Rose Water and Rose Oil
for woodwork, cosmetic, culinary, and medicinal use
These are the first two recipes to be posted here, they are quite useful. I will explain some of their uses and share some observations on why I find them to an essential pair in any kitchen, bathroom, hangbag, or toolkit.
The first of these is Rose Water, and to prepare it is simple, - open bottle, pour in dried roses, pour in enough water to cover roses, close bottle.
I will go into more detail about the rose oil before we come back to our rose water in a moment.
Our aim with the oil is to create a product that will do many things: we want cosmetic use, because with both roses and rapeseed oil that area just can't be ignored, we want to be able to cook with this product, and use it as a (scented) wood preserving polish - or if you leave the petals in, use it as an gentle abrasive multi-material cleaner. The primary use here for me though is medicinal. Because that's what I needed to make it for first.
Naturally, when you first start your apothecary, mage's lair, or drug den, there will be occasions when you just fuck something up really badly and have to physically pay the consequences.
Below you will find an example of my own stupidity in the shape of two photos of the reaction I had to poisoned aloe vera sap. It produced this large itchy burning rash on the left side of my face that was impossible to ignore or take my mind off of. 1/10 would not reccomend.
to prevent this ever happening to you I have left a small paragraph at the very end just explaining how to get rid of any poison from your aloe vera plants. It also includes tips on how to avoid tax dodging hippies that tell you to rub the whole plant directly on your face.
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This reaction lasted several days, and is a clear example of contact dermatitis.
To treat the reaction I abandonded my bushcraft altogether and used TCP (an Irish medicine cabinate staple) on a wet cloth to eviserate any irritants left in or on my skin, I then also abandonded the wet cloth and further burned my skin by applying undiluted TCP. I also would not reccommend this.
This seemed to do the trick though it left the side of my face extremely dry, flakey, and burned, - as there were no natural oils left as a result of the TCP's magic.
This is where our recipe comes in, it is this rose oil that I used to resore my facial skin, and ultimately improve it, with accelerated results from continued use(though I do not reccommend this on exceptionally sensitive skin, it's a thin oil and is fine for regular oily, combination/oily, and dry skin).
The carrier oil we are using is Rapeseed Oil, if you google rapeseed oil, you will be told by many forums that it is the same thing as Canola oil. This is incorrect. Rapeseed oil is from the turnip family, as is Canola, the difference is that Canola is a genetically modified hybrid of Rapeseed, (invented in Canada in the 1980s) with some components removed to suit the Canadian/American markets in both taste and percieved saftey. Canola factories usually have to ensure a product is identical in every batch, which is necessary if it is to be used for biodeisel or industrial use, however as a result of this industrial process it is an irritant to the skin. It is also less useful for polishing, preserving, and fine cooking, or making things such as this rose oil.
One of the aspects in the production of Canola oil that makes it less useful is that it is heated - this destroys the nutrients that we need, and it's also the reason that we will not be heating the recipe at any point, a change from most of my oil-based recipes.
A few of the nutrients and vitimans included in Rapeseed oil are very high levels of Omega 3, 6, and 9, and glorious vitiman E which will do a lot of the work in providing you with instant results when treating dry or irritated objects like woods, leathers and flesh.
We need pure pressed Rapeseed oil for this, from one source (the same one feild of rape plant). In Ireland where I live you are almost guarenteed to only see one ingredient listed on any lable, that being "non GM 100% Irish pressed Rapeseed oil". As oils go, it has a relatively short lifespan, (roughly one year when bottled, though when used on certain materials the improvements last for quite some time) it isn't ideal for long-term flower preserving projects when the flowers are left in the bottle, though I have had good results with removing the flowers from the oil after about 6 weeks and leaving them out to dry again. This greatly improves the vibrancy of colour and life-span of your dried flower once exposed to air.
The steps involved in the process of making both rose water and rose oil are straight forward. Open bottle, pour in dried roses, pour in enough oil to cover roses, close bottle.
It is its environment that renders this recipe particularly useful, as you can manipulate it for your preferred use quite easily, making it versitile - and as I am discovering weekly, handy for things you wouldn't expect.
Here are some images of the process, I took them under poor light with a phone camera so you can't see the pretty shimmer in the oil, though you can't deny that they are very cute indeed.
how is this different from other oil recipes shared here?
what should I use it for?
