Lately, I have been so completely smitten with cistus essential oil that I want to put it in all of my homemade products. Its peppery, earthy, and somewhat spicy aroma lends a lovely middle note to blends, especially when paired with other resinous essential oils like vetiver, frankincense, and myrrh.
Cistus, also known as rockrose and labdanum, is a flowering perennial shrub that grows in rocky soil throughout the Mediterranean, Morocco, Portugal, The Middle East, and the Canary Islands. Its beautiful essential oil is extracted not from its flowers, but from its resinous leaves, stems, and stalks.
It's always interesting to me how nature gives us what we need by giving us small clues on how to use specific plants. Rockrose grows in craggy rocky soil and shows great resilience when it comes to where this hardy shrub chooses to grow - eroded hillsides, in areas where fires have burned, and in overgrazed fields.
Cistus is what repairs and rebuilds the soil and just like it restores the environment back into balance, so too does it offer this ability to our skin.
Healing Rock Rose Face Serum for Dry and Damaged Skin
If you make a comparison between skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, and other irritated and inflamed skin conditions with the environment rockrose likes to grow in, you can quickly see the similarities.
Just as the soil needs to be repaired and replenished after a fire or overgrazing, so too does our skin after stripping it of its natural oils.
Rockrose essential oil is the perfect companion to add to homemade facial serums in order to restore that balance because it has potent wound healing and anti-inflammatory properties that effectively treat compromised skin conditions like dryness, acne, eczema, and psoriasis.
It also has an affinity for draining lymph fluid, controlling excess oil production, and for treating and preventing the signs of aging.
How to Make Rock Rose Face Serum
So now that you know why cistus is such a great oil to use in your skincare, here's a delightful face serum recipe I've been using both morning and night to help keep my skin happy and healthy.
Rock Rose Face Serum Recipe
• One ½ oz dropper bottle
• Jojoba oil (or carrier of choice that works well for your skin - learn more here!)
• 3 drops carrot seed essential oil - repairs and nourishes the skin
• 2 drops frankincense essential oil - restorative and anti-inflammatory
• 2 drops cistus (rockrose) essential oil - controls sebum, anti-inflammatory, and repairs the skin
• 1 drop tangerine essential oil - brightens the skin and lightens hyperpigmentation
• 1 drop geranium essential oil - controls excess sebum production
Loving Preparation - Rock Rose Face Serum
1. Add the essential oils to the dropper bottle
2. Next, fill the bottle to the shoulder with jojoba oil or carrier oil of choice
3. Cap closed and roll between the palms to mix
To Use
After cleansing, spritz your face liberally with rose hydrosol, then apply 2 or more drops of rockrose face serum to your damp skin.
Repeat morning and night.
Have you ever used cistus essential oil? Please share in the comments below!
You may also enjoy reading:
Thyme Serum for Acne Free Skin
Essential Oils for Specific Skin Types
How to Make Rose Water
Hyperpigmentation Reducing Acne Serum
Brenda Barrs says
Enjoy reading the fantastic information about Essential Oils you have. I am trying to find out how I can use an oil I got, labdanum because it’s very thick and sticky and I believe it’s supposed to be like that but how can I get it to dissolve with other Essential Oils so I can try making some perfumes? I have looked everywhere and just cannot find out anything about how to do that. Hope you know how and can please let me know. You, Brenda Barrs
Kenneth Lassen says
Hi Tash,
I wrote my thesis in aromatherapy school in L.A. back in the early 80's. Cistus has always been my favorite essential oil. While pondering what to write my thesis on, I was hiking in the mountains outside of L.A. While hiking I thought I was imagining things as I was smelling Cistus. Upon closer examination of some plants that were growing over fire-ravaged areas there in the mountains was my precious Cistus:). No longer any question about what my thesis was about...
Robin V. says
I just made this. Thank you! Finally a facial serum with Geranium which is excellent for skin but has (to me) a distinctly unpleasantly strong scent that is overpowering. This one just smells sweetly floral with just a hint of Geranium. Cistus really smells great. I used Evening Primrose as my carrier oil.
Tash says
Sounds lovely Robin! So glad you liked it 🙂