HYDROLATES / Chapter 2

 
Water covers 70% of the earth surface. More than 60% of our body is water. 95% of a plant is water. Water is life.
Distilled wáter has been one of the oldest remedies in medicine, since was the purest wáter you could find. The most balanced.

Since Maria the Jew, in the 3rd century AD, invented the still, the greatest use that was given to it during centuries was to “purify” water for medicinal and hygienic uses. Adding plants in steam distillation, added the benefits and plant properties of each species: rosemary, thyme, lavender. Therefore, the hydrolate is a valuable co-product of the distillation (and not a by-product as we are led to believe), together with the essential oil and in its beginnings more useful and popular than the essential oils, which were only used by a very small elite to produce perfumes and cosmetics.

Essential oils sometimes surprise and do not have much to do with the smell of the fresh plant. They are more dense and of an overflowing complexity. On the other hand, hydrolates have the particularity, in most cases, to reproduce much more faithfully the smell of the plant in its wild state, and that, in BRAVANARIZ was a wonderful discovery that we could not ignore.

In the market, we find “supposed” hydrolates or hydrosols, often called plant waters (rose water, rosemary water … etc). Most of the time they are ordinary water to which they add a few drops of essential oil, in the best of cases, natural (usually synthetic). It is important to check that somewhere (on the label or packaging) it indicates that it is a pure hydrolate produced by steam distillation. Needless to say, the difference is abysmal. Not only in its fragrance but in its benefits and properties.

Also, it is known that water is possibly the most polluted element that exists. When you open a bottle of mineral water, with simple contact with the air, it has already been contaminated. That is only worrying from a pharmacological and analytical point of view. Of course, you can drink it without any problem. That is the great advantage of alcohol, and of alcohol-based perfumes. Alcohol kills everything and works as the best preservative. That’s why natural water-based perfumes are so complicated to produce without adding alcohol or preservatives of any kind. The same goes for hydrolates. We do not doubt it much. As our production is limited, we prefer to keep them pure and reduce their expiration date than adding any substance that could detract from their natural qualities. That makes them quite unique in the market.

Each BOIRA is a selected blend of hydrolates, condensate water coproduced during the steam-distillation of plants, with all their properties and benefits. Hydrolates contain all of the plant in every drop, the very fluid that was flowing through the plant cells when the plant was harvested. Every litter of BOIRA contains between 0,05 and 0,2 millilitres of dissolved essential oil. Nothing else. No alcohol added or preservatives of any kind.
Pure wild harvested plant distilled water.

Its subtle and gentle fragrance connects you with nature and awakes your emotion while the beneficial natural properties of water refresh and cleanse you and your environment.

BOIRA in Catalan means mist. Fog that soothes your eyes and triggers your other senses, giving you a more complete and animal experience of life.