Today I’m sharing the very recipe that kickstarted my journey into a life of creating more and consuming less. It’s funny that it’s such a simple recipe – but it carries a big story for me.
In 2010, my youngest was born. At the time, I was detoxifying my home after learning that a trusted brand of baby products I’d used on my firstborn was full of strange chemicals which, had I known, I could never imagine putting on her skin…
I started looking to natural options – but I soon realised that it wasn’t going to be easy to make the switch.
I spent a lot of time and money buying “natural” products – only to find out later that they weren’t as wholesome as the label promised. There’s a lot of dodgy marketing out there, legal loopholes and complicated ingredient listings – how are we meant to navigate that just to buy a simple soap? It took me years to work this out, but at the time I was just confused by it all…
And then, one day I came across a bath tea – a product to bathe your baby with. Made with simple ingredients that I understood, it was the real deal! It looked amazing – until I saw the price! At $5 per bath, it wasn’t going to be an everyday option for us. I felt gutted that I couldn’t give my baby these better products.
The alternative was to continue using conventional products – but that just wasn’t an option anymore. The image of a mother, lovingly rubbing a petrochemical byproduct onto her baby’s skin just made zero sense to me!
And in that moment – I think out of pure frustration – something clicked.
As I looked at this bath product, for the first time I saw the ingredients list as a recipe. I said to myself, hold-on, I have all of these ingredients in my kitchen right now!
I had no idea what I was doing – but I knew that they list out the ingredients in order of amount, from most to least. So I used that as a guide, walked into the kitchen and started mixing.
That night, in my baby’s bath – I placed my own little packet of homemade bath tea into the warm water. It instantly released a milky cloud, and I could smell the lavender and cacao. Her skin felt like velvet, so soft – and smelling of real flowers! This is exactly how it should be! I felt this incredible sense of empowerment. There was another option – I can make it myself! That feeling changed everything for me and sent my life on a whole new, and very unexpected path!
So this is the recipe that launched it all! Since then, I have not altered the recipe – it’s a classic – it works – it’s amazing. I still use it for my girls and really, no matter your age, your skin will absolutely love it!
- Oats – when oats come in contact with water, it releases a gel which is soothing and healing for our skin. It calms redness, irritations, itchiness and leaves you feeling silky and soft.
- Lavender – a cleansing herb, lavender is antimicrobial and very healthy for our skin.
- Cacao butter – a natural fatty emollient, it feeds your skin healthy vitamin E and hydrates the skin deeply.
Silky Oat Bath Tea Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup oat flour (you can blend dry oats in your blender)
- 1/4 cup dried lavender buds
- 2 - 3 tbsp cacao butter shaved
- empty tea bags or filter bags
- glass jar to store your finished tea bags
Instructions
- In a large bowl, blend all of your ingredients together
- Fill a tea bag with the blend. Depending on how much you stuff it, you can make 6 to 8 large teabags with this recipe.
- Fill a bath with hot water, place the tea bag to steep for a minute. You can then add a bit of cold water to cool the bath if it's too hot for a baby.
Notes
At the start, making was a way for me to enjoy these natural products – without the price tag. But with time, it became more than that.
I learned that simplifying – buying less into the excess – affords you the freedom to make better choices. You begin to surround yourself with things that have meaning, and that changes your view.
Sure, it feels good to bring home something new – whether you intended to buy it or not. A promising shampoo, a cheap perfume, a new nail polish… But, these impulse buys are what drain you, your wallet and fill your home with clutter – unnecessary and potentially toxic things.
I’ve learned a simple lesson, that has changed my view:
Buy less stuff, buy better quality. This doesn’t need to mean more expensive, quality has a story that you feel moved by. It can be a $4 dollar bracelet you bought on holiday from a street vendor, or $40 dollar bath product handmade in small batches. It’s not the object and it’s not the price – it’s your connection to it that defines its value.
And because you spend time making things, you’ll know it when you see it.
I hope you’re getting as excited about getting hands-on as I am. Just get started, and you could have your first natural skincare product in just 5 minutes!
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