DIY Lush Bath Bombs

You can swing a cat just about anywhere these days and you’re sure to hit a couple of Lush fans… I mean, who doesn’t LOVE them some Lush goodies right? All the spoilage is too hard to resist. Especially their bath bombs – can I get an amen? But those pretty little puppies can quickly start racking up heavily on the wallet if you used them as often as you’d like to. And trust me, I really want to everyday. Also, I have an insane and unstoppable need to make stuff myself. As is evidenced by this here blog. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a few cool bath bomb recipes last year. I had some trial and error and eventually perfected a recipe that worked perfectly for me. So much so, I even made a few as a take-home “dragon egg” bath bomb gifts for the littles at our recent kiddy Dragon Party.

What’s more is that the ingredients are all natural and are made especially for those sensitive skins. I am a huge fan of Epsom salts, which is great for skin, ridding the body of toxins and even helping calm kiddies down right before bedtime. (Hence I thought it was a great gift to the parents of those kids, after a party.)

Before we go on, guys, whilst I think what I’m about to say is as necessary as a fancy dress warning label stating a superman cape cannot not make you fly ( so please climb down from your roof), I’m going to say it in any case: this is NOT the actual Lush recipe, but comes pretty damn close. In fact, you may not even be able to tell the difference.

The recipe is super easy, using ingredients you can easily find and don’t need any special equipment.
It yields about 10 to 24 bath bombs, depending how big your mould is. (If you want yours to look more like the Lush’s, then best use a round mould, and the colours you prefer.)

what do you need

• 1 cup baking soda
• ½ cup citric acid (or ¼ cup tartaric acid – which is a great alternative for any little girls who may react with the citric acid)
• ½ cup corn starch
• ½ cup Epsom salts ( I liked the fine grained one)
• 4 tsp. of water
• 1-2 tsp/20 drops essential oil ( I used lavender – great for relaxation and sleep)
• 1 tsp oil (almond or coconut oil)
• A few drops of food colouring (depending on how deep you want the colour, I used about ½ tsp blue or green colour in my dragon eggs)
• Plastic moulds that can snap together. (I used easter egg moulds, but you could use a christmas ornament that snaps together (can buy online) or cut a tennis ball in half
• Whisk
• Bowl and cup for mixing (i.e. For mixing the salts and a cup/another bowl for mixing colour, water, oils)
• Spray bottle (optional)
• Edible glitter (optional for sparkle. Dragon eggs sparkle –obviously- so we used green and silver)

The Method:

1. Add all your dry ingredients to one bowl and use a whisk to mix it all together.



whisk dry ingredients

2. Mix you all your oils, water and colouring in the cup/other bowl.

3. Either use a spray bottle or very slowly add the liquid mixture drop by drop to the dry mixture. If you’re not careful, you may add too much liquid to the dry mixture, it will start fizzing. Careful, you don’t want to activiate the bath bomb just yet. If it does start fizzing, quickly cover it with more of the dry mixture around it.

4. Once done your mixture needs to resemble damp sand, that sticks together. How do you know it’s right? If you squeeze a little in your hand, it keeps its shape. It should NOT fall apart.




test sand


But be careful, you don’t want it too damp, as this will make it expand in the mould, take longer to dry out and possibly lose some of its potency.

It also cannot be too powdery. It won’t keep its shape once removed from the mould then. If this is the case, a few more sprays/drops of extra oil or water will do. I have used both extra oil and extra water in differnet cases, and both work well. Water is easier though- just be careful with how much you add and how quickly you add it in.

5. Once your mixture is perfect, fill the moulds with the mixture. Compress it as tightly as possible.



fill moulds

If you are using the glitter, first sprinkle your mould BEFORE filling with mixture.




sprinkle glitter now

6. Then top it up with some more mixture and compress to make sure you get a firm bath bomb, and so that the two halves (if using two halves) will stick together.




compress

7. If your mould is 3D (like our easter egg) then compress using both sides of your mould then gently tapping on it, remove the one half. (This is to ensure it will easily come out of the mould when needs be.) then gently return the mould back on.




gently tap


Then repeat with the other side of the mould, and again return it. Then finally remove the other half once more and let it dry like that.(with the one side of mould still on)
I have tried many different ways, and found that that is the only way to ensure that the bath bombs do not break once ready to be removed from mould.

Be sure to secure it somewhere where it won’t roll or fall.




green eggs

8. If your mould is 1D (ie. Flat on one side) let it dry in the mould for about 20 min then gently turn it over onto the surface where you will let it dry, lightly tapping at the back of the mould. It should come out easily. Let it dry there for a day or two.

And that’s it!! You just made yourself a divine little bath bomb. Enjoy it, or keep some for birthdays or Christmases to add to stockings, teacher gifts or even baby shower thank you gifts.

blue eggs

Just two quick tips:

1.On gifting: In these pix, I’m merely just experimenting, but for the ones I made as actual gifts, I used gloves. Maybe that’s a little anal of me, but ya.
2. On Storage: Store out of direct sunlight, and keep in little celephone bags. I found that airtight containers didn’t work well.

You can also switch it up any way you like it by using different colours and essential oil, or even different shapes.

shell

These were actually loads of fun to make, and my girls obviously loved helping (messing). Granted the first few times where it failed, was when they were helping me. And the moment I got it just right was the day they weren’t there. Co-inky dink? May-haps. But you know what Im thinking.So if you’re brave enough, you can call your kiddums in to help experiment. But I would suggest to first wait till you got your technique right before enlisting small little hands to help.

helping

sprinkling

Happy making stuff guys! And enjoy those relaxing baths. You deserved it! X

close up