Bath melts are easy to make and offer a luxurious bathing experience for you or your loved ones if you give them as gifts. When added to hot water they melt, making the water relaxing and filling the room with a sweet aroma. Once the melt dissolves and the shea butter and oil are mixed in the water, it will smooth and hydrate the skin while relaxing the mind.
You can make several at once, and you can choose the shape and essential oils you use in them. Once you have the basic method down, you can make variations based on your likes and dislikes. When you are done with the melts, wrap them in wax paper, so that the melts’ oils don’t seep through the wrapping. You will need unrefined cocoa butter and unrefined shea butter, as well as your favorite essential oil. You will also need a glass bowl, saucepan, wood spoon, and a six cupcake silicone mold. Consider adding rose or lavender petals, small flowers, or other herbs. Here’s how to make a bath melt in three easy steps.
Prepare your butters.
You’ll need 50 ml of the butter to make six melts. You can add more or less of the ingredients based on how many you want to make. How you divide the butter doesn’t matter, so you can go half and half or use more of one over the other if you have a preference. Shea butter is softer than cocoa butter, so if you want the melts to be firmer, you’ll want to use more cocoa butter than shea butter. Regardless of the combination you chose, they will still melt when added to the hot water. Put the butter in a medium sized glass bowl.
Melt the butters in a double-boiler.
Heat water to boiling in a saucepan and put the glass bowl in the water until the butter is melted. Stir continuously while the butter is over the heat. You cannot put the butter directly on the heat because it will burn. If you have a double boiler, you can also use that. However, you do not need to buy special equipment — a glass bowl over a boiling saucepan works very well.
Add the essential oils.
Once the butter is melted, add eight to ten drops of your favorite essential oil. Stir well to ensure the oils are spread throughout the entire mixture. Since you are making six melts, you want to make sure the oil is present in all six. Aromatherapy involves using smells to trigger a specific response in the body, so it is important to use high-quality essential oils instead of fragrance oils. The melts will be used in a warm bath, so you want to focus on essential oils that will help you relax like lavender, jasmine, or rose essential oil.
Pour the mixture into a mold.
Pour the mixture into the silicone, and place it in the refrigerator. You need to use silicone molds because even when the melts are hardened, they will be soft, so trying to pry them out of hard plastic or metal mold will destroy them. The shape of the mold doesn’t matter as long as they are all approximately the same size. They will take about an hour to harden, but be sure to check that they’re completely hardened before trying to take them out of the mold.
Add petals or herbs.
You can add small flowers, petals, or herbs to your melts while they are still liquid. For example, if you choose lavender or rose essential oil, you can add small pieces of lavender or rose petals to the melts before putting them in the refrigerator. This will make them more decorated and delicate looking if you are giving them as gifts. However, whatever you add will need to be cleaned out of the bathroom once they are used.