Our son adores bath time. He loves to play, pretend he's swimming, bring in his dinosaurs, and "soak it all in like mama." (I also love bath time.)
And, we both love bath bombs, they're fizzy and fun, magical, and often smell fantastic.
Buying good quality organic bath bombs costs a pretty penny though, and we can make them for so much less at just as high a quality if not better.
Commercial bath bombs often contain synthetic products for fragrance and color like Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Sodium, Coco-Sulfate, Tin, Oxide, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine (Citrus paradisi), Laureth 4, and many others that may cause harm to the skin.
Here we use only about 1/4 of the citric acid most bath bomb recipes use, yet it really is optional. We add a pinch because it does make it fizz a bit more. That being said, if you have super sensitive skin, or your little one does, by all means leave it out all together.
We also add in sunflower oil for a natural nourishing moisturizer which is directly extracted from sunflower seeds. It is a common oil you can find at most supermarkets as its often used for cooking. If you look at most beauty labels it is also commonly used for cosmetics as it is great for acne treatment, minimizing of skin aging, and soothing dry skin.
*The only caution really with these is that they can leave a slightly slippery residue on the tub. It's entirely natural, the same will leave your skin feeling buttery soft and nourished, just the scant oil from the bomb doesn't absorb into bathroom tile, so you'll want to rinse out the tub after so no one slips.
Ingredients
1/2 cup baking soda
1/8 cup cream of tartar
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
4-6 tbsp Sunflower oil
1-2 tsp citric acid (optional)
1/8 cup sea salt or pink Himalayan salt
8-10 drops essential oil, our son loves either orange or lavender, make sure it is from a company you trust. There are tons of cheap imitation oils out there. I'm all for bargain shopping, yet I'd not buy essential oils from the dollar store for example. It is worth spending a bit extra here to ensure you are not putting a synthetic material on your or your little's skin.
optional dried flowers and or a few drops of natural food dye, no need, just for fun
Instructions
Mix all the dry ingredients into one bowl and whisk them properly. Make sure that there are no clumps and the powders are well incorporated together. **If you are using a food color dye, add a few scant drops to the salt first, so it binds with the salt, and then add the colored salt into your dry mix.
Mix the oil and essential oils in a small container. Adjust the intensity of your bath bombs by controlling the amount of essential oils that you use.
Slowly pour the oil mix into your dry ingredients. This step should be done carefully and really slowly, while the mixture is whisked. If it starts to fizz, that means you are pouring the liquid too fast.
When your mixture feels like damp sand, add in any dried flowers, maybe a scant tbsp of lavender, you do not need much. Dried flowers make the bath bombs look fancy and lovely, especially as a gift; however, they also then leave you with dried flowers about your tub to clean up after. So, just to know that in advance. A friend made these with dried flowers and then was annoyed that there were, well, dried flowers in her tub, smiling, they didn't magically disappear. So, you know your own temperament. If you love flowers and won't be bothered by cleaning up a few pieces after, then go for it. If the idea annoys you, then leave them out. It really is that simple.
Now you are ready to mold. You can opt to buy molds with varying sizes, you can use cookie cutters, packing the sand like mixture in tight, you can use an ice cream or cookie scooper, or simply packing a tight small ball with just your hands.
Let the bath bombs dry for 2-3 days and then unmold gently. The bombs will still be fragile so handle with love and care!
This makes about 6 small bath bombs.
below poem by Mary Oliver
