How Tuesday - Making Citrus Bath Salts

These are the bath salts I made for the Chesapeake MS Challenge Walk that was held June 9 in Maryland.  I love doing what I can for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, unlike breast cancer which does not run in my family, MS seems to be a disease that has affected my family more than once.  As a result is it what I call my "charity of choice."  So when I was asked to do bath salts on a budget, this is what I crafted as a significant donation.

 Read to the bottom for a special giveaway I have planned for these extra salts.

How to - Make Citrus Bath Salts

The salts are not too hard to make.  You just need to let the steps “marinate” for a while to get a perfect batch.

First I put the Epsom salts in the bowl and colored them with food coloring.  I used red and yellow together by dropping first the yellow then the red in exactly the same spots then stirring briskly.  I use a pair of small plastic salad or serving tongs to do the mixing.  This seems weird but it is because you have to break up the clumps when you make salts like this.  The jaws of the tongs can get in and do that.

Once colored I let the salts sit for 24 hours to really absorb the color.  You want to make them a bit darker than your finished product so that when you add the other salts you will not dilute the color too much.

Then I measure in the sea salt and corn starch.  I use those in this recipe to keep the salts from being overly drying to skin.  Cornstarch soothes dry itchy skin and sea salt adds minerals and nutrients.

Once these are thoroughly mixed in then I measure in the baking soda, but before I stir the baking soda in I add the essential oil.  In this case a combination of grapefruit and sweet orange oil to go with the color.  I should mention that the MS Society chose the color as that was the shade for the logo they were using this year.  I enjoyed using a color I never had before in bath salts.

I let the essential oil soak into the baking soda for at least 30 minutes before I stir it in, being sure to break up the clumps that have formed.  Baking soda holds scent better than any other salt.  (That is why you put it in the refrigerator to clear away odors!)  By adding the essential oil to the baking soda you get the best scent retention and let me tell you these were exquisite.

Then all I had to do was bag up 200 of them.  The boxes were totally full when I shipped them which means the extra I just naturally create when making big batches like this could not be passed on to the MS Society. 

The Giveaway

I am going to give the 10 extra packages of Bathsalts the last batch produced to my viewers here.  If you post a comment about why you like, make, enjoy or want to try bath salts I will place you in a drawing and at the end of the day on Saturday June 30, 2012. I will draw out 10 names and mail off a package of these orange scented bath salts to you!  And if you can get someone to follow the blog or friend us on facebook I will enter your name again for each friend or follower you encourage.  Just post here the names so I can verify you recommended them.

How do we use these bath salts?  Let’s have some fun:  Of course you can dissolve them in your bath water, only 1 Tbls. per bath is needed for a good soak.  Use ½ Tbls. for a foot soak.  Now if you are a shower only person you can still enjoy the salts as a body scrub (just not on the face.)  Place a Tablespoon in the center of a wash cloth and wet it well.  Use the cloth on legs, arms, elbows, heels and any other rough patches to increase exfoliation.

The Recipe:

3/4 cup Epsom Salts

1 Tbls. sea salt

1 Tbls. Cornstarch

3 Tbls. Baking Soda

20 to 30 drops 100% essential oil (I used 20 grapefruit and 10 orange)

Blend together and keep in a tightly sealed jar.

Remember that we have many types of bath salts at the Backyard Patch.