Lavender Hydrolate

The water of the flower. When lavender is drawn through the still for her fragrant oil, a second treasure runs from the alembic alongside it — the hydrolate, the aromatic water that carries the plant's scent and her water-soluble virtues in the gentlest possible measure. For centuries this distilled lavender water was the fragrant water of the European household: it was splashed on linen and pressed cloths, carried in the pocket as a cooling refreshment against the heat and the faint, and misted through sickrooms and bedchambers to sweeten the close air. Lavender herself has been, above all else, the herb of calm — laid in the pillow to invite an easy sleep, strewn to settle frayed nerves and quiet a restless room — and her water was the mildest way the old households kept that virtue close at hand. Hermetically she answers to Mercury, and her signature is harmony: the reconciling of opposites, mind and heart brought into one calm accord. The clear distilled water of a swept and quiet house, drawn into a 50 ml atomiser.