It’s not too late to make some last-minute handmade gifts for that special someone on your list who is in need of a little pampering… (hint, hint). Mark and Emily whipped up a batch of lavender scented bath salts and it only took a few minutes!
To make your own scented bath salts, you will need: lavender essential oil (or whatever scent you prefer), food coloring, epsom salts, a mason jar, and some ribbon.
Begin by mixing the food coloring in a separate small bowl. We used 6 drops red food coloring and 4 drops of blue. Sorry kids, but this is a grown up job. Please note: be careful with food coloring as it will stain the dickens out of anything it comes into contact with (including counter tops).
To that same bowl, add about 3 drops of essential oil. Emily thinks lavender is a lovely scent, so we went with that. Again, this is for the grown ups only. I’ll refrain from divulging about the time some essential oil spilled on the furniture and it took the finish off, but please be careful!
To a larger glass mixing bowl, add 2 cups of epsom salts.
Combine the essential oil/food coloring mixture to the epsom salts.
Stir the crap out of it!!! Keep stirring until everything is well-combined. This may be a two person job.
Spoon into mason jars. Close jars and tie on some ribbon.
Hmmm…. I wonder who we could give this lovely gift to??
Ahem!
Dear Valerie,
You stink.
Merry Christmas.
Take a bath.
Love,
Mark
O:-)
maybe i'm just a little ignorant to how this works, but if the food coloring is so good at staining things, will it turn the bath water (and you) purple?
I will have to give that a try. Then you just dump some salt in your bath right?
OOOH! Great gift! Enjoy your bath. Even if you turn purple.
@ meliss — Ha! No, thankfully it's not nearly enough food coloring to turn you or the bath purple. It just tints the salts a bit. Good question, though!
@ Deborah — Yes, just a few spoonfuls will do the trick! They are very relaxing!
Hi Valerie
I love the smell and look of lavendar. Gifts that people can use to pamper themselves are always lovely to give and the fact that this is home made makes it more special.
I read your post about your trip to the hairdresser to get haircuts. I am now sporting layers in my hair, after I very clearly said that I did not want layers. Every morning I grumble about it when I do my hair. What makes me madder is that once my hair was cut, I smiled, said thank you and paid the money. Why can't I bring myself to say that I am not happy with this service. I usually don't have a problem with expressing my dissatisfaction for a poor service, but when it comes to hairdressers it seems to be a whole different situation!!
i just want to thank you for your blog, I enjoy it so much, my kids and i have such a great time doing some of the projects you have on here. May God bless you greatly for you gift of sharing.
Merry Christmas
CHristina
I didn't realize how simple that was. Love the last picture of Emily. Enjoy the salts!
Great post
What a great gift. I had no idea it was that easy. And to think people pay a lot of money for bath salts. Maybe I need to send this link to a certain someone I know. 😉
Your little one is so sweet : )
What a great idea Valerie!
yum-o!
Very nice 🙂
How CUTE is your daughter? ;0)
Oh, and by the way, an earlier post you had about bath salts inspired us…
http://thefantasticfive-hockmana.blogspot.com/2009/12/candy-cnae-bath-salts.html
I am REALLY THANKFUL to have found your blog! Keep up the GREAT work girl!
@Mark ROFL!
Yes, that would be nice for you Valerie, but aren't gifts supposed to be a surprise?! 🙂 This looks easy enough. … Well, I always say that, don't I? I don't think I've ventured into a craft yet. Maybe I should make that one of my New Year's resolutions: Try at least one craft from Valerie's blog. 😀
Ooh that's great! I've been looking for some last minute gifts kids can make. Thanks!
Bath salts are such a fun gift!
When we made them, instead of measuring everything into a bowl, we placed everything in a heavy-duty zip lock bag and then the kids got to mush it around to mix it up.
Also, if you do two or three colors, (each kid got a different color to mush when we did it) then you can layer the colors (like the sand art–have you seen that before?) and it looks really pretty.
Such a fun blog!
@ Erin — Oh, I love the layering idea… That would be so pretty! Thanks so much for stopping by! 🙂