How To: D. I. Y. Homemade Bath Bomb Tutorial

Hello lovelies!  This is the first tutorial I'm posting on my blog, so I figured we'd start with something that's pretty easy - homemade bath bombs!

Strawberries & Cream bath bombs
are available in my Etsy shop!

Bath bombs, or bath fizzies, have become extremely popular in recent years both with large, retail corporations and the DIY community.  Why?  Because they're simple to make and fun to use!  In they're most simple form, bath bombs are nothing more than baking soda and citric acid mixed in a 2:1 ratio.  That's it!  Mix 1/2 cup of baking soda with 1/4 cup of citric acid, add a little wetting agent, pack it into a mold, and boom!  You have a bath bomb!

Now, I know what your saying.  You're saying, "I can make the amazing bath bomb I bought at the store that fizzed and fizzed and made my skin feel so soft with just citric acid and baking soda??  I'm running to Wal-Mart right now!"  (Here come the science-y stuff!  Feel free to skip ahead.)  Well, yes, but don't grab your keys just yet. While you can make a bath bomb with only two ingredients, it won't fizz for long and it won't give your skin a soft, just moisturized feel.  A bath bomb at it's most basic lacks "fillers" to slow down the reaction between the citric acid and the baking soda.  What this means is that, as soon as you drop this bath bomb in water, the fizzing will be over in just a few seconds.

"But Hunter, fillers sound like a very bad thing.  Why would I want to include them in my bath bombs?"  Oh, my lovelies, the fillers I'm thinking of are not to be confused with the fillers in processed food items.  Shea butter, cocoa butter, avocado oil, epsom salt... These are the fillers that will make your bath bomb absolutely ahh-mazing!

Take a look at a rather popular handmade company's bath bomb ingredients, and you'll see that they add in more than just baking soda and citric acid:
Sodium Bicarbonate, Citric Acid, Fair Trade Cocoa Butter (Theobroma  cacao), Synthetic Musk, Ylang Ylang Oil (Cananga odorata), Fragrance

Sodium Bicarbonate, Citric Acid, Fresh Avocado (Persea gratissima), Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Olea europaea), Lemongrass Oil (Cymbopogon citratus), Bergamot Oil (Citrus Autantium bergamia), Rosewood Oil (Aniba rosaeordora), *Citral, *Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool, Fragrance, Gardenia Extract (Gardenia jasminoides), Green Lustre (potassium Aluminum Silicate, Titanium Dioxide, FD&C Yellow No. 5 and FD&C Blue No. 1) *Occurs naturally in essential oils.

What this company has done with the cocoa butter, avocado, and olive oil is add in fillers.  The more fillers you have in your bath bomb, the slower the reaction between the citric acid and baking soda will be.  This means that it will fizz longer, plus your skin gets all the nutrients conditioning from these goodies! (End of science-y stuff.)

Now, on to the recipe!  I like putting lots of "fillers" in my bath bombs, because I like the longer fizzing action, but feel free to omit any ingredients you don't have or don't want to use.  As long as you have the baking soda and citric acid, you'll get a perfectly usable bath bomb.

Ingredients:
1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup citric acid
1/2 cup cornstarch or arrowroot powder
1/2 cup epsom salt or other bath salt (do not use Dead Sea salt!  It will ruin your bath bombs!)
1 to 2 tablespoons of oil or butter (mango butter, shea butter, and cocoa butter are the most common)
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon skin-safe fragrance or essential oil (not the oils found with wax warmers as these usually aren't skin safe)
1 to 2 drops of food coloring or 1/8 teaspoon powdered colorant

Tools:
large mixing bowls
measuring cups and spoons
sifter (optional)
mixing spoon
mold
spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol, witch hazel, or water
cookie pan

How To:

1)  Measure out the baking soda, citric acid, and cornstarch or arrow root powder into one bowl and mix.  Sift these ingredients if they are clumped together.  If you're using a solid oil or vegetable butter (like coconut oil or shea butter), melt them in the microwave for short bursts of 5 or 10 seconds each.  Repeat until fully melted.

2)  Add epsom salt, oil or melted butter, fragrance, and coloring to another and mix.  Adding the liquid ingredients to the salt helps keep them from clumping when mixing them into the dry ingredients.

I've mixed the powdered ingredients in the large bowl, and the liquid
ingredients into the salt in the small bowl.

3)  Add the salt mix into the powdered ingredients and mix thoroughly.  If you would prefer to have the bath bomb in powder form, stop here and pour the powder into an air tight container.  To use the powder, sprinkle a handful or two into your warm bath water.

I've just added the salt mix into the
powder mix and blended it well.

4)  Now, spritz the mixture with just one or two sprays of rubbing alcohol, witch hazel, or water at a time until the mixture feels like damp sand and clumps together when squeezed.  If you add too much liquid, the fizzing reaction can be set off in the bowl, or cause the bath bombs to puff up in the mold.  In the picture to the left, you can see how crumbly the mixture is.  It doesn't hold together, so if  you were to squish this into the  mold, it would crumble once dry.  In the picture to the right, you can  see how the mix now sticks  together.  This is how you want the mixture to look upon molding so that it doesn't crumble apart.

The mix isn't quite damp enough
to hold together properly.

With a few more spritz, the mix is now
holding together enough to be molded.

5)  Once the mixture has reached the clumping stage, it's time to pack it into the mold!  Just about any mold will work, so there's no need to buy a special one.  A cupcake pan or ice cube tray will work perfectly.  Take a handful of the mix, place it in the mold, and smoosh it down.  Repeat until each cavity is filled.

I split the bath bomb mixture so I could make two tone bombs.

Packing the bath bombs tightly in  the mold
is very important when making bath bombs
in a two-sided mold as the halves could
split apart if they are not packed tightly
enough.

6)  Wait a few hours (I usually let the bath bombs sit overnight) before attempting to remove the bath bombs from the mold.  If they don't remove cleanly, try letting them sit a few more hours.

These bath bombs are going to sit for a few hours in one half of the mold before
I pop them out and let the other side dry.

7)  Once you have removed the bath bombs, place them on a cookie pan and let them finish drying.  I usually let my bath bombs dry for up to 24 hours.

8)  Package your bath bombs in an air tight container.  If any water or humidity gets into the container, the bath bombs could fizz prematurely.

And that's all there is to it!  Bath bombs are super simple to make and so much fun in the bath.  You can even get creative and make multi colored bath bombs, or bath bombs with flower petals on top, or a small toy hidden inside.  The possibilities are endless!

Not sure where to buy one of the ingredients?  Here are my favorite places!

Walmart (in store or online) - baking soda, citric acid, epsom salt, cornstarch, oils (on the baking isle)

Arrowroot powder - Walmart or Amazon

Butters - mango, cocoa, shea

Colors - cocoa powder and food coloring can be found in the grocery store, or you can buy mineral colors here

Scents - I buy fragrance oils here, and essential oils here, but if you have a Whole Foods nearby, you might could find them there.