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Gift Guide: Everything's coming up roses

Posted Thursday, December 7, 2006 at 03:03PM

It takes more than 60,000 fresh-plucked roses to yield just one ounce of rose oil. But that ounce can work wonders for your spirit - not to mention your skin. Said to ease stress, anxiety, and even depression, rose also has a soothing, rehydrating, gently astringent effect on your complexion. Couple those health and beauty benefits with rose’s pretty power, and you’ve got the perfect present for those flower-fancying ladies on your gift list.

One of the simplest but still splendid forms of rose, products like Kiehl’s French Rosewater and Santa Maria Novella Rose Water can be highly versatile. Kristin Petrovich uses her bottle of Santa Maria Novella as a beauty treat that’s “wonderfully re-freshing and hydrating for skin,” while I like to transfer my Kiehl’s into a spray bottle for spritzing onto my face when I’m all stressed out. (I actually received my bottle as a Christmas gift last year, and I’m still so taken with all the precious rose petals floating in the water.)

For a spray that blends rose water with essential oils like ylang ylang, English chamomile, sweet orange, and sandalwood, shop for Buddha Nose Heart Spray at spas and stores like Fred Segal. The calming concoction is said to “support your heart energy” and help you open up to love - both nice effects for some holiday time warm-and-fuzziness.

To fully immerse your giftee in rose’s healing scents - literally - pamper her with REN Black Label Moroccan Rose Bath Oil. “I have wanted this delectable bath oil for ages but the price is a little hard to justify,” sighs shopcaster lilacstripe, adding: “I have heard tell that it is the creme de la creme of bath products.” My favorite rose-kissed bath product is the Indulge variety of Better Botanicals Dead Sea Bath Salts. Made with real mineral salts from the Dead Sea, Better Botanicals’ jasmine- and sandalwood-infused creation features pretty little dried rose petals.

After stepping from the tub, applying natural beauty products like Aubrey Organics’ Rosa Mosqueta Rose Hip Seed Oil can provide “lovely skin that’s moist and supple,” promises Eggy. What’s more, there’s “no irritation, no greasies, no problems.”

For lovely lips to go with that lovely skin, pick up some stocking stuffers like the L’Occitane’s Wild Rose Shea Butter Tinted Balm recommended by Shakara Ledard (who notes that “my lips would be dry like the Sahara Desert without it”). Mugirl prefers Rosebud Perfume Co. Minted Rose Lip Balm, a “lovely rose scented balm [that] soothes skin irritations and is a fantastic lip balm/gloss alone or with lipliner.”

But those balms aren’t the only way to bring the sweet scent and subtle flavor of rose to your lips. With a tin of Republic of Tea’s Sip for the Cure Pink Rose Green Tea, you can treat your favorite tea lover with a rose-imbued brew that helps benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

See more of my Gift Guide: Everything’s coming up roses list at ThisNext.

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