Got lots of people on your list? Got no money? Want to make something rather than buy? Try these fizzy bath bombs, they’re great for gift-giving at the holidays. And you can make extras at the last minute if you forget someone.This recipe can be used with traditional spherical molds, or you can shop around for fancy hearts and stars. If you don’t have any, check out Etsy. Another popular idea is to pat down the mixture into cupcake baking cups. This is a great solution if you’re making shower bombs, as they will stay flat on the floor of the shower. Otherwise, use your imagination, ice-cube trays, muffin trays, fortune cookie molds, whatever.
Dry ingredients: (We’re going European here, it’s by weight not volume)
- Baking Soda – 8 ounces
- Citric Acid – 4 ounces
- Corn Starch – 4 ounces
- Salts – 4 ounces ( Dead Sea Salts, Mineral salts.)
Make sure there are no clumps or lumps by sieving or breaking up by hand. Mix all dry ingredients into a big glass (nonreactive) bowl.
Wet Ingredients:
- Water 3/4 tablespoon
- Essential or Fragrance Oil – 2 teaspoons. (Make sure it’s body safe. Perfume might work but room fragrance won’t!) Oh, and if you’re making shower bombs, you can go with oils that might not work on sensitive body parts in the tub, like eucalyptus, menthol and peppermint. These are great decongestants.
- Oil – 2.5 tablespoons. Light vegetable oil works but you can get swanky with almond, cherry kernel, etc.
- Food coloring – just 1 or 2 drops. (It will look dark in the batter, but don’t worry as it will look quite light in the bombs. Too dyed and your bathtub will suffer rings. Remember kindergarten: red + blue = purple/lilac, etc. Work out the drops ratio beforehand.
Shake up the wet ingredients in a jar then slowly pour into the bowl. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look mixed, it’s oil and water. It’ll start to prematurely fizz if you mix it too fast so do this bit slowly. Stir gently so you end up with a damp gravel that you can squish into a lump when you squeeze it. Push this into your mold.
As soon as it has the shape you desire, push it out and store it in an airless ZipLock, jar or plastic container. Humidity will cause it to start fizzing. So wrap it carefully.
Enjoy!