Monday 18 August 2008

Bath salts

Last Christmas I decided to make our extended family all of their Christmas presents, with a little help from Maia! The girls, who all received some natural beauty products, were far easier to make for than the boys and as for my Dad I didn't know what to make him. I made the ladies some bath salts and realised that if ever there was someone who needed them it was my Dad so I made him some too. Now isn't it funny how things work? He was the first one to report back to me on them and he LOVED them, and I really do mean LOVED them. Every time he talked to me he mentioned them and he thought I really should sell them (now if you knew my Dad you'd realise how out of character that is!). So it was wasn't too surprising when he returned the jar the other day and asked for some more. MORE? Why certainly sir!

So I have just made them. Whenever I do anything with my oils or natural beauty products I fall in love all over again. The smell in the kitchen is divine and the lemon I used transports you to the Med and the sun and the lemon groves ............... then I look out of the window and see the rain lashing down - again! Today's bath salts were eucalptus (Eucalyptus globulus), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) and lemon (Citrus limon) in a base of Epsom Salts and packaged in a kilner jar. I also added some dried rosemary to it for visual appeal and would have added some dried grated lemon zest except I had no lemons in the house!

Just pour into the bath whilst the water is running and make sure they are all dissolved before slipping into the warm bath and relaxing. This blend is perfect for any muscular or joint aches and pains and is quite invigorating so wouldn't be one to use before bed, maybe try lavender, frankincence and bergamot for that.

Having just made this and posted I realise I must incorporate more into my life again ....... I feel another post coming on, but I must run and get on with jobs :(

8 comments:

Jem said...

A gift that is made is so special, what lucky friends and family you have x

The Yarn Owl said...

I love homemade gifts, just starting to think about this coming Christmas, might give your bath salts a go. Might be a daft question but how do you make dried lemon rind?

sweetp said...

Fab!! I am trying soooooooo hard to handmade this year. But since I cant sew, I;m left with knitting and it takes so long....I might attempt this!!
When you say today's flavour is...are you adding essential oils? How much?
THankies

Becks said...

The bath salts look beautiful, fab gift idea, something else for me to steal inspiration from. XX

Julie said...

Ooooo, I am going to give those lovely bath salts a go, great idea! I studied Aromatherapy in England with the aim of working as an Aromatherapist. Unfortunately this never worked out, wrong time, but I love using oils. In England I always used to make hand cream and lovely lotions as gifts, but over here it is really expensive to buy the base products.

I have tagged you for a meme, go check it out on my blog. Don't worry if you don't fancy doing it...off to light my oil burner...X

Cut&Alter said...

alice - dried lemon rind - I have a zester to get the rind off - looked for it to take a photo for you but as my girls often play with 'safe' utensils it looks like it temporarily unavailable! It's a utensil that takes nice long swirls of the skin off but not the white pith - does that make sense? Then it's just a case of leaving it somewhere to dry - unwaxed lemons essential, organic unwaxed preferable. You can just use the small side of a conventional grater but you don't get the swirl of lemon as it were. Hope that answers that - sometimes I find it really hard to describe things that I take for granted - if you know what I mean:/

Cut&Alter said...

sweetp - yes I am adding essential oils. For this receipe you can add upto 1 ml per 100g of salt - I used Epsom salts in this product because they have a detoxing and relaxing action which is great for sore and aching muscles and joints. You can use other type of salt for other reasons. NOW 1ML EQUALS 20 DROPS. However, in this one I used less: in 560g of salt I added eucalyptus 10 drops, rosemary 20 drops, lemon 45. If you're going to have a go please, please, please make sure you use good quality essential oils - some on the market are really not up to skin grade if you know what I mean - just can't think of the name of the ones I used when I was in NZ if it comes to me I'll let you know! x

nocton4 said...

oh I so want to smell them
x