DA BOMB

I absolutely looooove having baths. Turning the light off, lighting candles and incense, sticking Bon Iver on and getting soggy. And obviously bubbles are one of the best bits; but I’m a really frugal person and knowing that I’ve spent £2.50+ on one bath bomb doesn’t sit right. That’s not to say that I’m not very much on the Lush bandwagon, but if I can make my own bath bombs then I get to save money as well as getting my hands dirty; two of my favourite things.

I’ve wanted to do this for a while, but after a bit of googling I’ve always been put off by the ingredients list. But when I got the chance and had a look, I managed to get little sachets of citric acid, bicarbonate of soda and epsom salts for 99p each from ebay and amazon. Mixed with things that you probably have around the house, it’s not as daunting and they come up surprisingly cheap and easy to make.

INGREDIENTS

Bicarb of Soda/Baking Soda
Epsom Salt
Citric Acid (powder form)
Water
Vegetable Oil (I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS 

Food Colouring
Essential Oils (I used grapefruit oil, but as long as it's safe for skin it's fine)


EQUIPMENT

Whisk
2 Mixing Bowls
Teaspoon
Moulds/Cookie Cutters & Baking Tray

Mix dry ingredients using the ratio of 2 parts bicarbonate of soda, 1 part Epsom salt and 1 part citric acid. I used 1 part=75g and made 7 well sized baths bombs)

2.       Then in the other bowl; add 3tsp water, 12tsp olive oil, and 6tsp essential oil.

3.       Adding 1tsp at a time, whisk the wet mix in to the dry powders. If it starts to fizz as you’re adding in the wet mix, cover the fizzy bits with the powder.

4.       About half way through adding the wet mix, add food colouring very slowly and gradually until you get to the desired colour.

5.       The resulting mixture should clump together without breaking apart when squished  

6.       After lightly greasing the cookie cutters with oil and laying them flat to the baking paper, squash clumps of the mixture in to the shape and try to fill to a level top. You can use the back of a teaspoon to make sure that the mixture is compact in the cookie cutter. Lift the cookie cutter from the tray and gently push the bath bomb out of the bottom onto some kitchen roll.

7.       Keeping them on the kitchen roll, put shapes into a tupperwear box and leave to dry for a few days until they feel solid like a normal shop bought one would. 

I played it safe as this was my first try, but there’s a ton of variations you could make to this basic recipe. Adding glitter, mixing essential oils or adding things like popping candy could all be played about with!

- OLIVIA