Homemade Bath Bombs

I love taking baths. Wait… that doesn’t seem like nearly enough emphasis… I LOVE TAKING BATHS. I don’t know what it is but taking a good book (and though I am Kindle obsessed I have just a few paperbacks I’ve kept just for a good soak) and just sitting in  hot water for half an hour makes all the difference to my state of mind in the world.

I’ll take a bath with just a bit of epsom salts but I prefer taking baths in something that smells good. It makes me feel uber feminine and pretty all at the same time!

My fave bath bombs come from Lush but they tend to run a bit high so they’re more of a special occasions treat. Plus the nearest Lush to me is kind of a trek and a visit into a mall which *eek* I hardly ever go into these days. I mean, they’re so crowded!

So I have taken to makin’ my own and while they aren’t exactly a Lush bomb, they’re the bomb all the same!

To make your own bath bombs you will need:

• box of baking soda
• corn starch
• citric acid
• oil – I used olive oil but I prefer sweet almond oil
• fragrant oils — I LOVE these tropical scents
• forms like plastic ornaments or little bowls
• food coloring (optional)
• tulle and ribbon to wrap (optional)

Take your 16 ounce box of baking soda and dump into a bowl. I’m in the process of moving and bowls were slim pickin’s… you really need a punch size bowl for this to be less messy.

Add 1 cup of citric acid and 1 cup of cornstarch. Stir until well incorporated. And yes, you’l probably get this all over the place.

Now I could tell you to use an exact amount of oil but that doesn’t work well for me. Instead pour around 3 tablespoons of oil into your powder and mix well. Grab a bit of the mush and squeeze it together. Does it easily hold? If not add a tablespoon or two at a time until it does hold its own shape without crumbling.

Add your fragrant oils to make your bombs smell fantastic! This is my fave… coconut! If you work in small amounts you can have lots of scents…

and colors! Normally I go for pastel with bombs because they will turn your bath water colors. And I don’t know about you, but even though it’s never happened I just worry I’ll turn bright blue or something. But for the sake of photographing well I went a bit color crazy. Just a few dots will go a LONG way.

You can mix really well for a more uniform color,

Or less mixing will make a fun mix of colors.

Press your mixture into your mold. If you make interesting shapes and change up colors, you’ll get an awesome, striated bomb!

If using an ornament mold press both sides together and really smash that sucker. I like to put it under my thigh while sitting. That’s a considerable amount of pressure but not my full body weight. Keep it held together for about a minute like this. Next tap the ornament all around to loosen the bomb.

And pop it out! Now this one is a bit wonky because I dropped it. Oops! It’s also ginormous because I refused to buy any ornaments to use as molds since I already had several left over from last year. BUT these things were 4.5 inches meaning I have an insanely large bath bomb. Like comically too big.

For smaller, more reasonable bombs I used little dipping sauce bowls to make more. Oh, and if you’re wondering, the purple is acai berry, the blue and red are coconut and the orange mango. Mmmm!

Set the bombs someplace safe and let them dry out at least overnight but a few days certainly won’t hurt.

I like to wrap my bombs in pro plastic wrap from WalMart and then in several layers of tulle in colors that complement the bomb underneath. Buy some white ribbon and you can trim up any color combo you can come up with!

We’ve got blue and yellow (which makes some green!) – pink and blue (which makes some purple!) and pink and yellow which you would think would make orange but that didn’t really pan out…

The smaller size are perfect for an any time bath and make great little gifts. Come this Christmas you can get everyone around you smelling beautiful with super soft skin!

Pamper yourself or your loved ones with these Homemade Bath Bombs and I swear you won’t regret it!

***Update — I decided to be selfish and kept the big bomb for myself and used it last night. It was too darn big! My water got cold before it finished fizzing out so definitely go with a smaller mold/plastic ornament!