Hydrosols

Hydrosols are the aqueous solutions that remain after the process of distillation of essential oils. They are also sometimes called "floral water", "distillate water", or essential water. Essentially, you can think of hydrosols as a kind of byproduct of essential oils. Most of today's more common essential oils (think of lavender, peppermint, and eucalyptus) are distilled. The distillation process involves colleting the raw plant material, such as flowers, leaves, wood, barks, seeds, or peel, and placing it into an alembic (distillation apparatus) over water. The water is then heated, forcing steam to pass through the plant material. This vaporizes the volatile compounds within, and sends the vapor through another coil where they will condense back into liquid. This condensation, then, will have both an essential oil component floating on top, and a hydrosol component, which is the water on which the oil floats. When they are separated, each will be used for a different purpose.

The essential oils obtained in the distillation process are used as herbal medicines, incense, or as scents in skin care and other products. The hydrosols are sometimes sold as fragrant products, too (those with a pleasant smell, anyway). Some of today's more popular hydrosols are rose water, lavender water, lemon balm, clary sage, and orange blossom water. So, too, is the use of hydrosols increasing in the field of cosmetics. Hydrosols also have uses as flavorings and in medicine.

The primary benefit of hydrosols is that they contain much of the good parts of essential oils in a less concentrated, and therefore safer, form. Since their pH is mostly between 5 and 6, they are great for facial toners.