How to make a DIY spa gift set with handmade lavender soap and bath salt that will make a perfect Mother’s Day, Christmas, or birthday gift.
Handmade Lavender Soap
To make homemade soap, you’ll need lavender essential oil, lavender essential oil, dried lavender leaves, and a soap mold. You can always make soap from scratch with lye, but I’ve never tried. Using soap melts is much faster and easier. Last year my 9 and 11 year-old daughters made soaps as gifts, and it was a perfect DIY project for them.
Melt a few squares of soap melts in a glass container, following the instructions that come with your soap melts. Add a few drops of essential oils and some crushed herb leaves. I used lavender because the aroma is very relaxing, but you could use any fragrant herb and its oil. Mix the oil and leaves into the soap and pour the warm liquid into the soap mold. Let it cool somewhere it won’t be disturbed.
When the soap is hard, pop it out of the mold and package it in a clear plastic bag with cute baker’s twine.
Handmade Lavender Bath Salts
I love using bath salts because the epsom salt is great for relaxing sore muscles. To make homemade bath salts you’ll need epsom salt and essential oil. I also used a small amount of food coloring.
First I poured a very small amount of epsom salt into a bowl and added 1 drop of purple food coloring, then mixed it well. Only use a tiny amount of food coloring because the water in it can liquefy the salt which will harden into a clump as it dries. Stirring well helps prevent clumps too.
Then I added the rest of the epsom salt and mixed it with the colored salt and a few drops of lavender essential oil, again not too much liquid and stir well. The colored salt made nice purple speckles in the bath salt, and it’s not enough coloring to affect the bath water when the bath salts are used.
I poured all the bath salt into a cute glass jar with a cork top. It’s important that whatever container you use for the bath salts has a good lid or moisture in the air will get in and, again, clumping.
Mini Rustic Crate
To package my spa gift set, I found a small, rustic-looking wood crate. It’s an old box for gourmet olive oil. If you can’t find an old wood box, Pretty Handy Girl has an easy tutorial on her website for making one.
I added shredded paper to the wood crate. Then place the handmade soap and handmade bath salts in the crate with a loofah or bath sponge.
I wanted some labels to show what each part of the spa gift set was, so I printed out little paper labels with descriptions and some free lavender clip art I found online. Then tied them on with purple baker’s twine. I also added a “Happy Mother’s Day” card.
And here’s the finished simple DIY spa gift set with handmade lavender soap and bath salt, ready to give as a Mother’s Day gift.