Dye your own colour-coordinated bath salts

Bath salts are the best. I mean first, there’s the obvious joke about the drug with the same name. Then, not only do they make baths way more relaxing by helping your sore muscles, but they double as decor. And with these tips you can ensure that they are colour-coordinated to match your orange octopus bathroom. Or how about pink bath salts for a super pink bathroom? Or maybe you need them to be a pop of colour in a black bathroom? I will show you how!

What you need:

Epsom salts (I use white, unscented salts. I’ve never used scented ones but they should retain their scent after dying. Experiment!)
Liquid food colouring
A clear storage container (here’s one similar to mine)
A small scoop

Step one:

If you are trying to match a colour where you have to mix a couple food colours together, combine them before mixing it into the salt. I’m just going for blue, so I didn’t have to mix. But if you try to do two colours separately, they will not mix in the salt. Instead, you’ll have some granules as one colour, and some as the other. This looks cool if you’re going for that, of course.

Step two:

I find that mixing about 4-5 cups of salt with just a couple drops of food colouring is best. You’re going to achieve a pale colour and you don’t want to dye your bath, so just go lightly at first. Add the colour and mix the salt together.

At first it seems that only a few of the crystals will be coloured; keep mixing and the colour will spread. A few crystals will be darker than others, but I think that looks cool so I went with it.

Optional step three:

If you wanted to add scents, you could follow this recipe here. Transfer them to your pretty clear container, artfully insert your scoop, and marvel at your ability to colour-coordinate with anything.

Use them!

They don’t dye your skin or even the water. I use a 1/4 cup scoop per bath and they work just like plain epsom salts — but they look way prettier on my vanity.

About the Author: Caroline

@drechyng @carolinediezyn

Caroline was the Offbeat Empire copyeditor from 2011-2015. Caroline is a Canadian genderweird witch and literature PhD student living and working in Toronto. They love art and powerlifting, and they spend their free time with their black cat and familiar, Zee.