When you are on a money saving kick but still want to treat yourself to a luxurious bath experience, why not whip up some of your own bath products with things you have lying around at home. Granted, you probably won’t have all these items, but buying them is sometimes cheaper than going to an expensive bath shop in the first place. And if neither of these reasons works for you, then why not whip these up because crafting is fun and you can make these with the kids (some of them, anyway)!
Bath Salts
One of my favourite recipes for making your own bath salts comes from the Martha Stewart blog. This blog is a treasure trove of gorgeous and amazing so it’s no surprise that there is such a sharp little recipe for such a scrummy thing.
I highly recommend following Martha’s recipe to the letter and adding in dried lavender leaves to the blend. They look gorgeous in the bottle and in the bath. However, limit the amount you put in because whoever uses the bath salts will have to clean the bath and scraping out a ton of soggy plant leaves is extremely tedious.
Recycled glass bottles or jam jars are also great storage containers if you fancy giving these away as a gift.
Bath Milk
The BBC’s series on Grow Your Own Drugs has a recipe for making a chamomile bath milk that’s just too divine for words. It does ask that you do a bit of extra work here and there – like turning blocks of creamed coconut into liquid form – but it is fun and you can feel extremely smug at the end of the process.
You need only the coconut cream, lavender essential oil, sunflower oil and dried chamomile flowers. That’s it. And at the end you’ll have a gorgeous bath product that you can either use yourself or give as a gift. Although this one, unlike the shop bought variations, does need to be kept cool and in the fridge so make sure you label it in case someone thinks it can go in their tea…
The Natural Beauty Workshophas a recipe for making powdered milk baths that is simple and chic. They talk you through the different milk powders you can get, what each type does and how it works, and then gives you some ideas for scenting your bath milk and a base recipe for whipping it up. It is very detailed and one of my favourite spots for when I am on a funky birthday present mission.
Bath Bomb Kit
I’ve talked about making bath bombs before, and I’m sure you already have some great recipes of your own, so here I am giving you ideas for making bath bomb kits! Yes, what a stunning gift and what a cool way to get someone else involved in the bath bomb making craze!
First off, go and get yourself a really nice presentation box. These can be quite expensive so try to look into ideas that are funky, but cheap. I like using the old wooden fruit boxes or taking a small cardboard box and decoupaging it into a beautiful container.
Now you need a way of storing and packaging your ingredients. I use cellophane in different colours which I seal up with elastic bands. I recommend getting ready-made bags as the dry ingredients will find any holes and leak into your box. I have even used sandwich bags with gorgeous ribbons tied at the top to hide the whole “oh look this could have been in a lunchbox” feel.
You will get most of your ingredients from your local Tesco or Sainsburys if I am honest, except for the special salts and essential oils. Those you’ll need to get from a speciality store near you. A list of ingredients and instructions on using them can be found on Instructables.
Create an instruction manual by using a template from Microsoft Office or just printing them out onto coloured paper. Wrap it all up, and give it as a gift to someone crafty who will appreciate the amount of effort that’s gone into their present.
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