My Inspiring roses
Now that roses are finally blooming, I am about to repeat last year experiment, and harvest my beautiful Golden Celebration roses, in order to create again a delightful DIY rose oil.
Last year,for the first time, I had the biggest flowers production since I bought my roses, and I really could not bear the idea of simply letting those incredible flowers spoil. They were particularly big as well, and powerfully scented, and I began to think how I could use those beauties, and enjoy their beauty for longer.
I studied carefully my aromatherapy and herbal remedies books, but when speaking about the rose, the only thing that they consider is the essential oil, which is definitely behind my means (for now) in terms of extraction, so I kept looking to find out if I could create an infused oil.
Apparently, the rose oil obtained through infusion is not something recommended as the process is not enough to extract the perfume from the petals, but looking at those amazing flowers I could not help but think that my idea was a valuable one, and worthy of a bit of experimentation from my side. Maybe I wouldn’t obtain the most perfumed of oils, but surely a precious a rich oil for a “love yourself first” moment was a reachable result! For this reason, I kept looking, and I finally found some helpful information.
Some help from the past
The Romans used to celebrate the Floralia (an ancient flower festival) in the month of May, and due to the seasonal abundance, they used fresh rose petals to create a rose oil for celebrative purposes. Fresh rose petals were put into big jars, covered with oil, and left to macerate under the sunshine daily. The rose ointment produced in Crete, obtained as well macerating rose petals in oil olive oil, was a popular perfume in the Ancient Greece too. And who am I not to take advantage of such an old knowledge? I had already experimented in the past with flowers infused oils, with very good results, so I saw no more obstacle to start my rose oil preparation.
The Recipe
The DIY rose oil is a very easy recipe, perfect even if it is the first rime you try yourself in homemade body oil, and the results are so pleasant and inviting that is surely worth to give it a go.
Below you can find the ingredients list, I chose sweet almond oil instead of olive oil because it has a gentler scent that goes better with rose’s one, and it has the greater affinity with our skin, perfect even for very sensible ones.
Ingredients:
Rose petals (any kind of rose will do; better if is a richly scented variety)
Sweet almond oil, enough to cover completely the petals.
Vitamin E /benzoin essential oil, to keep it stable after having filtered it.
Procedure:
Use the fresh petals just after harvesting them, and put them in a glass jar, with a large opening, then cover them completely with the sweet almond oil. Cover the top of the jar with fabric, in order to let the oil breath, and then place the jar under the sun, as much as possible.
Make sure that the petals are evenly covered in oil, to avoid the formation of mould, and let them be for 3 weeks, taking care of turning them slightly for the first few days, until the petals are tender and well imbued in oil, and then twice a week for the remaining time.
To have an optimum result I moved my jar from one windowsill till the next, making sure I was following the sun. A tough job, but well worth it.
Filtering your DIY Rose Oil
After 3 weeks, all you have to do is filtering the oil with a white cotton fabric, to leave out all the residue, and just pour it in the chosen bottles/container (I recommend glass bottles, possibly dark in order to preserve the oil as much as possible).
Then you add some benzoin essential oil (5-10 drops for every 100ml of oil), or vitamin E for conservation purposes, and… some drops of geranium essential oil (this is my secret ingredient)! Geranium has a lovely scent that in its base note is similar to the rose one, but much more affordable!
Finally, since I usually prepare at least 3 100 ml bottles, I decided to use different essential oils to have different massage oils.
Lavender, lemon and sweet orange, ylang ylang , mint etc. are the most compatible with rose, so I created an invigorating version with lemon and grapefruit, a relaxing one with lavender and a face version with ylang ylang essential oil, for its anti-aging properties.
Patting myself on the back
The results have been so surprisingly nourishing, delicate and perfect for my skin and for my mind too, that I decided I was going to keep preparing it in the years to come. I’m thinking about preparing more of it this year, to ensure I have enough to give it as a present to a few of my friends! Hope you give this DIY Rose Oil a go, and have a lot of fun in doing it. Choose a different oil, choose your favourite type of rose, mix with other compatible essential oils and find your perfect “love yourself first” rose oil recipe. That’s the main purpose. Let me know in the comments how it goes, if you have ever tried a DIY oil for the body, or if you are willing to try it!