My garden is full of lemon balm, mint, roses and lavender. I like to cook with the mint—the other plants I admire for their beauty. But I didn’t know I could make cologne out of them until I saw this recipe in Janice Cox’s book, Natural Beauty at Home. The recipe is so simple to make that I had to try it:
2 tbsp rose petals
1 tsp fresh or ½ tsp dried citrus peel
2 tbsp fresh lemon balm leaves
2 tbsp fresh lavender petals
1 tbsp fresh mint leaves
1 cup distilled water
1/2 cup vodka or witch hazel
Put leaves and petals in a saucepan and pour water over them. Cook until boiling and remove from heat. Let cool and pour into a clean jar. Add vodka or witch hazel. Let the mixture sit for two weeks. Strain liquid through a coffee filter into a clean container.
Makes 4 ounces.
You can use dried herbs and flowers—just use half the amount that you would of fresh ones.
My mixture is steeping now. So far it smells pretty good—sweet and citrusy—and I’m looking forward to trying it out.
6 comments:
Sounds lovely! I've always been rather wary of 'homemade' colognes since the ones I've received in the past have been presents from young children who have enthusiastically made their own. Of course, you have to put some on and then the rest of the day the odour remains with you - one of the joys of being a teacher!
Roses and Lavender sounds lovely. How does the mint smell in that mixture? It grows wild behind my parents' house and I don't remember a good scent coming from it.
I like your blog and will be back. Thank you for visiting mine!
i use to do something similar to this when i was a girl with my mum, and it smelled not to bad.
It looks great! Can't wait to hear how it turns out. I found that mint grows like a weed!
this recipe looks amazing!!! are you on Ravelry? I'm in a group, Naturally Curly Crafters and they would love to know about these kind of homemade recipes!!
--Spirals
Thanks for the tip! I have lots of dried roses hanging around the house, but not so much on the other things. I guess I'll just have to stink until I can get the rest of the ingredients ;)
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