Making magnesium spray with Epsom salts takes about five minutes and requires only two ingredients: Epsom salt and water. The basic recipe uses equal parts of each, dissolved together and poured into a spray bottle. It’s one of the simplest DIY wellness products you can make at home, though the science behind how well it actually works through the skin is worth understanding before you start.
The Basic Recipe
Mix equal parts Epsom salt and boiling water. A good starting batch is half a cup of each. Stir until the salt dissolves completely, let the solution cool to room temperature, then pour it into a clean spray bottle. That’s the entire process.
Boiling water is important here because Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) dissolves much more readily in hot water, giving you a fully saturated solution without gritty residue. If you use warm or lukewarm water, you may end up with undissolved crystals that clog the spray nozzle.
Some people add a few drops of essential oil like lavender for scent, but this is purely optional and doesn’t affect the magnesium content. If you do add oils, shake the bottle before each use since oil and water will separate.
Choosing Your Water
Distilled water is the better choice for a spray you plan to keep for more than a few days. Filtered water and even tap water can contain microbes that multiply once they’re sitting in a bottle at room temperature. Tap water with chlorine in it does have some antimicrobial protection, but distilled water gives you a cleaner starting point.
Regardless of which water you use, make your spray in small batches. Store it somewhere cool and out of direct sunlight. If the liquid develops an off smell, a film inside the bottle, or the liquid starts clinging to the glass differently than before, discard it and make a fresh batch. Without preservatives, a homemade spray is best used within one to two weeks.
How to Apply It
Spray the solution into your palm first, then rub it evenly over the area you want to target, whether that’s sore muscles, your legs, or your feet. Avoid broken skin or open wounds. A tingling or mild stinging sensation is common, especially the first few times you use it or if you apply it right after shaving. This typically fades as your skin gets used to it. If the irritation is more than mild, rinse the area with plain water.
Leave the spray on your skin for at least an hour before showering or washing it off. Some people leave it on throughout the day and wash it off before bed to keep it from transferring to sheets. Wait at least four hours between applications if you’re using it multiple times a day. The solution can leave a slight chalky or salty residue on your skin as it dries, which is normal.
Does Magnesium Actually Absorb Through Skin?
This is where things get complicated. The idea behind magnesium spray is that your skin absorbs the mineral directly into your bloodstream, bypassing the digestive system. The evidence for this is thin.
A review published in the journal Nutrients examined the science of transdermal magnesium and found significant obstacles to skin absorption. Magnesium ions, when dissolved in water, become hydrated, swelling to roughly 400 times their dehydrated size. At that size, they struggle to pass through the skin’s outer lipid (fat-based) barrier, which is designed to keep water-soluble molecules out.
One small study did find that soaking in Epsom salt baths raised blood magnesium levels. Among 19 subjects, plasma magnesium rose from an average of about 105 ppm/mL before bathing to 141 ppm/mL after seven days of daily baths. That sounds promising, but the study was never published in a peer-reviewed journal. It appeared only on the Epsom Salt Council’s commercial website, which makes it difficult to evaluate the methodology or trust the results.
A spray delivers far less surface area contact than a full bath, so even if some absorption occurs during soaking, a targeted spray on one body part would deliver considerably less. That said, many people report that Epsom salt sprays help with muscle soreness and relaxation. Whether that’s a placebo effect, a result of the rubbing itself, or genuine magnesium absorption isn’t fully settled.
Epsom Salt vs. Magnesium Chloride
If you’ve looked into commercial magnesium sprays, you’ve probably noticed most of them use magnesium chloride flakes rather than Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate). There’s a reason for this. Research found that a plain magnesium chloride solution on its own didn’t absorb well through skin either, but when formulated into a cream, it was able to deliver magnesium across human skin in lab testing. Epsom salt hasn’t shown this same result in any controlled study.
Magnesium chloride sprays also tend to feel more “oily” on the skin despite containing no oil, which is a characteristic of the chloride compound. Epsom salt sprays dry more like saltwater. If absorption is your primary goal, magnesium chloride flakes may be the stronger choice for a DIY spray using the same equal-parts recipe. If you’re mainly after the soothing ritual and topical sensation, Epsom salt works fine and is cheaper and easier to find.
Who Should Be Cautious
For most people, topical magnesium spray is low-risk. The amount that could potentially enter your bloodstream through the skin is small. However, people with advanced kidney disease (stages 4 and 5) are already prone to magnesium building up in the blood because their kidneys can’t filter it out efficiently. This becomes especially pronounced when kidney filtration drops below 10 mL per minute. If you have significant kidney impairment, even small additional sources of magnesium are worth discussing with your doctor before use.
The Mayo Clinic’s guidance for topical Epsom salt use (as a soaking solution) suggests 2 cups dissolved in one gallon of warm water for adults dealing with minor sprains, bruises, or muscle discomfort. A spray is more concentrated than this ratio, which is another reason to start with small amounts on a limited area and see how your skin responds before spraying liberally.