So what makes roses red?

The scent and colour of roses is always intoxicating. Every year on Valentines Day I would say millions of people receive these beautiful flowers as tokens of love. It has a long history in the perfumery industry as one of the most alluring scents. And it takes on average of up to 60 rose blooms to make just one drop of rose essential oil. The properties of rose oil goes beyond just its scent and it is valuable in many skin care preparations. However rose essential oil has a potential to be an allergen and can only be used in very low dilutions.

Rose infused oil is one of the components in the upcoming Herbal Glow oil. The rose infused oil has been double infused to extract the most oil soluble components from the dried rose petals. You would expect the resulting infused oil to have a lovely pink or even red colour. But alas - no! Rose infused oil has a faint greenish tinge to it but still with a gorgeous but subtle rose aroma. So what’s missing?

What makes roses red is Anthocyanins which come from a family of flavonoids. Anthocyanins are also found in blackberries, grapes, plums, red cabbage and many other fruits and vegetables with a red or purple shade. The reason why the rose infused oil isn’t pink or red is that Anthocyanins are water soluble and won't extract into oil. Other components of the rose petals are extracted into the oil. (More on this later!) So unless there is some new extraction method that can capture the red, any red or pink rose oil that you see available has most likely be coloured with some other form of colouring.

I have been using the double rose infused oil in formulating a face oil but also in making some indulgent balms. Next post will contain a formula for a balm with both rose wax and the rose infused oil. Watch this space!