Homemade Bath Bomb Recipe (Great DIY Gift!)

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Wellness Mama » Blog » Beauty » Homemade Bath Bomb Recipe (Great DIY Gift!)

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!

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.

Homemade Bath Bomb Recipe Equipment

These are easy enough to make but for a fancier and more uniform product, it helps to also have:

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.

bath bombs recipe
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3.78 from 45 votes

DIY Bath Bomb Recipe

This easy bath bomb recipe features simple, nourishing ingredients for a relaxing bath. Great for kids and adults alike!
Prep Time5 minutes
Active Time5 minutes
Drying time2 days
Total Time2 days 10 minutes
Yield: 23 ounces
Author: Katie Wells

Materials

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

Ever made your own bath bombs? Do you have any favorite scents or herbs you’d add to these? Share below!

Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

278 responses to “Homemade Bath Bomb Recipe (Great DIY Gift!)”

  1. Elizabeth Avatar
    Elizabeth

    Approximately how many bath bombs (2-3 in. diameter) does this recipe make?

  2. Pam Avatar

    I have made several batches of bombs but none of them fizz. I followed your recipe to the T. The citric acid it good, 2 years before it expires, so not sure what’s wrong. I’m soaking my feet right now and it smells great and feels good to my feet but wanted them to fizz for the grandkids. Help

  3. Marie Avatar

    Hi! Thank you so much for sharing all your great recipes. I just wanted to comment on baking soda, it actually doesn’t contain aluminum. The baking powder, on the other hand, can contain aluminum.
    And the mold you recommend do contain aluminum, do you think that can transfer to the ball or it is only if you heat up the mold that the aluminum transfers to the bath bomb?

  4. Sean Avatar

    What if I don’t use these within 2 weeks? Im making them for christmas gifts and want to make sure they won’t go bad. Do I need to do something extra to make them last longer??

  5. Beth Avatar

    I made this for Christmas presents for my friends. Thanks so much! My two year old helped and we used our home chamomile infused olive-coconut oil and some sweet orange oil. Thanks!

    1. Kate Avatar

      Hi. I’m also interested for making these with younger kids (my daughter is almost three). How many drops of sweet orange oil did you use in the recipe? Is it safe for kids that young? Thanks!

  6. Jen Avatar

    I love this recipe!!! Just for kicks I swapped out the cornstarch with powder milk – my sister and I tested them and it made our skin so soft!!!! Also this is a great time of the year because there are plastic Christmas Ball Ornaments for sale at the craft store that open up – they are cheaper then the molds and produce the same effect =)

  7. Lisa Stoloff Rosenthal Avatar
    Lisa Stoloff Rosenthal

    I am making bath bombs for the first time and I have found that using olive oil as recommended in many recipes) makes the bomb yellowish when put in a bath..

    Is there something better I can use that will not do that?

    Thank you,

    Lisa

  8. Danni Avatar

    I’ve been wanting to try making bath bombs for a while now and your recipe sounds awesome! Just curious though… why do they have to be used within two weeks? Will they go bad? I was thinking about making some ahead of time for people in my family for Christmas but I don’t want them to spoil. Do they lose their fizziness after they’ve been sitting for a while? Just curious as to how long I should wait to make them if I wanna give them as Christmas gifts. 🙂 thanks for the awesome recipe!

  9. Alice Avatar

    Tried recipe twice. Omitted witch hazel. Both times I got crumbly bombs. Somehow second batch was way worse!! So disappointed, I give up!!! Waste of time and money. Going to do mason jar gifts instead.

  10. Terri Coldreck Avatar
    Terri Coldreck

    Why use within two weeks? I want to get a head start on Xmas gifts. Also if giving as a gift don’t know how quickly they will use.
    Love this idea
    Terri

  11. Brenda Avatar

    How many bath bombs will this recipe make . Sounds awesome I want to try making them and perhaps give them out as gifts.
    Thank you

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