All things rosy and bright!
You may have seen that we have bought out two new products recently with a bit of a rosy theme; Rose Face Mask and Rose Floral Water.
Roses have been used for centuries for skincare and they remain hugely popular today….for good reason! Just a quick google of ‘rose petals in skincare’ will bring up a wide range of benefits from anti-inflammatory, and anti-bacterial, to anti-aging and skin hydrating. Roses are often incorporated in to skincare and are in a large number and variety of products on the market.
You can use roses in a number of ways in skincare, through rose essential oil, rose water, rose petals or even rose hips. We opt not to use rose essential oil as it is not produced in the UK and is actually pretty unsustainable, needing 1000s of rose petals for just 1ml of essential oil. Same deal for rosehips, commercially available rosehip oil is not made from UK rosehips, although you can pick your own rosehips from British hedgerows in the autumn and make a delish skin boosting tea or jelly!
Our new Rose Floral Water is made by the steam distillation of hand picked English damask roses whilst our Rose Face Mask has dried English organic rose petals mixed through it.
So what makes roses so effective for bright, clear skin?
Rose petals, especially damask roses, are really high in antioxidants. Now to get a bit sciency…antioxidants are molecules that prevent free radicals from causing ‘oxidative stress’ within the body. Free radicals are unstable molecules with an unpaired electron. They are formed by normal matabolic processes in the body but also by exposure to air pollutants, smoking, industrial chemicals, and ozone. Free radicals try to become stable by stealing an electron from another molecule, this process is known as ‘oxidative stress’ and leaves a chain of unstable molecules which wreak havoc on the skin (and other parts of the body, but we’re concentrating on the skin here!). Oxidative stress causes a decrease in the strength of the skin’s structure and can be seen in the skin as wrinkles, fine lines, dullness, dryness and uneven skin pigmentation.
Antioxidants can help prevent oxidative stress by ‘donating’ an electron without themselves becoming unstable thus reducing the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines, skin pigmentation etc. You find antioxidants in a variety of foods such as tomatoes, blueberries, spinach (eat the rainbow) and also in topical skincare products for example products that contain vitamin C and E and rose petals which contain really high levels of polyphenols, a powerful antioxidant.
How can you use roses in your skincare routine?
As mentioned above, we don’t use rosehip oil or rose essential oil in our products as they are not produced from UK roses, however both of these products are high in antioxidants and have skin boosting properties (apparently Kate Middleton is a fan of daily application of rosehip oil!) so you could use them in your skincare routine.
At Hedgewild, we prefer to keep things local, meaning that we only use British roses and currently we use them in our Rose Floral Water and Rose Face Mask.
To get a daily dose of anti-aging antioxidants in your skincare routine try;
Spritzing rose floral water over face first thing for a refreshing, rosy wake up.
Wiping rose floral water over clean skin as a toner.
Spritzing rose floral water over skin before applying your moisturiser (such as our Beauty Balm) so that hydration is locked in to your skin.
Using our rose face mask twice a week on clean skin
Mixing our face mask with rose floral water to give a double whammy rosy hit.
You could also make yourself a rosehip tea with locally foraged rosehips; an excellent way to get those rosy antioxidants!
The benefits of using roses, especially beautiful British grown roses in your skincare routine is huge! So why not try our two new products; find out more about them here.
As always, would love to know if you’ve tried our new products, what you thought of them or if there’s anything you’d like to see from hedgewild, do leave a comment below!
Kitty x
