Product Placement

Like me, you’ve probably had that moment when you’ve caught a whiff of something, such as a type of furniture polish or an aftershave, and been transported back 20 or 30 years. It’s quite an intense feeling, and it happens because smell is the sense that’s most closely tied to human memory. I always get it when I smell a rose – it takes me back to playing in the garden with my sister as a child, when making ‘perfume’ was one of our favourite games.

As beautiful as the smell of the roses were, the end result of our junior forays into perfumery actually stank. So hats off to our mother, who often dutifully dabbed the mixture of rotting petals, water from the water-butt, talc and Charlie onto her pulse points – without visibly retching.

By using roses as the base for our creations we were unwittingly following thousands of years of history. And because of the therapeutic benefits of rose oil, and of course the fabulous scent, roses are still used in loads of beauty products today. So here are my particular favourites, for your delectation.

First up is Cath Kidston. Did you know she did beauty stuff as well as floral ironing board covers? Me neither. But she does, and it’s all rather lovely, as you could have predicted. The Wild Roses range is very bathroom-shelf-friendly, sporting as it does the same kind of retro design as the rest of her products. It’s kind of shabby chic country cottage. And it’s dead reasonable, too. Try the Wild Roses Lip Balm (£5), the Body Cream (£7) and the Hand Cream Balm (£5), which comes in a cute little tin. It’s all paraben and sulphate free too. Well done, Cath.

Pricier, but no less lovely, is Moroccan Rose Otto Bath Oil by REN (£24.50). Raved about by beauty editors (its sister product, the Body Wash, has won countless awards), it contains Moroccan Rose Otto Oil which is steam distilled from petals harvested at dawn. Why, I do not know. What I do know is that nothing has made my skin so soft after a bath, and no rose related product has ever smelt so much like the real thing.

Another cult product amongst beauty editors is Dr Hauschka’s Rose Day Cream (£19.98) which contains both rose oil and wild rose hip extract and claims to ‘envelop the skin with a protective nurturing film’. I found it a bit too filmy for my normal-ish skin, although I have a friend with a drier complexion who swears by it. Luckily they do little trial sizes for just £2.98, so I think I will give the newer ‘Light’ version a try too and see if I feel a bit less ‘enveloped’.

Korres are my brand of the month (see, I can give out awards too.) And not content with being in love with their Materia Herba range that I road-tested for my organic skincare feature a few weeks ago, I am now going to rave about another of their best-selling products: Wild Rose Serum for Brightening & Illuminating (£28). My guinea pig/mother (I’ve explained this, I do not have a rodent parent) loves the rose smell, the texture, how comfortably it sits under moisturiser and, finally, that it lives up to its brightening claim. I intend to steal it back off her very soon. Although maybe she deserves it after the whole Eau De Paddling Pool Water debacle…