Starting with an Empty Cupboard: Ingredients for Miscellaneous Bath Goodies

This post was delayed due to me fighting a nasty cold over the last week. I’m feeling better, so no more excuses!

Today is the last post of the Empty Cupboard series and we are covering the miscellaneous small and fast goodies one can make. These items can be bath bombs, fizzies, tub teas, bath salts, scrubs and more! Let’s take a peek into the ingredients I put on my wish list for making such fun bath goodies.

Exfoliants:
Some of these ingredients may be strictly exfoliants or also used as skin soothers in soaks for feet or the body.

•Salts: This is one of those ingredients that can be used for either exfoliation or as a skin smoother. You can use salts in foot soaks, bath salts or salt scrubs. If I am making bath salts or foot soaks, then I prefer using Epsom Salts or Dead Sea Salts. On the other hand, if I am making salt scrubs, I prefer the Medium Bath Salts.

•Sugar: I generally use sugar in my scrubs for a finer grain and smoother exfoliation. I generally use white granulated table sugar, but there have been times that I have used brown sugar and even fine baker’s sugar. Sugar is a humectant, so it will pull water towards itself and that makes it a great ingredient for scrubs.

•Pumice: While we haven’t used pumice very often in blog posts, I still enjoy using it. Pumice is particularly helpful when cleaning up after tinkering with engines, gardening, home repairs and other similar dirty jobs. Pumice is best used in scrubs or soaps.

•Seeds and Fibers: Seeds are truly optional exfoliation options. They can be used to add interesting color, label appeal, and different shapes. You can use Ground Luffa, Vanilla Bean Specks, Ground Apricot Seed, Blueberry Seeds, or Strawberry Seeds as each one can give you a variety of options!

Clays: Clays are used most often in scrubs and masks. Typically, when I use clays in scrubs I am trying to help remove excess oil from the skin. Clays give scrubs a silky glide and less abrasive feeling. I like making facial and foot masks with clays as well. Many times, I feel like there are so many clays and not enough time to use them! You can choose from these options; Bentonite Clay, French Green Clay, Fullers Earth, Pink Kaolin Clay, Red Moroccan Clay, and Rhassoul Clay. I told you that there were lots of options!

Botanicals: Most of the botanicals that I use are ingredients in tub teas and foot soaks. I enjoyed using the Calendula Petals in the Sensual Milky Tub Tea; the Rose Buds and Petals in the Cleopatra’s Milk Bath; Lavender Buds in Taylor’s Tub Tea; and the Peppermint Leaves in the Summer Time Foot Bath. The only botanical I haven’t had a chance to use yet is the Chamomile Buds and I think I need to remedy that problem soon!

Additives: When making tub teas, bath bombs and bath salts, sometimes you want a little more and this is where these additives come in!

•Citric Acid: If you plan on making bath bombs or fizzes, then Citric Acid is one of the most important ingredients you will ever need. (Along with Baking Soda.) Citric Acid helps provide the acid portion of the fizzing reaction that bath bombs are known for.

•Baking Soda: An ingredient commonly found at the grocery store, this is the other necessary portion of making bath bombs and fizzes. Baking soda is the alkaline ingredient for bath fizzies.

•Natrasorb: While Natrasorb is not required to make any of the miscellaneous bath goodies, it can be used to help add fragrance or oils, add volume, or make products look like powders. I like using Natrasorb in tub teas, but it can be used anywhere!

•Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate: This is another ingredient that isn’t required, but it does pack a foaming punch that is a fun addition to bath bombs, bath salts and more. We now carry it in two types so you can choose the powder or flakes with your formulas in mind!

Fixed Oils: Most of the oils that we use are for scrubs. The majority of the scrubs are made completely with liquid oils and any oils that you have on hand for other products can be used. My favorite oils for scrubs are; Avocado Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, and Macadamia Nut Oil.

Colorants: If I am making scrubs or masks, I rarely color these products as I prefer to leave them their natural color. Plus, it is a little more difficult to color oil based scrubs due to their oil based nature. This little problem can be solved by coloring the salt or sugar and allowing it to dry. Once it is dry, oils can be added without worrying about growth of any nasties! On the other hand, bath salts, fizzes and bombs are fun and easy to color. You can add dry colorant to the ingredients to make Magic Color Bath Fizzies or you can dilute a color in water and spray over your ingredients. This particularly works well if you are making bath bombs that need to be slightly damp before pressing into their shapes. If you want to use color, I recommend that you use one of the four dyes we offer: Lemon Yellow, Grape, Purple Raspberry or Ocean Blue.

Packaging: It is hard to make bath bombs, fizzies or tub teas if you don’t have way to package your product!

•Tub teas should be packaged in the Heat Sealable Tea Bags as you really don’t want to find your bath tub looking like the lawn mower or the potpourri dish had been cleaned out in the tub!

•I package bath salts and fizzies in either Bath Salt Tubes or Gusseted Bags for presentation and easy packaging. Never package fizzing salts in glass. Water put inside the glass and then sealed with a lid will cause an explosion of glass shards. So, repeat after me “I solemnly swear to never package bath fizzies, or similar products, in glass containers.”

•I package bath bombs in the Gusseted Bags or Shrink Bands/Shrink Bags.

Yay! I’m finally finished with this series! Do you have any suggestions for starting with an empty cupboard? I would love to hear them!