Sew Sister: Bath Bomb Buzz

Have you tried making your own bath bombs? Every now and then I give it a go, or I help others make them, or I try to concoct love potion bath bombs, but that's another story of mayhem!.....The trick is not to moisten your dry bath bomb mix too much or it will react and fizz before you have even put them into a mold....

Here is the basic bath bomb recipe I use......I sometimes change it around by adding a couple of tablespoons of milk powder to the mix. I then just adjust the dry ingredients to accommodate this...The oil I used here is grapeseed oil but you can use almond, coconut, olive or avocado etc. I do find that depending on the type of oil you use (some go rancid very quickly) bath bombs will keep their nice perfume only as long as the oil ingredient hasn't gone off.....

Bath Bomb Recipe
1 cup of baking soda
1/2 cup of cornflour
1/2 cup of citric acid
2 1/2 teaspoons of oil
5mls of fragrance
A drop of coloring (food grade)
Water or witch hazel in a spray bottle

I whisk or sieve all the dry ingredients together in a stainless steel or glass bowl (never plastic)......Then I blend the oil and colouring together in a small glass (as many drops of colour as you need). Then I add the fragrance, essential oils, perfume or what ever I have to the oil/colouring mix and then give it a stir. Now it's all ready....

Quickly work the oil/color/fragrance mix into the dry mix with your hands. I use plastic gloves to protect my hands. Next I spray witch hazel (about 3-4 pumps on a fine mist setting) onto the crumbly bath bomb mix and then I rub/squeeze/knead all the mix together. Work very fast at this stage to stop any chemical reaction......Your mixture may look dry but don't be tempted to add more liquid the mixture just needs to be damp enough to mold. Next press the mixture into your mold of choice (I used a heart shape patty pan tin). I turn my bombs out of the mold fairly quickly to dry because I need the mold for the rest of them......For more detailed information on making bath bombs click here.

Molds
You can use old muffin pans, silicone ice block trays (I use these for my scraps). My round clear plastic molds I bought years ago at a craft store. These are the cheapest to buy but they are really hard to find in New Zealand now. Here is a site in Australia that sells the plastic molds and ships internationally also. My stainless steel bath bomb mold which is the most long lasting, I sourced from overseas here.

Wrapping Bath Bombs
If you are not using your bath bombs straight away it is a good idea to shrink wrap them after 24hrs or when they are completely dry......Sounds expensive, but the easy and cheap way to do this is to buy some Gladwrap (plastic wrap). Cut the cling wrap to size and wrap it around each individual bath bomb.
Now this is the fun part get your heat gun and gently apply it to the plastic wrap which will start to shrink to the shape of the bath bomb. This is very tricky as you really need to watch you don't burn your fingers....

Also you need to be careful you don't make holes in the plastic wrap from too much heat. But don't worry you can fix this by tearing a small piece of plastic wrap and cover the hole and then re-apply heat onto it. Round shaped bath bombs are the easiest to shrink wrap and the easiest to patch! After your bath bombs are all shrink wrapped you can embellish them with ribbons, string, material or just pack them up in a nice box......Or if you like, you can keep them in a sealed glass bottle ready to use (you won't need to shrink wrap).

Tip
When making bath bombs don't give up if your batch is a disaster, practise makes perfect.....

These ones have been shrink wrapped just using
plain old Gladwrap. Some brands work better than
others, even the cheap ones from $2.00 shops

I use up the scraps of bath bomb mixture to make
mini fizzers and store them in a air tight jar
Except this one is not air tight but they were
used up quickly so it didn't matter