We're doing baths alot at the moment. Between my anxiety and the husband's back pain, we may as well move full time into the soft and soothing waters of a warm bath. Whether it's outside in our fire bath or inside surrounded by house plants, a bath has the ability to assuage our woes, soothe our fizzing minds and burning muscles.

But it's also coming up to Christmas, and I'm getting my creative on, because I'm determined NOT to buy into the Christmas consumerism this year. I do love gift giving, if it's thoughtful and homemade, and don't get me wrong, I love this day for getting together with the family, but forced buying of gifts no one wants goes against everything I know to be good about the world!

Cue herbal bath salts. So long as someone has a bath, it's a totally delightful gift, especially if the flowers are home grown.

The basic recipe is this -

1 cup of Epsom salt
1 cup of sea salt
1 cup of baking soda
olive oil* (or an oil of your your choice)
dried flowers to sight & feel
a few drops of essential oil (mixed with the olive oil, but skip this if the floral scent is heady enough)

I am reluctant to give exact measurements for the flowers, because it's easy enough to add handfuls of dried flowers until it's just right. I like big handfuls of rose petals, calendula and lavender, because that's what I have in my garden. But the sky is the limit for what you might add to this mix. I also added some magnesium flakes (1 cup) as I had a huge bag I got discount at Aldi's - regretting I didn't buy more!

Running a bath for the hubs this afternoon, he was joking about how real men don't have baths with flowers. He's joking, of course - real men embrace the beauty of flowers.

And his verdict?

'I feel like I'm in American Beauty'.

Something like that, anyway.

Of course, I'll be packaging them in nice jars - I did have these lying around, but jam jars with a little bit of twine and maybe a cardboard label would look equally cute. I decided to put zen haikus on mine. It made for a meditative afternoon of writing.

From time to time
the clouds give rest
to the moon beholders
- Matsuo Basho

I love the idea of comtemplating a zen poem to candlelight with the lovely scent of flowers in a warm bath.

A cuckoo sings
to me, to the mountain
to me, to the mountain

• Kobayashi Issa

Here's a few combinations I found online which could be really nice as well!

• Chamomile, rose and bergamot essential oil
• Lemon balm, rose, calendula & lavender
• Juniper and pine
• Rosemary & eucalyptus

And so on... the trick is to find out what ails you (skin complaints? cold and flu?) and find herbs and essential oils to suit. But bottom line is that a nice warm bath with flowers is going to make you feel pretty nice, what ever you are feeling.

Do you make your own herbal bath salts?

With Love,

^{The Herbal Hive Community}

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