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| Here is a Rosa Rugosa in my front yard that smells so delicious – I love to leave the windows open so I can smell it throughout the day. |
Aaaah roses! Their fragrance is magnificent. It is called upon in poetry, mythology and human history as a symbol of love and romance. Used traditionally as both an aphrodisiac and to soothe a broken heart. It is uplifting and soothing, inviting connection and joy when it is smelled.
The Egyptian Queen Cleopatra is said to have adored fragrances. Up to 300 guests at her banquets would wear crowns or braided garlands of roses. (The scent of roses was thought to prevent intoxication!) Rose petals littered the floor of her dining halls, sometimes knee deep. I would have loved to go to those parties just to smell the roses!
Rose oil is one of the costliest oils to make. The process of making pure Rose essential oil involves picking the petals by hand before sunrise and putting them into a copper still where a small amount of oil is distilled. Tiny amounts. It takes 2 tons of rose petals to make a liter of rose essential oil! What?! No wonder it costs so much! And no wonder my aromatherapy teacher Kathy Duffy says that one drop of essential oil can be as strong as 1,000 flowers.
Here you can get an ounce for 945.00! That’s if you get it before it sells out!
https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/search?page=1&q=rose+essential+oils&utf8=%E2%9C%93
(I get my rose oil diluted in jojoba for $14.98 for 5ml but they’re sold out right now.)
http://www.av-at.com/essential-oils/dilutions/rose-otto-10-in-jojoba-detail/?Itemid=130
Rose is one of the most adulterated and synthesized oils out there and often people buy the Absolute, which is not quite as expensive but the process of obtaining an Absolute oil uses chemicals and solvents. The solvents can never fully be cleared from the final product (yuck!) so I don’t use it in my practice.
So, the point of this newsletter is to get you out there smelling actual roses! And if you are doing that-hooray! Smelling them outside and in your vases is much less expensive and more satisfying than buying the oil. Roses are abundantly blooming out there right now. Even the wild rose or the Multiflora rose, which can be an invasive pest, smells glorious. It is blooming all over the place, in fields and yards and along the roads in big thorny shrubs and vines. Enjoy this time where you can feel like Cleopatra, taking in the glorious fragrance of roses whenever you like!
The smell of rose warmed in the sun is truly transporting, so get your nose in a rose flower before they fade or the Japanese beetles come (Those beetles will be here soon and they really decrease the fun of smelling roses! Eek!)
