Ah, rose (the flower, not my neighbor next door) has been one of my favorite scents since I started mixing skincare ingredients with my father when I was five years old. Maybe it’s the scent that made me feel good in Dad’s lab – a scent the ancients knew could calm the queen.
Though a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, its unique properties have been a favorite of healers and helpers for millennia, and a big reason why we love rose.
At BEB Organic, Rosa canina is one of our must-have ingredients.
We want to help relieve concerns and stress during pregnancy and parenting with specialized skincare that not only supports delicate new skin, it also lifts the spirits.
BEB Organic products are so full of healthy ingredients, they feed your and your baby’s skin with every application.
We all need all the health-promoting advantages we can get so we not only grow but thrive. But our skin is often extremely thin and delicate; it dries out easily – especially under stress.
Because rose heals, strengthens, and calms, we use it in our products to give parents and babies nutrients and comfort from the outside in.
A Blossom to Hip Primer
Rose’s benefits have been studied far and wide, by the ancients and by modern science.
Rose fossils discovered in America are 30 million years old. This plant’s beauty with its dense cluster of petals descends from the prized plants that medicine used over 3,000 years ago. And we know that distillation of roses to extract its oil originated in the late 7th century AD. Today, 200 rose species and more than 18,000 cultivars/varieties have been identified. That’s a big community!
Every R. canina blossom contains so little oil, it is a precious commodity. And it takes three years gestation for a plant to produce enough flowers to be economically viable. Aren’t you glad your baby wasn’t a rose?
Because it takes tens of thousands of rose blossoms carefully plucked at dawn to make one ounce of oil, it is one of the most expensive plant oils.
Here’s another head-spinning fact: To get one part oil you need 3,000 parts of flowers! Fortunately, you only need a few drops to receive rose’s laundry list of benefits.
But the oil is not only expensive it’s delicate. Rose oil must be carefully stored and packaged or it can spoil and lose its valuable properties.
But it’s worth every penny to us as we blend it into our BEB Organic Bubbly Wash, Silky Cream, Nurturing Oil, Soothing Serum (formerly named Healing Gel) and Diaper Balm. Why? Because we want pregnant bellies and babies to be happy and grow well because they’re healthy and feel good.
Rose Gold
Because of its powerful benefits, we use rose at every opportunity in our healing skincare products. Even our basic preservative system – phenethyl alcohol – is a derivative of rose. Allow me to gush about why we love rose so you can fall in love with R. canina, too.
Rose oil (also called rose otto, attar of rose, attar of roses or rose essence) is pale, yellow, and semisolid, extracted from the blossom, and claims the high market price. No wonder rose is called the King of Flowers.
Rose hydrosol (also known as rosewater, rose floral water, or rose distillate) and absolute oil are less expensive and derive from steaming rose buds in copper vats to release the oil into water. That oil is carefully removed, leaving a therapeutic liquid full of micromolecules. That rose water is captured, one drop at a time…
Rose water has deep symbolic significance as a symbol of love and purity. It’s used at wedding ceremonies both on the skin and in food to ensure a happy marriage. Rose water’s calming, uplifting effects are also used to facilitate meditation and prayer.
Rose hip is the fruit of the blossom that forms after the blossom has been removed or fallen off. They overflow with oil, sweetness, and health-promoting benefits. Rosehip seed oil (Rosa canina) soaks easily into skin, helping keep skin moisturized and soft.
Rose flowers are dried and used for scent. The dried petals are often used in food because they help digestion.
Put all these parts together and you have a litany of goodness that’s even safe for tender preemies:
- vitamins A, C, and E
- proteins
- the only vegetable oil with every basic antioxidant that composes your baby’s skin
- emollient (moisturizes)
- reduces skin’s water loss
- high concentration of linoleic and linolenic essential fatty acids (keep skin well-nourished and elastic)
Rose is rich with phenolics - chemical compounds plants produce to fight their own stress, and which support us, too. Phenolics help against:
- free radical damage
- microbes and bacteria (15 types!)
- cancer
Each part of the plant has its own special properties, which together help:
- anti-inflammation
- anti-mutagens
- anti-diabetes
- anti-convulsions
- antiseptic and astringent (treats pimples, blackheads, bumps of acne)
- coughs
- diarrhea
- aging
- promote cell growth
- heal scars, damaged skin, and effects of polluted air, chlorinated water, and harsh chemicals
- control psoriasis and atopic dermatitis (restores skin texture)
- heal wounds
- various allergies, headaches, migraines
- against UV rays
Rose’s properties affect our central nervous system, helping us feel better emotionally as it:
- acts as anti-depressant
- lowers cortisol level (reduces stress)
- encourages sleep
- reduces pain
- promotes brain activity and health
With our rose-infused skincare products, we want to help you help your baby and yourself.
Delicate and Super Sensitive Skin
We know that as a new parent you are balancing a whole new universe and that you, your family and your baby are all experiencing stress – maybe even full blown anxiety. When it comes to skin, that stress plays out in so many ways – in particular as rash, baby acne and blotchy skin.
These are not only uncomfortable they leave your baby open to infection. Strong skin is our first defense, but irritated and weakened skin creates a fertile environment for bacteria.
A newborn baby has trouble building skin, especially if they come early, maintaining body temperature, and defending against environmental impact. For preemie skin, in particular, we must remember that it is thinner than a full-term newborn’s and is working overtime to become the powerful and effective defense it will be when it matures and thickens.
All baby skin easily dehydrates, and preemie skin does it faster than normal. Dehydration leads to rashes that can lead to infection. Dehydration is uncomfortable and creates stress. Dehydrated preemie skin can carry scars from needles or irritation from tape. None of that is fun.
Reducing stress and increasing a sense of wellbeing is crucial for your baby's growth.
Because it’s thin and porous, baby skin easily sucks in anything that’s applied to it. Many skincare products for pregnancy and babies are filled with toxins and chemicals that help those products smell good or preserve them for who-knows-how-long. One of the major (and common) toxic players is the ubiquitous “fragrance” in nearly every skincare ingredient list.
But these chemicals can have a heavy impact on your and your baby's developing body – many are known to disrupt hormones, breathing, digestion, brain/nerves and can cause cancer.
You can see how using skincare products that are pure, plant-derived, and 98% organic support your baby’s health instead of challenge or distort it. For preemies, this support is crucial.
BEB Organic never uses anything that can hurt. We have spent decades finding just the right formulas that give your little baby a dose of nutrients with the loving stroke of your hand.
Skincare as Healthcare
We only use the highest quality ingredients, including the rose oil in our skincare line. Our water-based products help balance skin, and even our Diaper Balm, which contains no water has amplified healing properties because of its zinc with rosehip seed oil.
A LOT goes into creating high-quality healing oil. A good brand should follow these guidelines:
- Proper plant varieties
- Each plant grown indigenously for the healthiest plant
- Grown without chemical pesticides, herbicides, etc.
- Harvested with precise timing to ensure peak properties (like the dawn harvest of rose blossoms)
- Extracted with proper temp and pressure to preserve oil molecules
- Third-party testing of every batch
BEB Organic meets every one of these criteria. We research, question, test, and approve each of our ingredients to assure we’re giving your baby the highest quality and densest nutrition.
Let’s Circle Back to Emotions, especially in the NICU.
When it comes to the NICU experience, you and your baby are both under stress – oftentimes, scary, overwhelming, contracting stress of getting through this time, if your baby will grow enough to come home, and how to manage your family/work under these conditions.
Stress can have a big effect on skin vitality and function by increasing water loss (dehydration) and increasing cortisol (fight-or-flight) levels that affect blood pressure, inflammation, and sleep. We’re talking about for your baby and you.
Anything that lowers stress for your preemie means it’s promoting her growth. And research shows that rose is a “green odor” that lowers stress.
Your baby in the NICU needs your presence and your touch to feel safe, secure, and relaxed so she can use her energy to grow, heal, and strengthen. When she can bear touch, your hand on her skin lowers her stress. When she’s strong enough to have skin-to-skin time with you, your smell, heartbeat and voice are soothing, calming, and vitalizing.
You can tell the NICU staff (who work hard to support your needs and desires) that you want to only use healthy skincare products on your baby. From Bubbly Wash to Diaper Balm, your NICU hospital bag can contain everything you need to wash and nurture your preemie’s skin and hair.
Let’s not forget what this means to you. Yes, it feels good to help your child. But everything you give to her you’re giving to yourself. When you use our rose oil products, they help lower your stress, too. They sink into your skin and nurture it, too. They keep your skin hydrated, too. They help make you feel better.
Maybe right now you can only watch and talk to your little munchkin in the NICU incubator. Apply luscious drops of Silky Cream or Nurturing Oil to your hands, rub briskly to release the scent, and hold your hands to your own face. Breathe deeply. Ahhh….
Check with NICU staff then do the same thing but this time hold your hands to the incubator’s opening, letting rose’s relaxing, organically natural scent gently float in the air. Or if your preemie is ready for your hand on bare skin, let the scent come from the heat generated between your hand and her back, leg, arm, or head.
BEB Organic wants to help. We want to encourage touch between parents and babies. Touch helps so much, and the list of benefits for preemies is long. When your touch imparts nutrition along with love, you’ve found the magic combination. BEB Organic skincare helps with both.
Babies are born to be perfect. BEB Organic creates joy.
