Welcome back my dear blog reader! In my last post I mentioned the wonderful herbal bathes that I make when I need to unwind. I’ve been taking these bathes for two years now and they been a welcome substitute for epsom salts and bubbles, which I feel dry out my skin, and bath bombs that I personally find underwhelming. They’re super easy to make and customize for the season, mood you’re in, ailment you may have. And its easy to make a nourishing herbal bath with many herbs you might already have growing in your garden or on your shelves.

Its cute for instagram to have petals and leaves floating around your tub, but if you take as many bathes as I do cleaning them out gets old fast. There are a couple ways you can go about enclosing your herbs. I used to use a an old square scarf and figured out a way of tying it so you get minimal bits of herb in your tub. Now I’ve upgraded and use a silk sachet that I designed with ties on the side that is much more secure. I also put together a relaxing and nourishing herbal bath blend for your convenience. The Soothe Thyself blend contains organic lavender, chamomile, linden, catnip, and rose petals. Both the sachet and herb blend are available in my shop!

What You’ll Need

Bath sachet or square scarf that is made of natural fibers
Dried herb blend that you can get from me here
OR other dried herbs
OR fresh herbs you get from the store or outside
Clippers or scissors if you’re collecting herbs from outside
A large pot for boiling water
A bath tub
Water
Great herbs for bathes

(fresh or dried)

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
Chamomile (Matricaria recutita)
Linden (Tilia sp.)
Rose petals (Rosa damascena)
Calendula (Calendula officinalis)
Pine needles (Pinus sp.)
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)
Wild Basil (Clinopodium vulgare)
Rosehips (Rosa sp.)
Peppermint (Mentha x piperita) or really any mint you might have…
You can also add epsom or Himalayan salts to your herbal bath for extra grounding
The list goes on! You can buy herbs from your local herb shop, a few you can go to, or order from, in NYC are Sacred Botanica, Flower Power or Radicle Herb Shop. If you have a plant that you’re considering using but not sure about, ask me in the comments <3

My silk bath sachet and Sooth Thyself herbal bath blend, both available in my shop!

Tying the Sachet

(with dried herbs)

Fold the top over with ties on the left.
Roll the top bit over from right to left.
Cris cross the ties around the top of the bag a couple times and pull pretty tight, we want it secure!
Tie it in a bow and throw in a double knot!

Now we head to the garden for a fresh herb bath!

The herbs I collected here are are peppermint (top left) lemon balm (top right) wild basil (bottom left) and bee balm (bottom right)

Threw in my only calendula flower for good luck!

When it comes to using fresh herbs, I say go big or go home! You can use herbs from your garden or use a field guide or a website like www.inaturalist.org to identify potential medicinal herbs growing right under your nose, like the wild basil and bee balm that I used for mine!

** Pro Tip - Be sure that you aren’t picking your herbs from a highly trafficked area, as they’ll be covered in car exhaust and maybe dog pee, not too cute for bathing!

It seems like there might be too much to fit in the sachet, but thats what the clippers are for!

Tadaa!!! Now these herbal babies will fit in the bag beautifully.

Tying the sachet

(with fresh herbs)

If you don’t want to get one of my sachets, not to worry! I made a video of how I tie a square silk scarf to made an herbal bath bomb.

Now that your herbs are prepped and snuggled up in their sachet or scarf, its time to boil some water on the stove! I bring about 6 cups of water to a boil, turn it off, and then let my sachet steep for around 30 minutes, or up to 4 hours. Usually I’d use a deeper pot than this but the one that came with my rental doesn’t have handles so its scary to carry over to the bathroom.

While you wait -

Prepare your bathroom!

Now if you’re going to go through all this effort to make an herbal bath, you should make your bathroom look cute! I brought in a couple wildflower bouquets and I light the candles when its dark out (the big quartz crystal is a tea light holder). I‘ll also bring in my bluetooth speaker and listen to music or a podcast and sometimes I’ll even watch a whole movie from my bath on my ipad :)

After you’ve waited about 20 minutes, your bath tea will be ready! Depending on what herbs you use and how much, it might be lighter or darker than this. Also the more you do it the darker your sachet or scarf will be from the natural pigments!

Pour it in!

Time to Chill

I love using silk because, it’s fancy, and it’s actually great for exfoliating! Similar to a Turkish silk bath mitt, but now with herbs inside!

This video is with my old scarf that I used before I upgraded to the sachet. It used to be blue and white but Ive used it so much it was naturally dyed to a deep brown!

All done! I let the sachet drain on my bath tray before cleaning it out. The herbs can be composted and I wash the sachet in the sink with a drop of castile soap and let hang dry. I usually do this the following day because I’m extremely ready for bed after taking an herbal bathes! I’d love to hear about your herbal bath experiences, let me know how it goes and what herbs you like to use in the comments!

How to Create a Nourishing Herbal Bath