Hydrating Rose Water

Rose water dates back to Cleopatra who used it to keep her skin beautiful and looking young.  It became popular in the culinary world from the Middle East and Indian cuisines. It brings a lightness and subtle fragrance to spicy or heavy foods.  It’s used throughout the world to flavor sweet desserts like baklava and blends perfectly with honey to make delicious lemonade type drinks. It’s high in vitamin C.

It also can:

• Be used for eye infections, puffiness & redness (soak cotton ball in chilled rose water and place over eye)

• Balance the PH of your skin and clear acne

• Heals bug bites, rashes and sunburn

• Soothes inflamed sore throats

• Improves depression & anxiety (breathe in the fragrance)

• Relieves menopausal symptoms, PMS symptoms, & menstrual cramps

• Improves circulation

• Soothes capillaries by tightening & strengthening them

• Natural remedy for diarrhea and ulcers when added to digestive teas

• Enriches the body with nutrients

• Relieves toothache when applied as a poultice (apply cotton ball soaked with rose water directly on tooth)

• Contains anti-aging, anti-inflammatory & anti-bacterial properties

• Enhances the quality of your hair (when used on scalp)

• The scent on your pillow will help you sleep better

• Contains large amounts of vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin D & vitamin E

It’s hard to believe more people aren’t lavishing in rose water daily with all of its’ magical powers!!

AND, Rose water is simple to make. However, you need to make sure you have roses that haven’t been treated with any chemicals & unless you grow your own roses you will probably need to buy them online.  It’s doubtful that your favorite flower shop will have roses that haven’t been treated with toxic chemicals.

You can make rose water out of fresh roses or dried rose petals. If you live in Portland, OR you can buy dried rose petals from https://www.peoples.coop in their bulk section. Peoples buy their petals from https://www.mountainroseherbs.com If you start using a lot you will want to buy them directly from Mountain Rose Herbs.

• ½ cup dried rose petals or
• 1 cup fresh rose petals (remove stems)
• 2 cups distilled water
• saucepan with lid
• nut bag or strainer
• bottle for storing

DIRECTIONS:

• Place rose petals and water into pan
• Turn on stovetop to medium/low
• You don’t want water to come to boil
•  Put lid on and let water steep for approximately 20 minutes (until color has faded from petals)
• Turn stove off and let the water cool completely
• Drain petals from water. Store water in glass container (mason jars work well)
• Store in refrigerator up to 2 weeks

Drinking rose water by itself will be intense. Typically it’s used as a concentrate and just a little is used with filtered water or beverage of choice.

My new favorite way to drink it daily is mixing 1-cup rose water to 7 cups of filtered water, which equals ½ gallon. I will put this in a glass bowl with some fresh roses floating on top and drink it throughout the day.  It’s a fun way to make sure I’m drinking enough water every day!