How To Be Beautiful: Everything's coming up roses

Given their ancient associations with beauty, it's not surprising that roses turn up in your bathroom cabinet more than any other flower, and in so many forms. In cosmetics, it's a conceptual thing – how many lipsticks, glosses, blushers and primers come with rose-based names, promising velvety, petal-softness and delicate hues?

Yet, the connection can also be more sensorial – when it comes to beauty products, rose-based scents, present in so many of them, tend to carry us back to some primal scene at a mother or grandmother's dressing table.

But it's not all about mere ideas – extracts from this bloom cover pretty much every function you might be after, from toning and soothing to plumping and softening. And while roses find their way into some of the most luxurious products on the market, you'll find that a bottle of rose water (ideally made up by your local pharmacist) is a thrifty way to add a satisfyingly old-school touch to a beauty routine.