There’s nothing quite like relaxing in warm water. I am really excited to share this recipe for how to make bath bombs since homemade bath bombs are a great addition to a nice soak in the tub! This isn’t the first bath bombs recipe I’ve tried. When I put together my Spa In A Jar, I added some DIY bath bombs, but since that recipe didn’t work right, I never shared it. I’ve always wanted to try again and I am so glad I did. These adorable heart shaped bath bombs with silver stars turned out fantastic!
First, sift together the dry ingredients. Some of my epsom salt was too coarse to fit through my sifter, so I just dumped it out of the sifter, into the bowl.
Melt the coconut oil in the microwave. Stir in essential oil, food coloring and 1 -2 tsp water. I tried making these bath bombs with grapefruit essential oil and with LorAnn strawberry flavor oil (which is made for flavoring food).
The amount of water needed will depend on the humidity of your house. I made these bath bombs during a super dry Minnesota winter. All of my dry ingredients were very dry to start with.
Pour half of the coconut oil mixture over the dry ingredients and stir with a whisk.
Add the second half and continue whisking. The mixture should start clumping on the whisk.
Scoop up some of the mixture and squeeze it in your hand to see if a ball will form. If it does, the bath bomb mixture is ready. If not, spritz the mixture lightly with water, whisk and check again. Continue spritzing and mixing until the mixture is slightly damp and will clump together. Again, this will vary depending on your climate.
Sprinkle some edible glitter stars on the bottom of a plastic heart. I used Wilton’s Silver Star Edible Accents so that they will dissolve in water. The bath bomb mold is half of a plastic Valentine’s heart shaped container from Michaels. You can use any hard plastic mold or even shape the bath bombs with your hands.
Spoon the bath bomb mixture into the plastic mold and pack it in with your fingers, adding more as necessary, until you can’t pack any more in.
Turn the mold upside down over a piece of waxed paper. Tap on the sides of the mold with a metal spoon until the bath bomb slides out. I was able to make 19 small bath bombs with this recipe, but the size of the bath bomb mold will determine the number of bath bombs you can make.
Allow the bath bombs to dry uncovered. This will take a minimum of 24 hours.
Put the bath bombs in a mason jar with a lid to store in your bathroom. Or wrap each one of them in a mini plastic bag so you can share them with friends or give them as gifts! They would be perfect for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, birthdays, spa parties or for bridal showers.
- 1 cup baking soda
- ½ cup citric acid
- ½ cup epsom salt
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1-2 tsp water
- 6 drops food coloring, optional
- 6 drops essential oil, optional
- Fine mist spray bottle with water, if necessary
- Edible glitter stars or sprinkles
- First, sift together the dry ingredients.
- Melt the coconut oil in the microwave. Stir in essential oil, food coloring and 1 -2 tsp water. The amount of water needed will depend on the humidity of your house. I made these bath bombs during a super dry Minnesota winter. All of my dry ingredients were very dry to start with.
- Pour half of the coconut oil mixture over the dry ingredients and stir with a whisk.
- Add the second half and continue whisking. The mixture should start clumping on the whisk.
- Scoop up some of the mixture and squeeze it in your hand to see if a ball will form. If it does, the bath bomb mixture is ready. If not, spritz the mixture lightly with water, whisk and check again. Continue spritzing and mixing until the mixture is slightly damp and will clump together. Again, this will vary depending on your climate.
- Sprinkle some edible glitter stars on the bottom of a plastic heart.
- Spoon the bath bomb mixture into the plastic mold and pack it in with your fingers, adding more as necessary, until you can’t pack any more in.
- Turn the mold upside down over a piece of waxed paper. Tap on the sides of the mold with a metal spoon until the bath bomb slides out.
- Allow the bath bombs to dry uncovered. This will take a minimum of 24 hours.
- Store bath bombs in a container with a lid, or a plastic bag, to keep them dry.
More homemade spa recipes:
Hi, I'm Tonia, a lover of food and photography! Fill a gunny sack with delicious ingredients, tie on an apron and let's get cooking!
We used the silicon heart trays and could NOT get them out. Now they’re balls but extremely wet and continue to expand. How can we stop the expansion??
It sounds like you added too much water so it caused the foaming reaction. It’s happened to me before too.
Hi,
I made these bathbombs and used half a circle mould and a cookie cutter mould. I live in a very humid area, so I used a little water. Everything was fine up until i started pressing the mixture into the moulds. The mixture started to expand, and nothing would fit into the mould. It lost it’s fizz. Should i not use any water if I already have coconut oil in the mixture? My house smelt amazing though. hh I used vanilla and lavender essential oils.
Yes, don’t use water. Instead try a little melted coconut oil or use rubbing alcohol. Both of those don’t react with the bath bomb mixture.
Your recipe worked fine, however, after 5 minutes they did not come out of the silicone molds easily. I also had trouble after laying them to dry in getting them to stay in the shape of the molds. I had beautiful pink “cookies” instead of hearts. Should I have left them in the molds overnight?
Hi there!
I’m making these for the women in my family for Christmas. 🙂
I just discovered I am 1/4 cup short on the baking soda! Can something else be substituted?
Thanks!
Hi Erin! Oh dear! It’s the worst when you find out that you are short on ingredients. I’ve tried making bath bombs before and failed. The ones in this blog post were my second attempt. From what I gather, making bath bombs is all about having the right combination of ingredients that will hold together but also fizz and dissolve in water. So, I’m not really sure what you could use instead of baking soda. If you can’t get more baking soda, I would try using less of the other ingredients instead of substituting. You could try this:
3/4 cup baking soda
6 tbsp citric acid
6 tbsp epsom salt
6 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp coconut oil
1-1 1/2 tsp water
4 drops food coloring, optional
4 drops essential oil, optional
Hi,
I was just wondering if there was a substitute for the coconut oil? I really want to try this for a gift for my mom. Is it possible to use canola/vegetable/olive oil instead?
Hi Kathleen, I’ve never tried using other oils, but it looks like other use olive oil to make bath bombs so you should be fine using that. Best of luck! ~Tonia
I love it! Great tutorial. I will try it for sure!
hi i was just wondering what the shelf life would be on these bath bombs, i am going to make them for my cousin for xmas and want to know how early i can make them
As long as they stay dry, they should be fine! Best of luck!
Great recipe! This was my first time making bath bombs and it was simple. I only used one tsp of water because I figured i could add more if I needed to. I did use the spray bottle. Also, I learned that metal molds do NOT work, I hoped to use my cookie scoop to get round balls. No luck, too hard to get out. So I used a plastic cup from the kids play tea set and it was perfect! Thank you!
Thanks for the tip Lauren! I’m happy they worked out for you!
I made these bath bombs tonight and they were fantastic. I have experience in making bath bombs and your recipe was by far the best one I’ve come across. The coconut oil may be the difference. My house is very dry so I had to use a few extra sprays of water to the mixture in the bowl. I kept whisking and spritzing until the mixture clumped together nicely. My silicone baking molds from Wilton are perfect for this and last longer than plastic molds which tend to crack after awhile.(I bought them specifically for making bath bombs) My bombs popped right out after setting up for a bit. Can’t wait to try them in the bath!! Looking forward to trying some of your other spa recipes.