Making Your Own Aromatherapy Bath Salts

Creating your own bath salts is a terrific way to enjoy aromatherapy at home. Surprisingly, bath salts are very affordable to make and require no harsh ingredients. In fact, the main ingredients in bath salts include baking soda, sea or Himalayan salt, and Epsom salt. Each of these is commonly found in a local grocery or retail store and is safe to use. Bath products found in most retail stores contain harsh ingredients and chemicals that can irritate the skin. The advantage to creating your own bath salts is that you know which ingredients are going into your product and you can have the peace of mind in knowing that they are safe to use.

Individuals can make their own aromatherapy bath salts by starting with a large mixing bowl and a spoon or other similar utensils.

The next step is to add a cup of Epsom salt, and a half or 1 cup of sea or Himalayan salt into the mixing bowl.

Once each of the ingredients is added, begin mixing them with your hand or the spoon. You can add food coloring if you are using color for healing. The normal food coloring will work fine and should be added according to the color that you prefer your bath salts to be. Adding more drops will darken the color and adding fewer will make it softer. Some individuals enjoy mixing the colors to get a unique hue, but this mixture should be done prior to placing the coloring into the mixing bowl with your other ingredients. It is not necessary, and you can leave it out if you want.

You can add herbs to the salt such as sage, rose petals, lavender, or more exotic things like Mugwort, or patchouli. In this case, it is recommended that you use a drain sieve to catch the bits, to avoid clogging up your plumbing. Husbands tend to get annoyed when the bathtub drain gets clogged with our bath salt ingredients mixed with hair!  

The final step is to add essential oils until the desired scent is achieved.

One thing to know about essential oils is that they need to be mixed with a carrier oil if you have sensitive skin.

Simply add a few drops of either almond oil, jojoba, or even olive oil is ok, and mix the essential oils into the carrier oil. Then add them to the bath salt mixture.

The best way to determine when the scent is perfect is simply by using your own judgment. If you want to make the salts last longer, add more scents.

If you need more salt for healing, add enough to “please your nose”.

Using the steps and ingredients noted above, you can also use a bowl with a lid to shake the mixture, food coloring, herbs, and essential oils until it is perfectly blended. This will save you time from stirring but, otherwise, the procedure to create your own aromatherapy bath salts is the same.

I usually add a cup of salts to my bath. You want enough for the purifying action, as well as the healing benefits.

Other ideas to add to salts are dried powdered milk, oatmeal, goat’s milk, or baking soda. You can add a cup of this to about 3 cups of Epsom salts. It is not an exact science, you simply add things that please you, or serve your purposes.

I often add ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar along with other ingredients for a detox effect.

What are your favorite bath salt ingredients? I would love to hear from you in the comments below.