Rose hips are the fruit of the rose bush. The largest, most useful rose hips grow on wild roses. After flowering, a red fruit develops akin to a small apple; inside is a tangy jelly-like pulp and the rose seeds. Rose hips have a high vitamin C content and can be cooked into jellies, dried and used in tea and cold-pressed or steeped in oil to make a soothing treatment for many beauty applications.
Acne and Dry Skin
The rambling, pink-flowering Rosa rugosa grows wild in many scrubby areas in North America and is used as a landscaping plant in many places where nothing else will grow. Rosa rugosa rose hips are some of the largest and easiest to gather. The University of Maine Farmington's Short Materia Medica of Plants Commonly Found in Central Maine recommends a wash of rose hips for acne and irritated skin and advises that Rosa rugosa hips infused in oil makes an excellent soothing moisturizer for a dry complexion. Balanceofnature.org, makers of small batches of organic skin treatments, also recommends rose hip oil for dry skin treatment, advising that it helps balance fatty acids and water content in the skin; this leads to a smoother, more youthful complexion.
Scars
Beauty Breakdown, a product review series published by Purdue University, recommends the organic beauty line Organic Young, produced by a company called Green People. According to Beauty Breakdown, Organic Young products include rose hip oil to help prevent skin from scarring. Balanceofnature.org, a purveyor of information and organic skin care products, also recommends rose hip oil for scar treatment, advising that cold-pressed rose hip oil can effectively reduce scars left on the complexion by acne, chicken pox or injuries.
Scabs and Wounds
The Ohlone Indians of California used a wash of rose hips on scabs to hasten healing, according to a Cabrillo College publication on Ohlone medicine. This application makes sense, given the high vitamin C content in rose hips; according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, vitamin C is a necessary component of collagen formation, a protein that makes up skin tissue and that is essential for wound healing. Rose hips steeped in olive or almond oil, or a commercial rose hip oil salve, can be dabbed on facial cuts, scratches or scabs from bug bites to promote fast healing with minimal scarring.
Member Comments