Soak in a bath of dried flower petals

Brighten up your bathtime with the fragrance of flowers from your garden in this floral bath soak!

Fill a pouch with bath goodies

The bag you use for this make is quite important – it needs to be a quite open weave to allow the water to circulate. The cotton pouches in the image are perfect for bath sachets, as they are made of fine muslin-style cotton, allowing the water to wash in and out without filling your bath with bits of flower. I don’t know about anyone else, but I stopped using floral bath bombs because I got fed up with picking petals out of my hair afterwards!

Just fill your bag with any combination of the following:

Course grain salt – softens the water – a scoop is handy
Dried rose petals from your garden – for the feeling of luxury and a subtle perfume
Dried marigold petals – pretty orange petals, plus calendula is used traditionally on bruises
Dried chamomile flowers – little dried daisies with a soothing scent of apples
Dried lavender flowers – well known for their relaxing properties

If you have dried some flowers from your garden, you could make these sachets all year. You could also try any of the above as fresh flowers in season, or citrus peel for a stimulating aroma.

dried flowers inside floral bath sachets

Seal the bag (the ones in the image have a velcro closure), throw it in the bath while the water is running, and relax! The bag can be emptied afterwards and re-used.

The petals look lovely viewed through the bag, and you can see I used various combinations of the ingredients.

Tips for your floral bath soak

Boosting the fragrance of your dried flowers

I found the fragrance was quite subtle. If more fragrance is required:

Try squeezing the wet bag to release the natural essential oils.
Rose petals from your own garden may well produce a stronger fragrance than bought ones, and fresh will be stronger than dried (but obviously they only have a limited season).
Or you could try supplementing with essential oils [you only need a couple of drops per bag – may mark textiles – keep away from polished, painted and synthetic surfaces, children and pets – note any warnings supplied with the oils e.g. suitability of use in pregnancy].

Soften your bath water

I used Himalayan bath salt to soften the water. This has a delicate pale pink colour and is available from health food shops.

Make your own bath soak bags

Choose materials with an open weave such as old net curtains, butter muslin or cheesecloth. If you don’t want to sew a bag, just cut out a square or circle, place the dried flowers in the centre, gather up the edges and tie with ribbon. Homemade ones would make lovely gifts.

Shopping for dried flowers and pouches

Of course, all these dried petals are available to buy if you’d rather:
Dried rose petals
Dried marigold petals
Dried chamomile flowers
Dried lavender flowers
For bath bags, buy large empty disposable teabags online, or try the cotton pouches shown above – these come in two sizes and three colours.
Mini wooden scoop