An Easy Last Minute Mother's Day Gift Set

Moms are such special people! I am blessed to have had two mothers; one gave me life, the other raised me. I’ve had very special relationships with both, and I am so thankful one is still with me. It was with her in mind that I formulated the recipes for this gift set.

My mom has arthritis in her spine, so a hot bath is a soothing treat. I love the idea of giving her a tub tea to enjoy while she soaks!

She uses a lot of lotion as well, and that’s precisely what you need after a long soak. A little gift set that promotes pampering is such a wonderful gift to give! If the mom in your life needs a break so she can treat herself, give her this set and then take care of her duties so she can have a bit of time for herself.

Lotion for Mom

This recipe is a version of Granny’s Favorite Lotion in the Recipes section on our website. For this version, I’ve added some extras to boost the benefits to the skin.

Squalane is a cousin to squalene, a substance our skin produces to moisturize and lubricate naturally. Our squalane comes from olives. When added to a lotion formula, it helps decrease the greasy feeling while adding humectant properties of holding in moisture.

Sea Buckthorn Extract is used as an antioxidant, anti-aging, acne, anti-inflammatory, emollient, and cell healing and regeneration agent. That’s straight from our catalog description, and I couldn’t have said it better. That’s some good stuff!

Maybe the most appropriate thing about this recipe is my choice of Handcrafted Shea Butter, a product we recently added to our catalog. The shea butter is hand made by women – usually the mothers – in Ghana, and the income generated supports the villages. What a great way to celebrate mothers!

When it comes to fragrance, there are so many options! For a floral scent reminiscent of roses, try Posh Petals. If your mom is a fan of more invigorating scents, Eucalyptus Spearmint can’t be beat. Ginger Milk is a little exotic and a little mellow. For a fresh, herbaceous scent, try Green Clover & Aloe. How about moms who are fans of essential oils? We have some knockout Lavenders, plenty of uplifting citrus oils, and even lovely florals. You could always make a unique essential oil blend suited to your mom’s personal taste!

Let’s get started. Here are the supplies and equipment you’ll need to create this lotion.

Once you have everything in order, here is the recipe in grams (100-gram test batch), ounces (8 ounces, which is a nice size for gifting), and in percentages (so you can easily resize the recipe to meet your own needs).

Weigh all but the squalane, extract, preservative, and fragrance in a microwave-safe container or double boiler. Heat gently (short bursts of time in the microwave) until ingredients are melted. I like to check the melting point of the solid ingredients in a recipe, so I know how hot the liquids need to get to make sure everything melts completely. In this case, Stearic Acid is the highest melt point at 156 degrees. I made sure the mixture was over 160 degrees to avoid any annoying undissolved stearic acid crystals.

You can see how stiff the lotion is. I put some in a squeeze bottle and some in small jars.

While the mixture cooled, I pondered what fragrance to use. With my mother in mind, I chose Posh Petals. She loves flowers of any sort, and I think she would enjoy that scent.

After the mixture had cooled to 118 degrees (needs to be below 120 degrees), I added the Squalane, Sea Buckthorn Extract, Liquid Germall Plus, and Posh Petals Fragrance. It was easier to handstir in the last additives into the lotion with a spoon. I thought the lotion needed a little color, so I added one drop of prediluted Purple Raspberry Color and stirred that in. However, I think I would have liked it better with less color, but it’s really tough to use half a drop in my small 100 gram test batch. Maybe next time I think one drop may be too much, I’ll remember I could dip a toothpick into the color and swirl it through the lotion to get a lighter tint. That being said, I still will bet that my mom won’t care that the lotion is a little pinker than I had intended, though! Moms are great like that.

From left: 16 oz PET Deep Jar, 8 oz PET Low Profile Jar, 4 oz PET Low Profile Jar, 2 oz PET Low Profile Jar.

NOTES:

The lotion is thick enough that packaging in a pump bottle is not the best idea. If you want to use a pump, omit the Stearic Acid from the recipe and increase the water accordingly. That should increase the fluidity.

You could easily package in jars or squeeze bottles. Once again thinking of my mother and arthritis, I would use wide-mouth jars like these for packaging her lotion as she has a tough time squeezing bottles.

The feel on the hands after applying is slightly oily, but it’s not so bad that you’d be leaving greasy fingerprints on everything you touched. This is a thick lotion that is suitable for application after a bath, which is was the intent. I loved how it has left my skin feeling dewy and soft.

Mom Time Tub Tea

Now let’s mix up a tub tea for mom!

I chose Epsom Salt because it helps with pain and inflammation. Milk Powder is great for the skin, as is Ground Oatmeal. Those two ingredients make the water feel so nice! The botanicals are pretty, but they also infuse the water with their particular properties – calendula is noted to be good for dry and irritated skin, while lavender is a wonderful, relaxing aroma.

I like the idea of a milky, somewhat spicy fragrance for this tub tea. I chose Ginger Milk Fragrance Oil. It is one of my favorite soap scents, so I’m confident it will do well in a tub tea.

Back to the blog lab!

I’m giving you the recipe to make 12 ounces, which will generously fill about 10 of our Jumbo Heat Seal Tea Bags, but I am also including the percentages so you can resize your batch as desired.

Instructions

Weigh the first 3 ingredients into your mixing bucket. Stir well. Add fragrance; stir well to combine. Add botanicals, and stir gently to avoid breaking them into bits. Calendula petals like to clump together, so I try to fluff them and break them out of clumps as I add to the mixing bucket.

Epsom Salt, Milk Powder, and Ground Oatmeal in the bucket ready to be stirred.

Mixture after adding fragrance and botanicals.

When the mixture is ready, spoon into the heat-sealable tea bags and seal with an iron. I love how fast and easy this recipe is to make! (Hint: if you don’t have or can’t find an iron, a flat iron for hair will work to seal the tea bags.)

This is about two large spoonfuls of tub tea in one of our Jumbo Size Heat Seal Tea Bags.

Sealing is easy. I folded a towel to use as an ironing surface, heated my iron, and pressed for about 5 seconds. That did the trick.

To use, begin filling a tub with water, and hold the tub tea bag under the running water to let the milk, oatmeal, and salts dissolve. Then allow the bag to float in the tub to infuse the water with the botanicals. The bag holds all the bits and pieces of herbs, so you don’t have to clean the tub after your relaxing bath.

How will you package your gifts? You could stack a few tub teas in a pile and tie up with a pretty fabric ribbon, or you could wrap them in a square of fabric and tie with a ribbon. Then put them into a gift bag with the lotion. I also thought of using our Clear Gusseted Bags to hold a small jar of lotion and some bags of tub tea.