Today's Fab Flowers!

We did this arrangement for a fabulous client today and are in love with the colors and textures. Hope you are too!

'Ivy' League: Rosewater

We are starting a little thing on our blog called 'Ivy' League, where we'll teach you new and fabulous things. Today's subject is on how to make your own rosewater!
So... on a recent visit to my mum's farm I decided to make rosewater. You know I work with flowers all the time but have recently been excited to turn them into things other than arrangements and bouquets! Rosewater is one of my favorite things in my skin care regime... its wonderful as a light toner and skin refresher. I put it in a spray bottle and spray my face before moisturizing and if I need a little pick me up.
That being said, here's how to make it!

First I went out to our rose bushes and pulled lots of petals off the flowers. Any rose petals will do but try to get them from an organic grower or your own garden because you definitely don't want pesticides in your rosewater.

Aren't the colors gorge?
Next I built a bit of a 'home still' by putting a brick in the center of an enormous pot. (I like this huge lobster pot) Then I surrounded the brick w/ the petals and covered them with water.

On top of the brick I put a large pyrex bowl so it is sort of floating in the center of the pot above the rose petals.

The next step is to flip the lid of the post over and put it on. This way it's sort of and when the condensation from the steam (we're about to turn the stove on under the pot) collects it rolls to the center of the overturned lid and drips into the pyrex bowl. Now we're distillin!


When you've flipped the lid over put ice in the center(although I learned this the hard way... putting the ice in a bag or second pyrex bowl may be useful so as it melts you can dump the water without having to remove the lid and precariously carry it to the sink...oy!).



Now go ahead and turn the stove on... bring the water to a boil and then reduce to a gentle simmer. The rose infused steam will hit the cooled lid and start dripping into the inner bowl and voila rosewater! You want to check on it every so often, being SUPER careful not to burn yourself w/ the steam, and empty the bowl into a glass container to cool. Just keep doing this and you'll get lots of lovely fresh rosewater. I'd also suggest having heaps of ice on hand as it melts v. quickly. Just keep replacing it to maintain a chilled lid!

When we'd finished my sister and I decided to use the rosie steam for a little at home facial!
Tres Bien!!!

From my ginormous pot of petals I got a pretty large bottle of rosewater. I've ordered very cute blue glass spray bottles from http://www.specialtybottle.com/
to put all the lovely water in. I'm in the process of making fab labels so I can give all of my girlfriends fancy homemade rosewater 'toner' for the holidays! I hope that you all find this project fun and enjoy your beautiful radiant skin!
Bonne journée!!!