Make Your Own Homemade Bath Salts
The easiest bath products to make are homemade bath salts. These are so easy to make that even a 5-year old can do it (with adult supervision of course)! Not only are they easy to make, but they are a-lot of fun to make, they make a persons bath feel divine and they are very affordable!
To make your own bath salts, you simply mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Yes it’s that easy! Add your salts first, next add any other dry ingredients (like dried herbs), then add any oils or butters, then your fragrance and lastly add your colorant.
I use food coloring in my bath salts. I always mix a full bag of salts, add all ingredients first before colors, then I add my colorant one-drop at a time so I can better determine the strength of the color.
When adding colorant to your products, add slowly (one drop at a time), mix well, and add more if more is desired. You want to just create a light tint; you do not want to color your product too much! If you add too much colorant then it could color a persons skin after using the product. Although this isn’t dangerous, it can cause embarrassment because it’s hard to remove.
You don’t need expensive ingredients to make bath salts, almost everything you need to make wonderful bath salts can be found at your local grocery store!
Epsom Salts
Epsom salts are made for the bath anyways and these are not only the most affordable salts, but they also impart wonderful goodness to the skin! Epsom salts are nothing more than magnesium sulfate.
When absorbed through the skin, magnesium sulfate draws toxins, reduces swelling, relaxes muscles, naturally exfoliates and more.
Dried Herbs
You can purchase dried herbs in the grocery store as well. They are not necessarily needed, but some herbs do wonders for the skin.
Oil
If you wish to make moisturizing bath salts, then you’ll need to add some oils. Olive oil is a great oil that is sold in pretty much every grocery store.
Colorant
My favorite colorant for bath salts is plain old food coloring. To tell if a colorant is safe for cosmetic use, then check that it’s one of those approved by the FDA. Most food colorants are deemed safe for cosmetics. The numbers “FD & C Red No. 40″ means Red color 40 is safe for Food, Drugs & Cosmetics. Some food colorants do not have the FD&C on the boxes, but if it says “food color” then it’s typically considered safe for cosmetics too.
Fragrance
Cosmetic grade fragrances or essential oils are not normally found in grocery stores, but essential oils can be found in some health stores. You’ll need to order your EO (essential oils) or FO (fragrance oils) from a reputable seller, or locate a health store that sells EO.
I recommend buying EO and FO online; health stores are known to be very expensive!
Now that I have explained a bit about bath salts, remember, it’s not difficult to make them. Simply mix everything well, add coloring last, then spoon into your container. You can spoon into jars, bottles, small plastic bags or envelopes made from wax paper. I recommend plastic jars or bottles; glass can be hazardous in a bathroom!
By: Maria Wilkes
About the Author:
Maria Wilkes has over 15 years experience developing formulas and recipes for, and making, homemade bath products. Maria shares many of her wonderful bath recipes at FreeBathRecipes.com. If you’ve ever had a desire to create your own line of aromatherapy products like soaps, candles, lotions and more then click here http://www.freebathrecipes.com/develop-your-own-bath-products.html to learn how to do it!