soothing lavender bath soak – for stress, insomnia, aches and pains (or just because you’d like a nice smelling bath)

Although this isn’t the time of year that I would normally take a warm bath before bedtime, this is something that I made to help me sleep last night. I recently had a steroid IV treatment to hopefully relieve some new MS symptoms and it has left me jittery and sleepless, so this is something that I concocted to help calm things down a little and facilitate sleep.

Lavender essential oil has many uses, including treating migraines, headaches, anxiety, depression, nervous tension and emotional stress, inducing sleep, pain relief, treating respiratory disorders, immunity disorders (which is also a benefit in my case) and apparently even urinary tract problems. And failing any of that, it smells nice and makes you feel good.

I substituted some lavender essential oil and a couple of drops of peppermint oil (also a natural pain reliever) to the basic sore muscle soak that I have made before and added in some milk powder for an extra bit of luxury (it worked for Cleopatra). The milk acids help exfoliate and make your skin softer. So, it smells good, is soothing, reduces muscle aches and makes your skin soft – what’s not to like?

This makes enough for one bath, but feel free to double or triple the amount and store for future use. It would also make a nice gift packaged in a mason jar. And, if you are packaging it as a gift, you could add in a couple of drops of red and blue food colouring, mix it all together to make the salts purple or even add in a bit of dried lavender to make it pretty.

Soothing Lavender Bath Soak

• 1 cup Epsom salts
• 1/4 cup sea salts
• 1/4 cup baking soda
• 1/2 cup powdered milk (or 1 cup whole milk)
• 5-8 drops lavender essential oil (depending on how strong you like the scent)
• 2 drops peppermint essential oil

Combine all ingredients in a small container and stir well. Add to bath under running hot water, and stir it around with your hand to help the salts dissolve before you climb in. Soak for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy! I recommend a cup of tea, a book and some music to go along with the soak. Then bed.

Linked to GNOWLFGLINS, Frugally Sustainable, Live Renewed

a warming ginger, cinnamon and orange sore muscle soak for a change in the weather

We’ve had a huge change in weather this week – we’ve gone from dog-days-of-summer humidity and heat to cold and rainy, put-your-socks-and-sweater-back-on weather. I’ve been enjoying some  fun with muscle spasms, so I concocted another bath soak to warm me up and calm the muscle spasms. I got the idea for this one on Crunchy Betty’s post about using ginger in homemade beauty products. I modified her bath salts idea to use my sore muscle soak. I have to say that she’s a genius on the scent combination – it smelled absolutely delicious.

Ginger is warming, has muscle ache relief qualities, and apparently is highly-regarded as one of nature’s best cellulite reducers (so, yeah, I’ll give it a try). Both ginger and cinnamon encourage circulation, which in turn helps relieve some of the aches and pains you may feel after a long day.

The recipe suggests Sweet Orange essential oil, which is optional, but smells so good. If you don’t have any, I suggest trying some orange zest. Why not? There will already be some little floaty things in the bath (the ginger).

My other note: this bath is really warming, as in – it will make you sweat like a stevedore. This is good – sweat out the bad stuff, relax for 15 to 20 minutes in the wonderful smell, and when you are all done, drain the bath and take a quick tepid shower to rinse the bits and pieces off of your bits and pieces. You’ll feel great afterwards.

Warming Ginger, Cinnamon and Orange Bath Soak

• 1 cup Epsom salts
• 1/4 cup sea salts
• 1/4 cup baking soda
• 3 tsp peeled, finely ground or grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 5 drops sweet orange essential oil (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a small container and stir well. Add to bath under running hot water, and stir it around with your hand to help the salts dissolve before you climb in. Soak for 15-20 minutes. Use immediately.

*This would also make a nice gift, packaged in a pretty jar – just don’t grate the ginger. Attach the nob of ginger to the outside with instructions about how much to include in the bath.

Linked to Frugally Sustainable, A Delightful Home, Six Sister’s Stuff, A Pinch of Joy, Mind Body and Sole

anti-inflammatory and minor pain relief bath salts (for those times when you mangle your knee when tripping over a dog in the middle of the night)

He looks so harmless when he’s sleeping, doesn’t he?

I tripped over the dog in the middle of the night the other night (that’ll teach me to not drink water right before bed). I had my feet tangled up in 90lbs of Chester the Chesapeake and in an attempt not to hurt him, I lunged forward and managed to smack my tuque off of the chest at the end of our bed and mangled my knee pretty good. Fortunately, we’ve been watching our way through season two of Deadwood, so I had a whole arsenal of bad words appropriate for just such an occasion. I used most of them. I don’t even think the dog raised his head, but he might have blinked when I called his parentage into question. The crash and resulting tirade did send the dad leaping out of bed and to my aide (to his credit, that amount of noise at 4 am in the pitch black did not cause a heart attack).

I made it through the day yesterday, but I was definitely ready for some kind of nice hot bath for a soak by the end of it. This is what I came up with – it’s essentially my sore muscle soak with one addition:

Anti-inflammatory and Minor Pain Relief Bath Salts

• 1 cup Epsom salts (reduces inflammation, relieve aches and pains)
• ¼ cup sea salts (remove lactic acid build up that occurs in sore muscles)
• ¼ cup baking soda (softens water and helps absorb the epsom salt)
• 3 drops eucalyptus essential oil (has analgesic {pain relief} and anti-inflammatory properties)
• 3 drops rosemary essential oil (has analgesic properties)
• 2 drops peppermint essential oil (has analgesic properties)

Mix together in a small bowl, fill bathtub with hot water and put the salt mixture in under the faucet as it is filling. Soak for at least 20 minutes to allow absorption of mineral salts and essential oils. Enjoy.

This one smells really nice.

I should also add that the amount of essential oils used in a bath should be limited to 6-8 drops in total. The oils are concentrated and can cause a contact dermatitis (angry itchy burny skin reaction) if used in excess. Also, a carrier of some sort (oil, bath salts, honey or cream) should be used to keep the oils from lying on top of the bath water and coming into direct contact with skin. This is why I mix them with oils or salts when I use them.

Linking to Frugally Sustainable, A Delightful Home, Bringing Beauty, Like a Mustard Seed