Aromatherapy, or the use of essential oils as a healing treatment, is proven to help reduce stress, agitation, and anxiety along with helping to manage one's sleep schedule and treat migraines. Aromatherapy jewelry or decor is becoming increasingly popular among many and can be used to provide soothing scents for calming people down. Plus, they smell great!
Here's how to make your own:
For the aromatherapy charms, we will be using a homemade air dry clay recipe! I think that the small batch is plenty, but I've included the measurements for a small, medium, and large batch just in case! (Side note: I've converted the measurements into tablespoons).
Here's what you'll need...
Small
4 tbsps of baking soda
2 tbsps of cornstarch
2.5 tbsps of water
Food coloring (2 drops was enough for me)
Medium
8 tbsps of baking soda
4 tbsps of cornstarch
5 tbsps of water
Food coloring
Large
32 tbsps (or 2 cups) of baking soda
16 tbsps (or 1 cup) of cornstarch
20 tbsps (or 1 1/4 cups) of water
Food coloring
Once you've assembled your ingredients, add your food coloring to the water FIRST. This will allow for your color to become more equally distributed in the final product.
Combine all of your ingredients into an appropriately sized mixing bowl.
Mix away! I first started with a spoon, then quickly realized that using my hands would be more efficient.
The cornstarch and water should create an "oobleck" like consistency. To avoid this from making your charm fall apart, add more baking soda where you see fit.
Next, add your mixture onto low-medium heat and continue mixing. You should see it start to firm up like clay!
Here's before and after heat treating the mixture:
Once the mixture has cooled, begin playing around with it and molding! But be careful! It can be a little crumbly at first and might make a mess... oops.
Once you've got it under control, add the dough to some molds or freestyle it! I used a silicone mold so my creation would be easy to take out, but a mini cupcake pan would work great as well! Be sure to poke holes in your charm! I used a toothpick.
Let your charms sit for a few hours until they are dry and hard. This is the perfect time to add your essential oils! The homemade clay is perfect for absorbing and distributing scents!
My charms turned out a little bigger than I first anticipated, so I figured they might work better as hanging decor for my room!
Though this process is a bit longer, these little charms are great for people struggling with anxiety. Let me know if you try these DIY aromatherapy charms at home!