Tropical Treats: Spa Goodies for summer

As summer sweeps along, temperatures rise making it increasingly difficult for us to get comfortable. But rest assured you can have fun with the help of bath salts and soaps that are handmade specially to cool you off this summer.

But as we all know, handmade spa products are expensive. But it’s not always necessary to pay exorbitant amounts of money for bath salts or body scrubs or other spa goodies. Instead there are some very simple methods to make our own spa goodies from household things. These make classy unique gifts, or you can just pamper yourself with them.

For an herbal bath soap, all you need is herbs- which if you garden are even easier to get, else from a convenience store. Unscented dye free liquid soap, a strainer and some bottles to hold the soap. Take a jar and half fill it with herbs and then pour on in the unscented liquid soap to the brim. Now you can either steep the herbs in the soap or simply add an essential oil to it. Shake this mixture lightly every three days and let the herbs infuse into the soap for about three weeks. Once that time is up, strain the herbs out and store the soap. If you use essential oils instead of the herbs, add 3-5 drops to the soap and let it soak it up for 3 weeks- with occasional stirring. This yields your first spa goody- herbal scented soap which can now be stored in a cool place. Keep these containers of soap tightly lidded so that the essence of the herbs isn’t lost.

For scented bath salts, it is ideal to use sea salt as it is most presentable. You can substitute that with table salt combined with borax or half a measure of Epsom salt could also be used. To one and a half cup of this salt, add round about forty drops of the essential oil of the herb that is your favorite. This mixture should be stirred gently and placed into a glass jar or bottle and stored in a cool dark place. You could make these bath salts to smell like some of your favorite cuisines! They are a great way of pampering yourself as well as make a fantastic present. Very desirable way to end a stressful day!

To make your bath salts to smell delicious like vanilla or chocolate, add vanilla extract about a teaspoon of it to the essential oil you are adding to the salts. This vanilla oil mixture when added to the salt gives you your very own home made Gourmet Bath salt.
A simple way to make bath beads, mix together 3 tbs of baking soda, 10 drops of fragrance- any perfume can also be used and 1 tbs of shortening with your hands using a kneading motion. Once mixed, pinch off small amounts and shape into little balls and let the balls dry in a dry location for a day. Your bath beads are good to go!

Enjoy the summer with these homemade spa goodies.