Easy Homemade Bath Salts Plus Ways to Use Them
These homemade bath salts are the perfect addition to your self-care routine. They’re easy and fun to make and have loads of benefits, plus they make a great gift too.
This fully customizable formula can help soothe sore muscles, relieve irritation and discomfort, and is a great moisturizer as well. It’s not proven, but bath salts are thought to help with detoxifying, too!
I’m a shower girl, but these bath salts can turn me and any other shower fans out there into a bath-lover for sure. You’re going to love all of the benefits and uses of this bath salt recipe, but there are also so many more ways to use bath salts beyond the tub.
However you choose to use them, 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)
- 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 (MgSO4) is a naturally occurring mineral salt that contains magnesium, sulfur, and oxygen. It’s also known as magnesium sulfate where the sulfur and oxygen are the sulfate portion.
Epsom salts are known for helping to relax sore muscles. They break down in water into magnesium and sulfate. Magnesium is the mineral that is thought to do this soothing action through the skin.
So basically Epsom salts are just one more way to get the benefits of magnesium.
How to Customize Your Bath Salts
You can easily customize your bath experience by using a variety of dried flowers, herbs, and essential oils.
Lavender petals or rose petals make a lovely and even therapeutic addition. Some good herbs to try are sage, calendula, chamomile, oat tops, peppermint, or rosemary. You can also consider adding spices like ginger or citrus peels.
For some essential oil options, eucalyptus oil or peppermint are refreshing choices. 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.
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 your 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.
Exfoliating Homemade Soap
Add some bath salts to your homemade soap base to make a bar that exfoliates your skin.
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 alone or combined with liquid soap or shower gel. 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 it on the bruise. Repeat as often as desired.
Exploding Bath Salts Warning
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 others who’ve experienced this weren’t using citrus oils.
What’s causing the explosions is 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 them possibly even getting stuck in your walls!
To avoid this horrendous problem, swap out the baking soda for another salt or more Epsom salt. Or you can add the baking soda to your bath separate from the 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!
How to Store
Everything looks great in mason jars, but if you’re adding baking soda to the mixture ahead of time, a container with a cork or wooden top that isn’t too tight is the way to go. That way, if the mixture reacts, the top would come off and prevent a huge dangerous mess.
You can’t add holes to a lid because the salts can clump due to moisture in bathrooms.
These plastic jars are a cute, safe option for the bathroom. These wood jar tops are a great option for Oui yogurt jars
Adding a label, like these chalkboard labels, is a nice touch, especially for gifting.
- 1 cup Epsom salt
- 1 cup baking soda
- 2 cups sea salt (coarse works best)
- 7-14 drops essential oil of choice. You can use more if Epsom salts are added. optional
- 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?
