'Twas the Weekend Before Christmas.... And It Was the Time to Make Bath Salts

Sheesh, I was one busy bee this weekend! So much to do to finish off some of the presents I am putting together and then more to wrap up some items that I told myself a while back I would finish in time for Christmas.

The first order of business was the bath salts. I am making baskets for two folks, and wanted to get this out of the way (here is the truth of the matter... I had 2 glasses of Mountain Dew at dinner on Friday night at 9pm, and ended stayed up until 2am, making this stuff and working on some other items that needed tending to).

I gathered up my supplies... 8 pounds of epsom salt, soap scent and soap coloring (It is IMPERATIVE that you use soap products!!! Candle scents will very likely result in an ugly rash... unless you want to say Merry Christmas that way, steer clear of anything but soap products!)

I started off with 2 pounds, just to test out the recipes I have seen online.

I started by pouring the epsom salt into a large bowl.

Some of the recipes I have seen called for adding Kosher Salt, Baking Soda, Glycerin or any variety of additional skin softening agents. After doing some research, it appeared that the addition of Baking Soda would be a VERY BAD idea, in light of the fact that it would be contained in a glass jar (suffice it to say that there have been exploding bath salts because of the baking soda). Being a purist (and/or scared), I pressed ahead with my epsom salt and ONLY epsom salt.

I then added the clear scent to the salt. I used lavender.

You can't have lavender-scented bath salts without them being purple. So I added some violet soap coloring to the bath salts.

To be sure I didn't over-color the salt and wind up with something electric purple, I added the color in small increments, would mix it all together and then add more if necessary.

When the first bit of color was not enough, I added more.

When I was happy with the color and the scent, I scattered the salts all over a cookie sheet. (I had read in recipe that you should bake the salts. You can also make bath salt cakes if you mound the salts up in a muffin tin.)

I baked the bath salts at 250 degrees for about 20 minutes, taking them out a couple of times while cooking to stir them. After they cooled down, I placed them in this container.

I made more to place in a second jar and did not bake them. I decided I prefered the salts UN-BAKED, as they are still shiney and not dull like they are when they are baked. The bottom line on baking is this: If you are making a bath salt mini-cake, bake them. Otherwise, don't waste the time or energy.

I popped the two containers of bath salt into a basket with a giant bath towel, a few votives and candle holders and a small container of foot bath salts (I found these salts on sale at IKEA so went ahead and bought them to pop into the basket).

Here is the small jar for the foot bath salt.

Here is one of the candle holders.

Here is one of the candle holders with a candle in it.

Here is the semi-finished basket.

Here is the second basket I made, also semi-finished.

I need to add a bottle of wine and a cute wine glass to each basket and wrap with a basket bag and I will be done!

You could be a lot more creative than me and make different colors so they are candy cane color or red and green for Christmas. I take the path of least resistance and make everything the same color.