Today I've decided to make something that, if it goes well, would make an excellent little gift. Decongesting shower melts. You put them at the bottom of a hot, steamy shower and as they melt, they release a wonderful smell to help clear out your sinuses. I looked at a couple of different recipes before deciding on one I liked. I'm making a small batch to try out and thought I'd take you through it. It seems very easy and if it goes well I'll look into making a large batch and packaging them up in festive holiday jars or tins.
Let me start by listing the ingredients:
Baking soda
Water
Eucalyptus oil
Rosemary oil
Peppermint oil
Tea tree oil
All of the essential oils can be purchased for a fairly reasonable price at your local GNC. I'm sure you can do better price-wise at an online specialty store, but I'm always impatient to start a new project and love the instant gratification of brick and mortar.
Some of the recipes I read called for corn starch rather than baking soda, but this left me a little uncomfortable. Was that the type of thing that after you've used for a couple of day you find your tub draining slower? I didn't know and opted not to risk it. I decided since baking soda is a product often used in cleaning and sometimes used for clearing out a stopped up drain it was the better choice.
You start by mixing the baking soda and water at a 3:1 ratio. If you're not good at math or just never really know what that means, let me make it easier. Measure out one cup of baking soda and add 1/3 cup water. It'll be quite thick and I think a simple dinner fork is best for mixing it together. Run the tongs of the fork across the top and it'll smooth out the top, almost unbelievably.
At this point you're supposed to it put into some sort of individual containers to dry. Having read multiple directions I saw everything from large ice cube trays to paper cupcake liners mentioned and decided on a silicone cupcake tray. Well, I decided on it mostly because I saw one on sale at a second hand shop for $1.99. I am not sure if metal would work. I think it probably wouldn't. It seems to me the discs would crumble when you try to get them out of the pan. However, if the over-sized ice cube tray and silicone cupcake tray weren't options for me I would probably have gone with tin foil cupcake liners. I feel like they wouldn't fall apart when you're trying for take them off.
I filled the cupcake tray about halfway with the mixture.
After you've put the water and baking soda mixture into whatever container you're using, you need to wait a full 24 hours for it to dry. I know! In my mind I hear Tom Petty singing "The waiting is the hardest part." How, how am I supposed to not mess with it for that long?! I keep tipping the screen of my laptop down to watch it sitting there, drying. I really want to skate my fingers across the top of it to see if it's started to harden up yet. Somehow, I manage not to.
Once they dried fully I thought about how to apply the oil. How much is a bit of personal preference. Maybe you want it to be peppermint heavy for use in a morning shower, or maybe you love rosemary. I went crazy and added six or seven drops of each. They are pretty darn strong. I suspect that when I find myself a little congested these will more than do the trick.
Now, everything I read recommended adding the oil after the discs had dried and been removed from their mold, but I'm not really sure why. (Because now I have a cupcake tray that now smells like shower melts, that's why.) I decided to try a little experiment. One disc I removed from the cup and added the oils while it was in my hand. That one was a little crumbly. The second I added the oil while it was still in the cup but removed it right away to store in a sealed up glass jar with the first. It was significantly less crumbly, which got me thinking. Why couldn't I add the oil, leave the discs in the cups and let them absorb the oil fully before removing them? I added the oils and sealed the entire tray in a big, gallon sized Ziploc bag. I even put in the little bag of desiccant that had come in the glass jar I'd bought for storage.
I figured I would wait until the tops of the discs were no longer shiny with oil but had returned to the nice matte finish before I attempted to do more them. Once they were ready to remove they were the least crumbly. They were also the wettest, though, and I'll revisit the idea of desiccants later. Wouldn't want them all falling apart in there!
Almost after the fact I thought about decorating them. I was thinking of jolly little blue snow flakes. I only had food coloring gel but I thought I could draw out the edges with a pin or something, that did not work...
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| Not so much |
But that funny little dot made me think about adding other dots.
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| Well, that didn't really work either. |
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| It looked significantly cuter after a couple days |
After going through the entire process of making them, which really took a several days, I finally got to try one! Of course, my luck, we were almost out of hot water so my shower never got really steamy.
I gave a couple to some friends, who've agreed to be my test monkeys, and based on their reaction I'll decide whether to give these out as gifts. The making wasn't difficult or terribly expensive and even if I don't give them out, I know I'll appreciate having them when I get all stopped up this winter.
I started on a second batch, convinced that this time I have solved all of the problems. This time I added color right away. Two drops blue and two drops green to each cup in an effort to give it that aqua blue color we associate with Vicks products. I didn't waste time trying to stir in or in any way distribute the color. After the first batch I felt confident that it would slowly color the whole disc. I let the baking soda, water and food coloring dry for a full two days before adding the essential oils. I imagine that if I tried to take them out they would have just crumbled to pieces but with the first batch I'd felt like they were a little damp and I wanted the only moisture to be the oil.
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| Unbleached coffee filter, non-dairy creamer and a ribbon |
The second batch is really nice. There is a minor problem with the color. Coloring should definitely be added after oil. They aren't terribly crumbly, though, and since there were no experiments, I have a pretty glass jar full of them!
It's occurring to me now that they don't all have to be decongestant, either. I can make up a batch of lavender for relaxation or peppermint and lemon for energy. I'm not exactly sure how I would package different "flavors" up together as gifts but it's definitely worth a try.
Hope you've enjoyed my story and find the little lessons to go along with the recipe useful!
Here's the recipe without the story getting in the way:
Ingredients:1/3 cup water1 cup baking sodaeucalyptus essential oiltea tree oilrosemary essential oilpeppermint essential oilfood coloringYou'll also need:silicone cupcake mold (or similar)large, airtight storage bagCombine water and baking soda into thick paste and divide into cupcake molds. Allow to dry for 24 to 48 hours. (48 preferred.)To each compartment add 6-8 drops of each of the essential oils. Seal entire cupcake tray into large bag.After roughly 8 hours add two drops green and two drops blue food coloring to each mold and reseal into bag.After the coloring has spread throughout your disks they are ready to remove and enjoy!Store in an airtight container.
Check out my other Christmas gift DIYs!
Decongestant Wax Melts
Fizzy Bath Salts
Peppermint Sugar Scrub
What does the coffee creamer do? You put it in the bottom of the coffee filter?
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