Shea Butter Bath Salts (and other recipes)

Today, I experimented and made my own bath salts. 

They are amazing. Completely customizable, and once I'd bought all the ingredients, they paid for themselves many times over!

I saw some pretty shea butter bath salts in my local natural foods store, and it was $17 for seven test tube sized bath salts - that's like, seven ounces.

Now I love luxury, but wow, these were too expensive!

However, Hobby Lobby has a seven pound tub of sea salts in the soap making section for only $10.

Basically, I can make ten times the amount of bath salts for ten dollars!

I already have essential oils: Lavender, lemon, peppermint, tea tree, etc., so the costs for making these bath salts does not include the cost of essential oils. But still, even if you spent $30 on these, you've still beat store prices by half! Thirty dollars for seven pounds of bath salts comes out to $1.70 per ounce, where the store ones are $2.40 per ounce!

(Suggested essential oil recipes at end of post.)

Recipe 1: Shea Butter Bath Salts

You will need:

• 1 cup Sea Salt (or Epsom salts, but you should know that E-salts have not been proven to reduce muscle soreness or relax you, so save your money and buy cheaper sea salt). $9.99
• 30 drops essential oil of your choice
• 3 drops food or soap coloring (optional) - food coloring will tint your bathwater but didn't stain my tub or body...
• 1.5 tsp  raw African Shea Butter Cream (8oz for ~$6) 

Step 1: Melt the Shea butter in a pot over low heat. Do not let it boil, scald, or get too hot. It should be just melted before you begin step 2.

Step 2: Remove from the heat, and slowly pour in one cup of sea salts, stirring with a whisk as you pour, to coat every single crystal. You can transfer the mixture to a bowl at this point if you want (i.e. the bowl for a stand mixer).

Step 3: Mix in the essential oil of your choice, to the intensity that you want. I like really strong smells, so I put about 40 generous drops in my sea salt mixture. (And I can only faintly smell it after I put it in my bath.) You can add some food or soap coloring at this time if you want. Do not use gel food coloring, as it totally sucks for this purpose. Mix colors before adding to bowl.

Step 4: Stir the mixture continually for about 10 minutes, let it sit for 30, then stir again for 5 minutes. Continue letting it sit for 30 and stirring for 5 until the Shea butter hardens.

**I use my stand mixer for this because it really can be a loooong time. If doing by hand, you can speed up the hardening of the Shea butter by putting your bowl in an ice bath (use some ice cubes in water.) However, you should still stir the mixture for a while before you put it in an ice bath, so that the warm, liquid shea butter can absorb into the salt crystals better.

Step 5: Once the Shea butter and essential oils/coloring have been absorbed, pour the mixture into a pretty bottle or jar, and shake or stir well before adding a handful to your tub! Soothing, moisturizing, and I hardly need to go on about the greatness of Shea butter (end of linked post)!

**Warning, Shea butter will make your bath slippery, so be careful. Shake bottle before using.

Recipe 2: Scented Bath Salts

You will need:

• One cup sea salts
• 20-30 drops essential oil of your choice
• Food or soap coloring (optional)

Step 1: Measure one cup of sea salts into a bowl, or a tupperware container with a tight fitting lid. (I actually used the jar that I was going to put my salts in, but I wouldn't recommend it. Use a tupperware container or a bowl to mix everything together.)

Step 2: Add 20 - 30 drops of essential oil, depending on how strong you like your bathwater to smell. I use almost 40 drops myself.

Step 3: Put the lid on the container, and shake for a good 5 minutes, making sure that the salts soak up all the oil. Hold the lid tightly! Loose lid = salt everywhere. On the plus side, it will make your carpet smell fabulous for days.

Step 4: Add food or soap coloring and shake again. Mix colors before adding to salts, and don't use gel food coloring, because it doesn't mix with the crystals very well. 

Step 5: Set the mixture aside for a few minutes (10 - 15), then pick it up and shake again. Look through the tupperware to see if the salts are sticking to the bottom or if there's oily runs. There should be neither. If there is, keep shaking.

Recipe 2 is the one on the left. The bottle on the right is recipe 3, below.

Pour into a jar or bottle (I used a piece of paper to make a funnel), and put a handful in the bath for a great soak!

Recipe 3: FIZZY Scented Bath Salts

This one is so much fun!

Follow the steps for recipe 2, but for step "3 and a half", add 1/4 cup baking soda, and half as much citric acid (... an eighth? Just eyeball it).

 Then continue with step four and five in recipe 2. 

(Citric acid is sold at WalMart, in the canning/food storage aisle; Citric acid is also sold at health food stores.)

Shake well before adding to your bath.

Some Essential oil combinations for your salts:

(ratios are drops of oils to each other, not portions to salts)

1:1 Lemon and grapefruit - a great pick me up for a morning bath; however, I like the cleansing smell for evening

1:1 Wild sweet orange and peppermint - energizing

2:1 Orange and ginger - energizing

2:1 Lavender and peppermint - calming and cooling, helps with allergies

1:1 Eucalyptus and peppermint - opens up the sinuses, throat, and works like Vic's Vapor Rub

2:1 Sandalwood and patchouli - sensuous, spiced, and intimate

1:1:1  Lavender, lemon, and rosemary - cheerful and lifting

1:1:1:1  Bergamot, lavender, ylang ylang, patchouli - slows your mind down, calming

1:1:1 Lavender, clary sage, geranium, rose - smell like a flower garden, complex, feminine

2:2:1 Pine or cypress, wintergreen, cinnamon - woodsy, earthy, grounding