Letโs be real, if I could live in my bathtub I probably would. It soothes my aches and pains and just makes me feel great.
Iโm using a 50/50 surfactant ratio for this bubble bath recipe. This may seem like a lot of surfactants, especially when compared to many of the DIY shower gels or body washes Iโve made in the past. But as itโs going to be diluted in a bath full of water, so itโs not really an issue.
Ingredients In My DIY Bubble Bath Recipe
Surfactants
Iโm using cocamidopropyl betaine because it has an amazing flash foaming ability and is mild on your skin. It has some great cleansing and conditioning values as well, but itโs a thin surfactant so you donโt get that nice thick bubble bath texture and the bubbles donโt last as long. So we need to use another surfactant to boost its power.
Lauryl glucoside has some brilliant foaming capacity and adds body to the bubble bath. As with all of the surfactants in this recipe, itโs totally accepted in natural skincare.
Lauryl glucoside can come in different forms depending on where it comes from and how itโs been stored. If its liquid then you can use it as it is, if itโs crystallized or in the form of a paste, then youโll need to melt it first.
Decyl glucoside is similar to its lauryl glucoside cousin, due to its mildness and ability to thicken your bubble bath. It also produces long-lasting foaming bubbles and has some good solubilizing power. This will help the essential oil blend with your water-based ingredients.
Cosmetic Gum And Humectant
We are using xanthan gum to thicken the bubble bath in this recipe. While our co-surfactants will lend some thickness to our bubble bath, it still isnโt quite enough. And because we cannot just add xanthan gum to the recipe on its own, weโll be using glycerine to help dissolve it first.
The glycerine also offers some excellent moisturizing properties to your bath, leaving your skin feeling soft and moisturized afterward. Glycerine is a humectant, which means it draws moisture to itself. This helps to keep skin moist and supple.
Essential Oils
The essential oils give this homemade bubble bath a wonderful minty scent with a hint of exotic ylang-ylang. Thatโs not all they do, of course.
Peppermint essential oil can clear the mind and help with any aches and pains you may have. The ylang-ylang is great at lift your mood, too. Everything you need for a relaxing pamper session in the tub.
Notes
- Glucoside surfactants are mild but have a high PH so this will need to be adjusted before and after adding the preservative. We can do this naturally by adding a few drops of lactic acid or with a citric acid dilution. See step 6.
- As this product contains water we will need to use a preservative to protect it from microbial growth. A broad-spectrum, water-based, high PH tolerant preservative is best for a soap-based rise off product like this bubble bath. Liquid Germall Plus at 0.5% or Plantaserve P (Saliguard PCG) are both excellent choices as they can tolerate a PH level of around 8 or 10.
- Using the preservative your homemade bubble bath should last around 9 months
How To Make Bubble Bath At Home
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Equipment
- Spoon or Spatula
Ingredients
- 80 grams Distilled Water
- 40 grams Cocamidopropyl Betaine
- 40 grams Lauryl Glucoside (In UK buy from Naturally Thinking)
- 20 grams Decyl Glucoside (In UK buy from Naturally Thinking)
- 20 grams Glycerine
- 2 grams Xanthan Gum
- 1 gram Peppermint Essential Oil
- 0.4 grams Ylang-Ylang Essential Oil
- 1 gram Preservative (Water-based, high PH tolerant, eg Liquid Germall Plus or Plantaserve P)
- 8 oz PET Plastic Bottle
- PH Modifier (Lactic Acid, or a dilution of Citric Acid )
Instructions
- Combine your glycerine and your xanthan gum. Xanthan gum works as our thickener in this recipe. Without it, you will have a super runny liquid that isn't at all easy to use.It's important to combine the glycerine and xanthan. This is because your cosmetic gum cannot be added directly to your liquid soap, otherwise you are left with an end product that has lumps of unmixed xanthan gumโฆ Trust me this isn't a good look.20 grams Glycerine, 2 grams Xanthan Gum
- Now we can weigh out surfactant. If the Lauryl glucoside is paste-like or crystalized, weigh this out first then warm it until it has melted. I do this in the microwave it only takes a couple of seconds (literally).ย Then, add them all together. If you are using any essential oils, you'll need to add them to the surfactant now.While surfactants are great for producing lovely bubbles, They will also act as a solubilizer for any ingredients that are not water-soluble. As we're not producing an emulsion (like in a lotion) or using lye to bring about a chemical reaction, your essential oils will separate from your liquid soap without doing this.When you add anything to your surfactant, it's important to mix it in very slowly. While you are unlikely to produce lots of bubbles at this point, it is still possible to bring about foaming with vigorous stirring. So be careful and stir gently.40 grams Cocamidopropyl Betaine, 40 grams Lauryl Glucoside, 1 gram Peppermint Essential Oil, 0.4 grams Ylang-Ylang Essential Oil, 20 grams Decyl Glucoside
- Next, add your surfactant (or surfactant/essential oil mixture) to the glycerine and xanthan. Stir it in well, but gently for the same reason we just discussed.
- Its time to add our distilled water. Pour this very slowly and stir gently as you do. It's more important to stir gently now than at any other point. When surfactants are exposed to water, they will foam much more easily.80 grams Distilled Water
- As your stir, your liquid soap will begin to resembleโฆ well, liquid soap! Once it has achieved this level of thickness and all of your ingredients are thoroughly combined, you can go ahead and add any liquid soap dye you wish to use.
- Now we can test the PH of the product to ensure that it is an effective range. Youโre looking for a PH of between 4-6. If, when testing, you find it is outside this range, we can make use of a PH modifier to alter the acidity of the product. If it is too high (which it normally is) you can bring it down adding a few drops of lactic acid. Or you can also bring it down with a little diluted citric acid solution. Mix 10% citric acid with 90% distilled water. If you are unsure how much PH modifier to add, only add a very small amount (say a drop of lactic acid or citric acid) and then test the PH of the product again. Repeat this until you reach an appropriate PH of between 4-6. The first time you do this, you may feel that you are using too many ph strips but expericance will reduce this going forward.PH Modifier
- Now its time to add the preservative. Once you have added the preservative and blended it in, you will need to retest the PH and bring it down if needed as you did in step 6. This may seem a bit of a pain but its best to get it right and you will develop a sense of how much Ph modifier to add with experience.1 gram Preservative
- Last but not least, you can transfer it to a PET plastic bottle that has an airtight lid. I like to use a pump bottle for something like hand soap or body wash. However, a pouring bottle might be best for something like a bubble bath.If you have used essential oils in your recipe then it is vitally important that the bottle is made of PET plastic. This is because essential oils will rapidly degrade ordinary plastic, which causes the plastic to leach into your product. While you can use glass or aluminum bottles, I find that PET plastic works well here as you can squeeze the bottle if needed.8 oz PET Plastic Bottle
Notes
So, thatโs how to make a bubble bath at home. As you can see, itโs way easier than you might think! I just love how many bubbles I get when using this in the tub. It also smells amazing, soothing my mind, and lifting my mood.
You can totally customize this bubble bath recipe to your heartโs content. Donโt like this color? Change the liquid soap dye.
Hi, I was wondering how many 300ml bottles this solution would make at the 1x and 3x quantities approximately?
Thanks
Hi,
I was just wondering if magnesium flakes could be added to this recipe? And if so when would this be added?
Thanks so much
Hi Terra,
What an interesting idea! I can imagine it would be wonderful in a bath bomb. Replace some of the Epsom salts to make room, and also make sure your flakes aren’t too big. You might want to crush them a bit. Otherwise you might have bits of it sticking out of the bath bomb.
I don’t see anything in the ingredients list that would be incompatible with magnesium chloride. However, it would probably change the viscosity of the liquid, maybe drastically. Depending on your desires, that might be a good or a bad thing. It calls for experimentation to see what the outcome would be using various amounts. I’d dissolve it in the water before mixing with the other ingredients.
Can I leave out the water, thus negating the need for a preservative?
Hi Ruthie,
Unfortunately not. While the distilled water could be substituted for a hydrosol, this is still a kind of water and would still require a preservative.
However, take a look at my blog post Synthetic & Natural Preservative For Cosmetics & Lotions. There are natural alternatives to preservative systems like Germaben, and I discuss your best options in the post.
Hi angela, thank you for your recipe. Iโve tried making it 3 times down to the exact measurements and just canโt get a thick consistency. Theyโve all turned out watery. Any tips ?
Hi Jennifer
Sorry to hear you are having issues with this! For me it was very thick, so I will make it again just to be sure there are no mistakes. In the meantime can you email me a full list of the ingredients you are using to angela[at]savvyhomemade.com. I should also say that it does thicken more over time.
Is the process the same when using fragrance oils? Can FO be substituted part-for-part for the EO?
Thank you!
Hi Maureen,
Absolutely! You can substitute the essential oil for whatever fragrance oil you enjoy, like for like.
Hi Angela.
I’ve been trying to make this for a little while but I’ve been using a bubble bath base from Mystic moments (which contains SLS & CDE)
500mls base
18ml jojoba oil
2mls fragrant oil
0.5mls dye
However when I come to mix the base and the oils after 24 hours the oil is splitting from the base.
Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?
Hi Nic,
With such a small amount of oil, you would think the surfactants in the base would handle all this. But oh well! Consider adding a few mls of Polysorbate 80. It’s not all that natural, but works wonders in bath products for solubilizing oils.
However, when I was studying formulation many years ago, we made plenty of ‘shake before use’ products. You know the ones. If this is just for yourself, you could just shake well before use? This will get the product to stick together long enough for your bath. Just be careful getting in and out of the bath as the oil may make the bath a little slippery.
Hi There can you add any butters or oils to make it a little more moisturising like shea butter and if so at what step would you add it and in what amount?
Hi Chikaya I have no experience with doing this myself but I think that you probably could. You would need to do some experimentation. I would go for oils rather than cosmetic butters.
Hello,
just a question , this recipe sounds wonderful but I noticed that you have added essential oils. should a emulsifier be added first to prevent separation due to the fact that oil and water do not mix????
Thanks
Anne
Hi Anne,
No, it wouldn’t be needed in this case. The amount of oil being added is very small and so is not needed here.