Everything you need to know about facial hydrosols

Facial hydrosols are now in a category of cosmetics that are rapidly gaining popularity. Many lovers of beauty novelties even replace thermal water or a more familiar tonic with hydrolat.

Hydrolat is a cosmetic product that is obtained from plants by steam distillation. And choose for these purposes plants with a high content of essential oils. For this reason, hydrolat is called flower water. The most popular components of the product are rose, calendula, mint, rosemary, lavender, ginseng. The difference between hydrolate and fragrant water is that the essential oils in its composition are treated with polysorbates. And to extend the shelf life of the product, preservatives are added to its formula. Of course, the cosmetic properties of such products will lose to the natural composition.

Hydrolate is a mild, natural herbal product. Its homogeneous composition is attractive, in which oil particles cannot be seen. But the hydrosol retains the valuable properties of essential oils. And if pure oils often have to be diluted, flower water does not need such manipulation.

Let's take a closer look at what a hydrosol is:

• it was originally by-product, which remained during the production of essential oils;
• modern manufacturers were able to get hydrolate using not only oil crops, now aromatic water is made by distillation of leaves, fruits, flowers, stems, roots of a plant;
• scientifically speaking, hydrosol is condensed steam that passes through the plant mass and absorbs its most valuable bioactive substances.

Thus, it is not difficult to answer the question of why hydrolate is needed. This is a wonderful modern natural cosmetic product that helps the skin to maintain youth and health. Floral water cleanses, improves the tone of the face, brightens pigmented areas. The product can even smooth out the first age wrinkles. It perfectly fights redness and irritation, helps to solve the problem of acne and dermatitis. On the basis of hydrolate, cleansing and anti-inflammatory compresses can be made.

Moreover, many women use a beauty product not only for facial skin. They apply hydrolate to the hair, which strengthens the hair follicles and even eliminates dandruff. You can pour flower water into a spray bottle and apply it to your hair like this: light moisturizing and a wonderful aroma will be quite useful. And with the help of aromatic water, women struggle with cellulite, rosacea, corns.

Every woman in a wide range of hydrolats will find her product. It is very important to choose exactly the option that will be optimal for a particular consumer. Manufacturers and prices are quite different, ratings are constantly updated.Today they produce separately hydrolats for the face, body, hair. But the main criterion for dividing the product by type is the composition.

The description of the hydrosol base includes only natural ingredients.

• Cornflower. A modest flower demonstrates by no means modest characteristics in cosmetology. The plant fights against the first age-related changes in the skin, helps to reduce the severity of sagging on already aged skin. Daily rubbing of the dermis with cornflower hydrosol helps tone the skin, brighten its tone and generally refresh.
• Sage. It is a phytoestrogen, an antioxidant, and even an anti-acne remedy. This characteristic sounds very attractive, and if the buyer is also looking for a pore cleanser, sage leaves no chance for other hydrosols. It is believed that this flower water starts the regenerative processes in the skin, making it more elastic and refreshed.
• Mint. And this product is suitable for problem skin, inflamed, polluted. It helps to cope with the manifestations of acne, removes oily sheen and brightens the marks of healed acne. In addition, mint water pleasantly cools the dermis.
• Lavender. A pleasant product with a delicate floral aroma. Even one smell has a relaxing effect on the nervous system. Well, for the face, this product is valuable for its regenerative properties. For sensitive and irritated skin, this choice is optimal.
• Chamomile. It is also a good remedy for soothing irritated skin. If the potential risk of an allergic reaction is higher for other products, then with chamomile, as a rule, such problems do not happen.
• Rosemary. Good for both skin and hair. With it, you can get rid of dandruff, even severe. Prevents hair loss.When applied to the skin of the face, it refreshes it, evens out the tone, relieves swelling.

And now about which brands are dominating the hydrosol market today. This rating is one of the possible ones, and personal experience of application will always be more convincing than any leader lists. Among the best manufacturers of facial hydrosols will be several brands.

• Levrana "Cornflower". For tone, increase skin elasticity - one of the best tools today.
• "Crimean Rose". Has the most gentle, refreshing aroma. Acts like the best tonic.
• DNC Chamomile. If you need a product for matting the skin, something better than this product should still be looked for.
• MI&KO Lavender. An excellent choice if you need to choose a product specifically for evening skin care.
• Grace&Stella "Rose and Aloe". And this tool is chosen by those who cannot decide on the narrow purpose of the hydrolate and are looking for something universal.

Hydrolates, like other cosmetics, have a clear purpose. If you choose exactly on demand, you are more likely to buy an effective product. Tip for choosing flower water according to skin type:

• problematic - rosemary, mint, chamomile, tea tree, lemon balm;
• normal - buy a product with verbena, lavender, calendula, green tea;
• sensitive - look for hydrolat with chamomile, jasmine, rose, witch hazel;
• oily - help wormwood, sage and rosemary, as well as pine, mint, neroli;
• dry - rose, jasmine and ylang-ylang will save the skin;
• combined - green tea, neroli, sage will give her youth;
• skin with couperose - look for a product with rose, witch hazel, chamomile, neroli.

For lovers of home cosmetology, the request for self-production of hydrolat is also relevant. At home, this is not so easy to do, but it is quite possible. Especially if a woman already has experience in making a cream or tonic with her own hands.

Let's consider the algorithm for preparing hydrolate using the example of chamomile. What will be required:

• chamomile herbal raw materials (fresh or dry);
• any suitable heat-resistant container (enamelled or glass);
• a large strainer for straining;
• a glass vessel (or a tall bowl);
• 0.5 liters of distilled water;
• some foil.

The homemade hydrosol recipe includes several steps.

• Thoroughly clean the plant wash and dry.
• Place a glass vessel in the center of a heat-resistant container. Ready flower water will be collected in it.
• Lay vegetable raw materials around the vessel. Fill it with water, put on fire.
• If the container is selected with a sieve of the same diameter, pour water into a container, put the chamomile in a sieve so that it does not come into contact with water. Chamomile should be in contact exclusively with steam.
• As soon as the water boils, the container must be closed with an inverted lid (it should be a lid without a handle). And, importantly, the edges of the lid should be “glued” to the edges of the container. It is more convenient to do this with foil, but some craftsmen sculpt dough on the place of “gluing” - it also does an excellent job with this function.
• You need to boil the composition for a long time and slowly, several hours. All this time, you have to control the degree of boiling of water - you can not let it boil strongly.At this stage, steam is formed, it condenses on the lid, settling into a glass bowl.
• If you need to speed up the process, put ice packs on top of the lid (but in the case of a glass lid, this cannot be done).
• Flower water is almost ready! The liquid that settles in the bowl after the water bath will be the hydrolat. Absolutely pure, natural, without any harmful preservatives and stabilizers.

By purchasing (or making your own) hydrolat, you can use it not only for the face. Floral water is suitable both as a means for direct action (skin, hair), and as a basis for diluting dry masks. Hydrolat, by the way, can be used to wipe fresh piercings, in some cases it is even used for douching (but only some types and only after consulting a doctor).

And a few more tips from experts on the use of flower water.

• The best way to use hydrolat is to wipe. In this way, you can achieve the maximum effect of a cosmetic product. The effect of cleansing and toning the skin is also achieved precisely by rubbing. Vegetable water perfectly removes the remnants of milk or cream for removing cosmetics. If you apply it on a cotton pad, it will remove dead particles from the skin and exfoliate it.
• The second possible application is irrigation. For example, when applying a clay mask to the skin, removing it from the face is sometimes problematic. So, in this case, irrigation with flower water will make the procedure for removing clay simple and quick. If the room is stuffy, then irrigation with hydrosol is also great for the skin.Finally, irrigation is also possible after coming from the street, where the sun is mercilessly scorching - flower water soothes the dermis.

If it is decided to use flower water not only for the face, then use it optimally. in the form of a spray. It perfectly tames "stubborn" curls, moisturizes curls. For example, hydrolat with linden and hops even helps the hair gain additional volume. Floral water is enough to simply spray on clean hair (wet or dry, it doesn’t matter). In case of problems associated with hair loss, the use of burdock hydrosol is an excellent solution. After the hair is washed, aromatic water with a cotton pad should be applied to the scalp. The movements should be soaking. It is not necessary to rinse off the flower water, the hair is dried and styled in the usual way.

Hydrolate is one of the brightest representatives of modern biocosmetics.. This product is loved by those who cannot stand the extra “chemistry” on the body, trust natural cosmetic products, and want to naturally take care of the skin condition. You need to choose the product carefully: fragrant water is not an analogue of hydrolate. If fragrant water with the smell of a rose, then it will be exactly the same, recognizable smell. Hydrolate, on the other hand, turns plant aromas into more medicinal smells - they have more herbal and tea notes.

For information on what hydrolat is and how to use it, see the following video.