subcultures.

Harper’s Bazaar has replaced Marie Claire as the smartest of women’s fashion publications. While there is still some hair-tearing insanity within it (one writer penned an essay on how she was still OK with herself even though she was a size 8 – hardly gargantuan in the real world where the average American woman is a size 12) there is also fashion, savvy interviews and a certain ahead-of-the-curve perceptiveness lacking in other women’s publications.

At first you might think decor has nothing to do with handmade beauty. But think about it: people fragrance their homes, burn incense, layer scented candles into their decor schemes…it’s good to know where it’s all going!

For pure visual overload, zeitgeist and probes an alien couldn’t manage, there’s Interview. Just read it and let your subconscious cook for a few days. You’ll amaze yourself.

The home-as-spa feel has become a way of life with Real Simple leading the way. Along with giving ideas for how to make life less cluttered and more positive, it does prevent a feast of products; it’s like the shopping feel of other magazines but with a targeted purpose for you behind it.

Indie supporter extraordinaire, this magazine has paved the way and raised the voice of many an indie-and-woman owned business. There are as many people reading this magazine for its creative and low-key ads as there are out there reading the articles.

This is the magazine of choice for microbusinesses these days, perhaps because it’s one of the few to aim at small businesses making non-traditional choices in everything from business type to financing.

Do I subscribe to these magazines? Not all of them, yet. I’m carefully counting out my budget – my big indulgence is the Herb Companion. But I pick up the others as I go!

You can find perfumes and other herbal products at Magickal Realism Natural Perfumery.

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References

1. I decided to skip over certain trade magazines because of their prohibitive expense to micro-sellers like myself. [↩]