Welcome to post 2 of our Make it Yourself Series! Our first post was about making organic baby products. This post explains how to make organic bath (and after bath) products like shower steamers. We won’t get into all of the details here, but we would recommend doing some research on what is normal in these types of products and what they do to your body – it’s horrific!
We started off just using our own homemade, organic lotion and we loved how it made our skin feel. From then on, we could never go back to store bought lotion. So we branched out and tried making some other bath products. Here are our “recipes” for all of these.
The next post in this series will be homemade, organic (non-bath) hygiene products, such as deodorant and lip balm.
We hope you enjoy!
Detox Bath
Items You Need: 2 cups Epsom salt, 1 cup apple cider vinegar, ½ cup bentonite clay (optional), 5-10 drops essential oils, 1 cup sea salt, 1 cup baking soda, 2 tablespoons glycerine (more for dry skin, less for oily skin) – this makes a lot, so we use this amount for 2 baths.
Method:
- Mix all ingredients well in a bowl and pour into a jar.
- Pour everything in your bath, and relax.
- Drink a glass of water afterwards.
- Go right to bed, and you will wake up refreshed!
Coconut Oil Lotion
Items You Need: 1 cup coconut oil; 1 tablespoon vitamin E; 2 tablespoons aloe vera gel; essential oils; 2 tablespoons cocoa butter
Method:
- Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer.
- Transfer to a jar, or an empty lotion tub.
Shaving Cream
Items You Need: 4 tbsp coconut oil; 2 tbsp cocoa butter; 1 tsp baking soda (purchase from a health store); 4 tbsp Castille soap; 1 tbsp aloe vera gel; 1.5 cups water; 4 drops essential oils
Method:
- Put coconut oil and cocoa butter into a mason jar.
- Put the mason jar into a saucepan that is filled with 2 inches of water. Heat the saucepan on medium until the oil and cocoa butter has melted. Remove from heat.
- Use gloves to remove the mason jar, and pour the mixture into a mixing bowl.
- Add the remaining ingredients into the bowl and mix with an electric mixer.
- Transfer to a jar, and it’s ready to use!
Bubble Bath
Items you need: 1 cup Castille soap (use a little bit more if you have dry skin); ¾ cup water; 1 tsp liquid glycerin; 10 drops essential oils
Method:
- Simply pour all ingredients into a jar and mix well. It’s ready to use!
Bath Fizzies
Items you need: ½ cup cornstarch; ½ cup citric acid powder; 1 cup baking soda (from a health store); 1 tbsp sea salt; 2 tsp olive oil; ½ cup witch hazel; 10 drops essential oils
Method:
- Mix together than cornstarch, citric acid powder, baking soda, and sea salt in a small bowl.
- In another bowl, mix together olive oil and essential oils.
- Combine the dry ingredients and wet ingredients until they are combined well.
- Pour the witch hazel into a spray bottle.
- Begin making little balls from the ingredients. If they crumble, spray with the witch hazel until you get the desired consistency.
- Place the balls into greased muffin tins. Press into the tin firmly, and let sit until hardened (about 48 hours). Store in an airtight container until you’re ready to use them. Please note: they should be used within about 3 weeks.
Bath Sugar Scrub & Exfoliant
Items you need: ½ cup sugar; ½ cup brown sugar; 1/3 cup sea salt; 2 tbsp olive oil; 2 tbsp coconut oil, 10 drops essential oils
Method:
- Simply mix all ingredients together. If you’d like a coarse texture, add more sugar and sea salt. If you’d like a smooth texture, add more oil
Bath Milk
Items you need: 1 1/2 cups powdered milk (preferably soy milk powder but you can use any other dairy milk powder), 1/2 cup Epsom salts, 5-8 drops of Essential oil of your choice, 1/2 cup flower petals (optional and rose preferred), Food coloring to set the essential oil and flower petals (optional)
Method:
- Take powdered milk and Epsom salt, mix together and add a few drops of food color.
- Add essential oil to it. If you are adding flower petals, fold them in this mixture at this point.
- Once all are mixed, store it in a glass jar.
Foot Scrub
Items you need: 2/3 cup granulated white sugar, 1/3 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 tbs vanilla extract
Method:
- Mix both white and brown sugar in a bowl and whisk until combined.
- Add olive oil and vanilla extract and mix with a fork till the oil blends well with the sugar granules.
- Store the mixture in a jar and use every time you go for a bath.
Coconut Milk Shampoo
Items you need: 1/4 cup coconut milk, 1/3 cup liquid castile soap (like Dr Bronner’s), 1 tsp vitamin E, olive or almond oil, 10 to 20 drops your choice of essential oils
Method:
- Mix all the above items in a shampoo bottle and shake well so that they all are mixed. This shampoo can last for a month easily.
Conclusion
These homemade bath products are pretty easy to make and use similar ingredients mostly so you wouldn’t have to do some extra shopping. One of the key ingredients you would find in every homemade product is an essential oil. With the right ingredients you can easily make bath products and skin lotions. If you feel you are too busy to make these at home, you can get handmade body soap and other products in the market too. I blindly use Zen Rituals Himalayan Pink Bath Salt With Organic Essential Oil Ylang Ylang and its totally worth it.