fragrant herbal body powders

As a treat for the holidays, I’m sharing some recipes to help you craft natural, handmade gifts for friends, loved ones, hostesses, and distant cousins… Today, it’s all about herbal body powders…

First, your BASE recipe (aka natural body powder!):

Combine Arrowroot powder and the clay(s) of your choice in a small bowl. If you intend to use your body powder as a baby powder, don’t add anything else to the base blend. Baby doesn’t need or want anything fancy — or potentially sensitizing. Simply transfer the combined baby powder to a shaker jar (a clean, repurposed spice jar with an internal shaker cap is ideal) and enjoy as is. (Common Sense Tip: Don’t repurpose something like, oh, say, a Cayenne or hot pepper flake jar!)

If the blend isn’t for baby, you can add a variety of optional ingredients– such as dried herbs, flowers, and powders or a drop or two of essential oil — to impart aroma and energetics to the base blend.

When packaging, leave a fair amount of room in the jar for the powder to be shaken about vigorously, particularly if there are dried herbs or flowers in your recipe. You want the ingredients in the jar to be able to move about in the jar when shaken.

ADDITIONAL/OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS

My favorite personal body powders are a combination of the base recipe + dried herbs/flowers + essential oils. I place only 1-2 drops of essential oil on the dried plant parts and add the whole, dried plant part to the blend. The parts help to break up the powder in the jar, impart fragrance, and “hold” the essential oils in the mix.

My favorite dried herbs, flowers, and spices include:

Since these items are mixed in with the powder that will be going on your skin, I highly recommend sourcing ingredients that are organic/pesticide-free.

While many of the dried herbs, flowers, and spices impart aroma in and of themselves, I often reinforce the fragrance with specific essential oils including:

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)

Rose absolute (Rosa damascena)

Lemon (Citrus limon)

Rosemary ct verbenone (Rosmarinus officinalis ct. verbenone)

I have three favorite recipes for body powder using the above ingredients: romantic Lavender/Vanilla, timeless Rose, and refreshing Rosemary/Lemon. They offer something for everyone on your recipient list…

Lavender/Vanilla Body Powder

Romantic and subtle, sweet and fresh, and the kind of scent you don’t quickly forget, Lavender/Vanilla is yummy in every way.

In a small bowl, measure 3 heaping tablespoons of whole, dried lavender blossoms. Place 1-2 drops of Lavender essential oil on blossoms and stir to “combine.” Add lavender blossoms and 1 tsp Vanilla Bean Powder to base recipe and shake/mix well to combine.

Rose Body Powder

Feminine and timeless, intoxicating and transcendent, sweet Rose is the queen of flowers for a reason. For best results, use whole, organically procured (pesticide-free) rose buds.

In a small bowl, measure 3 heaping tablespoons of whole, dried rose buds. Apply one drop of Rose absolute to THREE individual buds in the bowl (so 3 drops total of Rose absolute…). Add all of the rose buds to the base blend and shake/mix well to combine.

Rosemary Lemon Body Powder

Fresh and refreshing, gender neutral and invigorating, the Rosemary Lemon blend is perfect for just about everybody.

There’s just enough aroma to allow the powder to freshen without leaving your skin overwhelmed by fragrance. Whole, dried sprigs of rosemary are ideal. You can just add one drop of each essential oil to the sprig and put the whole sprig in your powder jar. You can use dried rosemary needles if you have to…

If using whole sprigs, place one drop of Lemon and one drop of Rosemary ct verbenone each on two whole sprigs. Divide the sprigs among the jars being used for the base blend.

If using rosemary “needles” off the sprig: In a small bowl, measure 1 heaping tablespoon of dried rosemary needles. Add one drop Rosemary ct verbenone and one drop Lemon essential oil to the needles. Stir and add/combine with base blend.

Bless and blessed be!