DIY Detox Bath Recipe

Today I am going to share an amazing detox bath recipe with you! The last month or so at work has been pretty stressful; I even got sick with some sort of quick flu bug last week, which NEVER happens. The last time I was sick was four days before my wedding, and I can’t remember the time before that…it was at least a year ago. So I decided I would unwind a bit by taking a long, hot bath.

Long, hot baths are themselves pretty relaxing, but I felt in need of some major relaxation, so I made myself this detox bath.

Sweating is the body’s natural way of detoxifying, so just soaking in hot water helps to pull toxins out of your body to the surface of your skin. Toxins are also drawn out of your body as the water in the bath starts to cool down.

And it worked! I felt more relaxed just getting into the bath (as you would expect) and as I soaked I felt the stress melting away. I went to bed shortly after getting out of the bath and when I woke up the next morning I felt completely refreshed! I woke up by myself half an hour before my alarm went off, which is amazing. I usually have so much trouble getting up when my alarm goes off in the mornings, even if I’m getting 9 or more hours of sleep, and then I feel groggy until I get my morning cup of Chai. But that day I felt great as soon as I woke up, I didn’t need to have my normal caffeine at all, and I continued feeling great all day.

Detox Bath Recipe

• 1/3 C Epsom salts
• 1/3 C sea salt
• 1/3 C baking soda
• 2 1/2 t ground ginger
• 1 C apple cider vinegar

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Draw a bath with water as hot as you can stand it. As the water is filling the tub, add the bowl of dry ingredients and the vinegar. The flowing water will help mix it, but make sure to mix it well. (Don’t worry if your water turns yellow or orange, that’s just the ginger and the vinegar)

Soak in the bath for about 40 minutes and enjoy! If you want to you can rub your skin gently (always towards your heart) to stimulate your lymphatic system and help clear out the toxins.

You can use chopped fresh ginger if you would rather; I would just suggest putting it in a tea ball or something similar so you don’t get pieces of ginger floating around or clogging your drain.

If you like the bath you can make a bulk version of the dry ingredients and store them for future use. If you have a fun container to put it in, this would also make a great gift! Just mix up all the dry ingredients (the first three if you’re using fresh ginger, the first four if you’re using ground ginger) and store it in something with a lid. Then just grab 1 cup of the mix and 1 cup of vinegar when you want a bath.

Benefits

These are some benefits you can get from each of these ingredients. Feel free to mix and match the recipe and ingredients so that it works best for you!

• Epsom salts: helps make you sweat, reduces inflammation, relieves muscle aches, found in most bath salts
• Sea salt: another common bath salt, helps leach out toxins, soothes open sores or blemishes
• Baking soda: highly alkaline, helps balance an overly acidic system, helps eliminate chlorine in the water, softens water and skin
• Ground ginger: increases circulation, opens pores, makes you sweat
• Apple cider vinegar: helps restore the acid-alkaline balance in your body, helpful for acne, softens skin

Important considerations before taking this bath

This bath and the detox process can be fairly dehydrating so make sure you drink plenty of water during and after the bath. I had my 1-liter water bottle with me and drank a full bottle during the bath and another full bottle after. I was definitely thirsty!

When you’re getting out of the bath please be very careful and move slowly. You may feel weak or light-headed if you stand up too quickly.

You will probably feel tired right after, so take this bath at a time when you can go right to bed if you need to. I wrapped myself up in a bathrobe and watched a few episodes of X-Files while drinking water. It took about an hour before I felt like getting up and moving around, and I was still very tired.

Also, please don’t take hot baths or salt baths if you are pregnant, have heart trouble, high blood pressure, or if you are diabetic. If you’re not sure, talk to your doctor first.

If you start to feel like you are coming down with the flu, don’t freak out. While your body works to detox and flush out the toxins you may feel a bit under the weather for about half a day. It probably means it’s working! Stay hydrated to help your body clear out the toxins and you should feel better pretty quickly.

How do you relax? Have you ever tried a detox bath recipe like this before? I’ve been adding Epsom salts to my baths since my athletic/sore muscles days, but I hadn’t realized that this was technically a detox bath before.

The materials section of this post contains affiliate links to the products I used for this project. Any purchases you make through those links help me to keep this blog running!