Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Bath Bombs


  

One of my favorite things to do is sit in a nice hot tub with a good book!  I have always loved buying those big bath bombs that fizz away in the tub like a tablet of Alka-Seltzer, but they are kind of pricy considering they are only used one time.  I decided to try a recipe to make my own bath bombs at home.  There are several recipes out there, but the one I decided to try is made up mostly of things you may already have in your kitchen.
Dry Ingredients:
Silicone mold of any shape or silicone muffin pan
1 Cup Citric Acid
2 Cups Baking Soda
1 Cup Corn Starch
Wet Ingredients:
1 1/4 tsp Essential Oils
1/3 Cup Safflower Oil
2 TB Water
drop of food coloring (optional) -- I did not do this
I found some essential oils at a massage supply store, but you can order them from the internet.  Prices will vary, but I got tangerine scent for about $5.  The citric acid I went to several stores to find and kept coming up empty handed.  I ended up finding some in Walmart next to the canning supplies.  To buy it this way is more expensive, but I was impatient.  They do sell it in bulk at amazon.com.
Directions:
  • Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
  • Mix the wet ingredients into a jar and shake well to mix.
  • Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients wisking quickly while you pour.  If it starts fizzing then you are either adding too much wet or not wisking quickly enough.
  • Once all of the wet ingredients are added the mixture will be dry looking.
  • Use a icecream scoop to scoop into the silicone mold and press down firmly to pack the mold full.*
  • Keep the mixture in the molds overnight to ensure that they are dried thoroughly.


  • After they have dried all night in the mold carefully remove the bath bombs and either place in a jar or package for gifts.
  • Take a nice bath with your new bath bomb and RELAX!



*Once in the molds my mixture kept fizzing up, and I had to keep pressing it down nume
rous times to stop the fizzing.  Other recipes call for witch hazel instead of the water as a binder to minimize the fizzing....I will try this next time to see if it works better.  I finally gave up on pushing them down after repeated attempts and just let them fizz up.  They ended up hardening, they just looked a little funny on top.


I tested out one of the bath bombs and it fizzed away just as it was supposed to.  The tangerine smell was perfect...not too powerful. The Safflower oil really made my skin feel nice and soft too!


ENJOY!!!

2 comments:

  1. I love this recipe! It's awesome :)

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  2. I've done this before as a thank you present for Guide leaders - We found our Citric Acid at a wine/beer making store! And it wasn't very expensive for the amount we got.

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