Monday, January 16, 2012

Save Your After-Shower: Rose Water and Glycerin Moisturizing Spray

We all know that moisturizing your skin after a shower is a very important process to keeping your skin healthy. We all know those few minutes after getting out of the shower are the best time to apply moisturizer to your skin, but sometimes that can be tedious. I mean let’s face it, applying lotion to your entire body is an arduous timely ordeal and some mornings we simply don’t have the time to complete the task. Even if you do take the time every morning/evening to put on lotion after a shower, you still have trouble getting it in all hard to reach places (like your upper back). One of my biggest reasons I frequently don’t use lotion moisturizer after a shower: the lotion feels so COLD on my skin after I hop out of a hot shower. I hate that.

As much as I have tried to stick to keeping the routine of lotioning-up my skin after each shower, I have to admit I don’t always do it because it the aforementioned issues. I started thinking of solutions to my issues with post-shower moisturizing. How about a spray bottle loaded with skin healthy goodness I could put on my skin? Seemed simple enough! The same day I had this revelation I was at my local Albertson’s supermarket and saw a bottle of Rosewater Glycerin in the pharmacy section. I thought to myself: “That’s perfect! Glycerin is the basis for all moisturizers and the rosewater cuts the solution to make it perfect for pumping through a spray bottle without clumping”. Wow, I thought, I can buy a spray bottle and fill it up with this mixture to use after every shower.

I followed through and the results were awesome. I would dry off after every shower and quickly spray the solution all over my body, even my dry upper back! I spent a minimal about of time rubbing the lotion into my skin to make sure it was evenly distributed, but that only took about 30 seconds. “YES!”, I thought, “my skin is loving this and it this only a fraction of the time I would normally take, and the solution dries SO much faster than lotion – so I can dress faster after my shower.”

I used up the solution so quickly, it only lasted two weeks. I keep going back to Albertson’s to get more, I was hooked. Then I moved to Colorado, where the local Albertson’s did not have solution I needed. I searched the internet and Whole Foods stores only to find that the prices for this solution were ridiculously high. So, let’s make it at home… and that is what I did.
I bought my glycerin online, which you can do here. All I needed was my rosewater! I worked on it and made my own and was more than satisfied with the results. So here we go, here is how you can make your own after-shower spray:

You’ll need:
Large boiling pot
Two small non-plastic bowls
Clear pot lids
Rose petals
Glycerin
Spray bottle

1: Making the rosewater.  After you have your rose petals, you will need to boil the mixture for the rose water. Instead of typing out all the instructions I will post this short video on how to make the water: watch thisYou should have 12 to 16 ounces of rosewater when done.
2: Once you have the rosewater and it is still warm, pour one part rosewater with one part glycerin into your spray bottle. Shake rigorously.
3: Spray over your entire body after you towel off from your shower every morning.
4: Enjoy having more time and soft skin.

Tip: if you want extra scent in your mixture, add desired essential oil (4 drops only) to the boiling water in step 1, do not add to finished bottle.