The palace of the king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar was decorated with roses whose petals were used to prepare a scented oil. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome, roses were the symbol of the goddess of love, Aphrodite or Venus, they represented beauty and joy and the rose infused oil was also well known. About this special and powerful beauty oil spoke Pliny and Homer, who, in the Book XXIII of the Iliad described that Aphrodite applied on Hector's body a rose infused oil to protect him from the anger of Achilles. So let's see how to prepare at home a powerful ointment, of ancient tradition, based on a vegetable oil and rose petals. We can apply this precious lotion on our body, just like the ancients and, according to myths and legends, the gods of Olympus.
Properties and uses
This preparation has a relaxing, anxiolytic and analgesic action, therefore it is an excellent massage oil to calm in case of stress and nervousness or to counteract pain, muscle tensions or the typical bellyache caused by heavy periods (Mohebitabar et al, Avicenna J Phytomed, May 2017). Moreover, massages with rose infused oil have proven to be useful to bring relief in case of back pain, even, for example, pain localized in lower back during pregnancy (Shirazi et al, J Evid Based Complementary Altern Med., Jan 2017). If applied on damp skin as a serum, rose oil results antioxidant and anti-inflammatory (Myung-hee Lee et al, Food Sci Nutr, Nov 2018), therefore it is useful both in case of mature skin with wrinkles and young skin with pimples, spots and blemishes.
Preparation
Pour a cup of sweet almond oil, if you want to use the preparation as a massage oil, or jojoba if you intend to apply it as a serum on the skin of the face, in a glass container and place the jar in a bowl full of warm water so that it is in the heat, take care that the water does not enter the container. Apart crush coarsely a cup full of rose petals, you can choose between petals of Rosa damascena, gallica or centifolia, all very beautiful aesthetically and excellent ornamental plants for gardens and balconies. Pour the petals into the oil. Close the jar with a gauze and let it rest. When the water bath has cooled, keep the oil in a warm place, for example near the windows where the sun is beating down. After a day, filter the oil, press the petals well and then repeat the filtering operation. You can repeat the process using other fresh petals to obtain the desired fragrance. Pour the precious lotion in a dark glass container, close it and keep in a cool, dry place.
