Cleopatra's Milk Bath

Personally, I feel that a tub tea or foot soak is incomplete without Milk Powder. I mean, if Cleopatra bathed in the stuff on a regular basis to keep her skin fresh in the Egyptian desert, then what better excuse to use milk? No matter the reason, I’m a fan of milk powder!

After I wrote that, I was inspired to make a milk bath that I thought would be right up Cleopatra’s alley! I checked the web to see if there were things about Cleopatra that I could use as more inspiration as to what ingredients I should use other than milk.

As I found many myths, I decided to first focus on the ones that included scents. One story that I found mentioned that she covered her ship with rose petals when she planned on seducing Marc Antony. I also noted that Egypt dealt with trade including gems, oils, grains, fabrics and aromatic resins. Based on these stories, I made a scent blend of Rose, Vanilla Musk and Sandalwood. I think this would have been enjoyed by the Egyptian Queen!

Other stories mentioned Cleopatra bathing in a concoction of milk, honey and herbs. I added HoneyQuat to give the milk bath a humectant which would help the skin retain moisture. I finely ground Calendula, Rose Buds & Petals and Hibiscus Flowers to give the mixture the herbs that I felt it would use. I added the Hibiscus in hopes that it would add color to the bath water, but testing showed it didn’t add the pink color I wanted. The roses were added to accentuate the rose petal story and the Calendula petals were added because they have been noted to soothe skin.

Looking at my mixture so far, I decided that it would be too heavy and likely to be overused. I didn’t want the mixture to be overused, so I added Natrasorb to the mixture.

As Joy made the blog test batch for me, I was tickled pink to hear her comments about the milk bath. Here are her comments to convince you that this is a fantastic recipe.

I thought that the scent blend was nice. For those that have been turned off by the sweet fragrance of rose they should give this one a try. The sandalwood and vanilla musk go great with it. The scent is masculine and feminine at the same time. I was surprised at the color it turned in the beaker. I expected it to be pinker but it was just sort of a yellowish color.

Enough talking about this yummy recipe! Come join me in the kitchen as we make a milk bath worthy of a queen!