These sinus tabs are perfect for those who suffer from allergies and head colds.  Just place a tab in the bottom of your shower/tub were the water will hit it.  While you take your shower, the vapors will help clear out your stuffed nose.  You make them just like regular bath bombs, except you boil the water and use it to melt the menthol crystals.  This recipe makes 24 (1-ounce; 28.4 gram) sinus tabs.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (236.6 ml) Baking Soda
• 1 cup (236.6 ml) Cornstarch
• ¾ teaspoon (3.7 ml) Distilled Water
• 1 teaspoon (4.9 ml) Menthol Crystals
• 1 ounce (28.4 grams) Sweet Almond Oil
• 1 teaspoon (4.9 ml) Eucalyptus Essential Oil
• ½ cup (118.3 ml) Citric Acid

1.  Measure the baking soda and cornstarch, and put in a large bowl.  Mix together well.
2. Measure the distilled water, and bring it to a boil.  Add menthol crystals, and stir until dissolved.  Add the sweet almond oil and eucalyptus essential oil, and stir well.
3. Drizzle the liquids into the dry ingredients, and whisk together.  Switch to an electric hand mixer and continue mixing until the liquids are well disbursed throughout the mixture.
4. Add the citric acid, and mix well.
5. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees F.  Using a small bath bomb soap mold, mold your shower tabs, pack them tight, and place them on a cookie sheet.  Turn off the oven and put the shower tabs in the oven, and close the door for 1 hour.
6. After the tabs have been in the oven for an hour, remove them and using a knife, remove the tabs from the cookie sheet.  Let the tabs air-dry overnight.  The next day, wrap the tabs in foil candy wrappers.

Note:  Don’t overdo the menthol crystals.  They may smell mild now, but when hot water or heat hits them, they put off lots of vapors.

The information contained herein is, to the best of our knowledge, complete and accurate.  All solutions, advice, instructions, and formulas are purely recommendations and should be further investigated by the customer.  Nu-Scents is a supplier of candle, soap, bath, and body making supplies, not a manufacturer.  Therefore, it is the sole responsibility of the customer to thoroughly research all of the products purchased from Nu-Scents and adequately test the finished products to ensure compatibility and safety.  The customer is solely responsible for the research, testing, and quality control for all of their finished products.

This solid perfume is the hottest trend!  You can toss one in your handbag and apply it whenever you need a little something extra.  You may double this recipe as many times as you like.  This recipe makes 1 ounce (28.4 grams).

Ingredients:

• .5 ounce (14.2 grams) Oil (your choice)
• .36 ounce (10.2 grams) Beeswax
• .17 ounce (4.7 grams) Fragrance Oil or Essential Oil
• 1 pinch Shimmer Glitter (optional)
• 1 ounce Lip Balm Pots

Directions:

1. Put in a small microwavable container on your scale, and push the tare button to zero out the weight of the container.  Weigh the oil and beeswax.  Pour into a microwave-safe bowl, and set aside.
2. Put another small container on your scale, and again push the tare button to zero out the weight of this new container.   Weigh the scent.
3. Repeat for the glitter.
4. Melt the oil and beeswax in the microwave, on medium heat and in 1-minute spurts.  Remove from the microwave, and stir in the scent and glitter.
5. Pour mixture into small sterile lip balm pots.

This soap is ideal for cleaning the filthiest of hands.  It works wonders on grease, dirt, and grime.  Perfect for Father’s Day, a mechanic, or any other tinkerer in your life!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound Suspension Melt and Pour Soap Base
• 3-4 teaspoons Fine Pumice
• 1 Tablespoon Cedarwood Virginia Essential Oil
• Soap Colorant (our example used Burgundy Oxide)
• Soap Mold (our example used the Wave Milky Way Soap Mold, MW1158)
• Petroleum Jelly or Vegetable Oil
• Spray Bottle of Rubbing Alcohol

Directions:

1. Follow the instructions in our Melt and Pour Soap Making Video to melt the Soap Base.
2. Coat the inside of the mold with Petroleum Jelly or Vegetable Oil.
3. Once the Soap Base has fully melted, stir in the Pumice.
4. Completely stir in the Essential Oil.
5. Add the Colorant and thoroughly mix in.  (The amount of colorant is personal preference.  Slowly add the colorant until you reach the desired shade.)
6. Carefully pour the Soap Base into the Mold.
7. Spray the top of the Soap with the Rubbing Alcohol.
8. Allow the soap to harden for 4-6 hours.
9. Once the soap has hardened, gently unmold the soap.  It’s ready to use right away!

“Better keep yourself clean and bright.  You are the window through which you must see the world.”   –George Bernard Shaw

Here is an all natural way to clean your kitchen.  The mixture is made with plant essential oils, which are known to disinfect, clean, and smell wonderful!

Ingredients:

• 10 drops Lemon California Essential Oil
• 8 drops Lavender Essential Oil
• 8 drops Rosewood Essential Oil
• 5 drops Eucalyptus Essential Oil
• 3 drops Palmarosa Indian Essential Oil
• Water

Directions:

1. In a sterile dark glass container, mix the Lavender, Lemon, Eucalyptus, Rosewood, and Palmarosa Essential Oils together.  Seal the container until ready to use.
2. When ready to clean the kitchen: Combine 2 cups of Water with 8 drops of the Essential Oil Mixture in a spray bottle.  Shake the bottle to mix the oils with the water and spray on the surfaces you want to clean.  Remember to shake the bottle each time before spraying.

It’s Spring Cleaning Time!

Time to dust off the cobwebs of winter and brighten the home anew for summer.  A perfect tool for fixing up the house is soap.  And it’s not just for normal cleaning purposes!  Both liquid and bar soap can be used around the house for easy fixes.  Here are some wonderful ways to use soap around your house that you might not have thought of before:

• Dab a zip tool with liquid soap to snap aluminum or vinyl siding into place easier.
• Use a bar of soap to lubricate the metal rails of sticking desk drawers.
• Run the wet edge of a bar of soap along dirty windowsills to clean them.
• Mix some liquid soap with water and spray the mixture on the underside of plant leaves to keep garden bugs off.

Sometimes it can be hard to find a personal gift to present to the bride-to-be.  A gift from the heart that she will thoroughly enjoy is just what you need.  This handmade gift package containing a bubble bath, massage oil, and after bath oil is a wonderful idea to give to the future Mrs.  The scents are calming, romantic, and relaxing…and who couldn’t use a little pampering during those stressful wedding planning moments?

Materials:

• 16 oz Stephenson Liquid Crystal Concentrate (aka Bath ‘n’ Body Shower Suds)
• 64 oz Distilled Water
• 2 oz Fine Sea Salt
• 2.5 tsp Germaben II Preservative
• 6 oz Sunflower Oil
• 5.5 mL Lavender Essential Oil
• 1.25 mL Patchouli Essential Oil
• 6 drops Cedarwood Essential Oil
• 6 drops Clary Sage Essential Oil
• 3 drops Sweet Orange Essential Oil
• 60 drops Vanilla Essential Oil Blend
• 0.5 mL Sweet Fennel Essential Oil
• 1 oz Cyclomethicone
• 1 oz Avocado Oil
• Faux Pearl Beads
• Pipettes
• Engraved Bullet Bottles – 2 oz
• Celebration Circle Semi-Custom Labels
• White Crinkle Fill
• Gusseted Polypropylene Bag – Medium

Directions:

1. Place enough Pearl Beads into the Bullet Bottles to cover the entire bottom of the bottles.
2. Follow the instructions in our Bubble Bath Wedding Favor blog to create the bubble bath.
3. Follow the instructions in our Romance Massage Oil blog to create the massage oil.
4. Follow the instructions in our After Bath Oil blog to create the after bath oil.
5. Once all of the product is made and poured into the bottles, take the Celebration Labels and trim the bottom flat 3/16 inch from the edge.
6. Appropriately label all of the bottles.
7. Create a card that lists the ingredients and usage instructions for each product.
8. Open the Gusseted Bag and fill with a little Crinkle Fill.
9. Place one Bubble Bath, one Massage Oil, one After Bath Oil, and one instruction card into the bag.
10. Tie the bag shut with your choice of ribbon, string, bow, etcetera.

As delicious looking and smelling as the real thing!  These small guest-sized soaps are great to have around the house during the holiday of love!

Materials:

• Organic Melt and Pour Soap Base
• Cocoa Therapy Fragrance Oil
• Brown Oxide
• Petroleum Jelly
• Heart Candy Mold

Directions:

1. Generously coat the inside of the Candy Mold with Petroleum Jelly.  This will act as your mold release.
2. Melt the desired amount of Soap Base in the Microwave using the method used in our Melt and Pour Soap Making Video.
3. Add the Cocoa Therapy Fragrance Oil until it is thoroughly mixed in.  We recommend using 1 ounce per pound of soap base.
4. Completely stir in the Brown Oxide until the desired shade is reached.  The less oxide you use, the more it will look like milk chocolate; the more oxide you use, the more is will look like dark chocolate.  For our example, we thoroughly mixed in a little oxide, then we added some more oxide and accidentally didn’t stir it in all the way.  However, it gave our soaps a marbled chocolate appearance that looks oh so yummy!
5. Pour the soap into the Candy Mold.
6. Allow the soaps to cool for several hours.
7. When the soaps have fully hardened, gently remove them from the mold.  If you have troubles doing this, place the mold in the freezer for about 10 minutes and try to unmold them again.  They should pop right out then.  If not, tap the mold gently on a table and they should release.
8. Place the small guest soaps in a glass bowl, decorative soap dish, or another type of container and place them in your bathroom.  You will love the rich aroma of the beautiful soaps!

“The greatest treasures are those invisible to the eye but found by the heart.”  –Anonymous

Delight your Valentine with a special treat this year!  The sensual scent of Vanilla Black Currant in soothing bath salts is just what the love of your life needs for a relaxing night of pampering.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Epsom Salt
• 1 cup Fine Sea Salt
• 1.5 ounces Natrasorb
• 1.5 Tablespoons Vanilla Black Currant Essential Oil Blend
• 3 Fuchsia Drop Diffuser Bottles
• 3 Fuchsia Glass Bottle Tops

Directions:

1. In a sterile container, thoroughly mix the Natrasorb with the Vanilla Black Currant Oil.
2. In another sterile container, stir together the Epsom Salt and Sea Salt.
3. Add the Natrasorb mixture to the Salt mixture and completely mix together.
4. Carefully pour the bath salts into the Bottles.  (We found that using a paper cone funnel worked great.)
5. Seal the Bottles with the Glass Bottle Tops.
6. Decorate as you wish.  Our example, used a label that was found in the “Natural Soapmaking” book (this book comes with a variety of labels you can use for your products).  We photocopied the label out of the book, colored it, wrote the name of the product on the front and the usage instructions on the back, laminated it, punched a hole, and tied it to the bottle using raffia.

Usage Instructions:

Draw a warm bath and add 1/4 cup of bath salts to the running water.  Get in the tub and enjoy the relaxing affects of aromatherapy.

“Love is a symbol of eternity.  It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end.”  –Author Unknown

The majority of us use body scrubs while we are in the shower and our skin is wet.  However, scrubbing it onto dry skin can be even more beneficial!  If you have extra dry skin, try smoothing the body scrub over your dry body.  The dead skin on the surface will be scrubbed away more effectively as the oils in the scrub make sure that the exfoliants are gentle and soothing.  Then, hop in the shower to rinse off the scrub.  Your body will feel soft, renewed, and refreshed!

The process of rebatching soap is a great way to use up cold process soap slivers, leftovers, or ugly bars.  Often times, when creating the perfect bars, some soap may have to be trimmed off.  Instead of throwing out this valuable material, use it to create rebatched soap.  It’s a wonderful way to reuse and recycle leftover material, and it gives you unique looking handmade soaps.

Materials:

• excess soap, ugly bars, slivers, and other leftovers from cold process soap making
• scent (essential oil or fragrance oil)
• grater
• soap mold
• microwave bowl
• distilled water
• measuring cups
• measuring spoons
• knife
• spoon
• paper towels
• petroleum jelly
• vegetable peeler

Directions:

1. Use a paper towel to coat the inside of the soap mold with petroleum jelly.
2. Grate 3 bars of soap.  If you only have slivers or leftover pieces, grate approximately 6 ounces of soap by weight. Grate the soap as you would cheese.
3. When you are left with only a small piece of ungrated soap, use a knife to cut it into shaving-sized pieces.
4. Put all of the shavings in a microwave safe bowl.
5. Add 1/4 cup of distilled water to the soap shavings.
6. Slightly stir to distribute the water evenly.
7. Microwave the soap shavings for 1 minute at 70% power.
8. Remove the bowl and stir gently.  The shavings should be warm but not liquefied.
9. Add your fragrance oil or essential oil.  Our example used essential oil and we added 3/16 ounce to the mixture.
10. Put the bowl in the microwave and heat for 10 seconds at 50% power.  Don’t be alarmed if the soap rises and foams up as it’s heated.
11. Remove the bowl.  NOTE–Be careful!  It could be hot!
12. Stir the soap to thoroughly mix in the scent.  The soap mixture will have an oatmeal-like texture.
13. Use a spoon to fill the soap mold with the mixture.  Pack the soap gently to get it into all crevices and to alleviate air pockets.
14. Level the top of the mold.
15. If the soap mixture becomes too thick to work with add 1 Tablespoon distilled water and microwave at 10 second intervals and stir.
16. After filling all of the soap mold cavities, allow the soap to set for several hours.
17. Occasionally check the soap to see if it is cool and hard.  If yes, it is ready to be unmolded.
18. Carefully unmold the soap.  If the soap is stuck and will not come out, run hot water over the back side of the mold, then take a knife and gently break away the soap from the edges of the mold.  Use the knife to pop out the soap.  The knife may gouge the soap, if this occurs, use your fingers to easily reshape the soap.  Allow the soap to air dry on wax paper for a few days.
19. Use a vegetable peeler to trim rough edges.
20. The soap is ready to use right away!

NOTE–once any kitchen utensils (ie. grater, knife, vegetable peeler, etc.) have been used in soap making, they can never be used for food again.

These instructions have been taken from the Basic Soap Making book.  For more great ideas, instructions, and recipes, you can buy the book on our website:   www.nuscentscandle.com.