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There’s something incredibly relaxing about a warm bath, and this homemade bath bomb recipe makes it even better! There are thousands of bath bomb options available, but it’s easy to make your own with natural ingredients. Kids and adults alike love them and they make a great gift.
While they can cost up to $9 each to buy, you can make a whole batch for just a few dollars!
DIY Bath Bomb Recipe
When I was younger, I loved bath bombs. I’ve avoided them as I’ve gotten older though because store-bought versions often use artificial ingredients, dyes, and fragrances. For a while, I just used bath salts in my bath water when I wanted to unwind, but I missed having a bath bomb.
These homemade bath fizzies are a great solution! They’re made with nourishing sea salt or Epsom salts, alkalizing baking soda, and fizzing citric acid with a nourishing oil base. I’ll add different essential oils or even dried herbs depending on my mood. Peppermint, eucalyptus, or lavender essential oils are a few ideas.
If you need a gift idea for an Easter basket, Mother’s Day, Christmas, or even a birthday, then DIY bath bombs are a great option.
How to Make a Natural Bath Bomb Recipe
Bath bombs only take seconds to make, so it’s important to have the ingredients on hand and measured before you start. Once the water hits the citric acid they start to fizz and you’ll need to work fast. Most of the ingredients are pantry staples in many homes, but make sure you have these on hand:
Baking Soda
The backbone of this recipe is alkalizing baking soda. It complements the acidic citric acid and helps with the fizzing reaction. It’s a frequent ingredient in my detox baths and can even help soothe sunburn.
Citric Acid
You might not have citric acid sitting on your pantry shelf, but you’ll need it for this recipe. Citric acid is what gives us the fizzing reaction that makes bath bombs feel like bathing in champagne.
Corn Starch or Arrowroot
Corn starch provides the silky feel that we all love from bath bombs. I usually use organic cornstarch in this recipe (and my natural deodorant). Arrowroot also works but doesn’t provide quite as silky of a finished product.
Liquid Ingredients
These are all very versatile and you can pick any combination you have on hand. You’ll need some kind of:
- Oil: Pick a simple oil like olive oil, almond oil, or coconut oil. If you’re feeling fancy use sea buckthorn, argan, or apricot oil. You could also create your own blend with several different oils.
- Salt: Stick to basic sea salt or kick it up a notch with Epsom salt or your favorite salt for this bath bomb recipe.
- Liquid: Basic water will work, but I also love using organic witch hazel for some extra skin-soothing. Some people find that the bath bombs stick together better with witch hazel.
Scents and Colors
There are so many options here. Use your favorite essential oils, add dried herbs and flowers, or make them scent-free. Some options include:
- Lavender and Vanilla or Rose and Ylang-Ylang… or just use your imagination!
- Kids love the fizzy action of bath bombs! I’m pretty cautious with essential oils around young kids so I use kid-safe blends when making them as gifts for my kids.
- You can even add some natural food coloring to change the color.
The Best Essential Oils for Bath Bombs
While there are a lot of different oils that smell good, not every essential oil is the best option here. Some essential oils are more irritating to… ahem… sensitive tissues. Oils like cinnamon, clove, ginger, and lemongrass are more prone to irritating skin.
The recipe below uses a .5% dilution of essential oils (that’s 1/2 percent, NOT 5 percent), which shouldn’t cause problems for most people. And of course, if you tend to be more sensitive, then dried herbs are a gentler option. Here are some gentle, skin-friendly essential oils that also smell great!
- Lavender
- Rose
- Amyris
- Ylang Ylang
- Patchouli
- Roman chamomile
- Neroli
- Blood orange or sweet orange
- Geranium
- Eucalyptus
- Frankincense
- Green mandarin
- Jasmine absolute
Herbs for Bath Bombs
If you want to add some skin-soothing herbs or dried flowers here are some options. Keep in mind that if the pieces are too large, the bath bombs won’t hold together, so I wouldn’t mix in whole leaves or flowers. These herbs are generally safe, especially in such low amounts, but do your research to see which ones will work for you.
- Calendula flowers
- Lavender flowers
- Rose petals
- Plantain
- Catnip
- Chamomile flowers
- Echinacea flowers or leaves
Homemade Bath Bomb Recipe Equipment
These are easy enough to make but for a fancier and more uniform product, it helps to also have:
- A scale: A digital scale to help get the proportions exactly right
- Molds: For the easiest version, just use a cupcake tin. If you‘re making them as gifts or want fancier shapes, metal or silicone molds are the way to go. I have these metal round molds and also this variety pack of assorted shapes that the girls love.
DIY Bath Bomb Tutorial
Making a homemade bath bomb recipe is a great project for kids to help with. Some DIY beauty recipes (especially homemade soap) require precise measuring and handling harsh chemicals like lye, so they aren’t great to make with children around. These bath bombs are the opposite and make for a fun project to do with kids. They’re simple to make with kid-safe ingredients and are completely versatile. Let the kids think of ways to mix up the scents, colors, and other fun customizations.
Bath bombs are a great way to relax in the tub after a long day of dealing with kids, cooking, and all the other activities that motherhood entails. If you’ve never tried them, I highly encourage it. It’s one of my favorite things to do at the end of the day.
DIY Bath Bomb Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 ounces baking soda 1 cup
- 4 ounces citric acid 1/2 cup
- 4 ounces sea salt 1/2 cup
- 4 ounces cornstarch 3/4 cup
- 2 TBSP carrier oil this one is my favorite but any will do
- 2 tsp witch hazel or water in a spray bottle
- 1 tsp vanilla extract optional
- 60 drops essential oils of choice optional
- 2 TBSP dried flowers or herbs optional
- 10-20 drops natural food dye optional
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients (baking soda, citric acid, corn startch, and sea salt) and stir well.
- In a small bowl combine the carrier oil, vanilla extract, essential oils, and natural dye if using.
- Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and work it together with your hands until its crumbly.
- Add in the dried flowers or herbs if using.
- Spritz the witch hazel or water onto the bath bomb mixture, mixing well with your hands to combine. Do this just until the mixture holds together when squeezed without crumbling. It should feel like wet sand. You may need to add slightly more witch hazel if it hasn't achieved this consistency yet.
- Firmly press the bath bomb mixture into silicone molds, muffin tins, ice cube trays, or bath bomb molds.
- Gently turn the molds over onto a flat surface to remove the bath bombs and allow to dry for 48 hours, or until hardened.
Notes
- Storage: Keep the bath bombs in an airtight container away from moisture.
- Shelf Life: About 6 months.
Non-Toxic Pre-Made Bath Bombs
I finally found some natural bath bombs that use a similar recipe to mine. These are gorgeous and use only natural ingredients. They’re also much bigger than most bath bombs and last longer in a bath. I’ve been sending them as gifts lately and my friends are loving them too!
Bath Bomb Troubleshooting
Although this recipe is easy and doesn’t have a ton of ingredients, they can be a little tricky to make sometimes. The key is to add the right amount of liquid and work quickly when molding.
- Bath bomb sticks to mold: You may have used too much liquid or didn’t remove them from the mold quickly enough.
- Bath bombs fall apart: Either too much or too little liquid or they may have been left in the mold too long.
- Bath bombs cracking when dry: too much moisture in the mix or humidity in the air.
- Bath bombs sink in the tub: too much moisture or humidity or they haven’t dried long enough.
- Bath bombs don’t fizz enough: They might not have had enough time to harden, or they weren’t wrapped before storage and they had a reaction with the air.
More Natural Bath Recipes
- How to Make Luxurious Rose Bath Melts
- Soothing Colloidal Oatmeal Bath Recipe for Itchy, Dry Skin
- 5 Natural Detox Bath Recipes
- Natural Bubble Bath Recipe for Kids
Ever made your own bath bombs? Do you have any favorite scents or herbs you’d add to these? Share below!
Before I try to make my own bath salts, I would like to ask a question about some bath salts that I already bought awhile ago. Is Village Naturals Therapy bath salt natural and organic? Or does it contain any harmful chemicals? I have about 5 containers of it, but I don’t want to use it if it’s truly harmful. I couldn’t really understand some of the ingredients, but I don’t want to jump to conclusions, without more information. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
Just google the ingredients.
I would love to make these as favors for my baby shower. I plan on using my mini muffin tins but what would you grease them with? Would coconut oil be a good choice?
That could work…
How many large 8 cm sphere bath bombs does the recipe make?
I look forward to trying these out.
many thanks
I had some major problems while making these and I’m trying to figure out what happened! First these expanded so intensely I lost probably half the batch. They were growing by the minute and if I didn’t push them down every half hour they would overflow out of the molds. After two days and several overflows I tried taking them out of the molds and they fell apart. I’m waiting to use one still and hoping they even fizz. Any suggestions on what could have gone wrong? I followed measurements and ingredients exactly. Thanks so much. They smell amazing so I’m going to use the crumbles myself instead of giving as gifts.
This is happining to me as well I keep pushing it down and it just seems to be making it crumbly did you ever find out cause I am thinking to wet but I followed the recipe to a T maybe next time I will add the witch hazel last 🙂
Mine will just not stop expanding and I forgot them this am and they are on the table around the containers!!
Put the water and or witch hazel in a spray bottle and sprayed in a little at a time. spray a little then mix..spray a little then mix. Just until you can squeeze some in your hand and it clumps.
Try adding the citric acid last, then spray lightly with the witch hazel. Nice trick I learned to keep the acid from reacting. Also i only use about a teaspoon of melted coconut oil, plus the oils/fragrance. I add a touch of mica for color. Then Add the acid last, then mist with the witch hazel, and only a few squirts. Her amount of liquid is way too high for these.
I had this problem today too. Almost all the material oozed out and I couldnt keep the molds closed. I will try adding the liquid little by little but also wonder if altitude has anything do with it. Normally in baking we have to half the leavening agents but I didnt for this. Does the amount of baking soda at high altitude make any difference in something like this?
Migh be too much liquid? I just tried these for the first time tonight…I accidentally doubled the Epsom salts so I went ahead and doubled all the dry ingredients. Then I took 3 bowls (still plenty of dry mix left!) and put a cup of mix in each bowl. Then I used 2 tsp with hazel, 2 tsp coconut oil, and 15 drops essential oil. VERY SLOWLY added the oil mix and kept mixing by hand till I was out of oil mix. Then packed into bombs! I did add a little extra witch hazel to my first two bowls but the third i didn’t and they are so far holding up the best!
I’ve made three batches so far and the recipe has worked beautifully for me. I made a hand shaped mini one with a little left over mix and it held together and fizzed like crazy in the water. I made my first 2 batches plain with no color or additives. The last batch I made using some color and added dried lavendar. I’m really excited about this last batch as I am making them for gifts.
How many bath bombs does this recipe make roughly?
How many were you able to make with one batch? Thank you!
My favorite oils to use are lemongrass and lavender. They smell amazing together! You feel relaxed but not sleepy like some EO’s make you feel. That’s also my favorite scent when I make goat milk soap. Everyone raves about it, even my teenage boys who think I’m crazy for making everything I can naturally and trying to make our home non toxic.
Of course there are other blends I like and use for different purposes, this just happens to be my favorite.
how many drops of each oil do you add?
I’d really like to know that too!
I tried 10 lavender and 10 lemongrass. Next time I will do less–a bit too strong
Kathy, would you be willing to share your soap recipe? I haven’t tried goat’s milk yet. Still looking for that perfect recipe.
I just pressed my fizzies into molds. I hope they turn out well, I used coconut oil instead of olive oil, witch hazel and water. I also doubled the quantity of vanilla extract and added it to my epsom salt beforehand to let the moisture evaporate off, I did this a couple of days ago in preparation. So far my fizzies have not reacted at all and smell really good. I’m going to wait the whole 48 hours before popping them out of the molds and then it will be testing time.
Where is the best and most affordable place to get the molds?
I use silicone cupcake pans as molds. The candy ones work great to make cute little molds as well.
Look for soap molds on E-bay. They will take a while to arrive, but they are inexpensive and work well.
I left mine in the molds for 48 hours and then could not get them out. Pried them apart with a screw driver and they broke in half and would not come out. How did it work for you? I am considering leaving in for an hour and then taking out… Read another comment about how someone took them out almost immediately and then let them dry. ???
If you pack them to hard they won’t come out I found that out with my batch yesterday lol
Can not get my creations out of the metal molds. Used olive oil before placing ingredients in the molds but the only thing that happened was when opening the molds they broke in half. Even tried to use a knife to scrap out of the molds but they are stuck!
Just made these and they smell wonderful. I was curious if breathing in the citric acid can cause harm during pregnancy. I don’t know what came over me but took a big whiff after I added the wet mixture to the dry and it really tingled my nose. I am such a paranoid pregnant lady 🙂
It shouldn’t hurt, but I’d avoid it if possible…
Essential oils should not be used in the first trimester, and not all are safe in pregnancy (Citrus and peppermint are fine though).
I would avoid mint. Family two of win my nan was in old work houses. Anyway if any of the women became pregnant they would be given them pure peppermint, to abort in first trimester!
I don’t think it’s commonly known if you not had somebody live through it themselves.
Apart from that I find it to be my favourite smell and intend to use it myself in my next batch of soap (just started yesterday (Tuesday) but Unfortuantly I never discovered this page and use melt and pour styles soaps via YouTube.
Tbh I bought so many bath bomb ingredients coz YouTube was so contradicting with how t make them. I didn’t want to leave anything out for my first attempt. Now I jist going to follow this page instead . It’s clear instructions and full of explanations of what ingredients are and why they used or/and alternative options.
It’s brilliant.
This sounds great! Is there a reason it has to be used in 2 weeks? If not using water will it keep longer?
I just haven’t kept them without using them for longer than that, so I can’t personally vouch that they last longer and didn’t want to give false info (though I am testing to see how long they last) I do know that the citric acid will lose its fizziness eventually…
Because not much can grow in such a salty environment, any issue is likely caused by the bath-bombs picking up moisture from the air. Storing them in an air-tight jar (canning jar) or zip-lock bag with either silica beads (available at craft stores for drying flowers) or rice will extend the ‘life’ of the fizziness.
Note that if you have a septic system rather than being connected to city sewer, don’t use these too often. Too much salt in a septic tank may kill the bacteria that process the stuff that drains into the tank causing failure. A new septic leach field is very expensive!
Hi! I’m new here and love your site!
A couple of quick questions about this awesome project:
Where did you get the wonderful flower molds that you used?
Also, why should these be used within 2 weeks? Shouldn’t they have a longer shelf life? Or is it that they will just keep expanding?
Thanks!
I have that mold too. I got it at Amazon. It’s the Freshware Mini Rose.
Thanks!
Now if I could just get some info about the shelf life! The ingredient list doesn’t seem that it would only have a 2 week shelf life. Maybe if you use water instead of witch hazel, but other than that….
They will last indefinitely, but will lose some fizzing ability after time. Since I”ve only managed to keep them two weeks without using them up, this is as long as I can vouch for the shelf life personally…
Hi Katie,
Hope you are doing fine,
I have 2 queries here:
(a) wanted to know if bath bombs are safe for eyes. In my country mostly people take bath with bucket and mug But not in tub. So the water used on the rest of the body would be used for face also.
(b) why do we use epsom salt at all? and if it is not used then what challenge we would face?
Please share your insight for this.
Regards,
Kanika
Hi I don’t think the bath bombs are safe for eyes and it’s only meant for the tub not a bucket and mug. Epsom salts is just for relaxing I’ve seen many other recipes without Epsom salts just type in homemade bath bombs without Epsom salts and you should find a lot of recipes
What is a bath fizzy used for?
Relaxing and detoxing…
I’m just learning how to make bath products, and enjoy your recipes. I have a loved one thats has an allergy to citrus. She even breaks out with fresh citrus fruits. She realized this when she was going to school for massage therapy. Is there an alternative to using citrus acid in the recipes?
I’m not sure. Is your loved one allergic to citric acid or to a different component of the citrus?
Look for epson salts with other oils added. Like Mint or other scents she likes.
From what I have read, you can use half the amount of cream of tartar instead of citrus acid. Hope this helps.
You might consider using other fruit acids. Malic acid, comes form apples. Glycolic acid from sugar cane, tartaric acid from grapes. I don’t know enough about the bath fizzies to know whether or not any of the other fruit acids would work, but might be worth trying.
Lemon juice works
Luv the Recipe I love your blog and im only 11years old!
I am right there with you, Claudia. I love this website too, and I’m only twelve!
Same I’m 13 and looking for a better alternative than Lush’s bath bombs, they leave my skin feeling weird.
So proud of your Young ladies making healthy alternatives!!
I have not been able to find a bath soap recipe on this sight, am I missing it?
Nope, there isn’t one now, but there will be soon!
I add lavender (of course), vetiver and orange e.o. in my fizzies. My daughter has autism and the Epsom salt baths and e.o.s make her calm. The orange isn’t necessarily calming but it’s her favorite!
Don’t be too worried about the official aromatherapy uses of certain oils. There are some rules of thumb but science shows us that a lot of the claimed aromatherapy benefits are just not necessarily true. Instead, aroma is linked to memory, so if the smell of orange reminds your child of happy, relaxed times, then it will have a relaxing effect on her. For me as an Australian, the smell of volatile oils like citrus and eucalyptus reminds me of hot summer days when the oils start to evaporate from the leaves so it’s a much more relaxing scent than it might be for someone who didn’t have those childhood experiences. 🙂
Ooh interesting. Thanks for sharing. A sweet orange is one of my favorites. It litterally makes my mouth water. Ha!
Wow?!You need to read Robert Tesserand’s Book-Essential Oil Safety: A Guide for Health Care Professionals. There absolutely is scientific data that proves that the chemical makeup of Essential Oils affect the human body in different ways. I would by get into specifics but please know that Essential Oils and Fragrance Oils are two completely different things. Essential oils are very concentrated and powerful, certain ones can cause miscarriages in pregnant women and sone can slow the respiratory system in children. Yes it is true that smells in general can bring back good or bad memories and feelings but do not for one second think that Essential Oils are just for Aromatherapy.
Thank you for stating this. It is so very important,
Can you leave the fizzy in the container for like 20mins than take it out and leave it to dry?? If not please tell me alternatives instead of leaving it for 24 hours. Btw they are about egg size,I’m making than as gifts for tomorrow!! If u have an answer please tell me ASAP!!!!!
No. Unfortunately you cannot. They need a long time to dry. The larger you make them the more time they will need.
I have put mine in the oven with just the light on to dry them out a little faster without losing all the aroma.
I remove mine from my mold immediately and leave them to dry on parchment. After a couple of hours, I package them and store them. Be careful of humidity and moisture in the air, it can cause your bombs to explode (react early). Have fun!
Now i get why they are called bath BOMBS haha ?
Yeah that happened to my batch I made, they exploded everywhere
Yes! I take mine out right after pressing them together, and then I let them dry overnight.
Where do you leave them to dry? After how long do you package them?