A nice long soak in a hot bath is the perfect stress reliever after a long day. Adding bath salts to your bath can enhance this experience greatly as bath salts can help improve the way you feel. Bath salts open the pores to cleanse away dirt, sweat and toxins. They aid in healing dry skin and making it softer and suppler.

Bath salts not only come in a variety of soothing fragrances but they also offer many other benefits including certain healing properties. Believe it or not, adding just a little bit to your bath water can actually help improve circulation and reduce tenderness. In addition to those benefits, salts made with essential oils offer the added benefit of aromatherapy. It has long been studied that essential oils used for aromatherapy induce calmness and promote relaxation as well as promote other healing attributes depending on the type of oil used.

They also come in many different colors, sizes and textures. Colors are thought to have an effect on mood. A cool color like blue can be very soothing while warm colors like red, orange or yellow are energizing. Choose a bath salt with the color that matches your mood or a color that matches what you’d like your mood to be. The different sizes and textures also make for great exfoliates.

They are not just beneficial but they are also inexpensive Christmas gifts to make. And to go on with the theme of the holidays, I have a simple bath salt recipe for an inexpensive Christmas gift to make – a candy cane bath salt.

For candy cane bath salts, all you need is 3 cups of Epsom salt, 3 teaspoons of sweet almond oil, 9 drops of peppermint essential oil, 1 drop of red food coloring and 1 drop of green food coloring. To make the bath salts, separate the 3 cups of Epsom salt into 3 bowls and put a drop of almond oil in each bowl. Add a drop of red food coloring into one bowl, a drop of green food coloring in another bowl and keep the last bowl plain. Lastly, add 3 drops of peppermint essential oil in each bowl. Let the mixture sit for a couple of hours before packaging.

The ingredients used aren’t just Christmas themed. They also have certain healing properties. Epsom salt is great for exfoliation and can be beneficial to help soothe, relax and relieve itching. Peppermint essential oil is refreshing to the mind, body and spirit, and helps relieve mental fatigue, nausea and dizziness. It is also an antiseptic and anesthetic because of the amount of menthol in it, making it highly effective against respiratory problems like coughs and colds. Almond oil helps to soften and soothe skin as well as relieve irritation, inflammation and itching. It also helps the skin balance water loss and absorption of moisture, meaning that the skin will not be dry or too oily.

To package these inexpensive Christmas gifts, all you need are some clear jars with turn lids, red, green and white ribbon and candy cane-shaped gift tags. To add to the candy cane effect, pour the bath salt mixture in alternating layers until the jars are filled. Tie the 3 different colored ribbons right by the top of the jar and stick on the gift tag and you’ve got yourself an inexpensive Christmas gift to make that everyone is sure to enjoy.

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