It used to be that a milk bath was quite the luxury—said to soften the skin and otherwise spoil you (and the milk, I suppose). They seem to have somewhat fallen out of fashion (or memory), but I’d like to bring them back. I’ve decided to update them with some inspiration from one of my all time favourite creamy winter beverages, the Chai Latté.
I no longer recommend making this as it no longer lives up to my formulation standards. These bath salts are much better!
Want to watch this project instead of read it?
I came to the idea of a chai latté bath through my experiences including ground ginger in bath salt mixes. It’s fantastic! Ground ginger gives the bath a super awesome boost of extra warmness that you just can’t argue with in the middle of the winter. Anyhow, once I have ginger in something I naturally want to add cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom, and before you know it, it’s a chai-scented something or other. Whoops?
I ordered myself a few muslin bags from Saffire Blue that are super handy for bath infusions—they greatly reduce the clean up. I’ll make a big jar of the bath salts, and then place a scoop or two of them in the muslin bag before dropping it in the tub. If you don’t have a bag you could easily make one, or just resign yourself to cleaning your tub after your bath.
Want to watch this project instead of read it?
I no longer recommend making this as it no longer lives up to my formulation standards.
Milky Chai Bath Salts
1 cup baking soda (USA / Canada)
½ cup sea salt½ cup dried milk powder (coconut, goat, or cow)
1 tbsp dried honey powder (optional)
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground cardamom
10 drops ginger essential oil (optional)
20 drops cinnamon bark essential oil (optional)Epsom salts, as needed
Blend the sea salt, milk powder, honey powder (if using), and dry spices together in a food processor. Add the essential oils 10 or so drops at a time, blending between additions.
Once you’ve got that all blended together, dump it into a bowl with the baking soda (USA / Canada) and mix to blend. (If your food processor is large enough you can just do all the mixing in it.)
To use, draw a hot bath and add about ¾ a cup of the mixture either straight to the bath water, or put the mixture in a muslin drawstring bag and close before dropping into the bath like a tea bag. Add 1–2 cups of Epsom salts for an extra relaxing soak.
I know the honey is a great moisturizer, but does it leave you sticky if used in salts this way? Very cool post, thanks.
In such a low concentration it’s fine 🙂 Have fun pampering yourself!
It’s less than a teaspoon of honey per bath . It shouldn’t.
🙂
Couldn’t you use nylons?
You definitely could—great idea!
Lactic acid is the reason that milk baths work so well, as it makes it easier for the top layer of skin to slough off. Coconut milk doesn’t contain lactic acid. Is there a reason to recommend powdered coconut milk for this recipe, other than lactose intolerance?
The pH of coconut milk is about the same or a bit lower than that of milk. Coconut milk is 6.1–7.0, and milk is 6.5–6.7. So, assuming an average pH of about 6.5 for coconut milk, the natural level of mild acidity should do pretty much exactly the same thing as the lactic acid in milk.
Where do you buy honey powder?
New Directions Aromatics sells it 🙂
I’ve been following your DIY posts for a bit, and thought it was time I commented. I just wanted to say how awesome it was to find your site—esp with the fact that you’ve done your homework with your ingredients/products. Thanks for the mid-winter diy inspiration! Cheers
Thanks so much, Noel! I’m glad you’re enjoying my blog 🙂 Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me!
I LOVE your site! You have inspired me so much that this weekend i’m making stuff! gonna start with the winter lotion 😉 seems fairly easy. I’ll let you know 🙂
Thanks so much, Nadia! Enjoy your DIY projects—I can’t wait to hear how your new lotion turns out 🙂
Marie,
As I was trolling through websites for bath salts (thinking easy Christmas gifts here), I stumbled across a foaming bath salts/ bath milk product on etsy. It got me wondering – would it be as simple as adding a little bit of SLSa to this blend do you think?
I want to thank you for generously sharing your efforts with us. I come here almost everyday 🙂 and I enjoy the encyclopedia section. I have already purchased your book even though I am more fascinated by the bath and body section of your blog than the make up aspect. I just know that it will make for a fabulous resource either way.
Anything and everything I see on your blog is wonderful. If you can dream up a couple of bath treats for young ladies (loved the princess glittering soaps and lip balms) and young at heart ladies who prefer the shower instead of the tub, it would absolutely make my day/s. That said, there is enough on your blog to keep me happy and busy for a long time so thank you again.
Hey Bev! Yes, I think it would be—I’m planning on trying it with bath bombs soon 🙂 I’m not sure how much you’d want to add, but it would be hard to use too much since the surfactant would be very heavily diluted in bath water.
Thank you so much for your kind words! I’ve heard a few mean ones this week, so I really appreciate having positive, lovely words from awesome people like you to dilute the mean ones! Thank you so much for pre-ordering my book and for all your kind words, and for DIYing with me!
Hi Marie….Ignore the mean words. Some people have far too much time on their hands and use little of it on deep thought. Your projects are always awesome and I am inspired daily by them. It is a pleasure to support you via Patreon 🙂
I am going make the Chai bath recipe this weekend and I was going to add SLSa. I like adding it to scrubs and I always add it to my bathbombs along with butters. I know this is kind of counter productive but the softness that it leaves post bath is amazing. I end up with rich foam but no bubbles….its like bathing in a latte :))
Thank you, Karen—truly 🙂 And thank you for your input on the SLSa in bath salts—I just tried it for an upcoming video and I LOVE the results! I even mentioned your latte description because it’s perfection!
Hi Marie…
I just watched the bath milk video and heard the latte reference…made me smile 🙂
Thats a lovely recipe with two of my favorite things so I’ll be whipping some up for this weekend. Thanks for all your creative and inspiring projects…
Thank you for the description, it is very apt! Happy making and thanks for watching 🙂
Hi – can you or someone let me know how much SLSA you used to make this foaming? Thank you.
If we use coconut, is it literally dry coconut that we blend?
thanks Marie
No—coconut milk powder is very different! Shredded coconut will clog your drains.