Herbal Baths And Soaps

Herbal baths are useful in unwinding the body, soothing emotions, promoting the blood circulation, and facilitating the digestive process, moisturizing the skin as well as curing a variety of different health conditions. In effect, adding infusions or potent teas, essential oils and herbal bath salts into your bath water are among the best means to avail the benefits offered by the herbs.

Having a bath that relaxes the body and the mind is a wonderful aid for sound sleep. If you wish to have a tranquilizing effect in your bath, you may use lemon balm, valerian, hop, lavender, marjoram, sandalwood, passion flower or bergamot essential oils in your bath water. In addition to the herbs mentioned here, chamomile too is an excellent herb for unwinding the weary and tender muscles.

If you desire to have a stimulating bath, you may use lemon, rosemary, peppermint and mandarin essential oils in your bath water. In effect, having a revitalizing bath helps to augment the blood circulation as well as increase your appetite, by helping you to digest the food ingested. It is advisable that you use an herbal salt scrub with a view to get additional benefits, for instance, a smooth skin. When you are using essential oils in your bath, you should use them sparingly - just a few drops to prevent any type of burning sensation or irritation.

You may also try adding powdered milk to your bath water and see that it will work as a moisturizer. In addition, you may also include a few drops of jasmine or rose oil and two tablespoons of olive oil in the bath for the same effect. In fact, you may use any superior quality vegetable or nut oil in your bath. For instance, using avocado oil, almond oil, walnut oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil and even grape seed oil works excellently to moisturize the skin.

If you have a dry, scaly skin, you should scrub the skin using an oatmeal sachet. Simply fasten a reasonable amount of oatmeal in an uncontaminated piece of thin cloth or handkerchief. Then use it to rub the skin gently and you will find all the dead skin, particularly that on the hips, elbows and thighs gone away. In fact, exfoliation is an excellent means to help you to have a youthful complexion.

In order to encourage healthy growth of your skin, you should add parsley, sage, thyme or sandalwood essential oil in combination with a fine vegetable oil to a warm bath. All these essential oils possess antioxidant attributes which aid in healing as well as mending the skin.

Using essential oils either in your bath or in massage facilitates in augmenting the lymphatic drainage as well as blood circulation. They also help the body to get rid of the toxic substances as well as cellular remains more rapidly and this, in turn, leads to enhanced health as well as vivacity. At the same time, to obtain the utmost results, it is suggested that you should have a diet that has high antioxidant content. Some of the foods that are rich in antioxidants include whole grains, unrefined foods, vegetables and fruits, which should be consumed on a regular basis.

If you are enduring joint aches or arthritis, you need to use freshly obtained bay leaves, lavender flowers and sage in your bath. Soak these herbs in steaming water for about three minutes and, subsequently, seethe gently for another 15 minutes. Filter the liquid and add it to your bath. When you are in the bath tub, try to unwind by taking slow and deep breaths. This is a significant approach to get relief from pain. If you wish to get further respite from pain, sip a tea prepared from willow or oak bark just prior to or while taking the bath.

On the other hand, if you have a headache induced by tension, panic attacks, or are facing problems related to stress, you may try to add chamomile and frankincense essential oils to your bath. For additional advantages, you may blend these essential oils with peach kernel oil or olive oil.

It is worth mentioning here that foot baths are generally used to cure all things right from flu to varicose veins. To take a foot bath, you should immerse both feet in a container that is sufficiently deep allowing the water to reach up to your calves. While taking a cold foot bath helps to ease insomnia (sleeplessness) and headache, taking a hot and cold water foot bath alternately aids in augmenting blood circulation. To try this alternating hot and cold foot bath, you need to immerse your feet in hot water for about two minutes, and subsequently in cold water for about a minute. For best results, do this at least ten times. In order to defend against cold and flu, you should add potent mustard, recently shredded horseradish or ginger to your foot bath and drench your feet in it for about 20 minutes.

An herbal bath may possibly be used in the form of a cure for several health conditions. Even if you have not made the nature of the remedy you exactly desire the herbal bath to be, you should still be familiar with the assortment of herbal baths that you may take. Always bear in mind that majority of these herbal baths entail drenching deeply in water (hot or cold) containing several herbs or essential oils. Provided you already have a bath tub at your place, the herbal bath will prove to be all the more effective as a whole. On the contrary, if you do not have access to a bath tub, you will still be able to enjoy the benefits of an herbal bath, but of course to a lesser extent. Precisely speaking, if you soak yourself in a bath tub even for once, it would prove to be as effective as taking four baths taken otherwise. Provided you are unable to get sleep or your sleep is disturbed, you may put some amount of dehydrated lavender flowers in hot water and allow the flowers to remain there for approximately five minutes, as this much time is required by the flowers to exude their aroma. When the water becomes tepid, drench yourself in this fragrant water and it is very much possible that you will fall asleep right there!

When you are too exhausted at the end of a day's work and require revitalization, you can take a bath using sandalwood powder plus rose petals. For this you need to add about two tablespoonfuls of sandalwood powder and the petals of about 12 roses to your bath water. Always keep in mind that when you start taking the bath, the water ought to be always hot to allow these natural products the minimum time required for discharging their oils and aroma and once it is done, you may get into the bath tub.

In case you have caught a cold, you may possibly find using a few chamomile and rosemary leaves in your bath water beneficial. In fact, the leaves of these two herbs will prove to be effective in removing the blockage that is creating problems for your sinuses. Similarly, adding a little of eucalyptus oil to your bath water will also produce the same effects. Nevertheless, you ought to be aware that eucalyptus oil may be genuinely potent and, therefore, you should be very cautious while pouring this oil into your bath water. Precisely speaking, be very careful regarding the amount of eucalyptus oil you are adding to the bath water. In addition, it is also necessary that you have some kind of aeration in the place while you are drenching yourself in a bath containing eucalyptus oil. This is actually very useful, because the oil may possibly enter your head and create problems for you. In order to take a bath that will treat your skin, you may add one gallon of milk in the bath tub and also place the petals of about 12 roses and some petals of marigold. Allow these to soak in the hot water for some time and subsequently, take the bath. When you are over with the bath and touch your skin, you will notice that your skin has become as supple and smooth as that of a baby.

One may also take delight in having an herbal bath just by soaking dehydrated herbs in their bath water. While this will make your bath water very aromatic, it will also provide you a very calming and revitalizing experience. Practically any blend of dehydrated aromatic herbs, or even a solitary fragrant herb, may be employed for an herbal bath. However, the key to having a luxurious herbal bath that is also invigorating, is to keep the different dried herbs tied in a piece of cloth and soak them in the bath water for some time before you start your bath. Tying the herbs helps to keep them away from sticking to your skin as well as the sides of the tub. In addition, when they are tied together in a cloth, they will not be able to block the drain.

Including the herbs in your bath soap is one more way of utilizing the herbs in your bath. Commonly, the process of making soaps consumes sufficient time and also needs one to be careful while dealing with acerbic ingredients. Nevertheless, it is possible to make a variety of wonderfully fragrant herbal soaps by just thawing the common soap bars, incorporating the herbs or essential oils and molding them once again. In fact, compared to adding herbs, it is easier to incorporate essential oils in soaps. In addition to herbal ingredients and essential oils, you may also incorporate conventional items, such as almond meal, oatmeal, cold cream, lanolin, or even honey to modify the soap's texture as well as its feel.

Some very common elements that are used for herbal baths more often are named below. You may opt for any one of these in dehydrated form and measures of a cupful and mix and match taking ingredients from different categories as per your liking. For instance, you may desire to have a blend that focuses on floral as well as different other aromatic ingredients. Alternately, you may also want to have a combination that possesses a more hygienic or additionally bracing fragrance. However, while you may be emphasizing on any particular category, it is always best to include one or two ingredients from another category simply to get a further appealing fragrance. When you are satisfied that you already have got the combination that you like most, prepare a large amount of the herbal mixture and store it in a big and eye-catching jar for use when necessary.

The different categories of herbal ingredients that you may use to make a fragrant, herbal soap are listed below:

Sweet and fragrant: Lavender, chamomile (German or Roman), linden, elderberry and rose flowers as well as leaves of rose geranium, angelica and rosemary.

Stimulating and clear-smelling: Leaves of eucalyptus, basil, thyme and peppermint.

Spicy and citrus-smelling: Leaves of lemon verbena, lemon balm and southernwood. In addition, you may incorporate strips of fresh orange and lemon peel.

Blend all the ingredients you have chosen together and mash them lightly with a view to allow them to exude their fragrance. Place the mixture in the middle of a piece of spotless muslin cloth having an area of approximately 9 inches square. Hold the edges of the cloth and bring them together as if to form a sack covering the mixture and fasten the edges with a string or use a rubber band to secure them. Now, suspend the muslin bag from the tap of the bath tub. Use hot water, hotter than normal, and allow the water to run through the bag while you fill your bath tub. Subsequently plunge the bag in the filled tub and allow it to soak for about five minutes or till the water cools down sufficiently for you to enter the tub and take the herbal bath. You may let the bag remain in the tub whilst you drench in the water and take your bath.

Herbal bath oil

If you so desire, you may prepare your choicest herbal bath oil at home. You need the following ingredients to prepare the herbal bath oil.

Place all these constituents of herbal bath oil in a bottle having an airtight cap. Shake the bottle properly prior to using the blend. Just add one teaspoon of the blend to your bath water. Once the oil has been added to your bath water, it will make the tub slippery and, hence, ensure using a rubber bath mat and be careful while getting into and getting out of the tub. It may be mentioned here that among all the ingredients of this herbal bath oil, almond oil is the most enjoyable and also comparatively very costly.

French bouquet soap

French Bouquet Soap Traditional: It is possible to make a varied type of the savon au bouquet or aromatic soaps just by altering the aromatic elements. In addition to the oils as well as the waters recommended below, favourite additions of this traditional French bath soaps include bergamot and cinnamon oils. In case you do not have any soap mold at your disposal, you may make use of food molds, custard molds or comparable containers to mold this particular type of soap. If you wish to alter the color of the soap, simply mix a couple of drops or shreds of the dye used to make candles with the thawed combination.

The elements that are necessary to make this aromatic soap include:

  • About 1/4 to 1/2 cup (62 ml to 250 ml) of water
  • About 14 to 16 oz of unscented solid white soap (for instance, Castile soap is superb)
  • Approximately 1/2 teaspoonful of clove and thyme oils

Orange blossom or rose soap: Do away with the water and essential oils. Instead, stir about 1/ 3 cup of rose water or orange blossom into the soap when it is melting.

Grease soap molds along with petroleum jelly: Shred the solid white soap and place it in a saucepan made from heavy enamel. Melt the soap keeping it on a low heat source and add water just sufficient to form a muggy film on the saucepan. When the soap turns soft and has the uniformity of whipped cream, remove the pan from the heat. Allow the soap to cool down somewhat, while you keep stirring it and put in the aromatic oils. While the soap is still soft, pour it into the molds and cover it up using any heavy cloth or cardboards. When about 24 hours has passed, remove the semi-solidified soap from the molds. Subsequently, place the soaps on a shelf in an arid and properly ventilated place. Leave the soaps in that condition for about three to four weeks for them to become dry and solidify. Remember, the harder the soap becomes, the longer it will last.

Oatmeal soap: Blend 2/3 cup of regular unprepared oatmeal meticulously with the liquefied soap together with the aromatic elements. It may be noted that oatmeal is useful for the skin and makes the soap somewhat coarse. In order to beautify the soaps, you may also add two other abrasives like almond meal and bran.

Other variants: In order to make soaps having a smooth consistency, you should incorporate about two spoonfuls of beeswax, cold cream, glycerin, lanolin or aloe vera gel into your herbal bath soap. First thaw the lanolin or beeswax (which ever you have chosen to use) in a double boiler. Adding a few teaspoonfuls of honey to the blend will make the soap less coarse and also less alkaline, while adding a teaspoonful of lemon juice will make the soap further astringent.

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