Receiving a bouquet of roses for your birthday, anniversary, or any special occasion never fails to make you feel admired.

After a few days, fresh blooms are still perfect for refreshing and beautifying your home, thanks to their vivid colors and fragrance. They’re just pleasing to the senses - until they start to wilt and die.

Unfortunately, flowers don't last forever. They turn brown, dry out and wrinkle, and lose their captivating scent. They're also too expensive to end up in the trash. The good thing though is you can still make use of them even after they cease to be vibrant.

From making a unique wall art to using them for your skincare routine, here are 7 creative ways to repurpose your flowers after they lose their glow.

1. Frame the blooms

If you’re an overly sentimental person, then framing flowers is one of the best ways to decorate your room. Framed flowers add personal touches to your walls and shelves, as they remind you of something or someone special.

An ex-lover gave me a bouquet of red roses on my 18th birthday. I knew they’ll soon die so I pressed and arranged them inside a standard photo frame. Even if the relationship faded and died like the flowers he gave me five years ago, I’d still love to reminisce the days when our love was young and new by the time I turn into a granny.

2. Press them

Have you ever tried tucking a small stem of Hibiscus pressed inside a thick dictionary for a decade? You forgot that you did so the discovery of a beautifully pressed flower ten years later brings you to feelings of nostalgia.

Pressing flowers is one way to make blooms last forever. There are various ways to do it:

• Old school way. Gather clean flowers and place them face down in a thick book, like a telephone book, lined with parchment paper. Close the book, weigh it down, and let it rest for seven to ten days.
• Using an iron. If you don't want to wait for days, you can use an iron to press flowers in an instant. Let flowers lie between two absorbent paper sheets, and then place a heavy book atop to flatten them. Remove book once flatten. Heat the iron on low. Make sure there's no water in the iron. Once warm, press the iron atop the sheet of paper for 10-15 seconds. Wait for another 15 seconds until the paper has cooled down before repeating the process. Lift the paper discreetly to check if the flower is dry and stiff.

Pressed flowers are versatile. They can be used for bookmarks, greeting cards, invitations, and wall art.

3. Decorate a candle with flowers

Let withered flowers light up your room - literally - by dressing up your candles with them.

Once you have the pressed flowers, melt small candles and use the wax to paint the flowers onto the existing candles. Have a layer of wax placed onto the plain candle, press the flowers carefully onto it using a tweezer, and then paint several wax layers to secure them.

4. Make your own potpourri

Dry flowers, like fresh ones, make an incredible aromatherapy. It’s called potpourri, a mixture of dried petals and spices placed in a small pouch, bowl, jar, or basket. It is intended for decoration and to add fragrance to a room.

To make a sweet smelling potpourri, leave the blooms to dry naturally in sunlight or in the oven with cinnamon sticks and a few slices of citrus fruits. Don’t forget to spritz them with your preferred essential oil first. Leave them until they’re brittle, not burnt.

Once cool, put them in a bowl and spray the mixture again with oil.

5. Create a homemade rose water

Now you can put the essence of the roses into your own skin. You only need two things: rose petals and distilled water.

After bringing water to boil in a pot, add a handful of rose petals and let the water simmer until the petals start to lose color. Turn off the heat, strain water, and allow it to completely cool before pouring it into spray bottles. Keep it in the fridge. It usually lasts a month.

Rose water isn’t just used for creating fragrances; this powerful beauty potion heals, hydrates, and maintains the skin’s pH balance. Next to using it as a refreshing toning facial mist and makeup remover, you can mix a few drops of rose water into a steamy tub to leave skin feeling soft and smelling good. You can also mix in a few drops into your shampoo and conditioner to hydrate your dry hair.

Note: When it comes to skincare, the fresher the petals the better. Wilted are fine too. Dried ones have stronger fragrance but weaker rejuvenating properties.

6. Keep the air fresh and fragrant

Freshen up your bedroom drawers with dried rose petals to keep your clothes smelling great.They retain their fragrance for weeks. You can fill a small sack or a lone sock with dried petals. You can also use them for freshening up your car.

7. Eat them

Yes, candied rose petals are a thing.

You need about 24 organic (pesticide-free), unsprayed rose petals, 1 egg white, beaten, and 1 cup ultra-fine sugar. Brush each petal on both sides with the beaten egg white. Next, you can either dip them into the sugar or sprinkle the sugar over them to coat them completely. Set on a piece of parchment or wax paper and leave them to dry overnight.

Author Bio: Carmina Natividad is one of the daytime writers for Roses Only, a luxury brand that prides itself on supplying and arranging the world’s finest long-stemmed roses for various occasions. She writes about basic gardening and creative flower arrangement ideas.