Mom and I whipped together these wonderful little shower steamers to give to all my favorite special snowflakes for the holidays. Instructions below the photo gallery. 

I love a good bath bomb, but I know lots of folks who don’t like baths and taking one seems more labor intensive. An alternate is to the bomb is this little vapor disc or shower steamer. As the fizzy disc dissolves in your steamy shower, it releases the wonderful aromas of an essential oil blend of your choosing. For the gifts I made, I chose a therapeutic blend for congestion and stuffy noses.

I make my steamers in batches of 12 at a time using the recipe below. To make fewer
I like to make these individually rather than a large batch of just one scent, that way I can use them for whatever use I want or give them away as personalized gifts. This is why the essential oil blends below, are to drop directly onto the dry/cooled shower steamer discs, rather than mix into the mix. I like to use silicon molds and mini muffin pans to make these in all sorts of shapes! Many blogs talk about using muffin liners, but you do not have to use them! If the mixture is not fully dried/hard, it will not come out of the pan or it will crumble out in pieces. All you have to do is allow the mixture to dry for a few more hours, and then turn the pan upside down over a cloth. Knock on the bottom of each of the muffin cups, to help release them from their cup.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups baking soda
• 1 cup citric acid
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 3-5 Tbsp. filtered water (depends on humidity levels in your home)
• essential oils (use whatever scents float your boat and blends for your needs.(2 per disc if you’re making a smaller batch or experimenting with blends)
• I used a blend for congestion and stuffy noses:
  • 1 tsp eucalyptus essential oil 
  • 1 tsp drops lavender essential oil (2 per disc)
  • 1 tsp drops peppermint essential oil (2 per disc)
  • 1 tsp drops rosemary essential oil (2 per disc)

DIRECTIONS

1. 1. In a bowl, combine baking soda, citric acid, and cornstarch mixing until no lumps are present and then add and mix in essential oils*.
   2. Add water to the bowl, 1 tablespoon at a time. Add your tablespoons until the mix sticks together and packs like a snowball. It will seem dry but packing it will be easy and possible. You can add powder if you worry it’s too wet. My mix took 4 tablespoons. Any more and it will make the fizz bubble up and you don’t want that. 
   3. Once you have the snowball consistency, pack it down into the mold and compacting it into place.
   4. Leave the molds out until dry. They will come out of the pretty  easily. If they are still wet, they will not come out without coming apart.

* If you’re making a smaller batch or want to have a few different types you can add essential oil drops after they’re dried by directly dropping 2 drops of each oil on top of the steamers. If giving as a gift, store in a nifty jar, such as a mason jar.

TO USE: 

Adjust shower to desired temperature. Open pouch and place tablet on the floor of the shower away from the drain, where a steady stream of water will continually release comforting vapors from the tablet into the air.You can sprinkle a little bit on the steamer to get it started, but it will fizz away too quickly if you put it directly under the water stream. Sit in your steamy shower, breathing in the awesome aromatherapy benefits of the blend you chose to use!

I’ve held on to some empty Yankee Candle jars knowing they’d be good for something, but the adhesive they use on their labels was impossible for me to remove. It’s stickier than a whore in a honey factory. Sorry, I don’t know why I went there.

I didn’t use the jars because the leftover gunk made them ugly and tacky (tacky, in the sticky sense. I didn’t want to use the word “sticky” again and, well, now I’ve gone and used it twice.)

So, the jars. Sticky and ugly. Years pass.

Today, I got creative (i.e., procrastinating from things I should be doing) and decided to dig out the jars and try cleaning them again. Lo! [Insert sound of clouds parting and angels with trumpets doing their thang.] It turns out Tea Tree Oil is the rubbing the jars needed. It wasn’t like a Pledge commercial where it’s Swish! One swipe and all the dirt is gone. But it didn’t require a ton of elbow grease or time. Cleaned and dried, I added a chalkboard label from a pack Christian got me for Christmas. (True love, people.) Now I’ve got a jar that’s full of ideas.
 

Mom mailed me two old picture frames that I’d hoped to use for two pieces of art. Unfortunately, the pictures were actually glued to the glass in such a way that would make it impossible to remove them without a huge amount of work, muscle and cursing. Instead, I repurposed them into bulletin boards. Super easy. All you need is adhesive spray and cork board that you can get in sheets at Michael’s or other arts & craft supply stores.

My favorite body polish by Fresh costs $65 for a 14 oz jar! (GULP!) It’s heavenly. It exfoliates gently, smells…well…fresh, and leaves my skin feeling like silk. It’s ridiculously overpriced and not something I splurge on very often.

Instead, I perfected a recipe that could pass any side-by-side comparison and have been using it during every bath time since, making up for all the times I didn’t because I’m a cheap bastard. Now I’m a smooth, soft, shiny, silky happy cheap bastard!

The basic formula is two parts sugar to one part oil. So, for every cup of sugar, you’ll want 1/2 cup of oil. I used a combination of brown sugar & sugar in the raw (a/k/a turbinado sugar for the larger crystals) and a blend of coconut & olive oil.

My exact breakdown was:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar in the raw
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup coconut oil
Essential oils (any blend about 10-15 drops total)

You can use ANY sugar or oil you like or have on hand…jojoba, almond, olive, white, brown, turbinado, whatever. As long as you keep that basic formula of 2 parts to 1, you should be good to go. Essential oils are nice to enhance the smell, too. For this scrub, I prefer citrusy scents like orange, lemon, lemongrass (Is lemongrass citrusy? I dunno, but I dig it.), grapefruit and the like.

I use my finger to stir it up beforehand as the sugar settles to the bottom between uses. I use about a tablespoon each for the backs of my arms and elbows, my décolletage, knees and feet.  Be careful of a slippery tub and *pat* yourself dry to retain that silky smooth feeling.

SUPPLIES:
You’ve probably got sugar and some sort of oil.
Essential oils are super cheap and available in local health stores and Amazon, of course.
I got these cute little labels from MyOwnLabels.com

ENJOY!

Lush makes the best bombs in my opinion (Phoenix Rising is heaven on earth to me), but there is no Lush store near me. Bombs are a little extravagance I treat myself to on a rare occasion because at the average cost $7 a plop that adds up!  They’re super easy and cheap to make. How have I not been doing this for years?  

Granted, I’ve not mastered the art to the level of imitating the aforementioned Phoenix Rising in both appearance and function, but my first batch (lavender and coconut oil) was soothing and made for a lovely bath. Also, because it’s been so humid at the cabin (92% humidity? And it’s not raining? The air is THICK!), the moisture was drawn into my bombs as they dried and “activated” the fizz. Not ideal. Made them a little messy, too.

The fizz is really for fun, though. It’s the Epsom salt, coconut and lavender oils that made for the soothing night time dip in the tub. And mine still did fizz a bit. Next batch I’ll make when the humidity breaks or will let them set in a sealed tub with some rice to help draw moisture away. (I’ve read that I can bake them with the oven door open at 170° for a few hours to prevent this. I have not tested this out.)

Here’s how I made my homemade bath bombs at a fraction of the cost. There are a million recipes online and I spent way too much time perusing them all before attempting to MAKE one. I was the band that wastes rehearsal time coming up with their name and logo and never actually makes music.

“Just make one then tinker later,” I finally told myself. So I did!

This is a very, very simple recipe and for a small yield and a great place to start for a beginner. I’ll update this post as I perfect it or get feedback so BOOKMARK IT, FOOL!

Meanwhile, this worked for me and I enjoyed a lovely bath:

1/2 cup baking soda
1/4 cup citric acid
1/4 cup epsom salt
10 drops essential oil(s) (I only used lavender my first time. Simple and wonderful.)
2 tbsp organic coconut oil, warmed to a liquid.
Optional: scents and/or a couple of drops of food coloring.* I did not use these my 1st time.

Combine all ingredients. Add a bit more coconut oil if needed. It will be the consistency of moist sand. If it’s fizzing, there’s too much moisture so add a little more dry ingredients.

Press into muffin tin or silicone mold oiled generously with coconut oil. As you can see, my small batch (heh) yielded 7 mini bombs. I used two plus some crumbles when I bathed, but I like the option of only using one if needed and adding more. You can always add, but you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube, ya know?

Let them harden for 24 hours in a dry place. If it’s really humid, try letting them set in a sealed plastic container with some rice or silica gel to draw moisture away from the bombs. (I gotta try this myself along with the aforementioned oven trick.)

Remove them from the mold and they’re ready to package or use. I used cellophane bags and labels from MyOwnLabels.com for gifts. For myself, I keep them in a mason jar (of course!) with a little rice at the bottom to help wick away moisture.

If you don’t use them right away, again they need to be stored in a dry place.

Now that I’ve got this one under my belt, I’ll try adding blended scents, oils, colors, and even real bits of lavender buds, flower petals, cinnamon sticks and such.

*Make sure scents are cosmetic grade. I don’t use them, so not sure what to tell ya. Also, some essential oils like peppermint and rosemary are bad for people with high blood pressure. Huh. Who knew? I’m no doctor, I just read that while researching all this stuff. So, know your body, check with your doctor, etc.

I am constantly sniffing and blowing snot and fighting off Paquita’s aggressive attempts lick it out for me. (What is it with dogs and snot?) Christian has sinus issues, too, so I found a recipe on Pinterest for making homemade shower soothers (they used to have these by SudaCare in stores and no longer carry them from what I can tell).

Here’s what you need to make about 10 mini-muffin-sized sinus soothers*.

1 cup of baking soda
1/3 cup of water
Essential oils: eucalyptus, rosemary and lavender
Muffin tin & liners

*I made mini ones because I hate wasting. If one mini tablet isn’t enough, it’s easy to add another to the tub. If you know you take long showers or want the extra strength you might wanna make regular sized tablets. To make 12 of them, use 3 cups of baking soda & 1 cup of water.

Ah, much better!

***Update: New and final after photos added to the above link on Friday, July 25, 2003.