The idea for this Hydrating Rose Water Everything Spray came from watching a makeup tutorial on YouTube. Wayne Goss was chatting about how using a rose water/glycerin mist in combination with powdered mineral makeup let him wear loads of it and still have it look natural. The tutorial was on how to transform your foundation into skin, and while that title might be pushing the truth a bit, I was still intrigued.
The gist of the tutorial is this; mist your face with rosewater after every layer of a powdered mineral makeup/blush/highlight/etc. The added hydration helps the powder really mesh with your skin, giving it a more natural, dewy look. He didn’t say much about the specific rose water he was using, other than it being very expensive, and somewhere in the comments he said it also contained glycerin. Well… that’s easy. And definitely not worth whatever obscene sum he implied he was paying for it!
Rose water is a byproduct of the distillation process that creates rose essential oil—it’s not just water infused with rose petals, so you can’t make it at home unless you have a still and a whole lotta fresh roses. When it comes to buying rose water, you’ll want to look in the international grocery section—that’s where you’ll find the best price. Rose water for eating is about $6–10 for 300mL/10fl oz, whereas rose water for putting on your skin is close to $20 for 473mL/16 fl oz at New Directions! The only real difference is that the grocery stuff is going to be food grade, so you could also include it in cocktails if you wanted to—that’s an easy choice!
It’s said that Cleopatra used rose water as part of her beauty routine. It’s a mild astringent, has antibacterial properties, and is said to be anti-inflammatory. It smells beautifully (though softly) of roses, and is one of the most cost effective ways to incorporate a rose scent into your concoctions (rose essential oil is terrifyingly expensive at ~$100/tsp). It helps tone, cool, and hydrate the skin, it can help tackle redness in the complexion, and I find it downright indulgent (a splash is also lovely in cucumber or lemon water).
With all those lovely things said about rose water, I really haven’t done much to improve upon it. I’ve added some vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada) to boost its hydrating power—especially useful for drier complexions or climates. I’ve also included some allantoin (USA / Canada)—a soothing, healing ingredient that’s found in comfrey. It’s a great addition if your skin is sensitive, but is totally optional. Last but not least, there’s also a broad spectrum preservative to ward off any nasties (rose water is fundamentally water and it’s better to be safe than sorry when you’re spraying it near your eyes and mouth!). I’ve also put it in a spray bottle to make it easier to use—when my rose water is hidden away in my fridge, I usually forget it exists.
While inspiration for this spray was as a way to really perk up and perfect your makeup, there are so many other things you can use it for! As a mid-day refreshing spray, a pre-bed or first-thing facial toner, a body spray, an aftershave, an after-sun spritz, or even a pillow mist. You could also try making it with a different hydrosol, like orange blossom or lavender, or try raw honey instead of vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada).
The compact is a vintage one I bought at Camden Market in London.
Hydrating Rose Water Everything Spray
50mL | 3 tbsp + 1 tsp rose hydrosol
10mL | 2 tsp vegetable glycerin or raw honey1/32 tsp allantoin (USA / Canada) (optional) (I use these tiny measuring spoons for tiny measurements like this)
Broad spectrum preservative of choice (why?)
I used 0.3g Liquid Germall PlusUse a funnel to pour the ingredients into a 60mL (2 fl oz) spray bottle. Cap a shake to combine.
To use, mist over your face while applying mineral makeup and let dry completely before adding another layer or moving onto a different powder.
You can also use it as a refreshing face mist, a pillow spray, toner, aftershave, or anything else you can think of. Enjoy!
Love your posts, and I love this. I use mineral makeup exclusively, so this intrigues me. Can you tell me what allantoin is, and what it’s used for? I also live in Calgary, so wondered where you purchased it?
Hey Dee! Allantoin is a rather unassuming white powder that can be derived from a variety of natural things like comfrey, but is usually chemically synthesized (I am ok with this as it can also be derived from urine, and I’d prefer that not to be one of many possible “natural sources”). It’s a wonderful healer—it promotes cellular replication, encouraging the healing of burns and other booboos. Common in everything from lipstick to diaper creme to anti-acne products, it’s safe (0/10 on Skin Deep) and awesome. I bought mine online from Saffire Blue, but if you are looking for a local source, Windy Point also has it and they are lovely 🙂
I so have to make this! At the moment I have many many hydrosols in my cart: Damascus rose, chamomile, mint, and others! I so need to buy orange if I can find it!
Ooh, decadent! I’ve never seen orange hydrosol before, it sounds like it would be delicious in smoothies 😀
You can find an orange blossom water by Cortas on Amazon, which is my personal favorite brand for rose water! I haven’t seen this water in the store though and amazon has a high price! But if you can find it in the international section or at a middle eastern market, use this in place of an orange hydrosol!
Oh yum! I think I may actually already have some in my fridge from Superstore—it sure smells great 🙂
Could I use rose infused water instead of rose hydrosol?
LOOOOVE this! I really love my mineral foundation and have been a loose powder wearer for well over a year until now, but this trick is the best! This is how I wear my powders when I use them. I do it exactly as Wayne does as well. Thank you for sharing! I believe anyone can use powders when the skin is prepped well and this trick is used 😉
Wahoo! I definitely think the wearing powders thing has something to do with the quality of the powder, too 😉 I’m not sure cornstarch + cinnamon could be fixed with this trick haha 😛
I have been using rosewater and glycerin for years. The brand I highly recommend is Heritage Store (heritagestore.com). Their rosewater is made from roses that have been tested for pesticides.
Thanks, Lisa! 🙂
Check out Bulgarian Rose Otto online also Alteya is same and it’s out of Chicago and you can find on fb. Read up on their Rose and lavender productsn and they grow & harvest & distill them right on their plantation. The Rose is the best I’ve ever smelt it makes my mouth water. I love the rose water too.
Oh goodness—so tempting! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I’m looking for a natural, skin safe/beneficial tint to just give my rose water mist the faintest of pink tints. Any suggestions?
I find most natural colourants will oxidize and fade/turn brown in a watery base within a week or less. I’d probably try carmine as a first option, but I know a red FD&C dye would give the most stable colour (though it isn’t natural).
Holy moly! That dudes eyes were gorgeous! I was completely under his eyes spell.
When I next go down to the big city, I’m getting some rosewater. You and Green Eyes with Gold Flecks have sold me on the absolute need for rosewater. I want to look dewy, too.
Marie, can you concoct something to make my eyes look like his, pretty please???
Ha! You’ll be the first to know if I can invent some sort of gold-eye-flecking thing, I promise 😉
Hi Marie,
Where did you get the spray bottles shown in the pic (not the ones linked in the direction box)? Those silver/frosted ones in the pic are super elegant and pretty 🙂
They’re from NDA, but have been discontinued 🙁
Holy mackerel this stuff is amazing… The minute I finished shaking it up I spritzed it on my face a few times (it’s about 95 here today and my makeup game is only so-so right now) and I feel so refreshed, my skin looks instantly more alive and awake and it smells SO GOOD. So much better than those fake rose scents in perfumes. Plus, the heavenly scent and feel and look make me feel so much more glamorous! This recipe is definitely staying in my arsenal!
Woohoo! I’m so glad you are loving it 😀 Yayyyyy for roses and super simple (yet super awesome) DIYs!
Love it! I noticed most store bought rose waters already have preservative in them. If so, do I still need to add a preservative?
This is a bit tricky. The standard answer would be yes—anytime you make something with water, you need a preservative regardless of whether or not any of its components are pre-preserved. But… this is not a lotion, where there’s a ton of extra stuff. It’s still mostly rose water, by a wide margin. So… I’d still say yes and err on the side of caution, but you might be able to get away without it, depending on what its preserved with. Citric acid? Definitely add a real preservative. Parabens? Maybe? That might be strong enough for our wee additions? Eeee. I added a preservative, so that’ll be my “official” recommendation, but now you have some musings as well, haha.
Hey Marie! I am surely going to try this! The only preservative I have on hand is optiphen. Would you consider that to be broad spectrum?
It’s not recommended by the experts without additional preservatives—check out this page for more info 🙂
I just wanted to add the TBK sells allantoin and by the ounce at that. It is not expensive when you buy it that way. Plus they sell Carmine and liquid carmine in castor oil which is helpful also.
Thank you for your great recipes. You truly are an inspiration and I don’t think you know how grateful people are for your recipes.
Thanks, Ginny! I love TKB, I just wish they were Canadian 😛 Their carmine is fantastic, as are all their pigments. SWOON. Thanks so much for reading and for your kind words 😀
I added a tiny bit of silk peptides, as I have quite a lot and you had used it in your other rosewater spray. It feels really – ahem – silky now! I use the spray as a ‘moisturiser’ during the day and my skin feels lovely.
Good call! I only left ’em out ’cause I didn’t want to make this recipe exactly like that old one, haha 😛 SILK ALL THE THINGS! 😉
On the rosewater thing, I make my own “hydrosols.” Easy enough to do and instructions are online. I grow my own herbs/flowers and then buy organic if I can’t grow it. I’ve made orange, rosemary, lavender, rose and so on. If it’s fragrant, you can do it.
Here’s a website with pictures for reference for those interested:
http://mamarosemary.com/blog/2013/07/26/how-to-make-a-hydrosol
Very cool! Perhaps I’ll give it a go next year when my rose bushes are in bloom 🙂 Do be very careful with the shelf life and preservative life, though—the homemade versions will be significantly harder to preserve than the shop-bought ones, and the shop-bought ones are still tricky!
Sterilization is the key. I use mostly on my hair (curly girl). I’ve had it last up to 4 years in the fridge with no visible growth.
Good to hear 🙂 I never know so I feel like I always have to pull out the “but what about spoilage” bit ;P
I’m now not convinced that the rosewater we buy in the grocery section is the same as cosmetic grade. I was at Superstore and picked up a bottle in the international section (same brand as in your photo). When I got home and looked at the label, it reads “natural rose flavor”. That’s probably the reason for the bargain price compared to cosmetic grade. Fine, if all you’re looking for is the rose scent, but not if you want the benefits of the real thing.
Oh, it DEFINITELY isn’t. It’s the budget option, for sure. It’s definitely inferior, but it’ll do for a bit of bargain rose scent.
Hi Marie,
Noticed that you recommended raw honey as a substitute for the vegetable glycerin. How difficult is it to dissolve?
Asking because I have the honey readily available, & would like to make this ASAP instead of having to order the glycerin. Thanks in advance.
Small amounts of honey tend to dissolve easily in large amounts of water, especially if the honey has not crystallized 🙂 Gently warming the mixture always helps, too! Do keep in mind that honey makes the mixture much harder to preserve, so including a true broad spectrum preservative is a MUST!
Hi! I was so excited to make this tonight as soon as I sprayed it on my face, it stung…has anyone encountered this? I don’t have overly sensitive skin, so I’m not sure what it could be? Thoughts? Thanks!
Hmm. What preservative did you use? Did you make any changes?
Hi! No, no changes at all. Made exactly as written. I used liquid germall plus. It’s funny though, now that I have left it to sit for a few days, it doesn’t sting anymore! I wonder if I was just too eager to use it and the ingredients hadn’t completely dissolved yet? I just can’t get enough of rose water. Thanks for this recipe!
That is odd indeed, but I’m glad it settled out. Is there any chance you re-purposed the spray bottle and perhaps still had some cleaner in the mister tube/head? In any event, glad you’re loving it!
Marie, do you suppose we could use this on our hair as a leave-in after wash spray? (fine-hair girl here…)
There’s no reason why not, though I would probably use panthenol instead of allantoin as allantoin really has no benefits for the hair. This is basically just water, so it’s definitely not going to weigh anything down!
Hi. Can you tell me what percentage preservative this is please? I can’t work it out as it’s in grams and the rest of the ingredients are in liquid measurements. Thank you.
0.3g = 0.5% 🙂 Apologies for the silliness with the measurements here, I have no idea why I wrote it this way… it’s rather dumb :/
lol. No worries. I was trying to change the quantities as I dont have a scale that can measure smaller than 2 grams and at 1 gram increments. I ended up doing 10X the recipe.
This is lovely by the way. I didn’t have the alantoin, but still wonderful. Very hydrating.
Thank you.
Wow! At 10x I’m very glad to hear you love it 🙂 I would recommend getting a more accurate scale when you can; making 10x of everything will quickly have you drowning in DIYs, ha!
it was for Christmas gifts, not all for me!
Ah, that makes WAY more sense! Ha!
Hi Marie,
I have read that it is not recommended to use Liquid Germall Plus in aerosol/spray formulations. Why have you used it in your facial toner?
My understanding of the aerosol/sprays thing was that it’s for continuous sprays, like hairsprays, rather than mists. I’ve read it in forums and I believe Susan of Point of Interest also uses LGP in sprays.
Hello!
I realize that this article was published a few years ago but I hope you get my message.
I have been trying to find recipes to make natural homemade moisturizer or hydrating face mist that will not smell horrible , your recipe is exactly the kind of thing I have been looking for.
I have no experience with making homemade beauty products so I am finding all the information you provide in your blog to be very clear and interesting.
Do you think that to this recipe I could add some witch hazel to help with acne? and chamomile essential oil or cucumber hydrosol? ( I don’t know if those 2 fragrances would go well together but i just like them very much)
Will an essential oil work at all , considering that the base is rose water? or should I use waters and hydrosols exclusively for this recipe?
Hey! You definitely can do all those things (though I would recommend chamomile hydrosol over the essential oil so you don’t have to deal with solubilizing the essential oil). I’d recommend reading this FAQ article and then checking out each of the ingredients in my DIY encyclopedia. It would also be a good idea to look at other mists I’ve made, and I think you’d be interested in my ongoing “soothing” series as it uses quite a lot of cucumber and chamomile hydrosols 🙂
Happy making!
Hi Marie,
Thanks for the tip about looking for rose water at the grocery store. I looked for in my local Supstore today. In addition to being in stock, it was on sale. So much more affordable than cosmetic grade rose water. Really looking forward to making things with it.
Awesome! If you do get a chance to check out some cosmetic grade rose hydrosol, though, I do recommend giving it a sniff—I’ve since switched entirely to true rose hydrosol as I find the scent to be faaaar superior, but that might just be me 🙂 Happy making!
Can you put rose petals in the mist for a decorative touch or would they turn brown?
They’ll get pretty gross pretty quickly; I wouldn’t. Happy making!
Can I use Aloe vera Juice instead of rose water?
Yup!
Can you use aloe vera powder or hydrolyzed oats in the place of allantoin?
I’d choose aloe vera powder for this formulation—just be sure it is fully water soluble 🙂 Happy making!
Can i replace vegetable glycerin with panthanol b5? And how much is the amount suggested? Because i found that vegetable glycerin is a bit sticky and not suitable with my country humidity here.. please advise, thanks marrie
Try it and see! Have you looked up glycerin in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia (https://www.humblebeeandme.com/diy-encyclopedia/) for substitution suggestions?
Hi, I am wanting to color the mist. (I am wanting to dupe a certain rose, aloe spray). Any thoughts about what type of colorant to use and how? (Or thoughts about whether this is a good idea)
I’d look at 0.005% red water-soluble dye—something like FD&C Red 7 or 40 🙂
Any tips on incorporating the allantoin powder? I’ve made a test bottle, and I’ve had to shake and shake….and shake to get it to dissolve. Any tricks?