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!

Aromatherapy is the process of enjoying certain scents, which are commonly used in scented candles and bath salts. Many do not realize this, but certain scents have calming effects and enable the individual to feel more relaxed and free of stress.

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, table salt and epsom salt. Each of these are commonly found in a local grocery or retail store and are safe to use. Certain bath products, which are found in the world of retail, may contain harsh ingredients that could irritate the skin. The advantage to creating your own bath salts to use as aromatherapy, however, will ensure that you know which ingredients are going into a product and 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 utensil. The next step is to add 3 cups of epsom salt, 2 cups of baking soda and 1 cup of table salt into the mixing bowl. Once each of the ingredients are added, begin mixing them with your hand or the spoon. Once mixing is complete, slowly add food coloring to the mixture. 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 in order to get a unique hue, but this mixture should be done prior to placing the coloring into the mixing bowl with your other ingredients.

The final step is to add essential oils until the desired scent is achieved. The best way to determine when the scent is perfect is simply by using your own judgement. Bath salts should be strongly scented in order to allow for less salts to be required for each bath, which will enable them to last longer.

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

Another common form of aromatherapy is the use of scented candles. Popular fragrances include vanilla, lavender, cinnamon, etc. These candles are commonly found at any retail store, online specialty shop and at craft fairs. Depending on the size of the candle, scented aromatherapy candles may last for up to one week with limited burn time. It is recommended that individuals select a candle that is jarred in order to avoid hot wax runoff and/or the potential for flames coming into contact with nearby items.

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