Beautiful Bath Bombs for Earth Day

Today's Mandatory Activity is creating these gorgeous Earth bath bombs. I’ve linked the video below, so you can check out the step-by-step tutorial.  All the ingredients and measurements are listed below the video as well as at the bottom of this post.

For what it’s Earth.../An idiot-proof recipe...

This isn’t my own recipe, but it is an easy recipe that is suitable for beginners and almost always works. I’ve struggled for a long time with making bath bombs so this is pretty much a fool-proof method! I love that you can use a hand mold too, they cost around $20, and are super simple to use.

In my experience, different recipes behave differently depending on your mold shape, and even material.  If you've seen my tutorial on the game controller bath bomb, you will know that I prefer a different recipe for that type of flat hand-press mold.

But since the Earth is round, my favorite recipe for round bombs is this one!

The Bath Bomb Recipe

This one of Holly’s recipes from Missouri River Soap, which she has already published on her channel. I thought I would share it with you all anyway because I’ve had very few problems with the recipe, and normally bath bombs are something I struggle to get right. The texture of the bombs is really nice with this recipe, there are rarely any issues with them being too moist or not sticking together and you don’t need a ton of ingredients.  So, it’s a great way to get started with bath bomb making!

Here is Holly’s recipe: 

• 1000g Baking Soda 

• 500g Citric Acid 

• 1 Tbsp Distilled Water 

 • 1 Tbsp Rubbing Alcohol 

• 25g Buttermilk Powder (I have also used this recipe with coconut milk powder and goat milk powder, which both work fine) 

• 50g SLSA (sodium lauryl sulfoacetate). The SLSA is optional, but if you omit it, just add 50g more baking soda. I would also recommend wearing a mask if you use it. 

• 10g lightweight carrier oil such as apricot seed oil, fractionated coconut oil, meadowfoam seed oil, rice bran oil. Some of these you will see in the grocery store, and in a pinch you can sunflower seed oil too. 

• 8g Polysorbate 80 

• 24g fragrance oil (check your manufacturer for skin safe levels, or eocalc.com if you choose an essential oil instead) 

• Colorant to desired shade (I have linked some that I like to use below)

The Method

I like to mix my wet and dry ingredients separately, apart from the distilled water and rubbing alcohol which I put into my dry ingredients. When everything is combined, if you grab a handful of the mixture and compact it, it should stay together. Then drop it back into the bowl, and if it still looks good, you're on the right track!

I loved putting together the Earth shape, I used green and blue mica powder, leaving some white for clouds and just packed them all loosely into my hand mold. I mentioned in the video that bath bomb colorants can be tricky, especially for blues and greens. This blog post from Nurture Soap does an excellent job explaining which colorants can be used and why: https://nurturesoap.com/blogs/nurture... so that’s a great blog to check out for more information on that.

My favorite part of this recipe has to be the surprise lava! Using red embed powder, I packed the centre of the bath bombs to create a gorgeous, surprise center.  You can, of course, skip this step and you will still have beautiful Earth shaped bath bombs.
I hope you enjoy trying these out for yourself!

Supply List and Vendors

The list below includes affiliate links.  If you make a purchase using one of these links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. If you do, thank you in advance for your support of this blog.

Hand bath bomb press mold: https://cadamolds.com/products/bath-bomb-mold I used the 2.5 inch size

Giant stainless steel bowls from Kohls: https://rstyle.me/+il05ha_pd2A0JKl0ZYCckA 

OR from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3gnO5uF 

Plastic measuring beaker from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3tArxKT 

Digital kitchen scale from Walmart: https://rstyle.me/+Ott-tWB7423pFMpqUkWzNw 

OR from Amazon (much less expensive, and the one I have): https://amzn.to/3n6gZAP 

Plastic bath bomb molds to dry bombs, from Wholesale Supplies Plus (2.75 inch diameter) https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/bath-bomb-ball-mold-2.75-diameter-2-pc-set.aspx 

Baking soda: from the grocery store or wholesale club 

OR from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3mDI3r7 

Citric Acid: from Wholesale Supplies Plus https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/citric-acid-powder.aspx 

OR from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3xbrtnl 

Buttermilk Powder: I got mine from Amazon https://amzn.to/3a2BkSi 

I have also had success getting it from makeyourown.buzz here: https://www.makeyourown.buzz/buttermilk-powder/ 

SLSA (sodium lauryl sulfoacetate -a gentle surfactant derived from coconuts) from makeyourown.buzz here: https://www.makeyourown.buzz/sodium-lauryl-sulfoacetate-slsa-powder/ 

OR from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2RN2C98 

Rice bran oil from Wholesale Supplies Plus (see above for alternative oils you can source from the grocery store): https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/products/rice-bran-oil.aspx 

Polysorbate 80 from makeyourown.buzz here: https://www.makeyourown.buzz/polysorbate-80/

OR from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2QkhZ8q 

Fragrance I chose was Lemongrass and Nashi Pear Natural fragrance oil from Wholesale Supplies Plus: https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/search.aspx?q=lemongrass+and+nashi+pear