Remaining calm in the midst of chaos is a superpower
― Clyde Lee Dennis
What a strange time indeed. I am blessed to say that this is the first time in my life where I’ve ever experienced anything like COVID-19. I pray that everyone is safe during these life-altering times. My very social kids are having a stressful time staying at home. My son and daughter-in-law are now working full time while watching a toddler and new baby, my beautiful, brilliant granddaughters, but still two little ones. I talk to the friends I left behind in the engineering world and they are struggling to work from home and maintain their sanity. My husband, although so grateful to be employed, has to go into work every day and risk contamination. What a strange way to start this decade. One of my friends has a daughter and she was looking for some craft she could do with her while they were both stuck at home. I told her about something I was going to try and if it worked, I would share the recipe and see if they could make it together at home. It worked, so here I am- sharing the recipe. Stay safe and we’ll get through this together 💓
I love baths. For Christmas, Mother’s Day, Birthdays, etc. my kids give me bath bombs. My son has found a place that makes these bombs that are so fragrant that my house smells fantastic even through the wrapping paper. Unfortunately, most of my family loves showers. And that’s when I heard about shower steamers. Similar to a bath bomb but for the shower. Let me tell you...they work. They don’t linger as long as the bath bomb, but they do fill the shower with a fragrant oil.
I decided to make a batch of shower steamers for my family. Shower steamers consist of baking powder, corn starch, citric acid, essential oils and food grade coloring.
Place the baking soda, cornstarch and citric acid together in a bowl. Whisk to remove any lumps.
Add water slowly (and this is critical). If you add too much water too quickly, the mixture will fizz and you will have to start all over again. Begin mixing with your hand and squeezing the mixture together. Alternate adding water and mixing/squeezing until the mixture begins to clump together. STOP and add no more water.
Now add the essential oils. My first batch was for colds so I chose Eucalyptus and Peppermint Oils.
After every twenty or so drops, I whisked the mixture. I've played with the amount of oils. This is completely up to your discretion. For this batch, I added 100 drops of Eucalyptus and 75 drops of Peppermint.
Finally, add the food coloring. Since I considered this medicinal, I chose green. Don’t ask me why, they just seemed to go together.
Finally, add the colored mixture to a silicone cupcake mold and compact down tightly. Let sit overnight. You don't need to run out and buy a silicone mold as the steamers dry and pull away from the sides but I found that silicone molds work very well.
The whole project went well. I made another batch using Orange and Lemon Oils and colored yellow (sunshine). It was a fun project and easy to do. I hope my friend and her daughter try it. Looking back, I think they’ll enjoy the time spent together.
Shower Steamers
Ingredients
2:1:1 Baking Soda: Citric Acid: Cornstarch (I used 2 cups Baking Soda: 1 Cup Citric Acid: 1 cup Cornstarch)
3-5 Tbs of water
Essential Oils
Food Grade Coloring
Silicone Mold
Using a hand whisk, whisk together baking soda, citric acid and cornstarch removing any clumps.
SLOWLY add small amounts (tablespoon) of water at a time and whisk. If too much is added, it will fizz and you will have to start over. After whisking, squeeze the mixture in your hand. You are looking for the mixture to clump together. This is the most critical step as you can add too much water.
Slowly add the oils and whisk after every 20 drops. Continue adding oil to reach your level of scent.
Slowly add the coloring and whisk after every 20 drops.
Add mixture to silicone molds and compact down. I filled the molds halfway.
Leave overnight.
Remove from molds and store in an airtight container.
To use: Place the steamer in a stream of water, where they will get wet. Please note that the steamers can be slippery while they are dissolving so make sure they are out of your footpath while showering.
Enjoy!
I was able to find everything at Amazon. With this pandemic, it's become my go to place to shop. Here are the following links to the supplies I used but you can use anything. I found great shapes in silicone molds that could really be fun!
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