Homemade Relaxing Sweet Orange Bath Salts make the perfect handmade gift for friends and family this holiday season and throughout the year. While you’re jarring it for gifts, be sure to save a jar for yourself. After all, there is nothing like a relaxing bath to ease the stress of a hectic holiday season. Or, at the end of any day quite frankly.
Turning a Hectic Holiday Season into a Heavenly Holiday Season
You may remember that this time last year I helped relieve holiday stress by doing two things, making more homemade gifts for family and friends and taking more baths. (Both were very helpful in alleviating my stress levels, by the way.) It was also the time that I created my Homemade Peppermint Bath Salts recipe.
Therefore, in keeping with tradition, to help make this hectic time of year a little calmer, I created a new relaxing bath salt recipe for my holiday decompression baths. These relaxing sweet orange bath salts are incredible. (If I do say so myself!)
Soak the Stress Away with Bath Salts
Being submerged in hot water, surrounded by bubbles, and soaking in aromatic bath salts instantly relieves stress. There are typically two kinds of salt used for bath salts: Sea salt and Epsom salt. Both are amazing for soothing away aches and pains and pampering the body and skin. Natural salts and minerals have been used for thousands of years for medicinal, beautification, and natural healing purposes. You may be wondering though, what the difference is between Dead Sea salt and Epsom salt. I’m so happy you asked!
Dead Sea salt
All sea salts are mineral-rich. They contain a whole family of minerals from the ocean. Dead Sea salts are special though. In regular ocean water, 85 percent of the salt is sodium chloride (table salt). Dead Sea salt however is only 12-18 percent sodium chloride. This means it’s got a richer concentration of other nutrients, especially magnesium salts. In Dea Sea salts you find 21 minerals including magnesium, calcium, sulfur, iodine, zinc, potassium, and more. Dead Sea salt has been harvested for thousands of years and used in medicine and natural beauty remedies. Its high moisture content makes it perfect for combining with essential oils. Dead Sea salt is also great for detoxification.
Epsom salt
Fascinating fact. Epsom salt is not actually salt. It’s a mineral found in water containing high levels of magnesium and sulfate. When crystallized, it forms Epsom salt. Epsom salt doesn’t contain sodium chloride, the active ingredient in salt. Even though it doesn’t contain salt, it’s still very beneficial, primarily when it comes to healing muscle injuries, swollen joints, aches, and pains.
What You Need to Make Relaxing Sweet Orange Bath Salts
Now that you know more than you probably have ever wanted to know about the differences between Dead Sea salt and Epsom salt, let’s make some bath salts. Shall we? Here is everything you need:
- Dead Sea salt
- Epsom salt
- Sweet Orange essential oil
- Fresh oranges and an orange zester (optional)
- Glass jars
Here are some more of my favorite jars:
How to Make Relaxing Sweet Orange Bath Salts
Making relaxing orange bath salts is so easy! For any of my bath salt recipes, I use both Dead Sea salt and Epsom salt primarily because they are both incredibly beneficial for good health and relaxation. Also, I couldn’t choose between the two of them so, I decided to use them both! Have fun choosing the jars to store the bath salts in too. There are so many great ones! Most of all, have fun making these wonderful gifts. The process is quite fun!
Dry Oranges (optional)
The first time I ever dried oranges, was when I made a dried orange garland. For this bath salt recipe, I dried the orange slices to use them in the jarring presentation. The reason I list this step first is that if you plan on drying oranges you need to leave enough time to do so. There are a couple of ways to dry citrus. One way is with a dehydrator. Oranges can also be dried in the oven. I used the oven. Find the details on oven-drying oranges here.
Prepare the Sweet Orange Bath Salts
In a medium bowl, add the Dead Sea salt (2 cups), Epsom salt (2 cups), and baking soda (2 tablespoons). Stir them to combine. Slowly, add the sweet orange essential oil (about 20 drops). Mix it in the salts and baking soda thoroughly. After they are thoroughly mixed, allow the mixture to dry completely before adding the orange zest.
I let my salts dry for 12-24 hours before dividing them among the glass jars for gifting.
Assembly of the Sweet Orange Bath Salts
With the sweet orange bath salts ready, it’s time to assemble the jars for gifting. Spoon the salts into the jars and secure the lids.
I like to add seasonal ribbon or twine to the top of the jar. It’s also fun to tie on a tag letting the receiver know what’s inside the jar. A thoughtful addition to the tag is directions too, “Pamper yourself with Peppermint. Add 1/3 to 1/2 cup of relaxing sweet orange bath salts to the bath and enjoy!”
Other Variations of Homemade Bath Salts
Not a fan of orange? No problem! Trying making peppermint, lavender, or vanilla bath salts. The process is the same as above. However, the orange zest in the salts is replaced with dried peppermint leaves or dried lavender. The sweet orange oil is replaced with peppermint, lavender, or vanilla essential oils. Lavender is known for calming and relaxing the body and mind. Vanilla is primarily beneficial for the mood, promoting feelings of peace and calm with its sweet, rich, and familiarly comforting scent. They’re all perfect for this time of the year!
A Homemade Gift is the Best Kind of Gift
There is nothing like homemade gifts from the heart. These homemade relaxing orange bath salts are thoughtful, beautiful, easy, and inexpensive to make. If you are looking for more homemade gift ideas, you may enjoy checking out this post. And these…
How to Make Chocolate Dipped Spoons
Holiday Cranberry Apple Butter
Join me on Pinterest and Instagram for more holiday farmhouse inspiration including home decor styling tips and sources, recipes, crafts, DIYs, and so much more!
Homemade relaxing sweet orange bath salts are such a special treat! They make the perfect handmade gift for friends and family this holiday season too. While you're bottling it for gifts, be sure to save some for yourself. After all, there is nothing like a relaxing bath to ease the stress of a hectic holiday season. Try other variations of the bath salts too including peppermint, lavender, vanilla, jasmine, or rose. Dry the oranges. (Optional) In a medium bowl, add Dead Sea salt, Epsom salt and baking soda. Stir them to combine. Slowly, add the sweet orange essential oil. Be sure to stir in the oil so that all the salt comes into contact with it. After the salts and oils are thoroughly mixed, allow the mixture to dry completely before putting the bath salts in the glass jars to gift. (I let my salts dry for 12-24 hours.) Once the salts are dry, add the orange zest and stir them to combine. Then, assemble the bath salt jars. Spoon the salts into the jars and secure the lids. I like to add seasonal ribbon or twine to the top of the jar with a dried orange slice and greenery.* *It's also fun to tie a tag on the jar letting the receiver know what's inside. Include directions as a thoughtful addition to the tag. "Pamper yourself with Orange. Add 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the Relaxing Orange Bath Salts to the bath and enjoy!"
Relaxing Sweet Orange Bath Salts
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
