Last minute gifts for Christmas

Quick and easy last minute gifts and if you make a little bit more you can enjoy in your own bathrooms for Christmas or any time of the year.

Bath Salts

An Epsom salt bath soak is detoxifying, can alleviate stress and tension, and does wonders for the skin. Try using scents like lavender, jasmine, and cedar for a calming bath, or citrus scents like grapefruit, orange, tangerine, or lemon for clarity and joy.

3 cups Epsom salt

2 cups sea salt

2 tbsp essential oil

1/2 cup baking soda

Mix the salts together in a large bowl, then sprinkle in the essential oil. Mix well with a whisk or a fork to break up any clumps that may form, then add baking soda and mix well. Pour into decorative glass jars or bottles.

Bath Milk

Luxurious and soothing, milk baths have been popular since the Roman era, and with good cause! You can scent this in many different ways in order to suit your recipient’s personal preferences.

Basic Bath Milk Recipe

1 1/2 cups powdered milk (soy milk powder works just fine for this, but you can also use dairy milk powder as well)

1/2 cup Epsom salts

Essential oil of your choice

1/2 cup flower petals (optional)

Food coloring to suit the essential oil and flower petals (optional)

Mix the powdered milk and Epsom salts together, and if desired, and add 2-3 drops of food coloring (if desired), mixing well so that the color is uniform. You can skip this step if you like, although there’s something sweet about having the hue match the scent—a few drops of red coloring will create a soft pink that’s ideal for grapefruit or rose scents, while orange is great for a tangerine-vanilla bath, light purple for lavender, and so forth.

After you’ve mixed the milk and salt together, add 5-8 drops of essential oil. If you’re creating a floral bath milk, you can mix in about 1/2 a cup of flower petals as well. Mix it all well, then decant into a pretty glass bottle or jar, and you’re done.

*Note: If you’re making a lavender or chamomile bath milk, recommend to the recipient that they use a tea strainer or cheesecloth for the bath, or else they’ll have to deal with a bunch of small floaty petals, which can be rather frustrating to corral.

Merry Christmas from organic spa essentials.