Alright, everyone! In my first stretching post, I said that I would give you a recipe for Epsom salt lotion. Whelp! Here it is!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (8 oz) water-based lotion
• 1/4 cup Epsom salt
• 1/4 cup water

Before I continue, I want to give you a few pointers. I told you above that you’ll need a water-based lotion. When purchasing the lotion you’d like, look at the ingredient list. If the first ingredient listed is water, you’re good, but if the first ingredient is oil product (such as petroleum jelly), you don’t want to use that for this recipe. If you use an oil-based lotion, the Epsom salt and water will always be separating. As you can guess, that’s not good.

Also, the Epsom salts should be pretty affordable, especially if you buy it in bulk from Sam’s Club, or online from Amazon or Bulk Apothecary. You can purchase it just about anywhere, though, and I’ve seen 6 pound bags for about $5.00. Okay, moving on. Here’s how you make it:

1. Measure out 1/4 cup of Epsom salts in a medium size bowl
2. Boil 1/4 cup of water
3. Pour the boiling water of the salts and mix until the salts are dissolved. If you need to, you can reheat the solution in the microwave to help the salts dissolve
4. Dump your lotion into the water and mix it up until it’s creamy looking
5. Pour the lotion mixture into your desired container.

This mixture is a bit watery, so don’t be worried or discouraged. I actually altered my original recipe so that there’s less water, so that it wouldn’t be such a mess to use. Also, you’ll need to get either a bigger container or a second container for your lotion, since there will be more liquid after adding the water.

Now, whenever you have any inflammation or sore muscles and joints, just rub some of this on, and it will help. The effects may not be immediate, but it helps in the run.

Enjoy!