DIY XMAS: Bath Snowballs

As a companion to the Spa Salts we talked about the other day, why don't you make some Bath Snowballs?

Ingredients
1/2 cup citric acid
1 cup baking soda
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup organic cane sugar
About 6 drops food coloring
10 to 15 drops essential oil(s)

Directions1. Stir together citric acid, baking soda, and cornstarch.
2. Stir in sugar and food coloring.  If you leave out the food coloring, the final product will be white and more snowball-esque.  But you might want to make them to match your spa salts, or just in cool colors for fun and excitement.
3. Fill a spray bottle with water.  Spray the mixture lightly pausing between spritzes.  It should become damp but not fizzy; if it starts to fizz you are spraying too much too fast.  (Rather like Shakedown Street.  Get it?  "Maybe you had too much too fast..."  OK, nevermind.)  It's perfect when you can pack the mixture with your hands, and it stays together but just barely.
4. Add the essential oil one drop at a time until you like the way it smells.  For The Frugal Hostess, this means shake the bottle like hell - about 25 drops, maybe?  If you're using food coloring, mix it until the color is even.  Spray again if the mixture begins to dry out.
5. Spoon into an ice-cube tray (you might need to use two), pressing firmly. Let them dry at room temperature overnight.
6.  Pop them out of the tray, and put them into jars.

Some thoughts on this gift:  FruHo can't say she totally loved the way the snowballs looked, most likely because she put too much in each cube.  Don't overstuff them.  Next time, she plans to use a mini-muffin pan rather than an ice cube tray.  Also, she made white ones but thinks they would be cuter in a color.  And, finally, while a pure extract of vanilla or almond would work well for spa salts, this project really takes essential oils for the scent to be pure and strong enough.

Packaging:  Since TFH didn't love the color, she packed these into a jar and added some uncolored spa salts.  The tag will say something like, "After your snowballs melt, empty the remaining snow into your bath."  Cute, huh?

Also: The Frugal Hostess thinks she got this idea from Martha Stewart, but it could have also been ReadyMade or some random blog post.  If you think this was your idea first, it totally was, and you can get credit and a backlink - just leave the info in the comments.

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