I love me a good, hot relaxing bath with a bath bomb every now and then, who doesn’t right? But I was not cool with buying bath bombs for $6-$10 a pop only to see- and smell- how grossly toxic and synthetic they are! Who wants to sit in a bathtub full of synthetic chemicals? Nope, not me and I’m surely not going to let me kids sit in it either! Not happening in this house.
I was so intrigued when I started using essential oils about all the different ways you can incorporate them into your daily life and all the amazing DIY recipes!! I started gathering supplies and molds to get started with bath bombs! My kids love them, they are great gifts and making them with products I already had in my home was sooo much cheaper than going to a big box store for fake nastiness. After I perfected my recipe, I realized that I could sell these at local vendor events and they are a hit! I’ve made quite a bit of cash doing these bath bombs – it's a perfect way to save up for birthdays or christmas and for me it’s such a relaxing, therapeutic exercise that makes me feel so relaxed and peaceful that it doesn’t feel like work at all!
I must have tried a many recipes – all the same basic concept but there were flaws with most of them. Some required too much liquid, which won’t let your bath bombs set; some added corn starch which I found to be of no consequence if you just omitted it all together. And some measurements were just not working for me.
I finally channeled my inner DIY Guru and trusted my gut on what a good, hand crafted bath bomb should be. My simple recipe is easy to duplicate, makes plenty at one time and with a bit of practice is easy to perfect. Once you perfect it, you can easily find customers that appreciate the art of hand crafted bath bombs. Cha-ching… business opportunity!
So Lets get started!
Here are your basic ingredients:
Baking Soda
Citric Acid
Organic coconut oil – the solid kind used for cooking
Witch Hazel and a 2-4 oz spray bottle
Doterra Essential Oils
Bath bomb molds
Food coloring – Vegan options are available
Colored sugar, sprinkles or even edible food grade glitter
Bath Bomb Molds
Most people expect to see round bath bombs and there are many different round molds to try. My personal favorites are clear, plastic refillable ornaments. I know it sounds weird, but the molds that come in two halves just didn’t work for me personally. I wasted soo much time and product on bad molds. Just trust me, try the refillable ornaments! They come in different sizes, and they snap shut, which is the biggest difference versus the metal half molds. This recipe makes 3-4 large bath bombs, about 5 medium ones and about 7 small round bath bombs! Super cost effective!
Keep your eye out for fun shaped silicone molds, too! There is always tons of different candy or chocolate molds at your hobby stores year round and during the different holidays like Halloween or Christmas, you can stock up. Do you know why making mini bath bombs are a good thing? Moms with small kids do not like using a giant bath bomb at one time for a 3 year old. They like to have just a little bit at a time, make bath time fun and keep the kids entertained. If you know moms of little’s, ask them! Customers like the option of buying a dozen mini bath bombs which = to almost a dozen uses versus a one time use larger bath bomb. Not everyone digs this, but giving this option is good for your business.
Before you get started please note that my recipe and ‘technique’ is very feely – you need to be able to get your hands in there and feel when the mixture is ready. It takes practice, too. Be prepared for some mishaps, but the good news is that even if it takes you a couple of tries to get the right consistency, the mixture will still fizz in the bath tub! My kids love when they get my ‘oops bath bombs’ and my mom tribe love it when I give them broken pieces because the mixture is still great and once it hits the water it doesn’t matter what it looks like, right? LOL.
Start by
Mixing the citric acid and baking soda with your hands to make sure it is blended well. Add in your essential oils. The amount of oils is totally up to you, but if you are making bath bombs to sell, I would stick to common oils like lavender or citrus oils and my rule of thumb is about 10-15 drops per recipe.
Start to drizzle in the melted coconut oil. The reason I use the melted coconut oil versus fractionated coconut oils is because it will solidify again where as FCO will not. This helps to mold your bath bombs. If you want to use food coloring, I add it directly to a small pool of the melted coconut oil for better color distribution.
Keep one hand working the mixture (picture yourself making homemade bread or pasta) and the your other hand should be holding the spray bottle of witch hazel and you should be spraying the mixture well. Witch Hazel helps the mixture to bind so this is really important.
Your mixture should resemble kinetic sand. My litmus test is to grab a handful of mixture and squeeze it into your fist. Open your fist and look at the mixture. Did it mold to your fist or did it crumble? If it crumbled, drop it back in and keep spraying witch hazel or drizzles of coconut oil. If it stays molded, tap it with a finger or run your finger somewhat roughly up and down to ensure that it does not crumble. If this feels solid and a bit hard to the touch you are now ready to start filling your molds!
Filling your molds:
If you are using my fav round fillable ornaments, I like to use the molds as a shovel in the bowl, overfill both halves and squeeze shut. If you are using open, silicone molds first add sprinkles or colored sugar to the bottom of the molds. This is a great way to add color or to distinguish between your flavors/scents. Plus, it’s sugar – it melts in the water! I overfill these molds as well and then pack them in with the back of a spoon. The spoon helps to flatten the mold and keep them looking pretty.
Open faced molds can generally dry in about 3-4 hours and closed molds need close to the 24 hours before you start trying to open the molds.
Trouble Shooting
If your bath bombs expand in the mold…. you’ve used too much coconut oil.
If your silicone molds have intricate designs, they may not look perfect.
If your bath bombs look cracked or porous, you do not have enough moisture (witch hazel or coconut oil)
Note – the coconut oil makes the bath bomb moisturizing and customers enjoy having that benefit.
Storing and selling your bath bombs
I had to learn the hard way on this too! I used to stack them up in plastic storage containers, but this was not ideal for transporting them, as they tend to crumble when they are consistently rubbing against each other. I finally figured out to wrap them in shrink-wrap before storing them. Make sure you have a way to identify the scent/oil you used in the event you did not use coloring or sugar with either a sticker or label or whatever you desire. Some times bath bombs can go soft and crumble if they are not in sealed bags over a long period of time, but like I said before… it still works in the bath!! They may not be great for selling, but your kids will appreciate it!
Although I have regular customers now that call me for personalized orders, I started selling my bath bomb creations at school vendor events. Find small events in your area or start by giving them as teacher gifts, babysitter gifts, etc.
Each recipe costs about $2-4 to make depending on the oils you use. You can sell 3-5 large or medium bath bombs for $5-$7 (or more!) each and make a little profit. Most big box stores charge $6-8 per bath bomb but they are synthetic and not good for you. Yours will be unique, hand crafted and all natural.
Go For it!!
But hey, don’t worry if this DIY thing is not for you… I got you covered! You can order your custom bath bombs from me anytime! ☺
Ingredients
1 cup citric acid
1 cup baking soda
1 - 1½ cups of melted Coconut oil.
10 -15 drops essential oils (or to your hearts content!)
2-4 oz. Spray bottle with Witch Hazel
Sprinkles
Food Coloring (I try to avoid food coloring or use vegan coloring)
Instructions
Place citric acid and baking soda in a large mixing bowl and sift with your hands ensuring there are no hard pieces.
Add Citrus Bliss – or the oil of your choosing
I melt down Organic coconut oil and keep it near; start adding about ¼ cup at a time and using your hands begin mixing.
Add food coloring directly to the melted coconut oil as you add to the mix and blend until color is evenly distributed. If you add the coloring to the dry ingredients it is more difficult to distribute and it’s harder to get the coloring you want.
NOTE: As you are mixing the coconut oil in, you should be spraying the mixture with Witch Hazel. This is going to help bind and keep your mixture together.
This is really about eyeballing the mixture and making sure it is not too wet; I like to get the mixture and squeeze it in my hands and make a fist. It should feel sort of like Kinetic sand. Open you fisted hand and if the mixture stays molded and if you can tap it without it crumbling then you are golden!
I add the sprinkles to the bottom of the molds before packing in your mixture that way the sprinkles are on the ‘top’ of the bath bomb when it comes out of the mold
Press mixture firmly into silicone mold. Let dry for 24 hours before removing from mold. *Note: If you are using an open mold then the dry time will be less. If you are using an enclosed mold, then I would wait the 24 hours.
To use, drop in tub full of warm to hot water and allow to dissolve completely.
