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thecosmetickitchen-blog · 4 years

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Lockdown Bath Bombs

At the moment, the chances are that you can’t get hold of your favourite products from stores like Lush cosmetics - not to mention they cost a bomb (excuse the pun!) in the first place. That being the case, why not learn something new and enjoy making your own tailor-made at home? If you can get to the supermarket, the chances are you’ll be able to get most of these ingredients at home; if you can’t, don’t worry, you can order them online on either Amazon or eBay.

In order to make these truly cost-effective, you’ll need to buy the ingredients in bulk - but if you’re just doing this for a bit of fun, then there’s no harm in just scaling the recipe down and making whatever quantity you want.

I’d recommend reading this entire post first to give you an idea of what you’re doing, rather than starting and getting frustrated if you get lost on your way.

Before you begin, you’ll need some equipment on standby, including cup measures, tablespoon and teaspoon measures, a large bowl, a whisk, and a small bowl or jug. You’ll also need a spray bottle that creates a fine mist; ideally the spray bottle should be full of a 100% alcohol solution, but you can use water provided you don’t dampen the mix too much. You’ll also need some bath bomb moulds, which you can find cheap on eBay or Amazon. It’s up to you what size and shape you buy, and you can buy either clip-together moulds or press-together moulds (which is what I use).

The moulds I use are stainless steel and make bombs that are roughly 2.6-inches in diameter. If you can find stainless steel moulds, I’d recommend them, as the clip-together plastic moulds can sometimes break when you pull them apart, and the cheaper tin moulds can dent a bit easily. Here’s a few suggestions that you might want to investigate, but it’s entirely up to you - buy whatever suits your budget or whatever you like the look of:

Stainless Steel Sphere Moulds

Metal Moulds (Mixed Shapes)

Plastic Sphere Moulds

If you’ve been successful, then you should end up with a lovely, fizzy bomb that does something like this when you drop it in the bath:

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So, what is going in to these bath bombs? Well, if you search the internet, you’ll find that there’s dozens of different recipes for these bombs; everyone has their own mix of things they like to include, so this is just my recipe. It’s the one I have success with, but I am not going to claim mine is the definitive recipe - play about and see what works for you.

Based on my 2.6-inch moulds, this gets me roughly 8 bath bombs, although on this occasion I only moulded 6 bombs and kept the rest to use as bath fizz - more on this later!

Ingredient Tip #1: One suggestion I have in regard to making bath bombs is regarding the use of vegetable glycerine (or any glycerine) in the mix. Some recipes do suggest it, but don’t do it, it can ruin your bombs! This is because glycerine is a natural humectant - which is the technical term to describe something that retains or preserves moisture. That makes it brilliant for the skin - but not so good for bath bombs. The reason for this is because bath bombs contain sodium bicarbonate (or Baking Soda, in the common tongue) which, if you didn’t already know, reacts with water and creates the fizz of the bombs. So including an ingredient that will draw in moisture from the air is a bad idea as it can start the fizzing reaction early, either ruining the bomb altogether or making it so that when you go to use the bomb, the fizz is all but gone.

Ingredient Tip #2: If you can find them, use fine Epsom salts as these will mix in better with the other ingredients and larger grains can make the mix very crumbly and harder to mould. It should also be noted that larger grains of salt can draw in moisture in a similar fashion to glycerine.

Ingredient Tip #3: Make sure all your ingredients are either food or cosmetic grade.

Ingredient Tip #4: If using colourants, make sure they’re water soluble otherwise they can stain your bath and ruin your life! You might also want to wear gloves if you’re using liquid or gel colours so they don’t stain your hands; you should be okay if working with mica powders.

Ingredient Tip #5: You can use whatever carrier oils you like for your mix, they don’t have to be the same as mine.

Ingredient Tip #6: If you’re using liquid dyes, remember that they will lighten once mixed with the dry ingredients, so you might want to add a little extra if you want to end up with stronger coloured bombs.

Dry Ingredients

2 Cups Cornflour

1.5 Cups Baking Soda

1.5 Cups Citric Acid

Two-thirds of a cup Epsom salts

.5 Cup Cream of Tartar

Mica powder (if you’re using powder and not a liquid dye)

Note: If you want to make a bubble bath bomb, then you can ditch the Cream of Tartar and use SLSA instead.

Wet Ingredients

3 Tablespoons of Fractioned Coconut Oil

2 Tablespoons of Vitamin E Oil

2 Teaspoons of Witch Hazel

Colourant

Scent (make this as strong or as weak as you like)

Method

1. Add all of your dry ingredients to a large bowl and mix them together with a whisk, until you have a fine white powder that looks like snow - and there are no large clumps of any one ingredient present. I used a liquid dye to colour my bombs, so I did that in the next step - but if you’re using a mica powder, add that now until you have the depth of colour that you want. Remember that with mica powder, a little usually goes a long way! If you have a respiratory problem, such as asthma, then I would recommend wearing a face mask while mixing these ingredients - especially if using SLSA which is a very fine powder and can easily irritate your lungs. You might also want to consider safety glasses if you are concerned about your eyes.

You can guy mica powders on eBay or Amazon, or through a specialist soap making site like these ones over at The Soap Kitchen.

If you want to make bombs that are multicoloured, my suggestion would be to wait until after you have mixed the dry and wet ingredients together, then to split the mix equally by weight to make however many colours you want, and then to add the colour - whether it be a liquid or powder. You’ll just need to give it a very thorough mix to blend it in.

2. In a bowl or jug, mix together the wet ingredients to the best of your ability. Obviously the Witch Hazel and oils will not mix as one is water based and the other isn’t - but that’s not to worry too much. Now is also the time to add in your liquid colours if doing so. On this occasion, I actually used a food gel colourant as I didn’t happen to have a soap dye in the colour I wanted, and the colour of food gels is very concentrated, so you generally don’t need to use a lot. Plus they can be cheaper to buy than some of the more expensive liquid dyes - not that any of the dyes are hugely expensive.

You can find a wide range of different dyes from natural to synthetic. The ‘cheaper’ ones can be more inclined to stain your bath, but this generally doesn’t happen unless you use a lot of it.

With some liquid dyes, you may need to dilute these in water first. If you have to do this, you might want to consider using the dye in place of the Witch Hazel and not as well as, as too much liquid can cause the reaction with the baking soda to begin and ruin your bombs - or make them a lot less fizzy!

Some dyes I found that you might want to check out:

Natural Dyes - The Soap Kitchen

Liquid Dyes - The Soap Kitchen

Zwanzer Dyes (20 Colour Assortment)

Now is also the time for you to add your scents. Again, there are loads of different brands that you can buy. I used the ones pictured below - because they come in some really ‘fun’ scents like Blueberry Muffin, Chocolate Orange and Pina Colada (which I used for this recipe) etc.

Pure Life (which I think may just be a rebrand of the ones pictured below) has all the traditional scents you would expect to find like lavender, rose, ylang ylang, sandalwood etc., but also has these funky fragrances too. You can buy their range here.

3. Now the time has come to add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients. My suggestion here would be to add this in thirds, and give the mix a very thorough stir with your whisk before adding more. This is to mitigate your chances that the Witch Hazel or other water-based ingredients you use will cause a reaction with the baking soda. The oil-based products will not cause a reaction.

Once mixed together, you should end up with a snowy powder which is coloured and scented, but now also holds shape when you squeeze it - as if you were making a snowball.

4. Now is the time for the fun bit: making the bombs. This can be a little tricky, as it is somewhat dependent on the conditions you are working in: for instance, if you’re in a particularly dry climate, you might need to use a little more moisture than if you’re in a humid climate. But the principle is essentially the same: using your spray bottle of pure alcohol (ideally) or water if not, give the mix a couple of very quick sprays just to dampen it slightly. You do not want to soak the mix, only make it mouldable!

Now work quickly to get the mix into the moulds - alcohol spray will evaporate quite quickly, which is what makes it preferable, as it will evaporate out of the bombs, leaving them dry, and not giving them a chance to start a reaction.

Using a spoon, or your palm, press the mix into the mould until it’s quite condensed. Before pushing or clipping the moulds together, remember to slightly overfill them so that the two halves fuse together and join.

If you’re using clip-together moulds, then you can leave them in the mould to set overnight before gently opening the mould and tapping them out. If you’re using a push-together mould, using your finger or a spoon, very gently tap the mould to release the mix.

Carefully set these bombs aside to dry out. Depending on the humidity level, this could take anywhere from an hour or two, to overnight. You can, of course, run straight up to the bath and use them there and then if the mood takes you!

Once dried, the bombs should last for a few weeks, but I’d recommend keeping them stored in a dry place, ideally in a sealed container, lest they fall victim to humid conditions. Now, you should have plenty to keep you going for a while - so go have a bath and relax.

Troubleshooting:

My bombs are hissing and increasing in size and not drying out.

Unfortunately, too much moisture went in to these bombs and the reaction has started. Really all you can do is run yourself a bath and use them there and then - or discard them, and remember to mist the next bomb / batch with less alcohol or water solution.

My bombs are cracking or falling apart.

Okay, so this isn’t a complete disaster - it just means your bombs were too dry. If this is the case, remember to use a little more mist on the next bomb / batch or you can do what I do and ‘rebrand’ the product. The mix will still work perfectly well when added to the bath, so there’s no need to discard it! Get yourself an air-tight container (Mason jars work well) and spoon the mix into that. You no longer have bath bombs, you have bath fizz! And if anyone asks: that is absolutely what you intended to end up with in the first place! ;) Just shake some of this into the bath when you next have one, and you’ll get the same relaxing feeling, it just won’t involve a bomb fizzing round the bath!