Bath oil conjures up images of claw-footed cast iron tubs, silken bathrobes, and cavernous candle-lit bathrooms in my mind. I am not lucky enough to have any of these things, but I can have bath oil (and candles, I suppose), and most of the time my imagination fills in the rest quite nicely.
This bath oil is particularly awesome because it uses Turkey red oil (the country, not the bird). You are likely wondering what is so special about this oil, and the gist of it is that it’s not out to team up with your bathtub and kill you in some spectacular 3 Stooges style fall. Turkish red oil is castor oil (USA / Canada) that has been sulfated, meaning they’ve added some sulphuric acid. Not to worry, it doesn’t burn your skin off—what is does is automatically emulsifies itself into your bathwater, and emulsifies the essential oils along with it. It’s amazing. No oil floats, no oil slicks, no oil rings—just wonderfully soft skin.
I choose essential oils known for their relaxing, comforting properties. Naturally I started with lavender, and then complimented it with benzoin and rose. The resulting scent is relaxing, warm, and pleasantly floral.
Rose & Lavender Bath Oil
250mL Turkey Red Oil
20 drops lavender essential oil
5 drops benzoin essential oil
2 drops rose absoluteCombine all the ingredients in a 250mL/8oz bottle and shake to combine.
To use, add 15–30mL (1–2tbsp) to your bathwater.
If you don’t have Turkey Red Oil, you can use any other liquid carrier oil you like, though it will not work anywhere near as well since it’ll just float on top of your bath oil and make a mess/slipping hazard. Be careful!
You’re really good at posting recipes with cool ingredients RIGHT after I get an order 😛 Haha. Guess I better start a new list… *sigh*. I love baths, but I don’t take them often (and I DO have a clawfoot tub!) because our hot water tank is not conducive to filling said clawfoot tub. I usually have to boil several kettles full of water as the tub is filling to supplement.
Ah, yes, I am sure you are so upset that you have to start another list 😛 Muahahahaha. Just call me your enabler 😉 Also, it sounds like you should add a few house maids to your list, so you can fill your tub in true Pride & Prejudice style.
Where do you get your Red Turkey Oil, Marie? I can’t get NDA to bring it in!
I got mine from Saffire Blue, and it’s pretty darn fun to play with. If you could convince NDA to carry a wide variety of sulfinated oils (I doubt such a thing exists, but it would be very cool if they did) I would be most grateful! Perhaps you can direct them here to see all the fun things they can be used for… well, this one thing, at least 😉
The Turkey Red Oil is from Saffire Blue. I saw this oil on their website ad I’ve been intrigued about it ever since. I’ll be adding it to my SB shopping list!
Btw, Marie have you used the Abyssinian oil? It looks like a really great oil for lotions and can be a god alternative for the TRO.
I bought some Abyssinian oil from SB as well, though I haven’t played with it much. I’m really intrigued by it’s supposed adhesion powers for eyeliner and what not. I have yet to try it in any lotions or attempt to emulsify it without an emulsifier, though, and at 2x the cost of the TRO I likely won’t anytime soon as I have other plans for my wee bottle 😛
I love using Turkey Red Oil with bath salts as well. Thank you for sharing your ideas !
I feel like Turkey Red Oil is rather magical 😀 Why don’t they sulfinate more oils so we can have more play things? Thanks for reading 🙂
You list rose absolute as one of the ingredients. I went to the New Directions Aromatics and it carries two different types of Rose Absolute, Maroc and Bulgaria. Is there a difference or a preference? Thank you.
– G
Without even looking I can guarantee you I purchased the less expensive one (Maroc for sure) 😛 And it’s lovely! I refuse to shell out $80 to compare the two, though, so I can’t comment on the differences.
Could Turkey red be used as a solubizer?
It should be a good sub, which is yet another reason I’m excited about it. I haven’t done any experiments to see how much of another oil it will take with it, though—that will likely be the rub. If you discover anything in your own lab, let me know 🙂
Marie, I hope you can help me with this. I made a mini version of this body oil using 2 Tbsp of jojoba oil and benzoin and lavender EOs. After shaking the oil so that everything mixed together, I checked on it a few minutes later and noticed that the benzoin did not fully dissolve; there are small bits of benzoin eo floating in the jojoba oil. Do you have any idea as to why this happened? I’ve used benzoin before and I did not have this problem.
Hmmm… have you tried a hot water bath (for the entire concoction at this point, obviously)? Benzoin can definitely be a bit stubbornly gummy, especially without some heat to dissolve it.
Thanks for the tip. I will definitely try this later tonight 🙂
Let me know how it goes!
Sorry this is late but it goes well 🙂 A little bit of heat and the benzoin melted beautifully into the other oils. I think the earlier problem was that I did not shake the oils soon enough so that they mixed together; letting the benzoin settle to the bottom of the container.
Anywhoozles, this is a great recipe and I can’t wait for my TRO to arrive in the mail!
Fantastic! Has your Turkey Red Oil arrived yet? Here’s hoping it arrives before bath season (winter) is over 😛
Marie, this is so exciting! I finally ordered and received my Turkey red oil and am looking forward to making bath oil. I do have a question and hope you can help me out–if I want to make a bath oil using TRO, essential oils, and another oil such as grapeseed or sweet almond, etc., would the TRO emulsify the carrier oil? I would hate to waste the TRO if adding another carrier oil is just going to create an “oil slick” sort of feeling when using the bath oil. Thank you!
Hi Johanna! I have done some experimenting with TRO and know that it will emulsify some oils along with it, but I haven’t done the experiments yet to find where the “breaking point” is. It’s on my list, but for now perhaps you can do your own experiments 🙂
Thank you!! I was just searching for bath oil recipes, and was worried about floating oil. Also I found the TRO at a different supplier for half the price! Can’t wait to try it!
Fantastic! Care to share your supplier? 😉
http://libertynatural.com/bulk/369.htm
Didn’t see your follow up comment till just now, sorry!
Cool, thanks! Their website is awful, though. Like, so awful I’m not sure I trust that they’re a legitimate company :/ Their coding has been mostly obsolete since 2001 o_O.
Hey Marie, I’m about to order some turkey red oil to play with (found it on etsy for cheap, so thought I’d go ahead and try it)… but I was hoping you could give me some pointers. What ratios have you found effective for solubilizing EOs? Do I use it at a 1 to 1 ratio similar to the way I would use polysorbate 20? Also, I’ve noticed that you nearly always pair guar gum with turkey red – is that only for thickening or does that play with the emulsion system as well? Thanks for any and all pointers!! Oh, I also have to tell you – I found your website a little over a year ago… and you’ve changed my life. You’ve given me the courage and inspiration to try things I never would have, and my beauty supplies, cleaning supplies, etc, will never be the same. 🙂 Thank you for all your time!
I will admit I haven’t experimented with TRO as much as I need to, so my understanding of its limits isn’t complete. So far a 1:1 ratio to other oils works well, though I suspect you may be able to use less. I’ve played with adding the EOs I want to use to a concoction, and then whisking in a drop or two of TRO at a time until everything blends nicely. I use guar gum both to thicken and to stabilize, though it seems to be more necessary when working with carrier oils as well as EOs.
Thanks so much for supporting, reading, and DIYing with me!
Marie – your recipe says 250 ml TRO in 250 ml bottle. This is a typo, right?
Nope. I probably wouldn’t make it that way now, but that is what I did, and it worked. The TRO emulsifies the essential oils in the bath water, and those are a negligible added volume. I’d probably do 50% TRO, 50% another carrier oil now *shrug*.