Virtue Natural! We spend our days hand-crafting natural and organic skincare for our online shop at Etsy. The rest of the time we’re dreaming up new product recipes, having picnics along the Kern River, writing for the Virtue Natural blog, playing guitar and knitting the night away! (I do the knitting…)When I was invited to do a guest-post here, I just about swooned! It’s a real honor – thank you Mariel and Jessica! So, anyone want to learn to make some soothing foot soak? Let’s get to it!
My goal when designing this recipe, was to limit the ingredients to what we could find in an average supermarket. It’s just amazing how many lovely homemade skincare items we can put together with a simple supermarket shopping list!
Let’s get started.
Here’s what you will need to make your handmade foot soak:
- 1 cup sea salt (a great alternative would be Kosher salt)
- 1 cup Epsom salt (usually found in the personal care/pharmacy aisle)
- 2 Tbsp peppermint tea (Be careful not to confuse this with “peppermint flavored” tea: the tea should be 100% peppermint leaves. Tip: if you can’t find it in bulk, buy a box of tea-bags, cut them open and measure!)
- 4 tsp pure peppermint extract
- 3 tsp pure lemon extract
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- measuring cups and spoons
- mixing bowl and spoon
To begin, combine the sea salt and Epsom salt in your mixing bowl.
When the two salts are completely blended, add olive oil, peppermint extract and lemon extract. Stir each time you add an ingredient, making sure to break apart any large chunks of salt with your spoon. Once these liquid ingredients have been fully incorporated, your salt mixture will look like moist sand (and it will smell pretty good too!)
Now it’s time to add the cornstarch and baking soda. Again, blend thoroughly, breaking apart any large clumps of baking soda or salt.Almost done! Now add the final ingredient – the peppermint leaves. (I add this last, because I’ve found that adding them early in the process causes the leaves to bruise and give off their green color to the salt.) Stir the leaves in until they are fully blended with the salt mixture. Go ahead and take a deep breath while you’re at it – it should have a very refreshing scent!
At this point, if you’re planning on keeping the foot soak for yourself, store it in an air-tight container so it stays fresh. If the container is not air-tight, the beautiful aroma of the extracts and the peppermint leaves will fade. (The soak will still be useful, just not as charming!)
If you’re planning on giving it away as a gift, try spooning it into an ordinary Mason jar. Be creative. Ribbons, tags, whatever you want to add to give the soak a loving, handmade touch.
And how to go about soothing those tired tootsies? Fill a small basin with warm water and stir in ¼ to ½ cup of foot soak. Stir it to dissolve the salts, and soak your feet for 10-15 minutes. Ahhhh…
So what are some of the benefits of this handmade foot soak, you ask? In my opinion, the best part is that it’s all-natural! No chemical fragrances or artificial colors and preservatives (remember ladies, whatever you put ON your skin absorbs INTO your skin!) Secondly, it’s very effecting at relaxing sore muscles (thanks in part to the magnesium-rich Epsom salts.) It’s also refreshing (peppermint tea!) and softening (olive oil!) and aromatic. Being the all-natural skincare fanatic that I am, I’ve found this recipe to be a real winner, and I hope you do too!
~ Sosae
http://oneshetwoshe.com/2010/04/handmade-foot-soak-how-to-she-sosae.html
