Our bath bomb recipe makes bombs that fizz, color the water, and spin! Learn how to make your DIY bath bombs spin too, it’s much more fun!
I’ve made (and sold) more homemade bath bombs using this bath bomb recipe in the past six months than in the past 10 years. Everyone wants something different, but they all want the same results: fizzing and spinning.
Embeds Recipe for Spinning DIY Bath Bombs
One of the exciting parts about using a bath bomb is watching it spin and color the water. The secret to our spinning bath bomb recipe is to use embeds.
An embed is a small, colored ball. They are similar to the bath bombs, just more concentrated.
Here’s a Recipe for the Embeds:
- ½ cup citric acid (find it here)
- optional, 15 drops essential oil (find pure organic essential oils here)
- ½ cup baking soda
- ½ teaspoon lake pigment or bath bomb color (find a variety of mica pigments here)
- 91% rubbing alcohol mixed with witch hazel, equal proportions (find organic witch hazel here)
Mix the dry ingredients really well, then spritz with the rubbing alcohol/witch hazel mixture. You should make it like damp sand – firm enough to hold together without crumbling. Pack this into small molds pretty tightly and pop out. Let dry a bit before mixing together the next step.
Safety Note: be careful to not inhale the rubbing alcohol/witch hazel spritz. While Pubmed studies show inhalation toxicity is rare, it’s still a good idea to spritz away from your face.
The documented toxicity of isopropyl alcohol in man is confined for the most part to accidental ingestion (not inhalation)[1]
Bath Bomb Recipe: DIY Bath Bombs
Ingredients
- 1 cup citric acid
- 2 cups baking soda
- ½ cup corn starch
- ½ cup Epsom salts
- ¼ teaspoon dry color (such as bath bomb color, mica, or lake pigment)
- 20-25 drops essential oil (your favorite skin-safe oils)
- 3 tablespoons carrier oil (such as sweet almond or sunflower)
- 1 ounce isopropyl alcohol (91%)
- 1 ounce witch hazel
- DIY bath bomb molds
Instructions
Mix Ingredients and Get Proper Consistency
- Mix all the dry ingredients together. Add your color and mix well. For secret color, leave white for now. Add essential or fragrance oil and mix well. Add liquid oil and mix well again.
- At this time it's a good idea to mix with your hands rather than relying on a mixing spoon. Use gloves as the baking soda can wear on your nails. Once all the bath bomb recipe ingredients are thoroughly mixed together, spritz 1-2 times with the alcohol/witch hazel mixture. Mix quickly with your hands and check to see if it's ready. Make a snowball with the mixture and drop it into the bowl. If it holds together your bath bombs are ready to mold. If it breaks apart, spritz 1-2 more times and check again. Repeat until your snowball holds together when dropped into the bowl.
Placing Embeds Inside and Finishing Your DIY Bath Bombs
- Lightly pack a good amount in half of a bath bomb mold, then place an embed (recipe above) on top of the mixture. The secret to creating a good spin is to place the embed off-center, not in the middle. It has to be off-balance in order to spin. And of course, we want our spinning bath bombs to spin!
- Next, overfill the other half and place both sides together. Push the sides firmly so there is no gap in the center. Don't twist, as this will separate the halves. You want them to join cohesively.
- Tap each side with a spoon, then release one half. Turn over and release the other half. Set on a piece of cardboard or wax paper and continue with the rest of the mix. (The bath bombs may smell a lot like alcohol, but this will disappear in a day or two.)
- Dry for at least 24 hours, then seal in plastic wrap. The DIY bath bombs need to be sealed or they will absorb moisture from the air and won't fizz as much in the bathtub.
DIY Bath Bomb Recipe Video
Additional Tips
Foaming DIY Bath Bombs
To make your DIY bath bombs foam too, add 1 Tbsp of nonfat milk powder.
Lake Pigments and Polysorbate 80
When choosing colors, lake pigments and bath bomb colors will work the best to dissolve in the tub AND color the water. If you’re not concerned with making a completely natural bath bomb, you can add a bit of polysorbate 80 to help the color to dissolve and to keep the oils from floating on the top and making the tub slippery. Polysorbate 80 is a synthetic compound that is used as a surfactant and emulsifier.
Powdered Mica
Powdered mica can also be used to color this bath bomb recipe. Mica is a natural mineral and has usually been dyed to make colorants. Mica produces nice soft colors, but will not color the water, which some people want in their bath. It will sometimes stick to the sides of the tub and appear to stain it, but this can be alleviated by using polysorbate 80.
Essential and Fragrance Oils
Many people love a scented bath bomb. Essential oils can sometimes be too irritating for open areas of the skin. Some exceptions are lavender and rose essential oils. Fragrance oils are less irritating to the skin, although not completely natural.
Cornstarch
Finally, there is some concern with using cornstarch in the bath and the assumption that it can cause yeast infections. It would need to be used in much larger amounts to cause a problem. If you are still concerned, you can omit it from the recipe.
Tip: you can also try making a birthday cake bath bomb.
Have you ever made a spinning bath bomb recipe like this? Tell us about your experience.
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Sources
- National Research Council (US) Committee on Toxicology. Emergency and Continuous Exposure Limits for Selected Airborne Contaminants: Volume 2. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1984. ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL.
The Best Fizzing & Spinning DIY Bath Bomb Recipe was written by Debra Maslowski.
* This article was originally published here
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