Reddit mentions: The best floral picks

Sure! Apologies in advance for being so wordy! (Note: the sources I link to are just where I got the ingredients myself; I have no association with any of the sites/sellers.)

For reference and context, the ingredients of the Biossance Squalane + Vitamin C Rose Oil are:

> Squalane, Pistacia Lentiscus (Mastic) Gum, Rosa Damascena Flower Extract, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Geraniol

The ingredients of my quasi-dupe are:

> Squalane, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate, Pistacia Lentiscus (Mastic) Gum, Vitamin E

Long story short(er), I axed the C/CT because I couldn't figure out a reason for its inclusion. I did include the mastic gum, but given the distinct lack of evidence to support its usage am undecided whether I'll continue including it. As for the rose scent, I made batches with rose EO (which is crazy expensive, even for the dinky little bit I bought to test with before comitting to more) and geraniol and rose absolute w/jojoba and geraniol, but preferred the test batch using squalane triple infused/macerated with dried rose petals much more; the scent lingers longer, isn't noticibly less intense but is somehow... softer? It smells more like actual roses than the batches with the EO and geraniol, at least to me. The Vitamin E I included as kind of a knee-jerk as I tend to include it in any sort of oil blend, to help stave off rancidity.

In terms of actual formula if you're ever inclined to give it a shot:

• 90% Rose-infused squalane
  
• 7% Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate
  
• 2% Pistacia Lentiscus (Mastic) Gum oil (found in a local oil supplier/shop, but is available on eBay, Amazon, etc)
  
• 1% Vitamin E
  
  For the infused oil, I fear I wasn't terribly exact in measurements: I just filled a 4oz canning jar roughly 3/4-full with squalane and added the dried rose petals until no more could fit without poking out of the oil (keeping the petals submerged is important!). Using a glass stirring rod, I stirred out all the air bubbles I could see, then stored it in the dark for two weeks, the last two days leaving them in a opaque makeup bag in the window sill (to warm in the sun without getting any direct sun). After those two days, I lined a second identical jar with cheesecloth and poured the squalane/rose petals into it. Using small tongs I squeezed the petals in the cheesecloth to extract as much of the squalane out of them as possible, then added the second batch of rose petals. Back into the dark they went, then into the sun for two days. I changed the petals once more, then back into the dark, etc. (Hence the "triple infused/macerated" bit.) Some squalane was lost, of course, but not much: I started with about 3oz in the jar and at the end was left with about 2.9oz. (The tongs really helped with that.)
  
  Now, all that said,
  
  > I"m wondering if I should just go for the squalane from Biossance/lotioncrafters and stick with the vitamin c from my melano cc.
  
  That depends on what kind of Vitamin C you want to use! Melano CC contains two forms of Vitamin C, L-AA (aka "real" Vitamin C) and Ascorbyl Palmitate (a derivative). Rohto doesn't disclose the percentage of either, but I've seen 10% L-AA tossed around as a guess based on the listed ingredients. Deciding whether to use L-AA or a derivative can be tricky, as it depends on what your skin goals are, if L-AA irritates your skin (or you're, say, repairing a damaged moisture barrier and should be avoiding actives like L-AA), etc. TA/AT (Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate is also known as Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate) is an oil-soluble derivative not known to cause much in the way of irritation -- which makes it an attractive derivative, since it's not fussy about oxygen, time, pH, or temperature the way L-AA is/can be. (Well, IIRC it's stable at a pH of <5, but in anhydrous formulations like Biossance's oil and my dupe, pH isn't a concern.) But, the trade off is there are fewer studies to back up claims of efficacy and results, and it's not very clear how much TA/AT is actually converted (in vitro testing shows it does convert to AA) -- meaning, if one wants to aim for the equivilant of 20% L-AA (15-20% is often cited as the ideal concentration range, since there's not much to suggest >20% is as effective as 20%), how much AT/TA one should use, or if indeed one even should/needs to aim for a certain L-AA equivilant, isn't really clear. I picked 7% in my dupe because of this study (though you'll note it also used 10% ascorbic acid, aka L-AA, in their anhydrous gel. I'm idly considering including L-AA in my next attempt, though L-AA in anhydrous products can be annoying to deal with/use). Biossance doesn't disclose the concentration of AT/TA in their oil, but I've seen speculation that since it's behind the mastic gum and rose essential oil, it's likely <5%, possibly <2%.
  
  Personally, I use a water-based serum with 20% L-AA, Vitamin E, and ferulic acid every other day, so I'm not relying on this as my only Vitamin C product, but some swear by it (The Ordinary's 20% AT in Vitamin F is a popular AT/TA product).
  
  Edit: Oh, I forgot! When I last mentioned this elsewhere (during the planning stages), someone asked what my estimated cost-per-oz would be against Biossance's. Not including shipping or the cost for the jars, dropper bottle, glass stirring rod, sanitizing products/tool, or cheesecloth (since I had them on-hand already), 30ml came out to ~$9.84 USD, almost $4 of that being the AT/TA. I do wish I could find a rose-colored bottle like Biossance's, though. No luck so far when scouring eBay, Alibabba, etc. Might try posting an ISO in the skincareexchange sub to see if anyone's looking to offload an empty bottle cheaply, though; I love that bottle!

Thank you! The corsages scared me too, but they wound up being very easy. We made them the same way as the boutonnieres, with a single rose flanked by some greenery. We also used a sprig of berries for color. For both the boutonnieres and corsages we left the stems extra long and used wire instead of tape, and did not pierce through the stems at all — just wrapped very tightly. On the boutonnieres we left the wire exposed and on the corsages we covered with ribbon. For both we put the stems in tubes. We changed and refilled the water every 12 hours. On the day of, we took them out and trimmed them and boutonnieres went right onto the jackets, corsages went onto these wirstlets where all we had to do was put the wristlet on, hold the stem onto it, and fold the metal over the stem to hold it in. We covered the metal parts with ribbon right then too. I was so nervous about these but they were the easiest and fastest part! Sorry for the long reply but that is pretty much exactly what we did.

Looks a lot like what they put on the end of a flower so you can transport it and still have water. Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Floral-Flower-Arrangements-Royal-Imports/dp/B01DYR27DI

Steal away! I ordered these floral picks that I'm going to insert into our centerpieces which are some low floral arrangements that will have mini paperplanes on wires coming out of them.

no problem! flower tubes can solve the loose flower issue

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FIFCDGK/ref=sr_ph_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487967800&sr=sr-1&keywords=flower+tubes