Over the holidays my kitchen became a Bath Bomb factory. Seriously... after a good month, J was pretty excited when I finally ended the production line and cleaned up the kitchen.... you can't contain the chaos of creativity! Luckily, he learned long ago not to even bother trying, plus he was able to enjoy the fruits of my labor. :)
There are a ton of tutorials/ recipies out there - the ones I primarily looked at were:
Not Martha - she has great tips/ tricks
Martha Stewart (the inspiration for my packaging)
I ended up packaging mine in Canning Jars (found at my local hardware store) - 12 bath bombs fit in each jar. I glued a pretty patterned paper to the inside of the lid, then wrapped a ribbon around the lip and attached the label. Pretty and simple - they were a huge hit!
For anyone looking to make these, my lessons learned:
- The mold I used was found in the candy aisle of my local craft store - it was labeled as meant for brownies, but worked great for this purpose. Having a pliable silicone mold where you could push in the bottoms to release the dry squares was hugely helpful
- I was able to buy Epsom Salts and Baking Soda prettty cheap at Costco, but Citric Acid was harder to find. I found it at Whole Foods (in the vitamins section), but it was pretty expensive... I ended up ordering some from Bramble Berry- now I have more than I could ever use, but I guess that just means there are more bath bombs in my future :)
- Liquid is the devil where these are concerned, so spray very, very, very, very cautiously when wetting the mixture. Many times, I only needed 1-2 light sprays from my water bottle to get the powder damp enough to mold. Once the bombs start expanding (see picture below), the batch is doomed. Sad but true.
- I tried spritzing with water, witch hazel, and/ or glycerin, all in an attempt to limit the fizzing reaction, but they all seemed to react the same for me
- If you're going to be making a lot, I recommend mixing up the dry portion in big batches: you can then just mist a bit at a time, making the molding/ drying portion go pretty quickly
Yikes - this was long! I apparently have lots to say on the subject... hope that you found this useful!
- I was able to buy Epsom Salts and Baking Soda prettty cheap at Costco, but Citric Acid was harder to find. I found it at Whole Foods (in the vitamins section), but it was pretty expensive... I ended up ordering some from Bramble Berry- now I have more than I could ever use, but I guess that just means there are more bath bombs in my future :)
- Liquid is the devil where these are concerned, so spray very, very, very, very cautiously when wetting the mixture. Many times, I only needed 1-2 light sprays from my water bottle to get the powder damp enough to mold. Once the bombs start expanding (see picture below), the batch is doomed. Sad but true.
- I tried spritzing with water, witch hazel, and/ or glycerin, all in an attempt to limit the fizzing reaction, but they all seemed to react the same for me
- If you're going to be making a lot, I recommend mixing up the dry portion in big batches: you can then just mist a bit at a time, making the molding/ drying portion go pretty quickly
Yikes - this was long! I apparently have lots to say on the subject... hope that you found this useful!
Hi! I'm Nicole... I hope you’ll join me as I create, cook (not well – yet!), garden, decorate, entertain, shop, travel (sometimes just in my mind!) and just overall try to spread some joy through this tiny corner of the www. 
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2 comments:
Yet another crafty thing I would like to try! Thanks for the tips - the one about the silicone mold really caught my eye.
great tips + lovly packaging! these'd make great gifts x
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