Carry on Beautiful!

I’ve wanted to try out rose water as a facial cleanser and toner for ages, but it can be really pricey! Plus, all the ones I could find had a variety of unpronounceable chemicals in, which I find kind of unnecessary. My mums roses recently bloomed beautifully, and as they came to the end, she was kind enough to let me snip them off and bring them home, so you’ve got my mum to thank for this post. But anyway, here’s how to make your own rose water at home!

All you need for this is

• Ice
• Rose petals (organic, not sprayed with pesticide or anything, look for ones that are edible if you can find any like I did!)
• A large saucepan
• A smaller bowl
• A lid or metal bowl to sit atop the pan

Put your bowl in the saucepan first, then place the petals around it, making sure none stay inside. Then fill your pan with water until the petals are covered. Bring it to a simmer.

Put on the pans lid, upside down, or if you’re like me you can use a metal bowl that happens to sit better than the lid. Put ice in your lid, and replace it as it melts. You want the lid to stay as cold as possible.

This is where the science happens, as the petals simmer, the steam of course rises and hits the cold of the lid, turning into condensation. Because it’s upside down, the condensation then drips down the lid, and into your bowl, leaving you with distilled, rose infused water. Distilling the water also means this will pretty much last forever, where as just boiling the petals and taking the water would work, it would have a short shelf life!

After about 40 minutes, I’d created a fair few bowls of rose water, and decided that was enough for me, this time! It smells amazing, despite being totally clear, and I’ve already started looking up all the many uses it has! I think modern western society so often pushed us to buy buy buy, it’s nice to make something I usually would just purchase, and I’ll definitely be looking into it more often!

Would you be interested in more posts like this?

-Dana