How to Make Bath Salts

How to Make Bath Salts for Yourself

While colored salts are certainly pretty, the bath salts you make for yourself are more about function, unless you want to store them by the tub. When making your own salts, you have a lot of space to experiment and it’s just as well to save the food coloring till you want to show off.

A basic bath salt is made by mixing a cup of Epsom salt or Dead Sea salt with a quarter cup of baking soda. Some people say the baking soda is not necessary but that it does act as a skin softener; others say it is crucial. The real trick is to try several ways until you find what you like. Whatever you do, don’t use table salt, as this dries out the skin. Once you master your formula, you can adjust accordingly depending on how much salt you want to make. Add 10-12 drops of your favorite essential oil. Lavender is ideal because the scent promotes calm and relaxation, which is exactly what you want in a hot, therapeutic bath. You can also add a teaspoon or two of liquid glycerin to moisturize the skin. This is recommended for bath salts made and used in the winter months when your skin is prone to dryness anyway and the hot water of the bath will dry it out that much more.

Blend the baking soda, salt and glycerin, stirring until there are no clumps. This will ensure even distribution in the tub. Add the scents and stir in evenly. Do this for about two minutes, as it will further enhance the scent. Give the salts some time to cohere and dry (a few hours should do it), then place them in an airtight container until you’re ready to use. That's it! Your next bath will be personalized bliss.

Make Bath Salts for Gifts

Sure, you can go to any trendy bath shop and buy bath salts for friends and family in cute little jars with ribbons and pay as much as $15 each. Or you can budget a little time and make something that’s budget-conscious, includes no problematic chemical ingredients and instead is full of something you can’t buy – love.

How to make bath salts for gifts? All you need to do is add color, plus whatever scent the giftee in question might particularly like. You can buy a tray of small jars from a hardware store or online. Then go to the grocery store and buy a selection of food coloring and then mix and match accordingly.

For easy mixing, combine your salt mixture evenly into separate bowls and then to each bowl add three drops of food coloring. You can liven up a jar of gift salts by then layering blue, yellow and red salts in the jar and tying ribbon of the same color around its neck. For Christmas salts, dye them red and green and add a scent that evokes the spirit of the season, such as clove.

In addition to lavender, vanilla, eucalyptus and rosemary are wonderful scents for filling a tub any time of year. If you know what someone’s favorite perfume or spice is, try to find that scent so that their salts are personalized.

You can personalize the gift even further by making your own labels. Note the ingredients and instruct them to add a few spoonfuls to a bath and take some well-deserved time for themselves any time of year.