Today I was going to make some “shower steamers” or “shower bombs,” whatever you want to call them. Being the lazy person I am, I didn’t feel like spending an hour driving in to town and back to buy a cute little silicone mold to form them in, especially when I have a ton of scrap acrylic here at home. So I decided to make a mold on my Glowforge.
I actually have a couple silicone molds that I bought to use to make our fire starters with (which work much better than anything we’ve bought), but they’re butter cube shape, so I actually made the acrylic mold to fit inside the spaces of the silicone mold. Then I decided it was just as easy to use the little squares cut from the insides of the acrylic mold to push the shower steamer through, so I glued them together also.
It’s not the prettiest thing, and I had to do a bit of sanding because I didn’t glue the pieces together quite exact, and I can only do three steamers at a time, but it’s good enough for me and was actually quite therapeutic and fun doing it.
I am quite pleased with the outcome. Tomorrow we’ll find out if the steamers really work, or if I have to try a different “formula.” I just used 3 simple ingredients: baking soda, essential oils (I already have blends made up for colds and for allergies), and water. I’ve seen some formulas where you use citric acid, which I do have, but I don’t care if they fizz in the shower, I just want the steam from the shower to help activate them.
The white ones are for respiratory, and the pink ones are for allergies, of which my husband is suffering terribly right now, and hence the reason for making them.
I have a friend who makes soaps and all kinds of beauty products. Essential oils are never the way to go for these type of products because they disapate before you can even use them most of the time, or if they do hold the scent they are very muted.
@djft - The idea is that you put them at the back of the shower floor or on a ledge, so they get a little sprinkle of water, or the steam from a hot shower activates them. You don’t want them directly under the shower spray. I have no idea how long they last, as tonight will be our first time using them. @cynd11 and @techquest89, I thought of that. I used to make soaps a lot and used regular “soap scents” in them, cheating by starting the soap bases at Hobby Lobby, although I could get some lye from a friend and make my own. I’ve even thought about making my own lye, but too much of a hassle for me. Now I just take bar soap and turn it into liquid and just refill all my soap dispensers at the sinks and in the shower. So much easier to pump the soap out than to fiddle with a slick bar that gets everything all goopy. And it certainly makes it last a whole lot longer.
Vicks sells them, VapoSteamers. No idea if it’s the same, haven’t used them in 20 years or so, but you just toss one onto the shower floor and they release a soothing aroma.
And a whole lot cheaper to make them yourself as well. When you can buy 12 lbs of baking soda at Walmart for a little over $10, and only an 8 oz box of Vick’s brand for $13, it’s definitely worth making them, especially if you use them a lot.
The group I showed was 3 batches, which was 3 cups of baking soda (we always buy 15lb bags because we use it for our goats besides what I need for cooking or cleaning), about 60 drops of essential oils (20 drops for each batch, and you can put whatever variety of oils in you want, depending on how you want to feel), and water. Super simple. I know there are a ton of other concoctions out there, some with citric acid, etc., but this was fast and easy. And you can make them any shape. Mine are just 1" square, which I figured was about the size of the silicone ice cube trays that most people on Pinterest seem to use.
I have a bad reaction to Vick’s. That and most types of eucalyptus.
There’s one type that I am fine with though - That and some peppermint are amazing together for stuffiness. In fact, my allergies are acting up, I think I know what I need to do!
I actually didn’t know about them until our oldest daughter mentioned them. I’d heard about bath bombs, but I don’t take baths, only showers. So it’s all new to me. Now I just need to remember to put one in when I take a shower!
