Learn how to make a foaming bath salt with just a few simple ingredients. Are you looking for a luxurious spa experience without leaving your home? Look no further than this amazing foaming bath salt recipe! It combines the relaxing power of salt baths and the delights of bubble baths into one easy-to-make mixture. All you need to do is whip up a batch, add it to your tub, and voila! You’ll have a therapeutic and rejuvenating soak that you won’t soon forget.
Table of Contents
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Salt
Feel free to substitute it with pink himalayan salt or dead sea salt – both great alternatives.
Epsom salt is known for its ability to ease sore muscles and stiff joints, while it soothes and detoxifies the skin. When preparing my bath salts, I like to create a fine consistency. I find that a finer grain dissolves quicker in the tub and looks more aesthetically pleasing. You can easily achieve the same by using a mortar and pestle to grind your chosen salts. Remember, this is purely optional and not necessary to enjoy the benefits of your bath salts!
Dendritic salt is used to prevent clumping in the final product. This is because dendritic salt has a much larger surface area than regular salt, meaning that it can absorb more fragrance and other liquids – which will prevent clumping.
Surfactants
Surfactants are what we use to create the bubble in our bath water. To learn more about surfactants, check out my Surfactants Explained post.
SLSa – Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSa), is a top performing, sulfate free gentle powder surfactant. SLSA is used as a gentle replacement for SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate). It has long lasting foam & bubbles and is naturally derived from coconut & palm oil.
Colors, Fragrance, extras
Colorant
You have choices to choose from to get a bit of color in your bubble bath salt. Mica powder is a great choice to add a lot of color to the salt. However, mica powder does not color your bath water very much. Personally, I am perfectly fine with that as I love the shine that mica powder gives. If you prefer to have the bath water colored, you can add a Lake Dye instead.
Fragrance
It is completely up to you how you wish to add fragrance to your bath salts. You can use either essential oils or fragrance oils. Just be sure that whatever fragrance you use, you follow the manufactures recommendation. I am using Persephone’s Kiss Fragrance Oil. It is a lovely blend Mandarin orange, melon, blackberry, and violet leaf. With fresh middle notes of lavender, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, and nectarine, finished with a base of honey, oak, and musk.
Polysorbate 80
Since we are adding a fragrance (or essential) oil to these bath salts, we do need to add a bit of polysorbate 80 to get it to mix in with the bath water. We do not want the fragrance just sitting on the top of the bath water. This is a surfactant, but not in the way that you usually think about surfactants. It is a solubilizer, that makes the oil solubilize into the water.
Making Foaming Bath Salts
Place dendritic salt into a bowl.
Add Persephone’s Kiss Fragrance Oil and Polysorbate 80, mix until fully combined.
Add the SLSa to the mixture and mix well. You want to be careful as this can get into your lungs, so wear a mask. I like to pour it very close to the bowl and stir slowly.
Add half of the epsom salt and mix. When you are mixing, be sure that you are chopping up any clumps.
Add remaining epsom salt and mix.
Add mica powder and mix well.
Bottle and enjoy!
How to use foaming bath salts?
You are going to use these just like you would use a bubble bath. Place a cup or so under the tap while you run your bath. The running water is going to agitate the surfactants and create luscious bubbles in your bath.
Foaming Bath Salt Recipe
Equipment
- Scale
Ingredients
- 7.55 ounce | 77% Epsom Salt
- 0.98 ounce | 10% SLSa
- 0.88 ounce | 9% Dendritic salt
- 0.20 ounce | 2% Polysorbate 80
- 0.20 ounce | 2% Persephone's Kiss Fragrance Oil
Instructions
- Place dendritic salt into a bowl.
- Add Persephone's Kiss Fragrance Oil and Polysorbate 80, mix until fully combined.
- Add the SLSa to the mixture and mix well. You want to be careful as this can get into your lungs, so wear a mask. I like to pour it very close to the bowl and stir slowly.
- Add half of the epsom salt and mix. When you are mixing, be sure that you are chopping up any clumps.
- Add remaining epsom salt and mix.
- Add mica powder and mix well.
- Bottle and enjoy!