My Best DIY Bath Bomb Recipe

Bath bombs are one of those luxury homemade bath products that are fun at the same time. You throw one into the bath and it immediately fizzes, releasing gorgeous oils, Epsom salts and fragrances into your bath water. Well, today I have the perfect DIY bath bomb recipe that will blow your socks off… pun intended.

• Lush bath bombs are extremely popular because they work the best and are full of amazing ingredients that do wonders for the skin. The only problem? They’re expensive. One bath bomb can set you back up to $6, which is a lot for something that’s one-time use. Lush bath bombs tend to have Epsom salts in them, so I’ve included it in this recipe for an extra touch of luxury.
• Today I’m going to teach you my fabulous bath bomb recipe, with luscious oils and exfoliating Epsom salts for your skin and citric acid for that fabulous fizz.
• These DIY bath bombs also make amazing gifts, on their own or as part of a diy bath products set. You can’t go wrong with these, someone you know will love them!

Notes on Coloring your DIY Bath Bombs

It’s important to choose your coloring agent carefully in order to get the bath bomb recipe right, especially if you’re planning to gift or sell these. As your bath bomb fizzes, whatever you’ve used to color your bath bombs will mix with the water in the bath, along with all your other ingredients. However, if the dye isn’t fully water-soluble, then there’s a good chance you’re going to stain the inside of your bathtub.

While this isn’t the end of the world if your DIY bath bombs are just for you and you’re not that worried about the condition of your tub. But if you’re gifting or selling these, it can become a serious problem.

Soap dyes and food coloring are both good choices for bath bomb dye. These will be your staples, your go to’s.

In the past I’ve used mica, but it isn’t completely water soluble, and I had an annoying stain on the inside of my tub. In small quantities, you’ll probably be fine, but heed my warning and steer clear if the thought of even the slightest stain is too much.

So I prefer to use soap dye above all other dyes for this bath bomb recipe, it just works the best.

How To Make Bath Bombs

Step 1: Bring together all of your dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, excluding your citric acid. We want to leave the citric acid until later, as adding it now can complicate things during the liquid pour step. Just trust me.

You can go ahead and mix your liquid ingredients as well, including any coloring agent you’re planning to use. Adding your dye to the Epsom salts rather than your liquids is an interesting alternative worth trying at some point. Just mix thoroughly before adding the salts to the rest of your dry ingredients.

Step 2: Working slowly so as not to disturb the bicarbonate of soda too much, add your liquid a bit at a time and mixing thoroughly with your hands.

You’re looking for a texture that is similar to that of damp, but no saturated, sand. You’ll notice that mixture will begin to stick together at this stage, a bit like wet sand does in your sandcastle bucket.

Step 3: Once all of your liquid has been added and you’ve mixed thoroughly, add your citric acid and mix once more. It’s okay to use your hands but as citric acid can cause irritation and burns, make sure you’re using gloves.

Step 4: Now to get that orb like shape we associate with bath bombs. Take both halves of your bath bomb mold and pack them with your bath bomb mixture. You want it ever so slightly heaped so that your halves stick together well.

When you’re ready, press the two halves of your bath bomb mold together tightly so that the mixture bonds into an orb. After a few seconds, you should be able to remove one half of the mold.

Step 5: Lastly, gently set the exposed half of your bath bomb onto a silicon cupcake case. You don’t have to use a cupcake case, but I find it’s the best thing to rest these on without them falling apart.

Hopefully it should just pop out of your bath bomb mold, but if it doesn’t gently tap it to try and loosen your bath bomb. If this becomes a regular issue, take a look at how much liquid you’ve used. Also try working a bit quicker and don’t leave the mixture in the mold for more than a few seconds.

I’ve only ever used metal molds, and haven’t had a problem with them. If you’ve had problems with a mold made from a particular material (say plastic) let me know how it turned out. Otherwise, stick to metal.

You’ll then want to leave them to harden for a couple of days. Pop them somewhere they won’t be disturbed easily, just reduce the chance of dents and imperfections on your homemade bath bombs.

How to use and how to gift your homemade bath bombs

So now you know how to make bath bombs, let’s move on to how we use them which is totally easy. The next time your run a hot bath, throw one into the water. It will take about 5 minutes to completely fizzle away, so you can wait until you’re in the tub before you pop it in.

These homemade bath bombs make perfect gifts. Sometimes I gift these on their own for the hell of it, using cute little paper gift bags and a some shredded tissue paper without any need other than my love of sharing homemade things. But if it’s someone’s birthday, pop it in a gift bag with some other lovely homemade beauty products. You could even make a nice gift basket or hamper if it’s a very special occasion.

Final Thoughts

That’s everything I have for you today. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning how to make bath bombs. The liquid pour stage can be a bit of a struggle sometimes, you’ll get used to it after the first few batches you make. Just remember to add the citric acid last and you shouldn’t have too many problems.

I can’t say this enough; these make fabulous gifts that nearly everyone will enjoy. Perhaps not a great choice for a man, but you never know! The only thing I can think of that might put someone off is if the color or fragrance isn’t to their liking. Either make lots of different varieties or you can customize a batch just for them. The latter is what I tend to do as it’s such a lovely, thoughtful thing to do. Everyone will be impressed with your homemade bath bombs, all of my friends certainly are.

Don’t forget to let me know how you’re getting on in the comments section below. I love to hear your trial and error stories. Sharing your successes and even your failures can really help someone that’s quite new to this sort of bath and body recipe. Other than that, go ahead and share this on your social media so you can show off how crafty you really are, starting with this super cool bath bomb recipe!