Rose bath and bath oil to increase your “happy hormone”! | For Seasonal Affective Disorder
The feelings of depression, overeating and an excessive need for sleep in the winter season can often be attributed to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), leading to increased levels of anxiety and irritation. Let’s look at how making yourself a luxurious and romantic rose bath can help alleviate such mental torture!
Rose petals on their own are not much use for decoration, but the wasteful feeling of throwing something so beautiful away can be solved by floating the petals in the bath.
You can use rose petals from the state just before they wither. As well as the petals, we can add rose bath oil to enhance emotional enrichment!
It is said that the fragrance of rose increases the level of serotonin, aka the ‘happy hormone’, helping to suppress anxiety. This is thought to be due to the action of phenylethyl alcohol and citronellol, which are the main components of rose essential oils. (Pharmacology and heart of essential oil – Science of efficacy of aromatherapy – by Umetsu Toyoshi (Japanese))
There are two kinds of rose essential oils depending on the extraction method, rose otto and rose absolute. Phenylethyl alcohol is the main ingredient, and rose absolute is closer to rose incense. On the other hand, rose otto has citronellol and geraniol as its main ingredients, with almost no phenylethyl alcohol.
So if you are expecting the “anxiolytic effect” of rose and want to use it more for psychological relaxation, rose absolute would be a better choice for you.
Rosie Rose bath oil blend
When your life seems unbalanced, troubled by vague or concrete feelings of anxiety, irritability, frustration, overeating or lack of motivation, you can blend a fragrance that complements the gorgeousness of rose. Let’s make a bath oil blend to replenish joy and happiness!
Materials:
- Vegetable oil (such as jojoba) (30ml)
☆ For the Rosy Rose Blend ☆ - Rose (7 drops)
- Rosewood (3 drops)
- Lavender (1 drop)
- Patchouli (1 drop)
- Bergamot (2 drops)
- Four geraniums
- Palmarosa (1 drop)
- Ylang-ylang (1 drop)
Add all these essential oils to the vegetable oil and mix well, then save in an opaque bottle. (See here for how to make.)
When using as a bath oil, please apply the blended oil to the whole body before bathing. It is especially good to apply it from the epigastria to areas where the scent will linger better, such as around the décolleté.
You can also use this Rosy Rose blend as a paste or roll-on to enjoy a different scent than usual, or mix the blended oil with natural salt to use as a bath salt. You can find the recipe for this bath salt on the next blog!
