If  you know me, then you’ll know that I am a huge fan of epsom salts! The addition of epsom salts to a bath creates a really luxurious, silky feeling. And if you make your own bath salts, you’ll save a small fortune, and they make a cool gift too.
There’s a fair bit of evidence suggesting epsom salt baths can reduce muscle inflammation (among 101 other ‘remedies’). But I won’t make that claim here. Check out the research and decide for yourself. But I certainly do use epsom salts myself to manage an ongoing back problem.
Of course, I normally just hiff some epsom salts in the bath, and jump in. But there’s really nothing quite like soaking in a proper bath salt mixture. And it’s even more satisfying when you make your own bath salts recipe.
This recipe has the inclusion of rose petals, mostly for aesthetics, but it really ups the ante on luxury. We had a bunch of very tired-looking roses on our table, and I thought whose going to miss just one flower head?
Dehydrated manuka leaf is included, adding a great woody essence and a good dose of toxin cleansing. We have manuka growing right in our garden fortunately. But in New Zealand you should easily be able to forage a few manuka branches. If not, you can always substitute the leafs for a few drops of tea tree essential oil.
Finally, very high quality lemon essential oil is added, which is rejuvenating and also a good toxin cleanser.
This recipe also uses pink food colouring in half of the salts. This is mostly for a bit of fun and aesthetic value too. I find some mixtures that have leaf and flowers included, end up looking a bit like pot-pourri. But when you colour some of the salts, it creates a really beautiful finished product. Something you’ll be proud to give away as a gift.
Like most things at Kiwi Families HQ, we get the kids involved with this one. Making your own bath salts is definitely a cool activity to do with the kids though. It’s pretty much fail safe, they can even use the oven, as it’s only on warm. And the final bath salt mixture makes a very affordable gift to give for Mother’s or Father’s day.
Make your own bath salts – Manuka, rose and lemon
You will need
Epsom salts
Natural coarse sea salt
Pink food colouring
Pink, or red, rose petals
Manuka leafs
Lemon essential oil
What to do
- Turn your oven to 90 degrees celsius.
- Pick all the petals from one pink rose bud, and combine with around 2 tablespoons of manuka leaf. Place on an oven tray and dehydrate in the warm oven for around 30 minutes.
- Place 1/4 cup Epsom salts, 1/4 cup coarse sea salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pink food colouring into a ziplock plastic bag. Zip the bag closed and gently roll the bag around on your bench until the food colouring is thoroughly mixed in.
- Place another 1/4 cup Epsom salts and 1/4 cup coarse sea salt into a bowl and combine with the pink salts and dehydrated petals and leafs. Add a few drops of lemon essential oil and stir through.
- Pour bath salts into jars, and decorate with ribbon, or string, and attach a name tag if giving as a gift.
So, that’s how to make your own bath salts – manuka, rose and lemon luxury bath salt mixture. As this mixture is 50/50 epsom to sea salt, it’s not too strong. But you should still start with just 1/3 a cup of the mixture, and build up from there. If you’re giving the bath salts away as a gift, you might like to include the instructions on the gift tag.
I like to bathe the old school Japanese method, which means LONG and HOT. But that takes a little getting used to. I’m sure the addition of some candles and a nice glass of Marlborough Sav would do the trick!
For more great handmade gift ideas check out our Arts and crafts section.
