For the love of Roses
The Rose flower is thirty five million years old and has always been associated with love. Renowned for representing romance and beauty across time in nearly all cultures.
Rose oil is highly prized, and it can take about up to 242,000 rose petals to distill approximately 5 ml of pure essential rose oil.
Perfume
Rose Otto is the most well known Rose scent and otto is pale yellow in colour and has a sweet, rich, deep floral-spicy aroma; in its absolute form it has a dark amber colour with a sweet, tenacious floral scent that is unmistakable.
The complexity of the scent is like no other which is why it’s so highly valued, but the degree to which the absolute is concentrated means it is ideal for use in perfume but it’s use in skincare is severely restricted to very low concentrations.
Rose Otto has many constituents that are prized, and mysterious, but also elements that people are allergic to, and sensitive skin can be easily triggered by Rose Otto because of its high levels of its natural allergen constituents
Gentler alternatives exist for more sensitive skin types;
Sensitive Skincare
Rose centrifolia is an absolute from the cabbage Rose or ‘Rose De Mai’ developed in the 17th century or earlier, it’s a a Dutch hybrid.
Thought to have a younger lighter scent than regular Rose and considered to be a skin conditioning agent.
Rosa centifolia contains a few vitamins and antioxidants that help moisturise dry skin. Its also astringent, with natural properties that help to tighten skin pores and to reducing the appearance of redness and existing inflammation, especially inflammation from swollen capillaries.
Rose Centrifolia’s scent is also a gentle but powerful anti-depressant, thought to balances the psyche and is used to ease the effects of stress-related conditions in aromatherapy.
Rose Centrifolia isfar less likely to trigger allergies than the more powerful Rose Otto, and can be used in formulas for the more sensitive skin types.
Coloured from Organic Rose Petals;
Essential Oils
Rose Geranium or Geranium Bourbon (Pelargonium graveolens) used to be planted in gardens to keep evil spirits at bay, it has many similar constituents to Rose, without the natural indole which can smell slightly rotten.
It is used often to improve the scent of Rose, and Rose Geranium is also used as a flavouring in the food industry. It’s thought to be a feminine balancing oil in aromatherapy, helping to ease menstrual discomfort and bring irregular periods into harmony.
Mentally it’s a very soothing and calming oil, that also calms elements in fragrance blends, used for evening out the jarring effects of other scents.
Rose geranium essential oil calms the brain region, known as the limbic system, and has a positive influence on the nervous system which can reduce stress levels along with heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and it can even improve immune function.
Wild Rose
Rose Hip is a dry oil, from the Dog Rose (Rosa canina) often seen growing wild, and it’s oil is high in linoleic acid, which is one of the acids that acne skin is often depleted in.
This lack of linoleic acids can lead to poor skin health. Rose hip seed oil is also thought to be good for dry and mature skin, as high linoleic oils are the best for improving the skin barrier which can become depleted over time, as collagen decreases.
Dry oils will absorb without clogging pores, and are non-comedogenic, so this feels light and healing but has no heavy lipid elements that feed or encourage over growth of the delicately balanced skin fauna and flora.
It won’t feel as if there is a thick lipid layer left on top of the skin, which can confuse some users who think dry oil means drying on the skin. Rose hip simply soaks in, does it’s work, and repairs invisibly.
Rose Hip is a very constituent rich and features plenty of provitamin A from beta-Carotene and it’s a a perfect source of natural botanical vitamin A, with high levels (357 mg/L) of tretinoin or what is called all-trans retinoic acid, the super useful vitamin A acid that retinol converts too.
Rose Vitamins
This form of Vitamin A can benefit skin by reducing and reversing sun damage, reducing wrinkles, reducing hyperpigmentation as well as treating mild to moderate acne.
There is also a lot of anecdotal evidence that rose-hip oil reduces the appearance of scars and stretch marks though this is not proven in clinical research as yet.
These effects are thought to be because of the increased levels of vitamin A, vitamin C, and fatty acid content of the oil.
Rose Phytosterols
As we said Rose-hip seed oil is especially rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids like: linoleic acid (54.05%), linolenic acid (19.37%), and phytosterols, mainly β-sitosterol (82.1%) so you can see why using rosehip seed, and it’s seed oil can be an amazing source of phytonutrients.
Phytosterols are chosen for anti-aging creams and sun-care lotions as oils and creams containing phytosterols can offer strong UV-protection. Sun screen is still advised! They also have anti-inflammatory effects, so this an ideal ingredient for the treatment of atopic eczema as well as for the protection and improvement of the more delicate skin barrier in those with mature skin.
