Epsom Salts Never Looked So Good

I know, I know... Epsom salt crystals are not exactly a new thing.  So why blog it?  Because the kids and I had so much fun making them.  And using red cabbage and beet juice to color them ended up being a really cool science experiment.

 Almost everyone has made these things at some point - get a jar full of saturated salt water.  Tie some string to a pencil and lay the pencil over the jar so the string drops down into the water.  Give it a few days and you'll have crystals growing up the string.  I, personally, have always thought Epsom salt produced larger, more showy crystals than your everyday table salt, but they all work.

My sweet little 8 year old told me I needed to add some glitter to my handmade soaps - you know, because glitter is always an option.  Intrigued by her suggestion, I started looking into edible glitters - but I wasn't wowed by them.  Then I got to thinking about Epsom salt crystals.  What if I colored my Epsom salt crystals and blended that into my soaps - how cool would that be?!

Red cabbage juice at a pH of about 7

I had some red cabbage juice and beet juice in my freezer - that's normal, right?  It can't just be me. 

The better your stir it; the better the crystals form!

Anyway, it was leftover from some failed soap coloring experimentation, so I didn't have much of a use for it except to play with it.  I heated some of the red cabbage juice (which is a deep purple, btw) and dissolved Epsom salts in it until I had a completely saturated solution. Basically, it was so salty, it just wouldn't dissolve any more salt.  Then I stirred it forever because the longer it gets stirred, the better the crystals form, imo.  They started forming within a couple hours and I let them sit for a full 48 hours.  Then I scooped them out onto some freezer paper and let them dry.  The outcome was amazing.  The crystals were long and dazzling.  The picture really does not do them justice.

I was pretty happy with the purple crystals and immediately wanted to try changing the pH of the red cabbage juice to see if I could make various colored crystals. Red cabbage is full of anthocyanins, the pigment molecules responsible for exhibiting color.  The color is dependent on the pH of the solution it is in, ranging from red at a low, acidic pH through pink, purple, blue, green, and finally reaching yellow-orange at a high, basic pH.

Red cabbage juice with vinegar, getting ready to dissolve some Epsom salts

There are a few safe ingredients you can add to change the pH to be more acidic, namely lemon juice and vinegar.  I wasn't sure if fresh squeezed lemon juice would be okay to stay out of the fridge and not go bad, so I opted for adding a touch of vinegar.  The end result was a jar full of bright pink crystals to sit on the counter next to my purple ones, although the scent combo of red cabbage and vinegar was a bit.... strong.  It is probably worth the effort to see if lemon juice would work.

The purple and pink colored Epsom salt crystals

Next, I added some baking soda to turn the cabbage juice more alkaline.  This ended up making a beautiful blue colored crystal, although the texture was a bit different because of the baking soda - more like a blue sand than a salt crystal.  I loved it!

Blue Epsom salt crystals made with red cabbage juice made alkaline by baking soda

Pleased with the success of my colored crystals using the red cabbage juice, I immediately tried to do the same with the beet juice.  I pulled it from the freezer and let it thaw.

Beet Juice!!

Beets have more natural sugars than the red cabbage does, though, so the Epsom salts, again, had a different texture than the purple crystals.  Instead of growing long, dagger-like crystals, these crystals ended up shorter, finer and more delicate looking and seemed to just absorb the color of the beet juice.  I scooped them out of solution after a few days and let them air dry.  They turned a light brown.  I was disappointed, but decided to let them finish drying before I figured out what to do with them.  The next day, I noticed that as these crystals had continued to dry, they had taken on a gold, shimmery look.  Again, the camera really doesn't capture just how much they reflect the light.

This ended up being a lot of fun for me and the kids.  Stay tuned for what I end up doing with the crystals!! If you try making any of these, I'd love to see the pics!! Share in the comments or tag me on Facebook or Instagram!