Simple Homemade Bath Soak Recipe with Dandelions

Are you looking for a simple homemade bath soak recipe? You’ll love this easy and adaptable DIY bath soak that uses dandelions, dried herbs, or repurposed floral centerpieces. 

Confession: about half of my posts are written from the peace and sanctity… of my bathtub. 

It is the only place in my home where neither my husband nor my dog Gatsby is interested in following me. One is smart enough to recognize the necessity for self-care; the other hates bathing. I’ll let you guess which is which. 

Quick Steps To Enjoy Your DIY Bath Soak

Want a few moments of peace with your dandelion and floral DIY bath soak? Here’s how to do it.

1. Lock the bathroom door.
2. Light some candles for the edge of the tub.
3. Gather your reading (or writing) material.
4. Fill the tub with hot water and your favorite bath products.
5. Loudly yell through the door that Tub Time has commenced, and none shall pass the threshold of your shrine to self-care, lest something larger than a kitchen chair is literally on fire.

Why Eco-Friendly Bath Products Matter

So, what do bath products have to do with an eco-friendly lifestyle? I’m thrilled you asked. Thanks to a six-month-long battle with allergic contact dermatitis, I’m really invested in clean and simple beauty right now. I’m giving both my skin and the planet a rest by using less harmful chemicals and fragrances.

Buyer beware when you spot “fragrance” on the list of ingredients on your beauty products. Did you know that “Some popular fragrance additives are chemicals that have actually made the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hazardous waste list”? That’s disgusting.

There are many alternatives to make low waste and affordable DIY bath products without all the chemicals and fancy fragrances that are neither good for your skin nor the planet. Today, we’re going to delight in a simple, clean homemade bath soak recipe that invites you to re-examine your ideas about weeds and their value.

DIY Bath Soak with Weeds

Weeds? Wait, what is going on here? I thought we were making a quick, budget-friendly bath soak, you’re thinking. Buckle up, my friend, because we’re pulling those dandelions and clover from the front lawn and putting them in your bathtub.

Sidenote: We’re repurposing some store-bought flower arrangements and common herb garden ingredients as well, so keep reading if weeds are a little too “out there” for your tub time right now.

But why use weeds in a DIY bath soak?

We need to start valuing weeds for the amazing, resilient, and sometimes beneficial plants that they are. Not only are dandelions and clover an early-blooming food source for bees, but thanks to our strange societal obsession with maintaining lawns, Americans dump a horrifying 75 million pounds of pesticides into our environment each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Notes on Foraging For Weeds

Before getting into the bath soak recipe, let’s touch on Foraging 101.

No Trespassing | First and foremost, no trespassing! You have good odds that all the dandelions and clover you need are growing in your yard or a neighbor’s yard. Ask before your forage if you don’t own the property.

Don’t Forage Plants Treated With Chemicals | Among other things, we’re trying to avoid harsh chemicals in our bath products. We don’t want those hard chemicals to come along for the ride with the weeks and flowers we foraged.

Foraging in your yard or that of someone you know also makes it easier to confirm that the plants haven’t been sprayed with harmful chemicals.

Forage What You Know | We’re using dandelions and clover because they’re beneficial and oh-so-easy to recognize. Before you get started foraging anything, it’s best to learn about what grows in your area, how it’s commonly used, and whether there are any poisonous lookalikes to be aware of.

You may want to download a plant identification app to help ensure you forage safe plants and weeds. You may also find these resources helpful:

• 15 Medicinal Weeds You Can Forage in Your Backyard
• 9 Garden Weeds With HUGE Health Benefits

This DIY dandelion and clover homemade bath soak will save you money, make a thoughtful gift for your loved ones, introduce you to beneficial plants in your yard, and help broaden your perspective on the possibilities of an eco-friendly lifestyle.

Adapting This DIY Homemade Bath Soak for Kids

I’ve structured this DIY homemade bath soak to be a sustainable craft suitable for kids and adults of any age group. The setup is quick and easy, and the craft itself is pretty foolproof. It also provides sensory stimulation while giving your kids the opportunity to get creative and explore their own scent and ingredient combinations.

In a nutshell, to make the recipe, you pre-mix the base for your homemade bath soak in a large bowl, add 1 cup scoop, set out “the pretty stuff”, and supervise the number of drops of essential oils that go in their personalized bath soak recipe.

While it’s all pretty simple to do, the essential oils are the most likely to get out of hand. If I learned anything from giving my nieces perfume for Christmas, it’s that kids don’t exactly know their own limits when it comes to scents. You could literally smell my youngest niece coming until New Year’s.

Once complete, encourage kids to give fun or playful names to their original recipe. They will be SO proud of themselves and hopefully be excited for bath time.

And hey, you may soon find that the dog is the only family member resistant to bathing.

Why Sustainable Crafts Matter

Finally, before we get started, you may have noticed a lot of the sustainable crafts I share center on adapting and finding more eco-friendly versions of all the whimsical, creative, pleasurable aspects of life that can sometimes trash the planet. 

When I first started trying to reduce my environmental impact and live a zero-waste lifestyle, I found it emotionally exhausting how often I felt I was “going without” or “couldn’t do” or “had to give up”. That happiness drain is not sustainable, y’all, and sustainable living is anything but sustainable if we can’t keep doing it for the long haul.

If you burn out or feel like you’re forced into a rigid, joyless, and often incredibly expensive lifestyle in pursuit of protecting the planet, you’re probably going to have a hard time sticking with the lifestyle changes. It’s my personal mission to find creative, responsible ways to up the fun and whimsy factor as we work together to save the planet, one micro-adjustment at a time.

Alright, enough about the environmental mores. It’s Tub Time.

How to Make a Simple Homemade Bath Soak With Weeds & Dried Flowers

Now that we’ve covered all the reasons why weeds are a great addition to a DIY bath soak and an introduction to safely foraging your free bath soak ingredients, let’s dive into the tutorial.

While using weeds is great, you can also opt for herbs from the garden or dried flowers from floral arrangements that already lived out their best life. You’ll find some suggestions below. Using old floral arrangements for a DIY bath soak is much more fun than tossing the wilting flowers into the compost pile, right?

Ingredients for DIY Bath Soak With Weeds & Dried Flowers

• Epsom salts (otherwise known as magnesium sulfate)
• Himalayan sea salt or another colorful (but not flavored) salt
• Essential oils (scents of your choice)
• Dried flowers and herbs 
  • Forage: red clover, white clover, dandelions, loquat leaves
  • Garden: thyme, sage, rosemary, marigolds, lemon balm, Mexican tarragon, pineapple sage, etc.
  • Repurposed floral arrangements: roses, eucalyptus leaves, lavender (Did you catch the Upcycled DIY Easter Centerpiece? We’re reusing elements from that sustainable craft today.)

Note: It’s totally fine to just use Epsom salts. I happened to have Himalayan sea salt on hand. It’s beautiful, it adds buoyancy to your bath, and there are health benefits to salt baths. The most important thing in this recipe, however, is not to overdo it on the essential oils. 

Basic Bath Soak Recipe

• 4 cups Epsom salts
• 1 cup Himalayan sea salt 
• 40-60 drops of essential oils
• Dried flowers and herbs as desired

The recipe above will make an ENORMOUS batch of bath salts. You’ll have much more fun making several smaller batches with different scents and elements. Read on for the easiest way to set up a sustainable craft day where you and your friends or kiddos can mix and match and play a little to make a variety of homemade bath soaks.

Materials for DIY Bath Soak

• Large mixing bowl for mixing your bath salt base
• Wooden spoon
• Several small bowls for mixing individual batches with tablespoons or teaspoons for stirring 
• Additional bowls or plates for the dried botanicals
• Blender or mortar and pestle (optional)
• Measuring cups
• Recycled clean glass jars with lids 
• Fine mesh sachet bags if you’d like to avoid a messy tub (I upcycled gift packaging from a jewelry gift.)
• Ribbon, decorative elements, tags, and a marker for labels

Directions for a Simple Homemade Bath Soak:

1. Prior to beginning the craft, gather any fresh ingredients, rinse well or soak to remove dirt or insects. Then dry until crunchy on a dehydrator or in your oven on low heat. Some items, like roses and marigolds, will dry fastest if you separate the petals in a single layer. Don’t be shocked when your dandelions dry down to tiny, bright little blooms.
2. Pour your Epsom salts into the large mixing bowl, breaking up any large chunks with your spoon or a whisk if needed. Add your Himalayan sea salt or other colorful salts, if desired, and stir. Your bath salt base is ready!
3. Add a one-cup measuring cup to the large mixing bowl, and then lay out the small bowls for each person participating in the craft. 
4. Arrange all the “pretty stuff” in separate bowls or plates. 
5. If you’re opting out of the essential oils and still want a beautiful scent, or you decided to pass on the Himalayan salt but still want a colorful base, throw your dried lavender in the blender and give it a whirl. You’ll end up with a fine, super fragrant powder that’s a wonderful addition to any bath salt combination. As a bonus, the pulverized lavender will easily wash down any drain, so there’s no clean-up (more on avoiding clean-up to come).
6. Make your customized bath soak! Add one heaping scoop of the bath salt base to your personal mixing bowl. Then add 10-15 drops of essential oils, keeping in mind that you can mix and match drops of your favorite oils for a unique aroma. 
7. Stir your bath salts to distribute the essential oils. Then add “the pretty stuff” as desired! Pick your add-ins based on color, fragrance, or medicinal qualities; this is the fun part.
8. Stir your bath soak one last time, and use your mixing spoon to scoop them into a glass jar. 
9. I love soaking in a tub of free-floating flowers, petals, and leaves while pretending that I’m a serene, wine-sipping Lady of the Lake with an Australian shepherd barking at the door. If, however, you hate the idea of wiping wet flowers out of your bathtub after a good soak, you’ll want to scoop your bath soak into the fabric sachets, tighten the cords, and then push the sachet into the jar before sealing it. Once it’s Tub Time, simply drop your sachet into the hot water, and enjoy! The salts will still dissolve into your water, releasing the minerals and aromatic oils, but the fabric will retain any botanical bits.
10. Decorate your jars with ribbon, dried flowers, and labels. These beautiful packages make fantastic gifts (especially for Mother’s Day), so I love to keep some on hand for hostess gifts, birthdays, and thank you presents.

If you make this, let us know how it goes. Leave a comment or share a photo on Instagram and tag @honestlymodern so we can check it out!

All photos via Reese Moore Photography

If you liked the Simple Homemade Bath Soak Recipe with Dandelions, you may enjoy:

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Why I’m Finally Sold On DIY and Clean Beauty Products

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