Monday 30 November 2015

Home made bath salts

I hadn't realised just how easy these are to make, but really I was pleasantly surprised and now I know, I will experiment with other 'flavours'. I have begun with lavender as I had dried lavender from the garden and lavender essential oil, so it seemed like a good starting point!


Mix 300g of citric acid (available online) with 150g of cornflour and 450g of bicarbonate of soda in a large plastic or glass bowl. Spritz this with water mixed with about 20 drops of the essential oil and stir together with a wooden spoon. When it becomes a dry, fine rubble, stir in the dried lavender. Decant into clean pretty jars and decorate with ribbon and add labels. They would look great with old fashioned teaspoons or little wooden scoops tied on, but I don't have any. This amount of ingredients filled these three jars, although as the ingredients interact with one another, the contents shrink down somewhat.

I have some bath bombe moulds from a previous kit, but I fancied the idea of the pots of bath salts (and it's a lot less faff!). You could also decant the salts into pretty muslin bags which can be tied under the tap to provide a soapy, sweet smelling addition as you run the bath.

Mr D and I have completed all the present shopping this weekend. We have Christmas and two children's Birthdays (in December and January) pretty much wrapped up (figuratively speaking at this stage). We were like a swat team descending on the shops armed with list, bags and a clear plan of action. Saturday morning saw us pretty much finished, but we had just a few items left, so they were dealt with on the Sunday along with the month's toiletry/cleaning shopping from Home Bargains (all bought for under £20); another upcoming Birthday present and the week's food shop. We were back home by 12.45 having left at 11. Neither of us like shopping at the best of times, but tackling it head on certainly made it more bearable! I also feel that not having any time to browse, helps keep the cost down too!

Of course many of my presents are home made, but I can't imagine ever being in a position to only give home made gifts at Christmas, so there will always be shopping to be done. I can now concentrate on the food element of Christmas - something which I find much more appealing!!

9 comments:

  1. Those look really nice. I cheat even more and simply use Epsom Salts with some lavender and essential oil.

    I've never thought of buying citric acid online, I should, I'm always made to feel like a criminal when I go into the chemist to buy it and they ask "exactly WHAT is it for?" Buying online would prevent this ;-)

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    1. I'm always in favour of buying online. Amazon sell it in varying amounts and the price looks ok. It always makes me laugh in the chemist when they are so cautious about what drugs you are buying and who they are for and yet they make you announce your name and address to everyone in the shop if you're collecting a prescription!!

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    2. Seemingly citric acid can be a component in bomb making, although I think the tiny amounts I usually buy would make a pathetically little bang!!

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  2. The jars look very pretty! Am beginning to feel a bit left behind now as not even opened my Xmas savings jar yet! Must get cracking soon!

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    1. I was getting a bit stressed that I hadn't git anything except for the homemade bits. I feel much better now :)

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  3. I did a similar thing but with dead sea salts - didn't work. The smell after a few days was absolutely dreadful, certainly nothing like the one put in! I read on-line somewhere that dead sea salts react differently to sea salt - wish I'd read it first!

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    1. Oh dear :( you won't do that again and now, thanks to you, I won't make the same mistake either! Bloggers are such a good source of info :)

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  4. The jars look lovely. So pretty. I love the smell of lavender. X

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    1. Me too - very calming smell. If I ever took a bath, I'd save some for myself, but I only ever shower!

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