Rose Geranium Hydrosol

Our hydrosols are crafted with healing and hormone balancing rose geranium leaves, offering you a hydrating and potent hydrosol that’s great for treating acne, hormonal imbalances, and dehydrated skin.

Our farmer Emily’s story of the hydrosol:

I never really spent much time with rose geranium before Botnia. I knew geraniums as ornamentals that my grandma absolutely adored (and, quite frankly, hoarded), but it wasn’t until herbalism school that I learned about this particular plant. The confusing part is that Rose Geranium and the red, pink and purple “geraniums” that my grandma cherished are actually not geraniums at all! They’re all in the Pelargonium family (Pelargonium spp.) while geraniums (Geranium spp.) are commonly found as wildflowers in temperate climates.

It’s different, being introduced to plants from botanical books and other people’s personal histories, than truly getting to know a plant from spending time with it. Sitting, listening, observing. This was absolutely my experience of Rose Geranium. I smelled its bright, uplifting essential oil many times and saw it in formulations here and there but it never really left a lasting impression on me. Then, I began working in the microfarm at Botnia among dozens of beautifully vibrant, green Rose Geranium plants. I slowly learned about the different species growing in the garden by feeling the texture of their leaves between my fingers, watching the flowers bloom in different shades of blush pink, and smelling their unique fragrances. Some smelled sharp and lemony, almost like citronella, while others smelled more like a classic rose plucked from an English garden. I loved how when I got home from work my overalls and my dog would still smell of Rose Geranium. What better perfume is there?

When the time came to start distilling Rose Geranium for our seasonal launch, I felt like I really did know this plant so deeply. I witnessed our plants get a bit frost nipped from an unseasonable cold spell and still produce new leaves at their bases and meristems. I watched them bloom and attract our very own honey bees to their sweet nectar. And I learned to propagate them simply by plopping a cutting into wet soil, eventually giving them away to friends and family of Botnia, so that they, too, could share in the magic.

As I harvested the leaves of our Rose Geranium plants and placed them into our beautiful old copper still, I thought about all that I’d learned this past year in the garden and all that this next year will bring. Looking out over fallow beds, dormant fruit trees, and pruned roses this February, the Rose Geraniums are welcome splashes of green. Soon there will be yarrow and helichrysm and California poppy poking up around them and the plants will be up to my waist again. Because of our ever-shifting seasonal garden, no two distillations of Rose Geranium Hydrosol will ever be the same. I hope when you spray this hydrosol it allows you to reflect on your own relationship with plants and the natural world around us.