How to Make the Absolute Best Homemade Bath Salts!

This post shares all about how to make baked bath salts. This homemade bath salts recipe is the perfect thing to spoil yourself or give to a friend as a gift!

How to make the absolute best homemade bath salts

I absolutely love bath salts. In the past I’ve posted tutorials for making rainbow bath salts and for making a stress-relieving lavender-magnesium bath soak, but I’ve never posted a tutorial about baking plain old bath salts. Sometimes simple is best, though.

And with the holidays coming up, this simple DIY is a great go-to gift if you’re looking for something thoughtful, easy to make, and affordable. Baked bath salts make a great gift for yourself, too. I love a good soak and go through them so quickly that making them in bulk is worthwhile.

How do I keep my bath salts from clumping?

So why bake bath salts? Well, you don’t really have to. You can just mix some stuff up in a bag and trow it under the sink cabinet. But your finished bath salts will have oils in them, which will lead to some clumping after a while.

Baking your mixture of salts, baking soda, and oils will help it stay clump-free and looking fresh. This is particularly important if you’re giving the salts as a gift and want them to look more professional.

Or baking them well in advance and they’ll be sitting for a while. It’s an easy process that really helps the salts look polished. So let’s get started.

Here’s what I used:

1 cup Epsom salt
1 cup sea salt–or if you want to try something new (read: more expensive), you can use Himalayan Pink, dendritic, or, my favorite, Celtic.
1/4 cup baking soda
3/4 tbsp sweet almond oil
1/2–1 tbsp essential oil of your choice
Food coloring
Measuring cups, bowl, baking sheet, foil, oven, spoon

And here’s how I made my baked bath salts:

(Don’t use any ingredients you’re allergic to, and always spot test new ingredients to make sure you don’t have a reaction to them. Do not use any homemade products without consulting with an appropriate medical professional first.)

Step 1: Mix dry ingredients and oils

First I mixed the Epsom salt, sea salt, and baking soda in a bowl. I added the sweet almond oil, essential oils for scent, and stirred. I actually used a much bigger bowl for this; the bowl below is just for illustrative purposes. I found it was helpful to use a whisk or fork to crush out stubborn clumps.

Step 2: Add food coloring

Next I added the food coloring. A little bit goes a long way. Remember that you can always add more color to deepen it, but you can’t take it away. Mix well as you’re adding the drops.

Like this DIY salt scrub? Check out my DIY eucalyptus salt scrub recipe, my peppermint-vanilla sugar scrub tutorial, and my DIY honey and beeswax lip balm!

Step 3: Bake on a baking pan

After I was done mixing, I covered a baking pan with foil and spread the dyed salt mixture evenly over the foil. I used two layers of foil to help ensure I didn’t rip through it in the next step.

Then I popped it in the oven for about 15 minutes at 175 degrees Fahrenheit. This is as low as my oven goes.

Step 4: Stir and mix occasionally as you’re baking

Every 5 minutes, I took the pan out and gently mixed the salts with a spoon. This is why I use two sheets of aluminum foil—one might rip. I also used a wooden spoon to help prevent ripping.

The stirring process just helps the salts dry evenly so they don’t clump. When 15 minutes have passed, take the pan out of the oven and let the salts cool completely, mixing them as they cool. Once they’ve cooled completely, I store in air-tight containers.

Important!

Let your salts sit out over night before packaging them, even after they’ve cooled. One good idea is to put them in a jar, and then instead of putting a lid on them, cover the opening with plastic wrap. Then poke holes in the plastic wrap so the salts can off-gas. You can also store in open plastic baggies over night after they have cooled completely.

Here’s my sampler lineup…

Blue: Peppermint & Eucalyptus
Purple: Lavender
Pink: Rose
Yellow: Citrus (Lemon & Sweet Orange)

Homemade baked bath salts FAQs

Making baking bath salts is a pretty easy process, but there are a few issues you might encounter and things to keep in mind. Here they are.

Why are my bath salts wet?

I don’t add any water to my bath salts, but adding oils can lead to wet bath salts. Especially depending on how much oil you want to use in your recipe. Baking is a way to prevent the salts from becoming wet and clumpy.

Keeping your finished salts in an air-tight, dry space also helps to keep them dry. You are probably storing your homemade bath salts in your bathroom, which is a naturally more humid area of your home. So an airtight container helps to prevent that extra humidity from making your bath salts wet.

Check out my DIY eucalyptus and lavender salt scrub, my homemade honey and beeswax lip balm, and my DIY peppermint sugar scrub!

How do I keep bath salts from hardening?

This is also related to moisture. When moisture gets into the bath salts, they will dissolve just slightly and begin to clump together. Sadly this is just something that can happen with bath salts—even store bought bath salts. I usually just shake them up and it gets rid of the clumping.

But you can help prevent clumping from the get-go by baking your bath salts to eliminate excess moisture. And store them in a dry, air-tight container.

What does baking soda do in bath salts?

Baking soda does an awesome job of helping to soften your skin. I loved putting a bit in R’s bath when she was a baby and had any skin irritations. In bath salts, baking soda helps with your overall skin health.

What kind of food color should I use for my baked bath salts?

It doesn’t matter. Just remember that whatever you use, less is more at first. You can always add more coloring if you need to deepen the color, but a little goes a long way. I love this food coloring set because the colors are vibrant and mix very well.