Hi there! My name is Sosae, the happy co-creator (along with my dashing husband, Dennis) of 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
For gift ideas for everyone on your list, check out the Gift Ideas tab and be sure to pin Gift Idea Central, to keep the whole collection in one place.
Recipes, please!! (& great family ideas too.)
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This sounds amazing and so easy! Thank you for sharing Sosae, and I’m going to have to check out your shop!
I’m thinking this would make the perfect birthday or Mother’s Day present for my mother since her job requires her to be on her feet all day!
What a cute idea!! I’m soo going to make this for gifts! Thank you Sosae!
Awesome tutorial and an even more amazing person! Thanks so much for sharing your talent, Sos!
Agreed, agreed, agreed! I love this post AND it really is a perfect idea for Mother’s Day!
Thanks so much, Sosae! You’ve been fun to work with. Plus,…I love your name. Oh, and your hair. 🙂
Thank you so much – this is the sweetest blog! The honor’s all mine, believe me… 🙂
! Thank you for sharing Sosae,
free internet jobs
Thanks so much for sharing this awesome foot soak recipe. I hope it’s okay that I’ve featured your tutorial and link back here in a hub I’ve written about frugal handmade gifts which is here:
http://jamiebrock.hubpages.com/hub/Frugal-Handmade-Gift-Ideas-Homemade-Bath-and-Beauty-Recipes
Thank you again for sharing this awesome tutorial!
is that a pint or quart mason jar?
If you put it into mason jars, how many will it fill? Love this!!
In your last paragraph you mentioned “olive oil” – but it’s not in the recipe….did I miss something?
I don’t see where you got an answer. The olive oil is added in the second step and is in the instructions above.
I am unbelievably excited about this. We recently moved to a new state and at our rent has has a patch of spearmint on the East side of the house and a planter full of Peppermint in the backyard.
is there a way you could make it with peppermint leaves rather than tea? I have lots of mint growing and want to do something useful with it
From what I understand of the post, she is just using dried peppermint leaves that are used to make herbal tea, similar to what is sold here: http://www.arborteas.com/organic-peppermint.html?gclid=COesm4f737ACFagbQgodDzYi3g. So, I would imagine just letting some of your mint leaves dry would be perfect. But, that’s just me!
Love this! Can you dry fresh mint leaves and use that? I have a ton of fresh mint growing in my yard. Thanks.
Can you use ordinary table salt in place of Epson and sea salt
The author of this post can only be reached through her Etsy shop now. But, I believe that table salt is not typically used for body scrubs. I would stick to Epson and Sea Salt… you can find both at Wal-Mart. Good luck!
It looks like a pint jar to me, and the directions only have a little more than 2 cups’ worth of ingredients, total.
Can you use just mint extract or does it have to be peppermint?
I didn’t write the post, and the author is no longer around. But, I would imagine you could use any extract you wanted. I think peppermint would be great!
Can you use tapioca starch or potato starch? I have allergies to corn and soy and am also Celiac. So I am trying to make my own things.
Tracy
Hi Tracy, this post is actually 4 years old and the author is no longer around to answer them. Hopefully a Google search can help you find what you need. Have a great day!