Homemade Lavender Bath Salts Recipe (2 Easy Options)

Last Updated on October 28, 2024

Do you love a relaxing soak in the tub? Elevate your bath with these deliciously scented lavender bath salts! Making homemade bath salts is a snap, and you can use lavender (flowers and their fragrant leaves) harvested from the garden or purchased, or skip the whole herbs and use lavender essential oil. Check out this super-easy recipe for lavender bath salts.

WHY MAKE LAVENDER BATH SALTS?

Bath salts are a fantastic addition to your tub time, giving you a health-boosting dose of magnesium, which science has begun to show we can absorb through our skin. Most people don’t get enough magnesium in their diets, so getting some in the bath is a terrific way to up your intake.

Here’s what to know about magnesium benefits and why magnesium is so critical to good health.

The magnesium in these relaxing bath salts offers many benefits:

• Soothe sore muscles
• Promote better sleep
• Support immune function

Lavender has its own benefits as well. A top herb for supporting quality sleep and calming stress, the scent of lavender in your bath can help you unwind and get better sleep. Here are other calming herbs and herbs for sleep if those are things you struggle with.

Many types of lavender are available for growing in the garden, and they vary in color and scent. Some are more purple, while others are more grey, but they all look lovely mixed in with bath salts. Most importantly, they smell fantastic.

LAVENDER BATHS SALTS MAKE GREAT GIFTS!

If you’re thinking that lavender bath salts would make a great homemade gift, you are sooo right. Not only a pretty and thoughtful present, lavender bath salts are a breeze to make AND super-cheap!

You can source your lavender from the garden, but if you don’t grow lavender, we’ve got you covered. Here are some options for buying dried lavender online.

Bath salts are one of those incredibly easy things to make yourself, and I’ve never understood how anyone can pay those absurdly high prices for what are essentially just inexpensive epsom salts with a little essential oil. If you’re not into lavender, check out this tutorial for making snazzy (but ridiculously easy) DIY bath salts in a wide variety of soothing scents.

INGREDIENTS FOR LAVENDER BATH SALTS (YOU ONLY NEED 2!)

We’re all about simple around here, and this lavender bath salt recipe keeps it that way so you don’t have to worry about buying lots of extra ingredients like other homemade bath salt recipes out there on the interwebs. You can absolutely make this recipe with only two ingredients, lavender and epsom salts.

For this project, we can use lavender leaves as well as the flowers to get the most out of our garden plants. Lavender leaves have plenty of delicious scent we can capture for these bath salts, so why not use them as well? Here are 10 others ways to use lavender leaves if you have some left over.

The other main ingredient is epsom salts, which you can easily find in big bags at your local drugstore or supermarket. You can also find them online, like these.

When you use bath salts with whole herbs, you’ll want to put them in a muslin bag (like these) or a clean sock to keep from having a big mess in the tub. If you’re giving lavender bath salts as a gift, be sure to attach a bag to the jar. If you’ll be using the bath salts yourself, a mesh strainer in the drain is an alternative way to catch the plant material before it goes down the drain.

If you’d rather skip the herbs floating in the tub, you can use lavender essential oil instead. You can also use both essential oil and fresh herbs.

PACKAGING YOUR LAVENDER BATH SALTS

If you’re looking to cut waste and expense, keep your eye open for jars you can repurpose. In addition to your standard mason jar, many jam jars and honey jars can also look lovely filled with pretty bath salts and lavender buds. You might also find some fun vintage jars at your local thrift stores.

If you’d rather buy new jars, there are loads of inexpensive options online, from decorative mason jars to jars with hinged lids to small gifting jars like these.

HOW TO DRY LAVENDER FOR BATH SALTS

We’re using dried, not fresh, lavender buds (and leaves if you have them). You want to make sure they’re fully dry before adding them to your bath salts.

To dry, arrange lavender stems and leaf sprigs on a clean dish towel and allow to air-dry for a few days. Especially if you dry a lot of herbs, it’s helpful to have a collapsible drying screen. These provide lots of drying space when you need it and can be tucked away in a closet when you don’t.

I highly recommend a collapsible drying screen. I love that it has tons of space for laying out the many different herbs I gather each season but folds up into a small circle that I can tuck away out of season.

I’ve used it to dry huge quantities of foraged Canadian wood nettle, plantain, linden flowers, goldenrod, elderflowers, birch leaves, and so much more.

The mesh of the drying screen promotes air flow while protecting herbs from dust and insects.

Once your lavender is fully dry, store it in an airtight container in a dark place to preserve freshness and color.

Now you’ve got your lavender and epsom salts ready, mix ’em up and presto! Lovely lavender bath salts. Check out the easy-peasy recipe below.

If you want plenty of lavender for bath salts and other uses, consider growing some of your own. Learn how to grow lavender from seed for abundant homegrown lavender. Then you’ll have lots to use in bath salts, homemade potpourri, or easy DIY lavender sachets.

Save this lavender bath salts recipe for later!