I am going to try to post at least once a week, and since this week has involved attending a plethora of meetings, I haven't had time to do anything extensive. But, every little bit counts, so first a bit about lavender water and why it matters to the Project.
Lavender water is, for all intents and purposes, timeless. The ancient Romans (apparently- if I have any ancient world historians in the audience, please do correct me!) used to use lavender in their baths, and the oldest actual receipts (recipes) for and references to lavender water I have seen date to the mid-14th century; I'm sure the practice of using it is probably much older. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, its supremacy was intermittently usurped by more citrus-based scents like Eau de Cologne (originally its own scent, which I'll address in another post) and Florida Water, but it still remained popular enough to be mentioned in ladies' magazines throughout the period, and enjoyed a massive comeback in the late 19th and early 20th century.
I've seen a number of uses listed for lavender water, some of them more surprising than others. One thing is certain though- no lady's toilette (or pantry) is complete without it!
Lavender water can and has been used for:
-Perfume.
-Face/body wash.
-Freshening linens.
-Cleaning (usually recommended to be put into vinegar solutions to combat the smell).
-Mouthwash
-Flavoring.*
-Sunburn relief.
-Bug repellent (this really works).
-Calming the nerves (lavender is described as "mildly narcotic", and will actually act as a relaxant if put in bathwater, rubbed into the temples, etc. Make sure to mix essential oils with something else like witch hazel if you put them in water or the oil will just float on top).
*When you see lavender water in recipes, ALWAYS make it of actual water infused with lavender and proof alcohol, NOT the kind made with essential oils and witch hazel. I don't recommend ingesting this as made with essential oil- while neither it not witch hazel seem to actually be harmful, especially in trace amounts, the scientific jury is split enough that I'd think twice about it. One drop of essential oil is the equivalent of about 50 plants, and you wouldn't drink 50 cups of any other herbal tea.
The three basics of lavender water are:
-Soaked lavender in water OR lavender essential oil.
-Water
-Some kind of dispersant to mix the water and oil. This is usually some kind of proof alcohol (vodka works) or witch hazel. Depending on what you want to use your water for, change the dispersant accordingly.
For my recipe I used:
-3 ounces distilled water (tap water will work fine if you can't get distilled).
-1 ounce witch hazel
-10 drops lavender essential oil.
Add all ingredients together and shake well.
(Note: 1 fl. oz= 1/8 cup)
I was filling up a glass jar I bought to hold the water, so I ended up multiplying the whole recipe by ten. I decided to use oil and witch hazel because I'm not going to be ingesting this. Witch hazel is wonderful for the skin, and is sure to lend itself to the task if you intend to use the water for any skin-related purposes.
I also (as you can see below) ended up dyeing the water slightly purple with blue and red food dye, one drop of each- I wanted it to be more blue so I put in a drop of blue in a glass and then dabbed the red on my finger, which I used to stir the colors together in the glass. When I got the color I wanted, I dumped the glass into the bottle. Original lavender water was rarely actually purple, and making it so was an innovation introduced to give products in glass bottles some appeal. It is in such trace amounts in my bottle that it will not actually show up on the skin, though many Victorian skin creams were in that color range because of their ingredients, though I have found that it is also a color which, when blended, makes the wearer look more pale. While I am fairly pale (though perhaps not so much as I should wish), I am a very yellow-white, and those creams help me to look a more desirable blue-white. But I digress!
You can buy all of the ingredients at CVS or Walgreens, etc. if you don't want to order them- just check their in-store availability on their sites first. I ended up making this because I didn't want to buy it, which is funny, because my overall cost ended up being $8 over what I would have payed to just add it to my order. It all worked out though, because I ended up getting an even nicer bottle and label than what I could have bought. I got a glass bottle with a cork stopper at the Goodwill (this blog's tagline should be "how to achieve aristocracy on a budget"), and found an extant lavender water label online. Printed and glued on a couple minutes later and voila- lavender water! I will be using this mostly for perfume, washing, scenting linens and cleaning around the house.
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