Meadowsweet Herbs

Natural bath salts are a wonderful way to heal your body and soul. You can use them to help encourage relaxation, detoxify the skin, relieve sore muscles and ease achy joints. Bath salts can even help with illness such as cold and flu by bringing blood to the skin and encouraging elimination thru sweating. Most importantly, they are a way to take time for your self, reminding us to take the time to relax, to pamper ourselves, to prioritize our own wellbeing. So sit back, relax, breathe and enjoy this article. Let me help you make bath salts another tool for your own self-care!  Elaine Sheff

Tools:

• Coffee grinder, blender or Cuisinart
• Wisk, or large spoon
• Large glass or stainless steel bowl
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Scoop
• Glass jars
• Labels

Types of Salts:

• Don’t use table salt: anti-caking agents, bleached and iodized.
• Sea Salt: astringent and antiseptic. Makes a good body scrub. Comes from the ocean instead of salt mines.
• Epsom Salt: pure mineral compound of magnesium sulfate in crystal form, relaxes sore muscles, draws impurities out of the skin, mildly astringent
• Himalayan Salt: full of up to 84 valuable trace minerals, giving these salts a beautiful, natural pink coloring that makes it a perfect option for attractive, colorful bath salts.
• Celtic Sea Salt: natural balance of minerals and trace elements from the ocean, Grey bath salt is traditionally hand-harvested in Guérande, France in the Brittany region. The gray color is indicative of the salt’s natural trace minerals absorbed from its sea origins. Unwashed, unrefined, and additive-free, this gray bath salt maintains all of its health-enhancing nutrients vital to the human body like calcium, potassium, copper, zinc, iron and others. This salt is low in sodium.
• Hawaiian Red Salt: natural, unprocessed salt, gets its distinctive color from purified red Hawaiian clay. Volcanic red clay is high in iron oxide. The recommended use of Hawaiian Red salt in your bath includes healing wounds, body aches, and muscle sprains. It is believed to draw toxins from overworked muscle tissue.
• Baking Soda: (sodium bicarbonate): alkalinizing, good exfoliant, neutralizes the production of acid in the mouth and also as an antiseptic to help prevent infections occurring, has been used as deodorant, toothpaste and shampoo
• Dead Sea Salt: differ greatly from other sea salts in mineral content, being made up of only 8% sodium chloride with a high percentage of magnesium, sulfates and potassium

Herbs:

• Calendula: A soothing and healing herb for the skin. Encourages sweating. Excellent for scars, stretch marks, scratches, rashes and more.
• Lavender: Soothing to the skin and the nerves. Helpful for burns, sore muscles, tension, sunburn.
• Chamomile: anti-inflammatory and relaxing. Makes a good rinse for blond hair. Settles the stomach and encourages a restful sleep.
• Lemon balm: Uplifting and soothing at the same time.  Makes a lovely, nutritive tea.
• Sage: encourages sweating, a good antimicrobial herb
• Mustard seed: Mustard is an old remedy for chest congestion and colds. A mustard pack or a mustard bath encourages sweating, helps break up congestion and brings blood to the area.
• Rosemary: stimulates the mind. Good for an invigorating bath
• Rose: rejuvenating and slightly astringent to the skin, has a loving aroma that is excellent for stress and anxiety.
• Ginger: Stimulates circulation and sweating. Aids in digestion and makes a spicy tea. Helpful for nausea.
• Kelp: high in minerals, soothing to sunburn
• Aloe Vera Juice: Healing to the skin and soothing for rashes and sunburn.

Natural Colorants:

• Anatto Seed: A wonderful red colorant. Used over the centuries as a method of body painting in South America. Even now it is used as a dye in the coloring of margarine and cheese. It is slightly astringent to the skin. Good for burns, blisters and mouth sores.
• Beet Powder: Wonderful for cooking and highly nutritious, it also makes a wonderful pink colorant for baths.
• Alkanet Root: Primarily used as a dying and coloring agent, especially for fabrics, soap, and lip balm. It makes a red to pinkish color
• Mineral Oxides: Natural mineral pigments from the earth. They come in many different colors and you can blend them together to make your own colors. Also good for making mineral make up, soaps and other natural body care products.
• Chlorophyll: Chlorophyll is the major light-absorbing pigment in green plants that functions to initiate photosynthesis. It is extremely nutritive, being high in minerals (most notably magnesium) and vitamins. It is also antioxidant, anti-Inflammatory and anti-microbial. It has a deep green color.

Some Popular Essential Oils:  (Not fragrance oils!)

• Lavender: Good for insomnia, headaches, pain, burns, insect bites and skin problems. In small amounts it is relaxing, in large amounts it is stimulating. Helps to boost immunity.
• Cedar: Relieves congestion, coughs and sore muscles. Cedar is also helpful for calming the mind and reducing oily skin.
• Orange: Antiseptic, calming and uplifting. Good for nervousness, stress and tension. Useful for obesity, water retention and cold and flu
• Birch: Good for body aches and pains such as sore muscles, joints, tendons and sprains. Pain relieving and anti-inflammatory. Use with caution as it contains methyl salicyate.
• Eucalyptus: Helpful for colds, flu and coughs. Good for clearing congestion and helps to relieve muscle and joint pain.
• Rosemary: Especially effective for respiratory infections, colds, flu and bronchitis. Good for physical and mental fatigue.
• Peppermint: Helpful for digestion, nausea and motion sickness. Fights infection, helps to reduce pain and is uplifting. Wonderful in a footbath.
• Tea Tree: Antifungal, antibacterial, will help stimulate the immune system during a cold or flu. Good for vaginal infections – yeast or bacterial. Makes a nice footbath.

Different Ways to Use Essential Oils:

• Aromatherapy Diffusers
• Body Care (such as massage oils, baths, lotions, shampoo, etc.)
• Candles
• Room sprays
• Compresses
• Inhalants and steams (humidifiers)

Other Things You Can Add to Your Bath:

• Powdered milks (cow, goat, coconut, buttermilk): high in oils and vitamins, the lactic acid helps exfoliate dead skin cells
• Oatmeal: soothing for rashes and skin irritations
• Vegetable oils: great in body scrubs or for dryer skin
• Vegetable Glycerin: a clear liquid that draws moisture to the skin
• Tapioca Starch: gives a smooth feeling to the skin
• Clays: help with skin problems, drawing, adds minerals
• Corn Starch: softens and calms itchy skin
• Arrow Root: gives a smooth feeling to the skin
• Apple cider vinegar: can break up essential oil drops, helps restore skin pH balance, helps to solubilize minerals (softens water)
• Borax: natural alkaline mineral, cleans without drying the skin (can be found in the detergent section of the grocery store)
• Honey: good humectant (draws water to the skin), antimicrobial