There’s nothing more special than a kid-made gift – especially if it’s a gift that comes with some well deserved pampering. That’s why my 4 year-old daughter and I decided to make scented homemade bath bombs for the wonderful moms and grandmoms in our lives. This kid-made gift is sure to please!
P.S. Looking for some easy ways to add super cool, hands-on science to your classroom or home? Hop over and grab 30 Science Experiments your kids will love!
Getting Ready
To make 12 muffin-sized homemade bath bombs, we first gathered a few supplies:
- 1 cup baking soda
- 3/4 cup corn starch
- 1/4 cup Epsom salt or cane sugar
- 1/2 cup citric acid (available in natural food stores or online for canning})
- Food coloring (optional)
- Essential oils (optional)
- Large bowl
- Measuring cups
- Mixing spoon
- Sifter
- Spray bottle with water
- Anything that can serve as a mold (silicone molds, plastic eggs, muffin tin lined with saran wrap, etc.)
Homemade Bath Bombs
Once I gathered all the supplies, A quickly ran over, excited to make her grandmom some fizzy homemade bath bombs. First, she measured out the baking soda, cornstarch, Epsom salt and citric acid and mixed them in a large bowl. Since this recipe is pretty forgiving, it’s a perfect measuring activity for younger children as well.
A sifted the dry ingredients to break up any chunks. This was a pretty dusty step (which is why we did it outside) and one I’m not sure was really necessary.
Next, I asked A what scent she wanted to make. She chose orange and jasmine. A added several drops of orange food coloring to the water in the spray bottle and slowly began spraying the dry mixture. She loved watching the mixture fizz each time she sprayed it. The key was to lightly spray it, wetting it enough that the mixture formed a clump when squeezed but not so much that it lost its fizziness.
Next, A added several drops of orange and jasmine essential oil and thoroughly stirred the mixture. Then, she scooped the mixture into the silicone muffin liners and firmly pressed it down. The homemade bath bombs were really coming together!
A and even her little brother, Q, loved mixing up this fizzy concoction so much we ended up making 3 more batches. Both kids had a cold, so in addition to lemon-lavendar and pink grapefruit, we made some sinus clearing peppermint-eucalyptus using peppermint baking extract.
You can use whatever molds you have on hand – even cookie cutters on a baking pan or an ice cube tray would work well. We also made egg-shaped bath bombs with leftover Easter eggs. They turned out super cute!
For the egg molds, gently remove half the egg shell after an hour or so to allow it to completely dry. Leave the bombs out to dry overnight and then gently pop them out. Store them in an airtight container or package them up for that special someone who deserves a little extra R & R.
Now all I need it to get my kids to give me a little quiet time so I could enjoy a few of them. I guess I’ll have to wait until Mother’s Day!
The Science Behind It
When you drop your fizzy bomb into the tub, the water sets off a chemical reaction between the citric acid and the baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). That’s why the dry mixture fizzed when it was sprayed with water. During the reaction, carbon dioxide is created making those relaxing, fizzing bubbles.
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we can put glycerin in bath bombs?
Our bath fizzies continued to fizz and expand beyond the molds. Too wet? We stipped adding water when we could squeeze the powder into a ball.
Same here. My theory is that I put way too much water and made it fizz (release CO2) in the bowl instead of the tub. I will try again with way less water. I was worried about not being able to make it clump with all of the powders.
Hi Sarah C. It sounds like you may have added too much water. We stirred while spraying to help control the fizzing and checked to see if the mixture would clump when squeezed after every few sprays. It should clump but crumble if poked gently. It will seem a little on the dry side but it hardens really well just being slightly damp. You could also dampen it with an oil like almond oil or jojoba, these won’t cause the fizzy reaction until dropped in the bath. Good luck!
Awesome!! Thank you! You solved my problem…will do this next time! Fun stuff!
These are so cute. My daughter would love making these. Hope you don’t mind if I put this link on my blog for my Mother’s Day Gift Ideas round up.
Would I be able to replace the citric acid with lemon juice?
Hi Alayna,
You can use lemon juice to replace the citric acid. I’d add about 1/2 cup but add it in small amounts to make sure the mixture isn’t too wet. It will fizz quite a bit because you are using a wet source of citric acid. Good luck!
Can you use paper liners or just silicon?
Thanks!
The liners are used to make it easy to pop out when the fizzies are dry. I also think the zigzag edge is cute. You do have to press the mixture into the liners quite firmly so I think paper liners would lose that edge design but they might work. I’m not sure how the moisture in the paper liners would hold up though. It’s certainly worth a shot though.
How long will the bath bombs take to dry?
They take overnight to really dry and harden.
Will the food coloring dye the skin?
Nope! You end up using so little dye that it doesn’t even change the color of the bath water. It just makes the bath bombs a pretty color but will disappear when dissolved in the bath.
What a great idea! Thanks for the recipe! My 5 year old and I are going to make these for Christmas gifts for his teachers and his Grandma! 🙂 I also heard you can get little plastic prizes (from the Dollar Store) and press them inside – when the fizzy dissolves in the tub, the prize floats to the top of the bath water! 🙂 We’re gonna try it!
I want a. Kit of your how can i get one
About how many does this recipe make?
Hi Natalie,
This recipe makes about 12 muffin tin sized bombs. I hope you have fun making these!
mine exploded prematurely.. I guess I put to much water in it??
Mine kept exploding out of the eggs too! I even tried taping the eggs shut and it just found a way to ooze out. I didn’t think I overdid it with the water but apparently I did.
I’m sorry Delane! I hope with a few tweaks your bath bombs turned our awesome!
Warmly,
Kimberleigh
Can you dry them in a low temp oven?
Hi Susan,
You should be able to or even just an oven that is off is sometimes warmer and drier than the kitchen. I’m not sure if drying them too fast would cause it to crack though. It’s worth a shot. Will you let us know if it worked? Good luck!
How long does it take for them to dry?
Totally crafty newbie question here…you mention citric acid (for the science explanation) but that’s not listed as an ingredient. Am I missing something? Kids can’t wait to make these for party favors! Thank you 🙂
Hi Meredith,
Citric acid is listed in the ingredients under the Epsom salts. These are super fun and I think easy to make wig kiddos so I hope they have a blast. My best tip is to go slow and light on the water. It’s harder to fix once too much water is added than going slow and adding a spray or two at a time. Good luck!
Hi. Is it the liquid or powder citric acid? It’s not included in your photo so I couldn’t tell.
Hi Joanna!
To make the homemade bath bombs, you’ll want to use powdered citric acid! Let us know how the experiment goes!
Warmly,
Alex
I am wondering if you use different essential oils, can you store them all in one baggie? Or would you have to separate them?
Hi Teresa,
I think it would depend on the oils you used. Some are pait strong and would easily mix with the others. Peppermint, eucalyptus, and lavender come to mind as some of the stronger scents that I would keep separate. Hope you have fun making these!
When do we add the food coloring? Maybe it’s written but I keep missing it? I would do a lot better with directions written out without photos or a storyline, kind of like a food recipe card…just a suggestion 🙂 Thanks for a fun recipe.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for reaching out! Great question.
The food coloring is mixed in with the water. Then the dyed water is sprayed onto the dry mixture.
I hope this helps!
Warmly,
Kimberleigh
Can you use citric acid powder?
Hi Reva,
I think citric acid powder should work. The kind I use resembles sugar in that it is small crystals, but I think powder would react the same way. I would be careful when adding the water and go super slow so the powder form doesn’t react quickly. Good luck!
I want to make these at school for my kids’ moms. Do you think they can dry before 3 if we make them first thing in the morning?
Hi Julia,
Yes they should dry by then! This will be so fun for your class. One tip, make sure to go really light on the water. I know kids usually like using spray bottles and can easily overdo it. If that happens you can add more dry ingredients to help stop the fizzy reaction but it can be tricky. It’s better to just take it really, really slow when adding the water/dye/scent mixture.
Just tried these. How much water do you use? After 10 minutes of drying our first attempt puffed up like marshmallows. The second try we used a lot less water.
We used about 15-20 sprays with a small spray bottle. We only added a couple sprays at a time and stirred well to make sure the water was evenly distributed before adding more. You want to test to see if it clumps every few sprays too so you don’t accidentally add too much water. Hope this helps!
We just made a batch, walked away and came back an hour later they had oozed all over the counter and table. I’m guessing we used too much water?
Hi Sara,
Yes, the recipe requires very little water – much less than you would expect.
Hope you’re able to have better luck in the future!
Warmly,
Ashley // Happiness Ambassador
Hello! Thanks for this awesome activity! I used silicone muffin forms for ours. Wondering what I added too much of as ours are rising immensely as we let them dry. I packed them like in the pictures and it didn’t seem at all like we had too much water, but I have already had to remove some of what I packed and put it into other muffin cups because they were bubbling over the top. Will they still work in the end?
Hi Adelaide,
Yes, they should still work in the end.
Most likely, you added too much water – it’s amazing how little you really need.
Hope they still turn out amazing!
Warmly,
Ashley // Happiness Ambassador
FIND A BETTER RECIPE!
I wish I had read the comments but as a busy mommy of 5, I just jumped right in to this craptastic recipe. Please notice that almost every comment is the same! We also had the same issue of fizzing over regardless of how little water we used. A waste of my time, money, and resources.
Hi Dawn,
I apologize that the bath bombs did not work. We do want all of our readers to find our ideas, activities and printable to be helpful. I apologize that these did not work well for you.
Warmly,
Ashley // Happiness Ambassador
It’s usually not advised to use food coloring for bath bombs as it can stain your tub.
Hi Sofia,
Thanks for reaching out.
We haven’t had any problems with it, but I appreciate the heads up!
Warmly,
Ashley // Happiness Ambassador
Can you used paper or foil muffin cup liners?
Yes! Those should work.
It may stick to the paper a little more than silicone molds, but it still should work.
Warmly,
Ashley // Happiness Ambassador
What did I do wrong mine didn’t fizz in the bathtub!?
we have made 5 eggs so far and two of the popped open 🙁 before we finished the batch
It sounds like a video would be a great thing with this activity.
I made these with my grandsons for Christmas gifts, and the mixture kept fizzing and expanding in the eggs and muffin pans, that I had to keep taking some out and making more shapes. I did this so many times that I finally took them all outside into the cold weather to see if they’d stop expanding. Now the mixture doesn’t fizz in water. What did I do wrong?
I use olive oil instead of spraying water (a few drops at a time) – it doesn’t set off the chemical reaction, but it makes the mix moldable. And it’s good for your skin 😉
Thank you very much for this great gift idea!!!! Loves making these with my son!!! Merry Christmas!! Happy Holidays ❤
I’m so glad you were able to enjoy making the bath bombs with your son! Using these as a gift is such a great idea! Happy Holidays to you as well!
Sarah // Playdough to Plato Team