Bath Bomb Recipe - How To Make Bath Bombs With Essential Oils

Skip the overpriced store-bought bath bombs and make your own! I'm going to show you how to make bath bombs using simple ingredients and essential oils. I've partnered with NOW® Essential Oils to show you just how easy making homemade bath bombs can be.

My daughter is obsessed with bath bombs. She's completely fascinated by the fizz, scents, and colors, but they're expensive! Some of the larger versions are upwards of $8. Plus, all of the dyes and coloring agents leave horrific rings on our tub. I decided that we should make bath bombs at home. That way I could control the ingredients and coloring. I could also put my beloved essential oils to use!

I've been singing the praises of NOW® essential oils for a few years now and I've been slowly adding to my collection. If my daughter is obsessed with bath bombs, you could say that I'm obsessed with NOW essential oils. I've got tons of scents and have learned that I can do and make so many things with essential oils, like my all-purpose cleaner recipe, post-workout body spray, peppermint sugar scrub, soy wax candles, and homemade mosquito repellent.

Thankfully, NOW essential oils are so affordable. They've developed long-standing relationships with trusted suppliers so they can keep costs down and pass those savings on to us. But, just because the oils are affordable doesn't mean they're low quality. In fact, NOW regularly assesses the quality of the oils they sell through the evaluation of purity and identity. They're thoroughly invested in making sure you are getting exactly what you pay for.

I searched high and low for the best bath bomb recipe and came up with a combination of a few different versions. I had to play around with the ingredients and ratios since I live in a very humid climate. With the first few batches, I made, I had difficulty with the drying time. A few of my bath bombs never even dried at all and kept losing their shape. They were almost like a form of spongy play dough. Once I started decreasing the wet to dry ingredient ratios things started to improve. If you live in a very humid environment, you might need to use less of the liquid ingredients (or just use a touch more of the dry ingredients) until you find the right recipe for you.

For this recipe, you'll use a variety of items that you may already have on hand, like baking soda, Epsom salts, and corn starch. You're also going to need citric acid (which you can find by the canning supplies in your supermarket). For your liquid ingredients, you'll need an oil. I chose NOW® Solutions Liquid Coconut Oil because I absolutely love it (and use it for so many things!). To go along with the coconut oil, you'll need lavender essential oil. I absolutely love the scent of lavender and planned to use these bath bombs before bedtime, so this was a great choice for me. If you'd prefer another scent, NOW has you completely covered.

Here's the best bath bomb recipe I've found:

• ½ cup baking soda
• ¼ cup Epsom salts
• ¼ cup corn starch
• ¼ cup citric acid
• 1 tbsp NOW® Solutions Liquid Coconut Oil
• 1 tbsp NOW® Lavender Essential Oil
• 1 tsp water
• 2 drops blue + 2 drops red coloring (optional)

How to make bath bombs

Combine baking soda, Epsom salts, corn starch and citric acid in a bowl. In a small bowl, mix coconut oil, essential oil, water, and coloring (if you wish). Add your wet ingredients to the dry ingredients very slowly. If you add it too fast the baking soda and citric acid may react too early and start to fizz prematurely. That would cause your bath bombs to keep expanding and prevent them from drying completely.

Whisk the ingredients together. The mixture should hold together when packed or squeezed and not crumble. If it does, you might need to add a bit more coconut oil. Once your ingredients are mixed, scoop and pack the mixture into a mold of your choice. I had some molds from a previous project on hand, but I think I'd purchase these molds if I had it to do over. Once you two sides are packed, press the molds together and let them dry overnight. If you're in a hurry to use them, place them in the fridge for an hour or so.

You may notice that your bath bombs expand a little while drying. You can keep pressing them together during the drying cycle if you'd like. Having a metal mold might keep this from happening since they're stronger than the thin plastic molds I used.

Once dry, tap gently on each side of the mold to release it. You should have a nice, uniform bath bomb.

These smell amazing! They're nice and smooth and quite pretty if I do say so. I plan on making another batch soon to give as gifts to some of the ladies at my gym. I think they'd be so soothing after a hard workout. They're ever so slightly purple thanks to the touch of coloring I used, but that part is totally optional. You can skip it altogether or add a little more if you want brighter colors.

Are you ready to make bath bombs?
Let me know if you try this bath bomb recipe.
I'd love to hear what scent you're going to use!

Caution: NOW® Solutions Essential Oils are very concentrated and can be irritating to the skin. Avoid direct contact with skin and always dilute essential oils before topical use.