Bath Bombs 101 by SpiceySuds

There are a few challenges many people experience when making bath bombs (and from watching numerous videos to learn, they share their experiences making bath bombs or bath fizzies) such as, the bath bombs seem to react/respond to moisture that is in the air such as

• the humidity in the house
• if it is or has been raining outside
• if there is not enough or too much liquid mixture - which can cause them to crumble, crack, and expand and activate the chemical reaction of the sodium bicarbonate and citric acid.

It is a learning experience and many long time bath bomb makers still experience issues once in a while; it does go with the territory.

In Soap Queen’s article (“Bath bomb questions and answers” ) she briefly covers 16 questions. I think it is well worth the read and it will give you an idea of how others make their bath bombs. YouTube is a resource you can use.

However, I will share some things I have learned. There are many recipes that are on the web and that people give on their videos, and the majority of them do not use polysorbate 80. If you do not use polysorbate 80 it will feel like you are sitting in an oil slick- at least that is how it felt to me. Polysorbate 80 disperses the oil so it won’t feel like that, and it won’t leave a ring around the tub.

Mixing bowl, strainer, fragrance oil, frother,
fondant colorant, spatula, and recipe book.

One good recipe is:

3 Cups Baking Soda

2 Cups Citric Acid

½ Cup Epsom Salt

3 TBS Kaolin Clay

2 TBS Cornstarch

7 TBS Coconut oil or Cocoa Butter

2 TBS Polysorbate 80

4 TBS Frangrance Oil

2 TBS 99% Isopropyl Alcohol

Strain the baking soda, kaolin clay and cornstarch into a bowl (can be the bowl for a Kitchenaide mixer). Add the citric acid and Epsom salt. Whisk the dry ingredients well.

Citric Acid, Kaolin clay, and Epsom salts.

Cornstarch, baking soda, and citric acid

Straining baking soda.

In a mixing bowl or cup melt the oil in the microwave (I do 30 sec burst until melted), then add the other wet ingredients and stir well. Some people will add mica to their dry ingredients, but I have added it to the wet ingredients, stirred well, then poured it into the dry ingredients and mixed thoroughly.

Coconut oil, glycerine, avocado oil,
polysorbate 80 and mixing cup

Melted oil with other blended wet ingredients.

When I use fondant coloring I pour in an extra TBS of oil (which could be castor, sunflower or avocado) in a small cup. Squeeze about a dime size amount and blend with a milk frother, then add to wet ingredients and blend well. Then mix wet ingredients to dry ingredients.

Mixing wet ingredients into dry ingredients.

I feel it is best to use 99% isopropyl alcohol or at least 91% iso alcohol, because when I used witch hazel (as many recipes call for) it activated the citric acid, and that will cause issues with the final outcome. Since bath bombs can be finicky you will probably need to spray the alcohol into your bowl and then place into your molds.

In the beginning I did buy 1 large round metal mold. After a batch or two I bought simple silicone ice cube trays and a silicone round mold that I find better for me and I use those all the time.

The molds I use for bath bombs.

Putting mixture into molds.

Letting the bath bombs dry for a few hours

The best part about making bath bombs for yourself is that if any of them crack/crumble etc, you can still enjoy them- it’s only if they have completely activated that they can’t be used.

Enjoy!

SpicySuds