How to distill your own flower water

Why pay the high cost of buying flower waters for skin care when you can make your own.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• flower petals: rose, lavendar, or whatever hightly fragrant flower petals you have.
• distilled water
• enamel lined pan
• glass lid for pan
• ice
• 2 small heat-proof bowls
• stove

1. Gather the petals for your flower water as early in the morning as they have opened. You'll need about two cups worth of petals.

2. Take enamel pan and put one of the small bowls upside down inside the pan. Take the second bowl, right side up, and stack it onto of the other bowl. (Both bowls stacked on top of each other must fit inside the pan with the lid on.

3. Pour distilled water in pan to the height of the first bowl. Add flower petals to the water.

4. Turn the lid upside down on the pan. (the knob in the center of the lid is facing toward the bottom of the pot.) Reposition the bowls so that the knob is is directly over the top empty bowl.

5. Turn stove on Med-High until the water starts to boil. Turn down to a simmer and fill the lid with ice. Once the ice melts you can pour it out and refill the lid again.
   
   You'll do this until the empty bowl is full of fragrant flower water.

Tips & Warnings

• In essence this is a distilation of an infusion of the flower water in the pot. What happens here is that the steam from the boiling water with the flower petals in it condenses on the overturned lid. The ice in the lid causes the water to cool and become heavy, flowing down the lid to the center knob and dripping in the waiting bowl.

[Nannabay]

on 10/25/2007 Excellent idea...and better for the environment! :)

[cidshobe]

on 10/16/2007 I always wondered how to do this. I'll have to try it.

[DoulaDani]

on 10/15/2007 I always wondered how you did this!!!!! I'm going to do this sometime this week!