It’s not too late to make some last-minute handmade gifts for that special someone on your list who is in need of a little pampering… (hint, hint). Mark and Emily whipped up a batch of lavender scented bath salts and it only took a few minutes!
To make your own scented bath salts, you will need: lavender essential oil (or whatever scent you prefer), food coloring, epsom salts, a mason jar, and some ribbon.
Begin by mixing the food coloring in a separate small bowl. We used 6 drops red food coloring and 4 drops of blue. Sorry kids, but this is a grown up job. Please note: be careful with food coloring as it will stain the dickens out of anything it comes into contact with (including counter tops).
To that same bowl, add about 3 drops of essential oil. Emily thinks lavender is a lovely scent, so we went with that. Again, this is for the grown ups only. I’ll refrain from divulging about the time some essential oil spilled on the furniture and it took the finish off, but please be careful!
To a larger glass mixing bowl, add 2 cups of epsom salts.
Combine the essential oil/food coloring mixture to the epsom salts.
Stir the crap out of it!!! Keep stirring until everything is well-combined. This may be a two person job.
Spoon into mason jars. Close jars and tie on some ribbon.
Hmmm…. I wonder who we could give this lovely gift to??
Ahem!
December 20th, 2009 on 6:38 pm
Dear Valerie,
You stink.
Merry Christmas.
Take a bath.
Love,
Mark
O:-)
December 20th, 2009 on 8:16 pm
maybe i'm just a little ignorant to how this works, but if the food coloring is so good at staining things, will it turn the bath water (and you) purple?
December 20th, 2009 on 8:19 pm
I will have to give that a try. Then you just dump some salt in your bath right?
December 20th, 2009 on 8:19 pm
OOOH! Great gift! Enjoy your bath. Even if you turn purple.
December 20th, 2009 on 8:47 pm
@ meliss — Ha! No, thankfully it's not nearly enough food coloring to turn you or the bath purple. It just tints the salts a bit. Good question, though!
December 20th, 2009 on 8:48 pm
@ Deborah — Yes, just a few spoonfuls will do the trick! They are very relaxing!
December 20th, 2009 on 9:25 pm
Hi Valerie
I love the smell and look of lavendar. Gifts that people can use to pamper themselves are always lovely to give and the fact that this is home made makes it more special.
I read your post about your trip to the hairdresser to get haircuts. I am now sporting layers in my hair, after I very clearly said that I did not want layers. Every morning I grumble about it when I do my hair. What makes me madder is that once my hair was cut, I smiled, said thank you and paid the money. Why can't I bring myself to say that I am not happy with this service. I usually don't have a problem with expressing my dissatisfaction for a poor service, but when it comes to hairdressers it seems to be a whole different situation!!
December 20th, 2009 on 9:27 pm
i just want to thank you for your blog, I enjoy it so much, my kids and i have such a great time doing some of the projects you have on here. May God bless you greatly for you gift of sharing.
Merry Christmas
CHristina
December 20th, 2009 on 10:52 pm
I didn't realize how simple that was. Love the last picture of Emily. Enjoy the salts!
December 21st, 2009 on 12:28 am
Great post
December 21st, 2009 on 12:47 am
What a great gift. I had no idea it was that easy. And to think people pay a lot of money for bath salts. Maybe I need to send this link to a certain someone I know.
December 21st, 2009 on 3:23 am
Your little one is so sweet : )
What a great idea Valerie!
December 21st, 2009 on 7:37 am
yum-o!
December 21st, 2009 on 9:34 am
Very nice
December 21st, 2009 on 11:48 am
How CUTE is your daughter? ;0)
December 21st, 2009 on 12:25 pm
Oh, and by the way, an earlier post you had about bath salts inspired us…
http://thefantasticfive-hockmana.blogspot.com/2009/12/candy-cnae-bath-salts.html
I am REALLY THANKFUL to have found your blog! Keep up the GREAT work girl!
December 21st, 2009 on 3:06 pm
@Mark ROFL!
Yes, that would be nice for you Valerie, but aren't gifts supposed to be a surprise?!
This looks easy enough. … Well, I always say that, don't I? I don't think I've ventured into a craft yet. Maybe I should make that one of my New Year's resolutions: Try at least one craft from Valerie's blog. 
December 22nd, 2009 on 5:01 pm
Ooh that's great! I've been looking for some last minute gifts kids can make. Thanks!
May 9th, 2010 on 11:52 pm
Bath salts are such a fun gift!
When we made them, instead of measuring everything into a bowl, we placed everything in a heavy-duty zip lock bag and then the kids got to mush it around to mix it up.
Also, if you do two or three colors, (each kid got a different color to mush when we did it) then you can layer the colors (like the sand art–have you seen that before?) and it looks really pretty.
Such a fun blog!
May 11th, 2010 on 9:57 pm
@ Erin — Oh, I love the layering idea… That would be so pretty! Thanks so much for stopping by!