Take a look at these coloured Epsom salts.
I just love their beautiful crystalline colour that shimmers in the light. It’s probably the best natural alternative to glitter you will find.
They’re very simple to make really, dye some Epsom salts all the colours of the rainbow and keep them on hand for use in bath bombs, shower melts, sensory play and a whole host of other projects.
You can use food colouring or soap colouring. This is a very basic DIY project, but it is the cornerstone for many more creative endeavours.
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They’re pretty, but what do I do with coloured Epsom salts?
I use my coloured Epsom salts primarily to decorate the bath and body recipes I make.
Some recipes, like bath bombs and shower melts, are very moisture sensitive and can be ruined if you add too much liquid food colouring or soap dye.
By using coloured Epsom salts, I’m able to add an element of colour to my recipes without affecting the moisture content and running the risk of ruining my recipe.
It’s a super clever idea, especially if you are a beginner and not yet confident with your recipe-making.
Let’s take a look at my recipes that use coloured Epsom salts.
Basic Shower Melts
These basic shower melts are perfect for essential oil DIY beginners and are sprinkled with coloured Epsom salts for decoration.
Shower melts are little cakes of bi-carbonate of soda, citric acid, corn starch and essential oils that fizz and melt as they get wet, diffusing the oils throughout your shower enclosure as they do so.
They are such a clever way to diffuse your favourite essential oils as you take a shower.
Bath Salt Gems
Take a look at this traditional bath salts recipe with a twist – it’s Bath Salt Gems!
Take a basic bath salts recipe, add water, mould into shapes, and allow to dry – ridiculously simple! When they are completely dry they become rock hard.
I recommend using coloured Epsom salts as the base for this recipe to help you control its moisture content. It also helps create a more even and consistent colouring of your salt gems.
Easter Bath Salt Cakes
Here is a cute and colourful essential oil DIY and a perfect activity to keep the kids occupied over the Easter long weekend.
These Easter Bath Salt Cakes are similar to the bath salt gems listed above, but they are larger.
These ones have been made with Easter cookie cutters – so cute!
Fruit Cup Bath Bombs
I’ve used coloured Epsom salts to colour these Fruit Cup Bath Bombs I made for my son’s kindergarten class.
I was able to make a massive batch of bath bomb mixture and colour each bath bomb individually with a tablespoon of coloured Epsom salts.
I was able to make bath bombs all the colours of the rainbow from one single batch thanks to my handy coloured Epsom salts – boy was that a time saver!
What ingredients do you need to make colored Epsom salts?
Epsom Salts
Epsom salts aren’t just handy for decorating essential oil DIY recipes. Don’t forget to check out the many uses and benefits they have for our well-being.
Coloring
Feel free to use whatever you have on hand to color your Epsom salts.
Soap coloring is preferable because the ingredients tend to be more stable and consistent across all colors.
However food coloring will also work perfectly well to color Epsom salts. I recommend using natural food coloring wherever and whenever you can.
Zip-Lock Bags
Zip-lock bags are the perfect tool for making your colored Epsom salts because you can also used them to store your colored salts once they are made.
You can use any size bag but I probably wouldn’t go smaller than 1 quart in size.
Colored Epsom Salts Printable Recipe
Want your Colored Epsom Salts to look like mine?
I made six batches of colored Epsom salts using all the colors of the color wheel (red, blue, yellow, orange, green and purple). You can store your colored Epsom salts sealed in their zip-lock bags indefinitely.
Colored Epsom Salts
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Epsom Salt
- Food Colouring or Soap Colouring
- Zip-Lock Bag
Instructions
- Put Epsom salts in a zip-lock bag with a couple of drops of colouring, zip it shut and shake, shake, shake!No need to squeeze the air out of the bag before you zip it shut, I find it works better with a lot of air inside for the salts to move around in.
- Feel free to add more colour until you reach the desired hue.
- Keep your Coloured Epsom Salts stored in the zip-lock bags until you need them.
Enjoy!
Hello. I was wondering if you can use anything other than fractionated coconut oil for bath bombs? I’m new to making them, and don’t want to buy anything special ingredient-wise until I see if they’d be something I’d like to make. Thank you for all of these wonderful uses for colored Epsom salts!
Hi Jennifer, thanks for getting in touch! Yes you can substitute another carrier oil for the liquid/fractionated coconut oil when making bath bombs.
I can easily find liquid coconut oil at my supermarket and use it in my recipes because it has almost no scent of its own and is a little less greasy than some other oils.
If you want to pick an oil from the ones you already have on hand, then I suggest selecting one with a light scent (so as not to subtract from the fragrance of the essential oils) and keep safety in mind by remembering that your bath tub may be slippery after use.
Enjoy!
These shower melt samplers sound great! I will be making them this week to give out to family at our Christmas gathering next week.
The colored epsom salts look awesome!
Thanks so much for this fabulous but easy recipe.
God Bless!
You’re welcome Yolanda. Merry Christmas and God bless you too!
So easy, thank you.
I was looking for a means to color Epsom salt for a few craft projects, and, viola (!), there u were! Thanks so much for your inspiration.
Hi. My blue and red food coloring is turn green instead of purple in Epsom salts. I’m not sure why that is. At first I thought I was using the wrong colors., but nope it was blue and red.
I would really appreciate any advice
Thank you
Hi Grace,
Thanks for getting in touch. My guess would be that the Epsom salts are having a chemical reaction with one of the ingredients in your food coloring. Are you using a natural food coloring? While it’s great that natural food colorings have no nasties in them, in my experience they are a little less stable.
I would color some more salts separately, one bag blue and one bag red and then set them aside to see if one changes color (perhaps even both will). That will be your culprit and you may want to swap it for another brand of food coloring and try again. If neither of them change color, then it could be that the red and blue food colorings are reacting with each other, or that it takes a combination of all three (red, blue and Epsom salt) to precipitate the color change.
Either way you have a fun little experiment ahead of you. Let us know how it turns out.
Hi Samantha, thank you for getting back to me so quickly.
I tried coloring them separately and they remained their respective colors.
I then combined them and they started to turn greenish.
So I’m guessing they just don’t like the Epsom salts. I’ll definitely take your advice and try a different brand.
Thank you so much for your help 🙂
After coloring the epsom salts, do you pour it out of ziploc to dry? Before storing?
Hi Pam,
Thanks for your question. I don’t remove the Epsom salts from the bag in order to dry them, but I do leave the bags open for 24-48 hours (depending on how fast they dry) and I do give the bags a shake every now and then. Once they are dry, I zip the bags up and store them.
HI, thanks so much for sharing your wonderful recipes! I am wanting to color my bath salts with liquid soap coloring. If I try your method of putting them in a ziploc and leave it open to dry for up to 48 hours, would the salts turn hard after coloring them? Do they stay loose and not clump up? Thank you for your time. I am making some baby shower favor for my daughter’s shower and I would like to put them in 4 oz jars and gift them at the shower.
Hi Margie,
Thanks for getting in touch. I think your baby shower favors are a great idea! I have used liquid soap coloring to color Epsom salts before and they came out beautifully. Just use the absolute minimum you need get the color you desire as this will keep drying time to a minimum. As long as they don’t start out too wet 48hrs should be fine.
I just opened an old container of bath salts I made with liquid soap coloring and they haven’t clumped together, but I want to stress that packing them in a low-humidity area into an air-tight container is the key to stopping them hardening into one big clump.
Good luck with your favors and enjoy your daughter’s baby shower!
This look so fun! What a great craft to do with kids!
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?