These Bath Bombs were made by our Elves, (they are the tireless workers you never see but get all your goodies from Aussie Soap Supplies out to you in good time!), on a staff training day, and were made by total beginners! That said, some people do find they need a little more experience making Bath Bombs than others. I (Jude) made the embeds ahead of time so that our session could concentrate on making the actual bombs. I wanted to see how the differing sizes in our increased range of Stainless Steel Bath Bomb moulds would work when handled for the first time by inexperienced crafters.
These Bath Bombs (aka Bath Fizzies) have an embedded, coloured shape placed in the mould before you begin packing the uncoloured bath bomb mixture into the moulds.
The embeds themselves are made from a slightly different recipe to the bombs, but they are still really easy to make with a little care and practice.
As you gain experience in crafting hand made Bath Bombs you will learn to judge when there is enough moisture in the mixture without it being too wet or activating. If you are just starting to learn to make Bath Bombs these are things that experience will teach you, and you may need a little practice to learn to judge when they are ready to mould and the tipping point of moisture. A useful tip is that when the temperature begins to drop suddenly (you can feel this through thin gloves) you do not add any more moisture.
Note: The Trolley Items have enough ingredients for both a load of embeds as well as the Bath Bombs themselves, they also include Holographic Eco Glitter, not the Silver Eco Glitter.
Ingredients needed to make both the Embeds and the Bath Bombs:
- 1kg Bicarbonate of Soda
- 500g Citric Acid
- 1 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- 40g Sweet Almond Oil or Liquid Shea Butter (Oil) - trolley items include Sweet Almond Oil
- 40g Polysorbate 80
- ½ teaspoon Watermelon Red Powdered Lake (or your preferred colour) or you can use a Mica Colourant instead
- 12 - 25g Happy Place Pure Essential Oil Blend
or
if you prefer a fragrance, I suggest Celestial Waters Bramble Berry Fragrance - 1 x 76mm Stainless Steel Bath Bomb Moulds - one mould set at least, you can also use smaller sizes if preferred
- 1 x 55 Mini Heart Embed Mould
Equipment:
- 2 mixing bowls or jugs, 1 medium and 1 large
- Sieve
- Scales, preferably digital
- Spatulas, spoons etc
- Disposable gloves for hand mixing
- Spritz Bottle with Floral Water, Isopropyl Alcohol or Witch Hazel
- 1 dropper or 1 x Disposable Pipette
This is an example of how to create a place to sit the bath bombs whilst they dry. In this case it is for the Mould and Packaging in one.
For our Happy Place project, if you only have the one mould you might like to line the mould with paper towel, or create one
of these out of crinkle foam from electrical packaging or similar.
Instructions For the Embeds:
(Note the graphics are showing the larger batch of embed mixture I make, there are plenty of embeds with the 200g batch you are making.
Ingredients:
- 100g Bicarbonate of Soda
- 100g Citric Acid
- 1 teaspooon Cream of Tartar (or you can use White Kaolin Clay if you have that on hand)
- ½ teaspoon Almond Oil (or other vegetable oil)
- ½ teaspoon Powdered Lake Dye
As this is an experienced Beginner Level tutorial, you will know how to make the basic mixture, and this is virtually the same for the embeds.
Embeds One: Place a sieve over a large bowl and add the Bicarbonate of Soda, Citric Acid, and Cream Of Tartar and carefully push through the sieve into a large mixing bowl or jug. This is to eliminate any lumps.
Embeds Two: Add the Watermelon Red Powdered Lake and mix well through the mixture, again ensure all small lumps of dye are broken up into powder.
Embeds Three: Begin to moisten the mixture by adding and mixing in your chosen fixed oil and spraying with either Isopropyl Alcohol or Witch Hazel.
Embeds Four: You can see the more moist the mix becomes, the darker it looks, this is normal. Once the mixture holds together in your hand, and looks like damp sand, it is ready to mould.
Embeds Five: As these are not the 'main event' you can have them a little more moist than you would for the main bath bomb mixture. Now spoon the mixture into the moulds, and then press it down into the mould cavities and allow to sit for an hour or overnight so to allow them to dry out and firm up. This is because the moulds are flexible and it will make it easier to unmould.
Embeds Six: Unmould all the embeds ready for the main batch.
Instructions For the Bath Bombs:
For the main Bath Bomb mixture use the rest of the Bicarbonate of Soda and Citric Acid. As an option, you can add up to 50–100g Cream of Tartar or Kaolin Clay which helps to make a harder Bath Bomb. In a step below you will combine the rest of the liquids and essential oil in a small Glass Beaker or vessel.
Bath Bombs One: As previously, sieve the mixture to remove any lumps. Then combine the remaining Almond Oil, Polysorbate 80 and the Essential Oil Blend or fragrance.
Bath Bombs Two: Slowly pour in the liquid mixture, mixing it in as you go. You can use a balloon whisk, or your fingers to combine the oils and powders.
Bath Bombs Three: Remember, we had two elves so if there is only you, don't divide the mixture! Begin Spritzing the mixture with the atomiser.
Bath Bombs Four: Continue with mixing and spritzing and checking for consistency, as with the embed mixing. You are looking to reach "wet sand" consistency.
Bath Bombs Five: Place your chosen embed/s and/or some glitter into one half of the mould
Bath Bombs Six: Now fill both halves of the mould with a generous amount of mixture
NB: You need enough mixture to ensure when you press the two halves together they only just touch once the mixture is compressed. If they come together easily and you can feel the metal on metal, you need a little bit more mixture.
Bath Bombs Six: If you have filled and pressed the mould halves together correctly, it's time to unmould. I like to give one half of the mould a sharp tap with my mixing spoon, and then carefully twist a centimetre or so, as you lift one half of the mould away from the bomb so that you have just half sitting in the second mould. Then repeat and carefully place the bomb on a lined tray to dry completely.
There are endless variations and configurations of embeds you can use in your Bath Bombs.
Below are pictured some of the other variations our elves made that day
Or you might just prefer some glitter in your mould before making your bath bomb!
Note: Trolley items include Sweet Almond Oil (not Liquid Shea Oil) but does not include Witch Hazel if you want to use that instead of spring water.
| Difficulty: | Experienced Beginner |
| Yields: | 20 fizzies |
| Time: | 1 hour plus 1 hour |
