Witch-hazel Aromatic Flower Water 50 ml Atomiser
Notes: Witch hazel is used in a wide range of skin tonics and soothing products including creams, soaps, toners, hair preparations, acne and after-shaves. This preparation is an authentic distillate containing the droplets of essential oils in suspension and has a light fresh woody scent.
Properties: astringent tonic anti-inflammatory
Botanical name: Hamamelis virginiana (virginicana)
Common names: winter bloom; spotted alder
Family: Hamamelidaceae
Habitat: Witch hazel is a native of North America and Canada, growing wild in woods, waysides and on the slopes besides creeks and brooks. It was brought to England and Europe
Parts used: twigs bark and leaves
History: introduced into English gardens through the collaboration between two seventeenth century botanists, John Bartram – an Amrican plant collector, sometimes called the ‘father of American Botany’ and Peter Collinson, an English trader in cloth and avid garden enthusiast who financed collections of American plants seeds and distributed them to English botanical gardens.
Witch hazel was a favorite plant medicine of many indigenous Indian tribes who introduced it to some of the interested pilgrims. One of the earliest and most famous preparations was Ponds Cold Cream, an all purpose skin cream made from distilled Witch Hazel. This was the result of an association between a New Yorker called Theron Pond and a native American medicine man of the Oneida tribe, who introduced him to the Hamamelis shrub/small tree and its many uses in soothing and healing skin. The resulting preparation was originally called Golden Treasure and later became famous as Pond’s cold cream.
In subsequent years distilled witch hazel became established in bathroom cabinets throughout England, a standard treatment for sore skin, insect stings, varicose veins and bruises as well as a stalwart of the beauty counter used as a favourite skin toner, particularly for oily skin or where prone to acne.
Science: Therapeutic benefits of witch hazel have long been attributed to its astringency though there is some talk in recent years about of information on potential anti-oxidant and anti-viral properties that needs further verification. Still there are few clinical trials and most information is anecdotal. Some positive skin results however were reported in this pubmed trial on witch
