Homemade bath salts are easy to make, but they look like a gift bought from an upscale spa. You’ve likely seen beautifully colored, scented bath salts in bath and body supply stores priced as low as $ 15.99 a bottle. What you probably didn’t know yet is that the profit margin on this product can be up to 600%. Oh! This means that the raw ingredients to make them cost only about $ 2.28. I refuse to pay this ridiculous markup on this bath product, and you should too, as they are so simple to make. How simple are they to do? So simple that a child could easily make them! But you should know that there is a “secret ingredient” that will greatly enhance the ability of your finished product to retain its aroma, prevent caking, and increase its shelf life.
The only ingredient that may have trouble finding your homemade bath salts is dendritic salt, and bingo, it’s the secret ingredient! All the other ingredients for creating homemade bath salts can easily be found at local drugstores and supermarkets. Dendritic salt is added to help bath salts better retain their fragrance, as well as to reduce caking sometimes seen with salts. It is made by adding a very small amount of yellow prussate to sodium chloride. This causes the sodium chloride crystals to grow in a star shape, giving the dendritic salt a larger surface area. In turn, the larger surface area of the crystals allows the salt to retain fragrance molecules better than normal salt crystals.
Although dendritic salt is an optional ingredient in homemade bath salts, it is recommended to use it if you are using essential oils in your bath salts. Essential oils can, and do, go rancid when exposed to the magnesium in Epsom and sea salts. Adding dendritic salt to your recipe can add a longer shelf life (and much better smell) to your bath salts. If you can’t find dendritic salt on your local store shelves, there are several vendors online that sell them, and they aren’t terribly expensive. An online vendor sells them for $ 3.36 for 5 pounds. container. In addition to preventing your essential oils from quickly going rancid, adding dendritic salt to your bath salt recipe reduces the caking sometimes seen with salts.
Now that you know the “secret ingredient” for creating homemade bath salts, here are the other ingredients that turn a simple bath into a true haven. The other ingredients you will need are glycerin, Epsom and / or sea salts, baking soda, essential or aromatic oils, food coloring, and a little vegetable oil of your choice. That’s! Just mix these ingredients and put them in a pretty bottle to make an easy, colorful and thoughtful gift for family and friends that’s kind to your wallet and the environment too. Even canning jars with lids make great containers for the finished product when you tie them with a pretty bow.