Wondering how to make bath salts? Here is a great bath salt recipe.
Bath salts are simple to make and so luxuriously relaxing for you or people you make them for. You can even make special bath blends tailored to the people on your gift list. Here’s our basic bath salt recipe. You can feel free to play with it and make substitutions or additions to personalize it.
So, in a big bowl you will be mixing together:
• Two parts Dead Sea Salt: A sea salt from the saline and mineral rich marshes of the Dead Sea, this is a therapeutic salt, rich in many key elements. It is very fine and partially moist so it works well in bath salt blends.
• Two parts Course Sea Salt: This course salt adds the sea salt look and texture to your blend.
• Two parts White Cosmetic Clay: Clay carries natural source clay minerals and are cleansing and invigorating. The white clay is fine, fluffy and versatile, great for bath blends.
• One part Epsom Salt: This is the common bath salt most of us are familiar with that’s so soothing for sore feet, and also for minor sprains and bruises.
• One part Borax Powder: What? Why would I put borax in my bath? Well, this borax powder from Mountain Rose does not contain the surfactants and detergents in commercial Borax powders. It acts as an emulsifier, natural preservative and buffering agent within the bath salt blend.
• One part Baking Soda: Baking Soda is a natural source Sodium Bicarbonate. It soothes minor skin irritations and itching, and it also acts as a pH stabilizer.
• 1/2 Teaspoon Lavender Essential Oil per 2 cups of mix: We love lavender oil in our baths for its wondrous, relaxing scent. (You can play around with other essential oils too, finding the perfect scent.)
So, now you just decide how many people you would like to gift with bath salts, and what size jars you would like to give.
Then you will know how much mix you want to end up with and can work backwards to figure out your measurements.
1. Mix everything for this bath salt recipe except the essential oil together with your clean hands enjoying the smooth feel of the clay.
2. Add the lavender oil last, spreading it around as you add it, rather than dropping it all in one place. Then mix again with your hands.
3. Choose your decorative jar and dress it up with a holiday ribbon, and you’re done.
And that’s all there is to it for this bath salt recipe!
If you want to get more fancy with your bath salt recipe, you can also add dried herbs to them – soothing, calming dried calendula or chamomile flowers; or stimulating, reviving dried rosemary or peppermint leaves. Lavender flowers are great too!
The possibilities for bath salt recipes are virtually endless.
If you do add herbs be sure to include a small cloth or mesh bag with your gift so the herbs don’t clog the tub drain.
The Author:
Kimberly Gallagher, M.Ed. and John Gallagher, L.Ac are Community Centered Herbalists who run LearningHerbs.com.