HOMEMADE BATH BOMBS & BATH FIZZIES FOR SICK KIDDIES

by Heather MildensteinApril 10, 2012

It was a cold winter night. I was craving a bath, as usual, and wishing I had something delightful to adorn my bath with, when it hit me! Ashmae brought me back a Lush bath bomb from her trip a while ago. I drew my piping hot bath and got in. Then I dropped the bath bomb in, not knowing what to expect. It was magical, it was mesmerizing, it was unforgettable. This thing that I had dropped into my bath took on a new life. It fizzed, hissed, and eventually dissolved, leaving delicious smelling oils that weren’t only nice to smell, but also made my skin silky smooth and moisturized. It was a lovely thing.

I immediately knew that every bath I took for the rest of my life now required a bath bomb. I knew I couldn’t afford $7-$10 baths every night. And that’s when it hit me. I just make my own…

And then it hits me again! When my kids are sick I put a few drop of special essential oils into their baths (particularly eucalyptus) to help open their airways and feel better, so why can’t I make it fun?! Why couldn’t I make beneficial bath bombs and fizzies for my kids adorned with healing properties? The answer was simple. I can.

And here’s how YOU can too:

This first recipe is for a simple bath bomb. Below, I’ll indicate how you can make them into bath fizzies for sick kiddies!

(this is the best recipe I found, and then adapted a tiny bit)

The ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup citric acid
1/2 cup corn starch

Mix dry ingredients together until completely combined and smooth. (I ground up oats in the Magic Bullet and mixed in about 1/4 cup as well. This makes not only pretty flex in the bath, but is good for your skin as well)

Wet Ingredients:

2 1/2 Tbsp sunflower or other light oil (I use sweet almond oil, available at drug or health food stores)
3/4 Tbsp water
1/2 to 2 teaspoons essential oils or fragrance oils (depends on strength of the oils)…I used lemon
1/4 tsp Vitamin E oil (optional, but recommended – an antioxidant which preserves the oils somewhat)
1/4 teaspoon borax (an emulsifier)
witch hazel in a spray bottle (I put it in the spray bottle after I bought it)
vegetable or other natural colourant (optional – a few drops of food colouring works well)

Whisk all of the wet ingredients and Borax together in a large bowl. I didn’t use any food coloring for the batch in the pictures because I wanted it white.

Drizzle slowly onto the dry ingredients and blend thoroughly. It should not fizz while you are drizzling and mixing. If it does, slow down! Mix with your hands until all of the ingredients are combined. Lightly spray the mixture 2-3 times with whitch hazel. You know you have the right consistency if, when pressed together in your hand, it molds and sticks together, but is easily broken apart as well. If it’s not sticking together, spray a little more witch hazel into the mixture.

Pack tightly into molds, then slide out.

A lot of people use clear, plastic christmas ornaments for their molds, and although the molds make them pretty and round, I found that they’re too big and just not necessary. So I used one of my son’s stacking cups. it’s about 1/4 c. It works well. You could use measuring cups or anything else you’d like for the molds.

To give the bath bombs a little extra umph, I dropped a tiny bit of whole oats into the bottom of the mold to make them pretty. I’ve seen people to fun little sprinkles and things like that. It’s not necessary, but makes it fun!

*note: This mixture is dry and crumbly and needs to be packed into the molds very firmly.

Sometimes the molds need a little tap and squeeze before they come out.

Let the bath bombs dry and harden overnight before you pick them up. They will become rock hard.

This recipe makes about 6 bath bombs that are approximately 1/4 cups each.

*If you don’t want to make bath bombs with molds, you can just bag or jar the crumb mixture and spoon as much as you’d like into your bath. (see picture)

Another fun thing that I did once was I made lavender bombs and sprinkled dry tea leaves into the dry ingredients.

You can easily make beneficial bath fizzies for your sick kids, too! The kids LOVE them! However, because there are some oils in the recipe, I suggest washing their hair first, then put the fizzies in so the oils don’t make their hair yucky.

Follow the directions above, but put in beneficial essential oils such as eucalyptus (for colds and coughs), chamomile and/or lavender (for relaxing and soothing), or anything else you want! Have fun with it! I like to go to this website to look up different benefits of certain essential oils.

I bought almost all of my ingredients online at Amazon, and bought the baking soda and cornstarch in bulk at Winco. Everything priced out to be about $40. That’s not bad though considering you can make a TON, and give them out to friends and neighbors as gifts.

Get crazy and have fin mixing and making your own aromas! I bought my essential oils at the health food store.