How to make Rose Water Toner using fresh Rose Petals

Rose water has been used for generations as a natural yet gentle astringent. It helps to cleanse, tighten the skin and to reduce redness and inflammation. It’s also very sensitive and can be used on most skin types making it a great addition to creams and lotions.

True rose water is made by distillation so this recipe is technically an infusion. However, an infusion of rose petals can provide just as much skin loving therapy as some of the more expensive products. Rose absolute and rose floral water are beautiful skin therapeutic extracts but they can be pricey. This recipe will give you a sweetly scented natural skin toner that you can make yourself for practically nothing. All you need is rose petals and distilled water.
How to make Rose Water Toner using fresh Rose Petals

Which rose petals to use?
At the end of the process, rose water should smell faintly of roses. If you want even a little of the fragrance to remain then it’s best to start with old fashioned or wild roses. The more fragrant the roses, the more fragrant your rose water will be. Any rose petals will do though.

Another thing to consider is that the color of the rose petals will affect the colour of the rose toner. If you use pink or red roses then it will be pink, white roses and it will be clear, orange roses and it will be yellow. I personally wouldn’t say that the colour means that one is better than the other but I do prefer using pink roses.

Wild Rose Petals
My favourite rose to use for this recipe is the wild rose. There are about half a dozen different types of wild rose but the ones on my doorstep are Rosa rugosa (beach rose) and Rosa canina (dog rose).

When foraging for wild roses, pick the petals direct from the flower, leaving the hip in place. It could be that it’s already been pollinated and that you could return in the autumn to pick them for rose-hip syrup or tea.

Enroll in the Botanical Skin Care Course with the Herbal Academy
With garden roses, place your hand over the flower and gently pull all the petals off. They tend to come off fairly easily if the flower has been blooming for a few days.

Make Rose Water
To make rose water, pick about three  cups of rose petals. Leave them outside on paper towels or a cloth tea towel to allow any insects to escape. Give them around half an hour.

Next, put the rose petals into a sauce pan. You can fill it up all the way to the top with rose petals if you’d like. Fill the pan with water (preferably distilled) until the petals are just covered. Place a lid on the pan and heat on low until most of the colour has faded from the petals. It will take about twenty minutes and whatever you do, keep the water from coming to a simmer. Too much heat can destroy the flower’s beneficial properties and colour.

Straining the Rose Water
After the petals have paled considerably, strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer and compost the remaining rose petals. Pour the rose water toner into a sterilised jar, allow it to cool, and then keep it refrigerated until you’re ready to use it. Kept this way, it will keep for about a week.

Rose water toner can be used on it’s own with a cotton pad or spritzing it with with a mini spray bottle. It can provide immediate freshness and a reduction in redness and inflammation.

When you use it on a pad you’ll notice that it picks up a lot of grime and make-up. Afterwards your skin feels squeaky clean and if the rose water is fragrant enough, you can smell roses coming off your skin.

Using Rose Water in Lotions
If you’d like the rose water toner to last a lot longer, you can use it to make handmade lotions and creams. They’ll provide all the benefits of rose water plus the benefits of the oils you use. I have a recipe for wild rose & honey hand cream that you could try. By all means, use rose water made with any rose petals though.

You could use homemade rose water in any of my lotion recipes though. Just replace the water content with rose water and away you go.

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