Roses for grown ups

When I was a little girl, I used to collect enormous quantities of rose petals – very often from the large and healthy rose collection in our front garden (Mum and Dad must have been really impressed by my enterprise) – and then mash them into water-filled jam jars.

As every little girl knows, this is how you make perfume.

My Mum even put up with me dabbing brown slimy liquid behind her ears, telling me just how lovely my latest concoction smelled. I guess I was just too young to appreciate that extracting the true essence of rose from petals was the job of a specialist and that I simply didn’t have the tools or know-how for the job.

Thankfully these days you can buy herb and floral essences direct from specialists and by-pass the whole messy business of scent extracting and instead concentrate on making products that will nourish your skin, protect you from over-dependence on commercial chemicals and save you a serious amount of money.

Making your own skincare and cosmetic products is a bit like having a go at cooking great food – by following simple recipes, you can make stuff that’s literally good enough to eat.

We love trying new things at makeitandmendit.com and from the simplest oil & salt rubs (fantastic hand and foot therapy to rub in a few drops of olive oil with some good quality sea salt) to more complex blends of oils and creams, you can create products that will give even the top brands a very long run for their money.

And speaking of money, if you check out our DIY beauty products article on our main website and pick up some astonishing facts and figures about what our collective devotion to cosmetic products costs us in terms of chemical exposure and hard cash – the figures are quite frightening.

Did you know it's possible to apply up to 175 different chemicals to your skin every day if you rely on commercial products?

We’ve recommended some really interesting books and sources for ingredients and even thrown in a few recipes to get you started.

Come on – let’s start making skincare and pampering products that we can trust. And if you’re interested in knowing how to make real rose perfume, here’s a recipe I just found on eHow

Let us know how you get on.
(Clare O'B)