Читать книгу Aromatherapy Workbook - Shirley Price - Страница 13

Sometime during the 16th century Royal Hungarian Water was produced by distilling alcohol with fresh rosemary blossoms.

A French friend of mine, Claudine Luu, well known in France for her lectures and courses on essential oils (and her products) sourced the original recipe for this. The proportions are not given, but the other plant distillates in it were sage, rose and lavender.

Carmelite water (eau des Carmes) was produced by French Carmelite nuns in 1611 using melissa, which, like orange blossoms and rose petals, produces very little essential oil but yields delightfully aromatic water. Melissa water was popular for centuries and was never synthesized as are rose and orange flower waters nowadays.

Another famous water, which is still very popular, was introduced by a one-time Franciscan monk who left Italy to live in Cologne in 1665. His recipe for ‘Aqua Mirabilis’ (wonderful water) was brought to world fame by his nephew, J. M. Farina, and is known nowadays as ‘Eau de Cologne’. Containing essential oils of bergamot, orange and lemon as well as lavender, rosemary, thyme and neroli (diluted in strong ethyl alcohol) it was used as a health-promoting lotion.