Homemade Bath Salts

Treat the special ladies in your life to an at-home spa treatment with this simple recipe for natural bath salts. You only need a few ingredients to make up batches of scented bath salts, which you can then package and give as gifts for the holidays!

These directions make enough bath salts to fill up a 6.25 ounce glass bottle.  According to the instructions, you can also add powdered milk or finely ground old-fashioned oatmeal (moisturizing agents), but I opted to keep the bath salts recipe as is.

What you’ll need ~

• 1/2 cup coarse sea salt
• 2 tablespoons Epsom salts
• 2 tablespoons baking soda
• 1 to 2 drops premium fragrance oil in cinnamon or pumpkin*
• Red and/or yellow food coloring, if desired
• 1 4″ Cork Top Round Glass Bottle 6.25 oz

*Naturally, you can choose any fragrance you’d like for the bath salts (I just chose cinnamon and pumpkin for the holiday season) ~ just be sure the oils you choose are safe for bath products. I purchased mine from Save-On-Crafts.com, and they had a great selection of other scents.

How to make them ~

Combine all your dry ingredients in a plastic container with a lid on it (I recommend an old plastic food storage container you won’t miss). Add the essential oil and food coloring (if you want the salts to have color), place the lid securely on top and shake, shake, shake!

If the essential oil and food coloring cause little lumps to form, just use a fork to break them up. Shake and stir the salts until you feel the color and fragrance is distributed thoroughly. Remove the lid from the container and let the salts air dry for an hour or so before transferring them to the glass bottle.

Use a funnel to transfer the salts to the glass bottle, pop in the cork, and you’re done!

If you’re going to make both fragrances, I would recommend using a different plastic container for each because the fragrance oils are quite strong and can leach into the plastic. Also, don’t use these containers for food afterwards ~ set them aside for other non-edible craft projects or recycle!

Your last step is to add some cute gift tags.

Homemade Sugar Scrub

From: http://www.funkyvintagekitchen.com/

Ingredients:
1 - 1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup olive or vegetable oil



Vanilla - add 2-3 tsp vanilla extract

Grapefruit - add 8 drops of grapefruit essential oil + 1 drop of red food coloring

Lemongrass - add 8 drops of lemongrass essential oil plus 1 tsp of Burt's Bee lemon body oil.

Bath Salts and Pretty Jar

from: www.smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com

So pretty, right? And this gift couldn't be easier to make and personalize to the momma you love. You only need a few ingredients to make the bath salts and the jar to package them is pretty simple to make too...gotta love that! Here's what you need:

• 3 cups Epsom salt
• 5-7 drops of essential oil or fragrance oil (you can find bath fragrance oils in the soap-making section of craft stores)
• 1 tsp glycerin (optional...glycerin is used as a skin softening agent!)
• 1 gallon ziploc bag
• 8 oz mason jars
• Heavy duty glue like E-6000
• Cardstock or scrapbook paper
• Compass, scissors
• Modge podge and foam brush
• Pack of wooden spoons (I found mine at Wal-Mart for 99 cents...can we say DEAL!)
• pretty ribbon

The picture to the right of the ingredients is what my Epsom salt, fragrance oil and glycerin look like in case you aren't sure what to look for!

**I used a Lemon Verbena fragrance oil here but I also really like to use a Peppermint Essential Oil(6 drops)-Eucalyptus Essential Oil (4 drops) mixture!!

To make the bath salts, just place 3 cups of epsom salt into the ziploc bag, add 5-10 drops of fragrance or essential oil slowly until you get the smell you like and then add 1 tsp of glycerin to the bag as well. Zip up the bag and mix or shake well. Open up the bag and let the salts dry out for a day or so and then you can add them to your jar. A pretty smelling gift, what could be better?

Here are the mason jars I used...you can get a 4-pack of these for less than $3.50!

Ok, so first things first. We need to glue the two lid pieces of the mason jar together so when your giftee opens up the jar the lid doesn't fall apart on them! You want to separate the the metal band of of the mason jar from the flat lid component like in the first picture. Then, glue around the inside of the metal band, like the second picture and press the flat lid into it. Let dry for a few minutes.

Next, measure the inside indented portion of the mason jar lid...if you buy the ones I bought it should be about 2.5 inches in diameter.

Then, get your compass out and get your 10th grade geometry on. Set your compass for 1.25 inches, which will be the radius of the circle of scrapbook paper you need to cut out and decorate the lid with.

Draw your circle, like so, and cut it out...Easy peasy, right!?! Please ignore the butterfly cut-outs...another project for another day!

Then, modge podge the outside portion of the metal lid, place your scrapbook paper circle on and press it down and let dry for a few minutes. Then modge podge the top of the paper circle, let it dry and do it one more time! Cool, the lid is all done!! Uhhh, except if you think your giftee takes super steamy baths...then you may want to do a coat of acrylic sealer on top just to be safe from the paper curling up on them!

Next, whip out your wooden spoons and cut the ends off, like so, with a handsaw...it's really fun to use man tools every now and again! Now, you have super cute little dipping spoons to add to your bath salts jar...adorable aren't they!!

Then, tie a ribbon along the outside rim of the mason jar and don't forget to tie your dipping spoon to it as well...

PERFECT! The prettiest Mother's Day gift...and it was all made with LOVE!

Love it!

Is it bathtime yet?

And, you could even make your ribbon into the shape of a heart...What momma wouldn't love that!!

Homade Herbal Bath Salt

It's so simple and pretty in a big jar. All you need is a box of rock salt from the grocery store and some dried herbs you like. The batch combines lavender, milk seed thistle and crushed juniper berries. Just mix it all together and store by your tub waiting for the stars to align so you can actually have a long soak in a hot bath. I have a small cotton bag I sewed to fill for my baths but you can pick up little muslin bags in the craft section, they are in the tea supply section of our natural food store where I stock up on herbs. You really have to try this, it is so lovely in jar, that's half the treat of it.

Makes A Great Christmas Gift Too!!