These homemade bath salts are the perfect addition to your self-care routine. They’re easy and fun to make and have lots of benefits, plus they’re a great gift idea too.
This fully customizable formula can help soothe sore muscles, relieve irritation and inflammation, and is a great moisturizer too. It’s not proven, but bath salts are thought to help with detoxifying, too!
You’re definitely going to enjoy all of the benefits and uses of this bath salt recipe, but do make sure to read the section about exploding bath salts.
Yes, it’s a thing.
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Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe. For the amounts of each item, please scroll down to the printable recipe card.
- Epsom Salt
- Sea Salt (you can use any type of salt, including Himalayan, coarse sea salt, or specialized salts like this Dead Sea Salt).
- Baking Soda (this will either be added to the blend or will be kept separate. See details about exploding bath salts for more information about that. What a teaser, right?)
- Essential Oils (optional for added fragrance and benefits) (LINKQ)
- Herbs and Flowers (optional as well for added scents and benefits)
- Natural Food Coloring (optional but pretty and fun.)
What Is Epsom Salt?
Epsom salt is a naturally occurring mineral salt that contains magnesium, sulfur, and oxygen. It’s also known as magnesium sulfate.
The sulfur and oxygen together are the sulfate portion. MgSO4 is the chemical formula for epsom salt.
Customize your bath experience by using a variety of dried flowers, herbs, and essential oils.
How to Customize Your Homemade Bath Salt Scents
Lavender petals or rose petals make a lovely and even therapeutic addition. For herbs, sage, calendula, chamomile, oat tops, peppermint, or rosemary. You can even try spices like ginger or citrus peels.
For some essential oil options, eucalyptus oil or peppermint are refreshing options. For a woodsy fragrance, try cedarwood oil or vetiver for a deep relaxing scent.
Clary Sage is another option with its lovely earthy floral scent that can help with hormones and so much more.
How to Store
Everything looks great in mason jars, but if you’re adding baking soda to the mixture ahead of time, a glass container with a cork or wooden top that isn’t too tight is best. That way, if the mixture does react, the top should come off and prevent glass chards going everywhere.
You could add air holes to the lid, but your bath salts will likely clump up due to moisture in bathrooms.
These plastic jars are an attractive option, especially since you’ll likely be storing the salts in the bathroom. These wood jar tops are great for oui yogurt jars, and they’re cute too!
Adding a label, like these chalkboard labels, is a nice touch, especially for gifting.
Ways to Use Bath Salts
Bath salts aren’t just for the bath. Check out all the great ways you can use them for self-care and more.
Body Scrub
Moisten skin, then place a small amount of bath salts in your hand and work into skin in desired areas, scrubbing gently. Rinse off.
Hand and Foot Soak
Add 1/8 – 1/4 cup bath salts to a small bucket of warm water. Stir to dissolve and then soak your feet or hands for as long as you’d like.
Hand Scrub
Moisten hands. Take a small amount of bath salts in your hand and work into both sides of hands, scrubbing gently. Rinse off.
Steam Inhalation / Sinus Decongestant Treatment
Put 1 teaspoon of the bath salts in simmering water. Put a towel over your head and breathe in the steam.
Shower Steamer
Add a little bit of bath salts to the bottom of your shower either before or after getting in the shower. The essential oil aromas will diffuse with the steam.
Make Exfoliating Homemade Soap
Add some bath salts to your homemade soap base to make a bar that exfoliates your skin.
Make Exfoliating Hand Soap
Add a small amount of bath salts to your hand soap for some exfoliating action and added benefits.
Shower Scrub
Use bath salts on their own or mix them with liquid soap or shower gel, and then rub them into your skin while in the shower.
Bruise and Pain Compress
Dissolve one to two tablespoons of bath salt in a bowl of warm water. Soak a washcloth in the water for a few minutes, wring it out, and place on the bruise. Repeat as often as desired.
Warning About Exploding Bath Salts
It sounds crazy, but it’s true. DIY bath salts made with baking soda can explode. The reason why this happens isn’t known for sure, but something reacts with the baking soda to create carbon dioxide gas.
Some people claim that the citrus essential oils are reacting and causing this reaction, but some people who’ve experienced this weren’t using citrus oils.
It’s a mystery, but what isn’t a mystery is that if your bath salts explode in a glass jar, you’ll have chards everywhere, including possibly sticking into your walls!
To avoid this problem, swap out the baking soda for another salt or more Epsom salt. Or you can add the baking soda to your bath separately from the other salts.
Simply add 3-6 tablespoons of the bath salt mixture (without the baking soda) to your bath, followed by 1-2 tablespoons of baking soda.
The whole exploding bath salt thing seems to be rare, but better safe than sorry!
- 1 cup Epsom salt
- 1 cup baking soda
- 2 cups sea salt (coarse works best)
- 7-14 drops essential oil of choice. Use more if Epsom salts are added.
- 1-3 drops natural food coloring
- 7-14 tablespoons tablespoons dried herbs and/or flowers
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Add the salts to a small bowl.
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Add baking soda (unless choosing to keep separate until adding to the bath).
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Add essential oils and other optional ingredients as desired.
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Stir to combine with a bamboo skewer or other utensil.
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Close the lid tightly until ready to use.
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To use for a bath, add ¼ – ½ cup into bath water using a clean scoop or other utensil.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.
More DIY Personal Care Products
Here are some more easy-to-make homemade personal care products to try:
Have you ever used bath salts? How did they help you?
