Meghan Markle’s ‘miscalculated’ DIY bath salt recipe from new Netflix show sparks concerns from health experts

It was a skin-crawling week for Meghan Markle and her newly launched Netflix series – and not just because critics are panning her for wearing all-white while cooking pasta with tomatoes and trying to pass off store-bought snacks as homemade.

While many critics mock the inauthenticity of the duchess’ show, With Love, Meghan, some have found more serious fault with a potentially harmful do-it-yourself project.

Herbalists and skin care specialists are red-flagging Markle’s bath salt mixture, which they fear may damage and even burn users’ skin.

‘Don’t try this at home!’ warned Jennifer Christopherson, a longtime esthetician and YouTuber who produced a video warning about Markle’s concoction.

‘I don’t even know if she really knows what she’s doing,’ she said.

Warnings come in response to Markle’s very first DIY project in the first of the series eight episodes, all of which started streaming last week. 

In it, she prepares a guest basket to welcome her friend, makeup artist Daniel Martin, to her Montecito mansion – not to be confused with the Montecito farmhouse that she uses as a TV set.

Among the items she makes for him, she dumps Trader Joe’s Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels from their original plastic packaging into his own personalized plastic bag in hopes of ‘elevating’ his late-night snacking experience. 

She also makes homemade candles with wax from honey bees she says she has raised herself.

As if those segments – as well as Markle’s insistence on the surname Sussex – weren’t cringy enough, many viewers are appalled by her lax preparation of bath salts in which she hopes Martin will soak.

The mixture of Epsom salt, Himalayan salt, arnica oil and lavender oil looks harmless enough. But the wanna-be princess turned wanna-be domestic diva fails to measure the ingredients, prompting one of her crew members to ask from off-camera, ‘Is there a certain amount of salt that I’m dealing with here?’

Markle doesn’t concern herself with specifics, saying only ‘Quite a bit’ because she is clearly winging the recipe.

‘I am not modest when it comes to the amount of salt I put in the bath,’ she tells him, looking a bit irked by his emphasis on measurements.

As it turns out, her mixture doesn’t come close to filling the jar she planned to put it in.

‘Let’s bulk this up,’ she says, hurriedly adding several more scoops of Epsom salt to cover up for her miscalculation.

She tops the jar with a dried lavender and rosebud-filled sachet, which she calls ‘a tea bag for the bath.’

‘The joy of hostessing for me is surprising people with moments that let them know I was really thinking of their whole experience from morning ’til evening,’ she says, sealing up the jar and tying a bow around it.

‘I want everyone to come feeling really, really comforted when they’re in our house.’

Instead of comfort, however, many plant extractors and skin care experts are warning that Markle’s bath salt mixture may cause rashes, hives or even burns to the skin because she failed to add a so-called ‘carrier oil’ to ease the potentially volatile effects of arnica and lavender oils. 

Carrier oils such as those pressed from jojoba, coconut, almond, primrose or grapeseed dilute the plant compounds in essential oils, easing potentially irritating effects on the skin.

Sellers of essential oils insist that those being used topically must be mixed with carrier oils in ratios of at least eight to one.

Yet Markle seemed to use no carrier oil at all when drizzling her salt mixture with three drops of lavender, plus at least two full eye droppers – known as pipettes – of arnica oil.

Christopherson described that amount of undiluted arnica as ‘a crap ton.’

‘So that’s why I was just absolutely cringing when I was watching that,’ she said, noting in her 18-minute video that essential oils are ‘unregulated substances’ that, if overused, can irritate skin.

‘You can’t just dump an essential oil in, give (it) to a friend and be, like, hey, have fun,’ Christopherson said.

‘Get that whole thing out of your mind, what she did,’ she told viewers wishing to use Markle’s recipe.

‘She likes to present herself as being this jack of all trades, that she knows about cooking, she knows about beauty, she knows about fashion, she knows about health, she knows about all these things,’ Christopherson observed. 

‘But, based on that, she doesn’t know about essential oils, I can tell you that right now. So just use caution. Just use care.’

And she’s not the only skin expert weighing in. 

Per the Tisserand Institute, which teaches curriculum about essential oils led by experts, Epsom salts do not properly dissolve essential oils.

Essential oils are meant to be mixed with a dispersing agent, like vegetable oil, or else it may irritate the skin. 

‘While I don’t believe this is inherently dangerous, mixing so many different scents and salts can sometimes cause irritation or sensitivities, especially for individuals with allergies or children with sensitive skin,’ board certified-dermatologist Dr. Alexandra Bowles of MONA Dermatology in Ohio told Daily Mail exclusively. 

‘I’m all for supporting my patients with DIY skincare as long as it’s safe and well-tolerated!’ she continued.

A royalist known on X as @_Genevieves_, whose previous posts indicate a strong allergy to Markle, got downright chemical in her analysis of the bath salts recipe: ‘Essential oils are hydrophobic, meaning they don’t mix with water, so when you add them to a bath without a proper dispersant, they can float on the surface & come into direct contact with your skin.’

Based on the apparent oversight in the mixture, the user concluded that With Love, Meghan is ‘Not only painful to watch but also irresponsible & dangerous!’

Some viewers posted that Markle and Netflix should have included a disclaimer urging pregnant bathers and those with high blood pressure or other medical conditions to consult their doctor before using the salt mixtures. 

Others advised doing a patch test to check for any skin reactions to the concoction.

‘Could Meghan Markle, her brand As Ever, Actual Productions and even Netflix be sued if someone does this bath salt recipe and it burns their skin?’ asked YouTuber Stef the Alter Nerd. ‘This is absolutely insane.’

‘What’s a little dermatitis between besties??’ one Reddit poster quipped.

 There were some viewers who found Markle helpful and charming.

‘Bath salts was the last thing I was expecting. But it was perfect. The content I didn’t KNOW I’d been missing!’ one Reddit reader wrote.

‘Honestly the show inspired me to do home projects I’ve been meaning to do for ages’, wrote another.

‘Such a genuinely cozy show,’ added a third.

But several marveled at Markle’s seeming lack of preparation.

‘Did she even practice this? Does she think she’s so perfect that she didn’t need to be prepared?’ one viewer wrote. ‘I have to think that Netflix just let her hang herself with her own rope at this point.’

‘Whoever edited and put this together secretly does not like her lololol,’ posted another.

It seemed inevitable that Markle would face comparisons to America’s favorite DYIer.

‘Martha Stewart certainly has nothing to worry about,’ reads one Reddit commenter.

Some reactions reflected not just viewers’ feelings about Markle, but also their own families.

‘Reminds me of my late mother’s approach to hosting and entertaining. Things needed to look just so but didn’t have to taste good or work right. Focus on the superficial but little concern about the actual substance,’ one wrote.

Several viewers seemed fixated on the improbability of any houseguest taking a bath in the first place, even in the home of royalty.

‘Maybe it’s just me, but I never take a bath at someone else’s home,’ one Reddit poster wrote.

‘Sitting in someone else’s tub is a nightmare for me,’ posted another.

Others warned of the risks topical exposure to salt can pose to not just to skin, but also women’s private parts.

‘I’m assuming these bath salts were targeted at the female viewers. Now we know her squaddies are straddling single-digit IQs. Too much Epsom salts in a bath alone can irritate our female nether regions,’ one Reddit post reads.

‘Enjoy your elevated minty vaginal infections, Squaddies!’ reads another.

The Daily Mail’s requests for comment from Markle were not returned.