Making your own bath bombs: 5 cool recipes

For those who don’t like to overpay, we suggest making your own bath bombs. The main ingredients can be found in any kitchen - citric acid and baking soda. The rest is a matter of taste. You can make bright balls with the smell of citrus fruits, healthy and relaxing bombs with essential oils, with pieces of herbs, with rose petals and any others.

Materials

Making your own bombs will take about 30 minutes.

For work you will need the following materials:

• latex gloves;
• large bowl;
• spoon;
• measuring cup;
• a small spray bottle filled with water;
• molds.

For molding, you can use children's molds, candy packaging, silicone baking molds, and Kinder boxes.

Many needlewomen use a plastic Christmas tree toy to make ball-shaped bombs. Using a hot knife, cut it in half, fill the halves, and then press them together.

Ingredients

There are many recipes for homemade bath bombs. You can use ready-made ones or come up with your own.

The composition usually includes the following 5 components:

1. The basis – baking soda and citric acid in a ratio of 2 to 1. When in contact with water, they give a chemical reaction to neutralize the alkali, which is accompanied by the release of carbon dioxide. These ingredients are what make bath bombs bubble.
2. Moisturizing components: olive, almond, sea buckthorn, coconut oil, as well as wheat germ, shea, cocoa and macadamia oil. Any of these oils cares for the skin, nourishes it and moisturizes it.
3. Dyes. For coloring, you can use liquid and powder food coloring, ground colored sea salt.
4. Flavors: food flavorings, cosmetic fragrances, essential oils. The latter additionally play the role of a healing component. For example, lavender and sage oils soothe, mint and citrus oils invigorate.
5. Helpful Supplements: dry cream, sea salt, clay. They have a beneficial effect on the skin and saturate it with useful elements.

How can you decorate a bomb? For decoration use dried herbal flowers, coffee beans, sea salt, glitter, rose petals. Decorations are placed on the bottom of the molds or tamped into the middle of the mixture.

Nuances you need to know

Despite the ease of making bath bombs, many beginners fail to make them. This is all because of the subtleties you need to know:

• Don't overdo it with water! You can often hear advice to bring the powder mass to the state of damp or wet sand. This is a big mistake. A minimum of water must be added, otherwise a reaction will begin, after which the bomb will increase in size, disintegrate and foam poorly. If aqueous flavors and oils are used, there is no need to add another liquid at all. The mass should be almost dry.
• Mix the mixture with gloved hands. It is quite difficult to break up all the lumps with a spoon and rub the dye into the dry mixture. This is done by hand much more productively and quickly.
• Take a large bowl. The composition should occupy a third of the plate, otherwise during the mixing process it will spill out over the edges.
• Compact thoroughly.You need to pour the powder in small portions, pressing each one well with a spoon. Then the bomb will be dense and will not fall apart when you remove it from the mold.
• To obtain a spherical shape, pour the mixture into heaped halves. Then forcefully press them together. Excess powder will fall out. This is how the halves are held together most securely. Water cannot be used for gluing.
• Dry the bombs naturally. No need to leave them in the molds. This is a common mistake. To ensure that the moisture evaporates and the shape does not deteriorate, you need to lay out the bombs on film in a dry room. For example, in the kitchen near the stove.
• Store them in a dry place, wrapped in cling film. Balls can even react to excess moisture in the air. They should never be stored in the bathroom. Place them in a dry place, after wrapping them in cling film. In this form they can lie and not deteriorate for months.

How to make the bomb foam abundantly? To obtain a stable foam, you can add coco sulfate (dry shampoo), Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate, and “Lush Foam” foaming agent to the composition. You need to look for products in specialized stores for making cosmetics. They are added strictly according to the instructions, as they are quite harmful to the skin if overdosed. It is also important to wear a respirator when adding foaming agents to prevent volatile substances from entering the respiratory tract.

Step-by-step instruction

At home, bath bombs are made according to the same pattern. Step-by-step instruction:

1. Add citric acid, baking soda and other dry ingredients called for in the recipe to a bowl. Mix everything thoroughly, breaking up any lumps.
2. Now it’s time for the liquid ingredients: oils, flavors and dye. Drop them on top of the powder, and then mix until a homogeneous consistency is obtained.
3. If the mixture is completely dry, spray it with water from a spray bottle from a distance of 30–40 cm. At the same time, continuously knead it with a spoon to avoid waterlogging and, as a result, a chemical reaction.
4. Fill the molds with the resulting mixture. Tamp down well. To make a sphere-shaped bomb, connect 2 semicircular shapes together.
5. Carefully remove the bomb from the mold, lightly tapping the bottom and edges.
6. Dry the bombs outdoors for 3-12 hours.
7. You can take a fragrant bath!

What about the dangers of bath bombs? The main ingredients, soda and lemon, are alkali and acid. In direct contact with skin they may cause irritation. But in a large bath, their concentrations are negligible and cannot cause significant harm.

Essential oils should be a concern. They can cause an allergic reaction, so they need to be tested before use. Place a drop of ether on your wrist and monitor the reaction throughout the day.

5 best recipes

We offer recipes for the most popular bath bombs. If you stick to them, you definitely won't be disappointed.

1. Fun bombs for children. Kids really like bright bombs, and especially bubbling geysers with sparkles. Mix 6 tablespoons of baking soda, 3 tablespoons of citric acid and 10–20 drops of flavoring. Essential oils suitable for children include tea tree, ylang-ylang, lavender, mandarin, fennel, and bergamot. Divide the mixture into 3 parts and color it in different colors using food coloring. Choose interesting molds and layer the mixture in colorful layers.Pour about 0.5 teaspoon of glitter into the middle. Dry the bombs, and then delight your child by immersing them in the world of magic and fairy tales.
2. Hearts. These bombs will set the couple in a romantic mood immediately after taking a bath. Mix 200 g of soda and 100 g of lemon, stir. Add aphrodisiac essential oils: 5 drops each of ylang-ylang, patchouli and jasmine. Add 7-10 drops of red dye. Grind the mass. Use heart-shaped molds.
3. Foaming bath bombs. To make foaming balls, you need to mix 300 g of soda, 150 g of citric acid, 50 g of sodium coco sulfate, 5 g of olive or almond oil, 2.5 g of flavoring.
4. Healing bombs for headaches, fatigue, nasal congestion. To 200 g of baking soda and 100 g of lemon you need to add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sea buckthorn oil, 5 drops of mint essential oil, 5 drops of lemon oil, 3 drops of cedar oil and 3 drops of eucalyptus oil, as well as dye.
5. Bath bombs that moisturize and nourish the skin. Mix 4 tbsp in a bowl. spoons of soda, 2 tbsp. spoons of citric acid, 2 tbsp. spoons of sea salt, 1 tbsp. spoon of dry cream (milk), 1 tbsp. spoon of cosmetic clay, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of olive oil, food coloring and flavoring. Then the mixture is moistened if necessary and distributed into molds.

If you want to get more foam from the bomb, you need to throw it into the bath while the water is still filling.

Homemade bath bombs are in no way inferior to store-bought ones in quality and effectiveness. And if you delve into the technique, making them is as simple as kneading dough for pies. Use the recipes provided or use your imagination and create your own unique ball. And remember: the fresher the bomb, the more it will bubble.