BATH COOKIES

Our most requested recipe!

2 cups finely ground sea salt
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons light oil (see Note)
1 teaspoons vitamin E oil
2 eggs
5-6 drops essential oil of your choice

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Combine all the listed ingredients and form into a dough.  Using a teaspoon or so of dough at a time, roll it gently in the palm of your hand until it forms a ball.  Form all dough into one teaspoon balls, and gently place them on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Consider sprinkling the bath balls with herbs, flower petals, cloves, citrus zest and similar aromatic ingredients.   Bake your bath cookies for ten minutes, until they are lightly browned. Do not over bake. Allow the bath cookies to cool completely. To use, Drop 1 or 2 cookies into a warm bath and allow to dissolve. Yield: 24 cookies, enough for 12 baths.

What is Light Oil?

We are asked this very frequently.  An olive oil or melted coconut oil would be "heavy."  Baby oil, Squalane Oil, Jojoba, Apricot, Vita and similar "cosmetic oils" are "light" in both texture and viscosity.  By "light" we mean an oil which is not thick, heavy, dark or overly fruity.

Sharon G. comments:

"Hi! I enjoy your site, and appreciate all the recipes you provide. However, I just made the "Bath Cookie" recipe and I have to say I am quite disappointed. I followed the recipe exactly and found upon use that they sink like a rock, take a long time to dissolve and not completely at that- I think it is due to the egg. I did an internet search and found this exact recipe on many sites. I also found on a forum (for those who make bath products) that others have found this recipe to be terrible and have had the same experience I have with it. You should test the formulas before you post them.  Thank you."  Sharon G., Oregon.

Spa Index Responds:

"Whoooa, Sharon, first things first.  We DO  test each and every recipe we post, in the test kitchen in our office building, and, we use the products among our staff extensively, prior to posting.  We receive far more 'blah' recipes than worthwhile recipes, and testing is essential to sort the wheat from the chaff.

For that reason, while we regret you had unfortunate results, it would be impossible for us to surmise why the recipe is popular and works for most of our readers, but not others, without overseeing the process and knowing the quality of ingredients (fresh or not, large or small egg, hard or soft water, true temp oven, etc). 

I can't turn out a single decent loaf of bread in my home oven, but at the office oven, I turn out beautiful bakery-worthy bread because the "temp" is true, it holds steam, and it doesn't over-vent. The devil is in the details, as they say.

We have learned from one staff member that the Bath Cookies recipe doesn't work as well for her in hard water area, whereas with our water at the office, which is quite soft, it works quite well.

As for finding the recipe on many sites, as stated on every single recipe we post, we encourage our recipes to be shared, and we are accustomed to them being reprinted on hundreds of sites. Our bath cookies has been posted since 1998, and we have used this recipe several times, particularly at the holidays.   It's our most requested recipe, with yours being the first (and only) negative feedback we have ever received.       We are glad so many forums and sites are sharing our tips and hope everyone enjoys our content.

Here's a blog post from A QT Forever who had great results (and that's her photo, left, above).  

Nevertheless, we are happy to post both your useful comment, and our observation regarding hard water vs. soft water, to alert future home spa enthusiasts that 'results may vary' and we regret we can't analyze precisely why.

Thanks for writing. We hope you can enjoy some of the other recipes on our website -- we've tested all them or they wouldn't be here! 

SpaIndex.com Tip: You've heard the adage "Never cook with wine you wouldn't drink." This holds equally true for home spa remedies. Never use ingredients for your home spa treatments that you wouldn't want to eat. Your skin, the largest organ on your body, breathes and is porous. It will absorb the properties of the ingredients you are using. Don't "clean out the fridge or pantry" to create your home remedies. Use fresh, high quality ingredients for the best results, and do not store the assembled-treatment any longer than the shelf life of the *most* perishable ingredient. In addition, take care to research the properties of all essential oils you plan to use in a recipe. Some are photo-sensitive and can contribute to burning when in the sun, and others are harmful during pregnancy. See our Essential Oils List as a start, but research fully. Finally, insure the containers or jars you will be using are sterile by boiling them in hot water. This will help prevent contamination of your finished product, which could lead to spoilage.

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