Thursday, January 27, 2011

Homemade Salt Scrub

Today I have my first guest post! My sister in law, Shelly is married to my youngest brother and made everyone some amazing salt scrub for Christmas. I asked her if she would like to do a guest post, and here it is! This makes a great gift and as soon as mine is gone I'll definitely be making some more!

Difficulty - seriously - most kids could handle this one!!!!
Time - like 5 minutes if you have all the supplies on hand

Ingredients:
2 cups Epsom salts or organic cane sugar (I used the Epsom salt because that was what I found at the store first)
1 cup carrier oil (I used Safflower oil which is used in cosmetics and is a good substitute for Sunflower oil)
8 drops essential oils (I have used lavender, spearmint, peppermint, and eucalyptus - each have their own "healing" powers)
1 drop food coloring (I have Neon colors so I was able to get purple. Also, I used 3 drops to make it a darker color that I liked better)

The essential oils that I used had a dropper end, but if what you are using does not, you'll want to use a plastic pipette. If you can find them sold in small quantities, let me know. If not, I bought a thing of 500 and ended up not really using any. So if you can't find any - let me know and I'll get a bunch to Ashli and she can hand them out, cause I am SURE I will never use 500!!! Finally, a canning jar is great to store the scrub in. For Christmas I used more decorative jars but they tend to leak. I have all my leftovers stored in mini canning jars.

First, combine the salts and the carrier oil, mixing well. Then add the essential oil, one drop at a time. This part, sadly, after making more than one or two batches, I was so overwhelmed with scents that I just used the 8 drops mentioned in the recipe. I felt they smelled really strong but in smaller doses I don't think they were as strong as I thought when I was making them. Finally, add the food coloring. Stir until it is well blended. Like I mentioned above, I added more food coloring based on the color that I liked the best. Just make sure to blend it all the way through the mixture or what ends up in the canning jars may vary in shades (and scents for that matter).

Lastly, spoon the mixtures into a canning jar. I would suggest following normal canning sterilization recipes to ensure that the jars are really clean before you give it away - but for mine I just hand washed them in normal hot, soapy water. I mean, we would eat off the things I wash that way - so this can't be bad.

It was really easy, rather inexpensive (after the essential oils), and people seem to like them.

Enjoy!
Shelly

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