DIY Bath Bombs & Homemade Bath Bomb Recipes

by craftyclub
Lavender bath bomb

Self-care is not just a luxury, it’s a necessity. As more and more people are realizing they’re overworked, over-tired, and just plain strung out, the need for calming remedies is abundant. A bath is one way to soak off the stress, but a bath bomb is an effective way to melt it away.

Making your own homemade bath bomb is easy. You may even find you have much of the recipe already lying around in your cupboards. The main ingredients are baking soda, corn starch, Epsom salt, coconut (or other) oil, and citric acid.

Most of these products are household staples except for citric acid. Citric acid provides the tantalizing fizz and bubble and is one of the main components of many-store bought bath bombs.

Although you may not have it in your pantry already, it won’t be too hard to track down. It can be purchased for relatively cheap online. Once it’s in your personal stores, you’ll be able to create all the different types of bath bombs you’ve dreamed of!

Side note: if you don’t have citric acid and aren’t interested in purchasing it, you’re not alone. Some bath bomb makers have found a hack to avoid using citric acid: cream of tartar. You may or may not have it on hand but it’s more easily found at your local grocery store than citric acid.

The Recipe for making bath bombs is pretty simple to follow. You’ll need:

  • 1 cup baking soda
  • 1/2 cup citric acid (or cream of tartar)
  • 3 Tbsp. Epsom Salt
  • 1 Tbsp. Coconut oil (or other carrier oil)
  • 1-2 tsp. Water
  • essential oil

To begin, mix together all of the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, do the same for the wet ingredients. Gradually add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, stirring in slowly until it begins to clump together. If the mixture is still too dry and crumbly, add slightly more water and oil until it gets to a manageable consistency.

Once it’s a moldable consistency, you can roll it into a ball or let it sit in a mold for 5 minutes. Let them air dry or freeze for at least 24 hours before using.

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Many places suggest leaving them in a mold for them to set and stick together. If you don’t have a mold, some hacks include using an old Christmas ball ornament, ice cube trays, or even cupcake liners! Feel free to mix up the shapes.

When you consider the cost of whipping up your own bath bomb with on-hand ingredients as opposed to stashing up on store-bought bath bombs, the experience becomes so much more personal and luxurious.

Here are some of the most inviting bath bomb recipes you won’t want to wait to dive into!

1. Lavender Bath Bomb

Lavender is the leader of the pack when it comes to essential oils. It became so popular due to its appealing scent and relaxing effect on the body. Lavender can be used to calm the mind before bed for a night of deep sleep, to reduce the effects of allergies and hay fever, and even reduce the inflammation of skin conditions like dermatitis and eczema!

The many calming abilities of lavender make it the number one contender for creating your own DIY bath bombs!

To create the full sensory experience, drop some purple food coloring into the bath bomb recipe along with the lavender essential oil. The outcome is a calming, luxuriously purple bath bomb working away at your stress!

2. Grapefruit Bath Bomb

Grapefruit Bath Bomb
Image by Sincerely Jean

For the opposing effect of a pre-sleep bath, a grapefruit bath bomb can give you an energizing lift to start your day!

These are just as easy to make as lavender. Add a few drops of grapefruit essential oil to your wet mixture and mix it through. A dash of rosemary may also help enhance the scent and cut some of the strong citrus scents. Drop in a hint of red or orange food coloring to give the visual burst of energy you need to start a long day or a night out!

3. Lemon Vanilla Bath Bomb

The nice thing about this DIY bath bomb recipe is you can make it as energizing or as calming as you’d like. While lemon is a burst of scent and energy, vanilla provides a more soothing, decadent scent. Together, they provide a luxurious self-care treatment!

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Try your hand at experimenting with this recipe. Go three parts lemon one part vanilla for a citric punch, or three parts vanilla to one part lemon for a milk aromatic sensation. Either way, this scent is enhanced by a cup of tea — or a great alternative!

4. Galaxy bath bomb

Scents are easy to add and adjust, but a splash color in bath bombs can be just as much fun! These galaxy bath bombs add more than a splash and make way for an impressively galactic experience.

To turn your tub into the milky way take an extra step. You’ll need black food dye to get the spacey feel, and maybe a little bit of glitter, too.

Instead of mixing all the ingredients together, you’ll want to separate the dry mixture into a few different bowls. Add the individual colors you want to watch swirl into each individual bowl. When you’re ready to press, take handfuls from each colored bowl and press them into each other. When it explodes in your bath it will be a swirl of spacey colors.

5. Oatmeal bath bomb

Oatmeal bath bomb
Image by Soap Queen

Oatmeal can be very soothing to the skin, which makes it an ideal option for bath bombs.

Replace corn starch with oatmeal and follow the instructions as usual.

For this recipe, almost any essential oil can be added to create the desired scent. You can also opt to forgo essential oil and just bask in the soft-to-the-touch experience of the oatmeal bath.

6. Rose bath bomb

Like lavender, rose makes for a popular essential oil. The scent can uplift mood and act as an anti-depressant, making for both an energizing or relaxing experience.

A few drops of this oil combined with a few drops of red food coloring will give you a bubbly pink bath. For an added bonus, you can add rose petals into the mold and allow them to float around in the tub with you.

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7. Eucalyptus bath bomb

The indigenous Australian oil is the favorite food of the lazy koalas but gives a huge burst of energy to us. It’s a potent anti-inflammatory, so it can help soothe and relax the mind as well as ease tension in muscles. Choose your own colors for this bath bomb and create your own experience as it fizzes to life.

8. Unicorn Bath Bomb

Unicorn bath bomb
Image by The Makeup Dummy

Unicorns are fantasy fan-favorite and creating a homemade bath bomb with them in mind means you can go wild! Use glitter and your favorite scents to create a rainbow-trotting bath experience.

To make it, you’ll follow similar steps to the galaxy bath bomb. Make separate bowls of color and, when they’re ready, simply press them into a mold together.

9. Green Tea Bath bomb

Green tea comes from China. It’s been used for centuries in part of ceremonies and in everyday life. It’s bursting with antioxidants and has become a popular drink worldwide.

For those who love green tea, you can now bathe in it. To create a green tea bath bomb, you’ll need to add just one step to the process. Use about 2 tbsp. of green tea leaves, add ½ tbsp of boiling water (to release the tea from the leaves). Add to the wet mixtures with dry and carry out the molding process as usual.

Lemon essential oil would be a good compliment to this recipe.

10. Margarita bath bombs

At the end of a long day, many people opt for a drink while others want to dive headfirst into a margarita. This bath bomb gives you that option.

Use some lemon essential oil along with some lime zest to create this bunchy scent. Mold as usual and, as you would for a margarita glass, line the rim with salt. Roll your bath bomb with some extra Epsom salt for that nice sharp taste – or, in this case, feel.

11. Midas Touch Bath Bombs

Midas Touch Bath Bombs (via Soap Queen)

12. Mermaid Shell Bath Bombs

Mermaid Shell Bath Bombs
Mermaid Shell Bath Bombs (via Totally The Bomb)

13. Hidden Train Bath Bombs

Hidden Train Bath Bombs (via Craftulate)

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