Rosewater, flower water, hydrosol… you’ve probably heard these words used before especially for making your own body care products or even cooking exotic dinner recipes in the kitchen.
First of all… what is Rose water?
Although a lot of folks will tell you rose water is just rose tea and that you can simply make it by steeping dried rose petals in hot water and voila!~ It’s not quite that simple, but simple enough.
REAL rose water or any flower water for that matter is actually the more common name for hydrosol. A hydrosol can be made from any plant or even vegetable (cucumber!) that is high in volatile oils, aka essential oils, the stuff that smells nice:) In actuality flower waters are much more than steeped plant matter. Flower waters are in fact a bi-product of creating essential oils by a distillations process.
In the steam distillation process of extracting essential oils, the plant material is submerged in water, then heated. The steam that is created from this process is piped through a still and then captured and cooled. The oil that sits on top of this now condensed steam (water) is the essential oil. The water that remains after the essential oil is skimmed off the top to be bottled is the hydrosol.
Some folks have some of their own little copper stills and create their own essential oils & hydrosols from scratch, but most of us don’t.
So, how can we make our own legit flower waters?
Pretty simply actually. All you need is a good amount of fresh or dry plant material and 40 minutes or so. Here is a great little tutorial on using dry plants and here on fresh ones… there really isn’t a huge difference on instruction.
Some favorite hydrosols that people make are Honeysuckle, Rose, Lavender, Lemon balm, Tulsi, Lemongrass, Orange Peel (or any citrus- make sure it’s organic!)…truly anything with an aroma goes! So to answer the question, YES, you can make your own Rose water:) Fresh is best, but dry plant material can be used to create hydrosols as well.
Flower waters of all kinds are wonderful to use in so many ways!
~Facial sprays
~Culinary flavoring (try a bit of lavender water in your whipped cream! yummmm)
~Room Sprays
~Linen Sprays
~Sunburns
~Add to you iron when steam ironing & infuse your clothes with herbal goodness!
~Perfume
~Bug repellent- especially Eucalyptus, Thyme, Oregano, Lavender, Lemon Balm or any combo!
Happy Hydrosol-ing! xoxoA
DIY Rosewater
