Herbal bath blends can be perfect if you’re feeling achy, stressed, sick or if you’re simply just chilled to the bone, sometimes a nice warm bath is the answer.
Baths can offer much more than a soak; by adding some herbal blends to the water, you can actually work toward healing yourself. The skin is the largest organ we have, whatever we put on our skin absorbs into us. That’s why it’s important to be conscious about the ingredients found in our commercially purchased products.
There are a couple of ways to make your next bath much more than just a dip in the tub. I learned of these methods in one of my favorite books, Healing Herbs, written by Dede Cummings and Alyssa Holmes.
Method 1: Bath tea. In a large soup pot on the stove, heat 1 or 2 gallons of water to a boil. Add 3 handfuls of herbs, dried or fresh. Remove from heat and allow them to steep for ten minutes, up to an hour. Strain out the herbs and add this tea to your bath water.
Method 2: Sachet “tea bag”. Using a muslin bag with a tie, fill with herbs and tie shut. Tie the sachet to the faucet, as you run the hot water for the bath. The water will run through the bag and make tea as it fills the tub. Or you can just add the bag to a filled tub and then use the bag to massage your body.
The authors go on to explain that by making a bath blend with healing herbs, you are essentially drinking the herb infusion through our skin. The hotter the water, the more open your pores will be. Cooler baths are more toning and strengthening to the body and are for bringing down fevers slightly and benefit the body by toning and strengthening the skin and organs.
Here are two bath blends that are shared in the book.
Cold and Flu Bath Blend
1 cup equal parts Epsom and sea salt
1 cup baking soda
1 cup yarrow
1 cup elder flowers
1 cup chamomile
30 drops of eucalyptus essential oil
Yarrow is very well known for “sweating out” a fever. Elder eases colds, flus and fevers. Chamomile can be used to reduce inflammation, stress and insomnia.
Lavender Oatmeal Bath Blend for Itchy Skin
2 cups ground dry rolled oats
1 cup salts of choice
30 drops lavender essential oil
Bath Blends: Herb Options
Other herbs that are beneficial for adding to your bath blends over the cold and flu season include:
Boneset: Benefits colds, fevers, flus and aids in liver detoxification.
Calendula: Helps to heal cuts, scrapes, rashes and eases abdominal cramps and constipation.
Comfrey: Rapidly promotes healing of wounds, sprains, bruises, broken bones, sores, and ulcers.
Feverfew: Used to equalize blood flow, effective in treating headaches and migraines, arthritis, colds and flu.
Lemon Balm: Eases digestive problems, nervousness, insomnia, depression, migraines, stress, hypertension, restlessness, hypertension fevers.
Plantain: It helps stop bleeding and promotes healing of wounds.
Red Raspberry: Reduces fevers.
Sage: Benefits sore throats, diarrhea, gas and helps reduce hot flashes/excessive perspiration.
This article about herbal bath blends was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.
