How to make Christmas candy cane bath salts
by GiGi
This is a really charming homemade gift idea for Wintermas, that can be dressed up or down to suit your tastes. These bath salts are simple to make and won't make you go over your budget. Huzzah for peppermint oil!
This cheap homemade Christmas gift involves peppermint oil. Often termed 'the world's oldest medicine', peppermint has a range of health benefits. Used externally (for example, in a lovely Christmassy bath) it can improve blood circulation, ease stress and anxiety, reduce fever with its cooling effect, ease physical pain with its calcium antagonism... some people even use it to treat urinary tract infections. Peppermint is genius stuff, and its numerous health benefits have been studied and proved by the scientific community. So let's use this miracle herb to make Christmas bath salts for our beloveds!
You will need:
- Epsom Salts
- Baking Soda
- Peppermint Oil (available at any health food shoop)
- Glycerin (available at major chemists/drugstores)
- Powdered milk (optional - can be added for a silkier soak)
- Glitter (optional - baking supply shops sell pretty white cake decorating glitter which will dissolve completely in bath)
- Red or Green Food Colouring
- Glass Jars (any size you want)
- Ribbon and Gift Tags for the glass jars
- 2 mixing bowls and spoons
- A funnel
How to make the Christmas candy cane bath salts
Step 1: Mix all the ingredients together. For every 1 cup of Epsom salt, use ¼ cups of baking soda, 3-5 drops of each peppermint oil and glycerin. Note that you can use more or less peppermint oil depending on your preferences. Stir thoroughly.
Step 2: Divide the mixture in half. Slowly add drops of red food colouring to half of the bath salts. The amount of colour you will use depends on how large the batch is and how intense you want the colour to be. Crimson? A delicate pink? It's up to you.
Step 3: Using a funnel, make layers of red and white bath salts in a glass jar. When the jar is full, tightly close the lid.
Step 4: Tie a bow around the top of the jar and attach the gift tag.
Voila! Now you have a great gift for yourself, friends and family, or anyone who has a serious case of body odour. Enjoy!
More: Arts & Crafts, How-Tos and Odd Hobbies on Mookychick
It's all in the presentation. You can keep the jar simple, or gussy it up with ribbon, tinsel and candy canes and all manner of fripperies.
Presentation tips: Consider what kind of jar you want to use. A mad thing with a cork stopper? A sturdy sealable mason jar? All jars are worthy.
If you're part of the Earthtone coalition not the Bright Brigade, you can keep decoration sophisticated and natural with good old fashioned twine. It's a well-kept secret, but twine always makes things look good. Twine and candy canes on your bath salts jar will look lovely.
GiGi is a capricorn, a twenty something, and a petite hot mess. She enjoys daydreaming, planning for the Zombie Apocalypse, long walks on the beach at sunset and a glass of red wine - actually any type of wine - actually, make that alcohol in general. She offers all mooks lunacy and best wishes.
