Making Bath Salts as a Gift

A nicely decorated jar of homemade bath salts make lovely hostess gifts, office exchange gifts or even stocking stuffers for family members. Keep a few jars around for last minute gifts. Placed with a scented candle, a loofa and CD of relaxing music, in a pretty gift bag and you have a great inexpensive gift for even close friends.

Bath salts are relaxing and therapeutic. And really easy to make!

Epsom salts - You can get these at most drug stores or Wal-Mart, but I find the cheapest place to find them is at the bulk store. That way you can buy as much as you need

Food coloring – (Regular old food coloring that you can pick up at any grocery store. )

Decorating materials – Paint, scrap fabric, ribbons, raffia, shells, bows, buttons, beads pretty much anything you can think of and have laying around. Get creative!

Epsom salts (amount depends on jar size)

Baking soda (it softens the skin) – this is optional - use ¼ cup per 1 cup of Epsom salts

Scented oil or perfume – 3-4 drops per cup (experiment with this)

Food coloring – start with 3 drops, add more if required

Jars – what ever size and shape you like

Ribbon – width and color is up to you

Label or Tag – store bought, homemade, printed or hand written

Odds and ends for decorating lid – sea shells, fabric, raffia, beads, buttons

Paint – if you want to paint or stencil something on the jar

Make sure you have decorated the jar or bottle first and made the instruction tag or label.

1. Combine the desired amount of Epsom salts (enough to fit in your bottle or jar) with baking soda if using.
    

2. Add a few drops of food coloring to the salt mix. Mix well so color is even.
    

3. You can color the bath salts to match the scent. I like to use peppermint oil and then color half the salts red and leave the other half natural. I then layer the white (natural) salt with the red to try to make a candy cane effect. Play around and see what colors you like best. I really like the look of blue/green bath salts too. It makes me think of the ocean.
    

4. Add your perfume or essential oil and mix again. Mash any clumps out with the back of a spoon. This may take a few minutes to get this well mixed.
    

5. Spread the mixture out on a sheet of wax paper to dry for a couple of hours and then put it in the bottle or jar. (Decorate the jar first).
    

6. While the salts can be used right away, the perfume or essential oil will blend better with the salt if it is allowed to set in the jar for a few weeks.

As you can see making bath salts is surprisingly simple. The key is in the presentation. You have to make the container look fantastic.

You could paint the jars, a solid color or just a nice design. You could paint the lids, or cover them in fabric (putting batting under the fabric is a nice touch too). I like to decorate the lid but leave the jar mostly clear so that you can see the bath salts through it.

Painting the lid a nice sea green, gluing some small sea shells to the top and tying a bit of raffia around it makes an elegant but simple presentation that will look great in any bathroom.

If you can find nice colored (non-white) plastic spoons – you can tie one to the jar with a ribbon to be uses as a scoop.

If you don’t have any baby food jars, a nice shaped pasta sauce jar or any old jar will do. A Mason jar with a hinged lid is very pretty and practical for this use. Don’t use a small-necked bottle – as the salts may harden and be hard to get out.

Finishing Touch

Next create a tag or label with the name of the bath salt fragrance (e.g., Candy Cane) and the instructions on how much to use.

Depending on how many jars you plan to make you could either hand write and decorate your labels or tags or print then out.

Nice tags can also be made from inexpensive card stock with the name on the front and the instructions on the back or make a small folded card and have these instructions written inside:

Usage suggestion:

• Pour 3 tbsp. under running bath water.

• You may have to stir the water to melt the salts.

• Sink in and relax.

Candles and soft music finish the picture.

~ Kim Murray