Soothing Bath Tea Recipe (calms rashes, bug bites, irritations & more!)

This soothing bath tea recipe is one that your skin will love! It’s great for a wide variety of uses!

I can still remember having chicken pox as a kid, and the soothing oatmeal baths that my mom would run for me. Infused baths have since been a staple in my home remedy arsenal, and I have even used them to help my own family cope with diaper rash, sunburn, contact dermatitis, and most recently, the horrible Hand Foot and Mouth Disease.

Though I still do love a good oatmeal bath, I have also loved learning about several other ingredients that can be added to make it even more effective! You ready? Let’s go make a skin soothing bath tea!

Making the Tea Mixture

1. Choose Your Base(s)

First you will want to pick one (or more) of the following bases. I recommend around 1/2 cup of base to be used per bath. (I know, I know, not all of these are Paleo, but my rashes aren’t quite as picky as my gut!).

Oat Flour or Ground Oats (I make mine in a food processor): Oats are an excellent moisturizer with skin healing, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and itch-relieving benefits (source)
Baking Soda (do not use if skin is broken): It helps soothe itchiness as an acidic neutralizer and anti-inflammatory.
Dried Milk Powder: Milk also has anti-inflammatory properties that help take itch away (source)
Epsom Salt: Epsom salt helps draw the moisture out of lesions caused by rashes, such as poison ivy. With bites or stings, it reduces the swelling, which eases the itching sensation because the body’s nerves fire less frequently. (source)

2. Choose Your Extras

Choose which skin soothing herbs you might also want to add. I tend to use about 1/4 cup per bath.

Dried Lavender
Dried Chamomile (or chamomile tea)
Dried Plantain leaves (you may remember this one from the recipe I contributed last month: Herbal Baby Powder!)
Dried Calendula Flowers (yep, this one was also in our baby powder recipe, so you should have some on hand!)
Dried Rose Petals
Comfrey Powder
Dried Peppermint Leaves (or tea)
Dried Rosemary

3. Get Mixing!

For a single bath: Pour ingredients directly into your tea bag, mix gently, and use!

To make a large batch: Mix 2 parts Base to 1 part Extras (deciding the “part” size based on your desired amount) in a large mixing bowl.
To make several tea bags as gifts, scoop around 3/4 cup into each tea bag, and store all tea bags in a large air-tight container until you are ready to give them out.
For home use, I recommend storing the blend in a large, air-tight glass jar or container and taking out only what you need (approx 3/4 cup) for each bath.

You can store this mixture airtight at room temperature indefinitely, as long as it remains dry.

Tea Bags

Pre-Made Bags

Muslin sacks are one of my favorite options as they are simple and reusable. After use, just compost the inner “tea leaves,” rinse or launder the bag, and once dry it is ready to stuff and use again. Muslin sacks also look nice and fancy as gifts, if you wanted to make a batch of these as presents. (Find muslin sacks here)

Fabric Square

You could also use large squares of muslin or cheesecloth to wrap the filling in, and tie off the top with some twine or string. If you go this route, make sure to make a very large square though, as you’ll want to fit up to 3/4 cup of filling inside.

How to Use Your Bath Tea

To get the most healing goodness out of my bath tea, I like to do three things:

Tie my bag onto the bath faucet while the water is running, so that it runs through the bag.
After the tub is full, I place my tea bag inside the water to steep further, and squeeze out excess liquid several times until bath water appears cloudy.
I also like to squeeze some of the tea directly onto irritated areas of my skin, or gently rub the wet tea bag in soft circles on skin.

After bathing, I compost the tea blend and wash muslin for reuse.

Bonus Skin Soothing Tips

When dealing with rashes or other skin conditions, some of my other favorite remedies might also be helpful:

Coconut oil mixed with Tea Tree or Lavender Oil applied to the affected area
DIY Calamine Lotion on bug bites or itchy rashes (recipe is coming this week on my blog)
Baking soda and water paste applied to itchy skin (do not use if skin is broken)
Milk directly dabbed onto itchy/dry skin (brownie points if it is breast milk!)

And of course, always be sure to talk to your medical provider with any questions. The ideas mentioned in this post are simply a few of the home remedies that my own family has used. They are not intended to replace medical care or prevent/treat/cure disease.