Wax and Bubbles

Fresh mint is a great addition to any food. Add some mint leaves to a fruit salad just before serving, or finely mince about 1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves and add to your next batch of brownies or sugar cookies. Mint even gives breads some extra zing. And of course, mint sauce is a great accompaniment to meats, such as lamb. You can make hot beverages from the fresh or dried leaves. Add about 1 tbs. of fresh leaves or 1 tsp. dried leaves for every cup of liquid. Place the mint in a metal mesh ball or even a tea spoon. Using mint in the kitchen for various dishes is a no chef-thinking thought to many and using it in teas and beverages to give your drink that added perk is a great way to incorporate mint in your daily routine of meal fixing, but not many know to use them with your personal care products.

Adding it to your personal care products gives it that much more boost of healthy benefits. You can use mint in soaps, shampoos, and even some lotions and lip balm. Wax and Bubbles has given many recipes to make for yourself in ways to add mint to any personal car product.

One thing you need to know before adding mint, is the different kinds of mint there are. Especially if you plan on growing your mint yourself, here is a simple list of the mints that are hardy enough to be grown and used for meals and personal care products.

• Apple Mint (Mentha suaveolens): This apple scented mint has a light green appearance, fuzzy leaves on the stems of 18 to 24 inches tall. Its subtle flavor is a good addition to fruit punch or even some smoothies and can be added to glycerin soap recipes as well.

• Pineapple Mint (M. suaveolens ‘Variegata’): This mint has lovely, dark green, fuzzy leaves edged with white. Allow it to cascade over the edge of pots for an attractive patio display and can be added to many lotions to give that added scent that is needed.

• Orange Mint (M. x piperita ‘Citrata’): This citrus scented mint has smooth egg-shaped leaves with reddish undersides. It may die out during the freezing winters, so be sure and plant some in a pot to bring indoors in the late fall. Add this wonderful mint to body scrubs or salves.

• Peppermint (Mentha x Piperita): Anyone can recognize the scent and flavor of peppermint. This sterile hybrid with it’s dark green, smooth leaves and small lavender flowers in the late summer is a great mint to grow in any garden or herb box. It grows 24 inches tall in good conditions. It can be added mostly to lip balm and lip salves to give your lips that extra tingle that mint is known for.

• Chocolate Mint (Mentha x piperita ‘Chocolate’): Think peppermint patty and you will have the flavor of this lovely mint. Low-growing with dark glossy leaves. It looks best neat your patio for a planting display. One a great summer afternoon add this to a cool glass of iced tea. As for health products add this to a body scrub to give it that extra burst of scent in the shower.

• Spearmint (Mentha spicata): Spearmint is a hardy ground cover with hair, medium green leaves. In favorable conditions it produces 2-inch spires of tiny white flowers. Make a facial sprits and add this mint to give your face a tingle feeling with every squirt.

• Curly Mint (Mentah spicata ‘Crispa’): Curly mint taste like spearmint with an added boost. It’s a vigorous spreader with dark green, ruffled leaves. Its assertive flavor makes it great for mint sauces or even jellies. Add it to your shampoo or conditioner and give your hair the added scent. Smells great on the head.

Mint’s botanical name, Mentha, is from an ancient Greek fable of love and romance. Along with that came jealousy and revenge. It seems that Pluto, the god of the underworld, fell in love for the nymph Minthe. But, when his wife, Persephone, caught them together, she murdered Minthe in a jealous rage, trampling her and in the process turned her into a low-ground growing plant, which we all know today as Mint.

Pluto, ultimately was horrified at the death of his lover, Minthe and, although her could not reverse Minthe’s fate, he gave her a very sweet smelling scent that would come be released into the air whenever she was stepped upon or smashed.

To grow mint inside, you will need o have a container filled with at least 6-inches of high-quality, light potting mix. Transplant the rooted parts of the mint plant from your garden into the container and place into a south-facing window inside your home or bathroom. And just water it weekly.

Fresh mint is a great addition to most any food. Add the leaves of mint to a fruit salad, or mince the mint leaves (about 1/2 cup) of fresh leaves and add them to your next batch of brownies or sugar cookies for an added kick. Mint can be added to breads, or even a mint sauce can be make and spread over the top of an angel food cake. You can even make hot beverages taste great with mint with fresh or even the dried leaves of the mint plant. Add about 1 tbs. fresh leaves or 1 tsp. dried leaves for every cup of liquid. Place the mint in a metal mesh ball or cheesecloth small bag. Use in your child’s next cup of late-night hot cocoa. Or even take a mint sprig and add it to a nice glass of iced tea on a hot summer day.

The best use for mint by far is in body soaps. Here is a soap recipe you must try today.

You will need:

• A Muffin Tin
• Mint Essential Oil of your choice
• Dried Mint Leaves (about 2-3 cups)
• Witch Hazel in a spray bottle
• A large glass bowl
• Wooden Spoon
• Knife
• Wax Paper
• Tape
• 1 pound of white or clear solid glycerin soap base

Cut the soap base into chunks about one-inch square and place these into the glass bowl. Microwave for one minute. Stop the oven and stir the soap with the wooden spoon. Repeat until the soap base is completely melted. Stir in about two tablespoons of the essential oil and the dried mint leaves. Add only 2 tbs. at a time till you get the amount you are seeking. You don’t want too much or the soap won’t bond together. Stir till combined and then pour into the molds. Spray immediately with the witch hazel. (This will eliminate the air bubbles that form in the base while heating and stirring.) Allow the bars to cool for about thirty minutes before dislodging them from the molds. Lay the bars of soap on waxed paper to dry overnight. Wrap them with small squares of the wax paper the following day and secure the paper with tape all the way around the bar.