After combing the ingredients, pour into a bottle with spritzer or pump style cap.  Spray or pump the blended face wash into the palm of your hand. Apply to your face, avoiding the eye areas. Include your neck and upper chest if you like. Wash off with clear water, if preferred.  Pat dry and apply your routine oils or cosmetics.

… as Toner

OR, use to tone your facial skin just before applying an oil, such as Oil for Summer Skin.  Apply the face wash and before it dries on your skin, apply facial serum and massage both the water-based and the oil-based lotions into your skin.

… or Refresher

Treat yourself to a facial.  So, make a Tea-Rose Facial Wash recipe of your choice.  You’ll need a soft cloth, a small bowl, and a few minutes to relax and apply the face wash.  First, open out the small cloth and spray or pump a generous amount of the face wash onto the cloth to make it thoroughly wet.  Using light pressure, wipe across face from the forehead to chin, down neck and across your upper chest and back.  Rinse the cloth in running water, wring out and then re-charge the cloth with face wash and repeat.  Place the cloth into the bowl while you relax and breathe for a moment or two.  And if you have an essential oil blend nearby, practice inhaling it for an even deeper relaxation.

Blending hydrosol, tea and witch hazel for Recipe #1 above, or hydrosol, tea and aloe vera, for Recipe #2 above, makes versatile face washes, and can also be used as body refreshers. Spray or pump into your palm and splash over your neck and upper chest, upper back.

Aloe Vera
Aloe Vera is available as a clean product with very small amount of plant-based derivative preservative. Aloe is the gel substance produced by the plant Aloe barbadensis in the Caribbean Islands, and is widely grown elsewhere. (See this wikipedia article on the plant’s distribution.) As a do-it-yourself project, it’s possible to cut an aloe leaf and pare the skin, scraping out the gel yourself.  However it’s difficult to keep the gel from decomposing in a 1-3 days!

Brewed Tea
Brewed Tea can be any kind of caffeinated tea, brewed strong and cooled to room temperature. Brewed tea can also be an herbal or a tisane also brewed strong and cooled. Try Chamomile Tea, Tulsi Tea, Lavender Tea (all herbal and non-caffeinated).  You want un-adulterated, no flavors or sugars, etc., added. For Recipe #2 above, I mixed three teas: Green Tea, Chamomile, and Tulsi Teas.

Rose Water or Rose Hydrosol
Rose Water is a classic blend of floral essence and water, made for adding to food. However, you can add it to this blend with excellent results. Otherwise, purchase rose hydrosol—a bit more expensive—to use instead.

“Hydrosol” is the secondary product of the distillation process. When an essential oil is extracted from plant material such as lavender flowers, the process is called distillation. In order for oil to be separated from the plant material, the flowers are placed in an enclosed chamber with water. The water is heated and the resulting steam pressure forces the plant’s oils out of its cells. As the steam vapor rises in the chamber, it carries the plant’s essential oil in addition to tiny droplets of the essence of the flower. The oil, being heavier than water is then funneled out and reserved as the essential oil product. Meanwhile the tinier droplets suspended in steam are collected as a solution known as hydrosol, or “water-solution”. This process is defined by Suzanne Catty in her book, Hydrosols, The Next Aromatherapy, 2001. Hydrosols are available in health food stores and online. Rose Water is available in Middle Eastern and Asian grocery stores.

Witch Hazel
The Witch Hazel in the marketplace does have preservatives added. To minimize exposure to them, I prefer to make the solution of Rose-Tea-Witch Hazel with 1 part Witch Hazel and 2 parts each of Rose hydrosol and Tea. To fill a 2-ounce bottle, that would be 3 tsp. Witch Hazel, 6 tsp. Rose hydrosol and 6 tsp. Black Tea (see more above, or here).