DIY Rose Bath Bombs – quick, easy & inexpensive gifts!

I love making bath bombs. It’s ridiculously easy and most of the ingredients that you need are right in your cabinet at home. There are quite a few replacement options. I took the time to share all of them I have used successfully in the past so if you don’t have one item, you have a few extra ideas to keep from having to run out to the store.

This is my jazzed-up personal bath bomb variation for when I’m feeling saucy and want to pamper myself. When I’m making bombs for the kids, I skip the crystals and if I add anything decorative, it’s just a small toy in the middle. They could care less about schmancy stuff.

These make fantastic gifts so if you have a TON of coworkers and you need some bulk gifts on the fly, this is such a great option. You can switch out essential oils, add colors and even change the decorative touches to create several bath bomb types out of one batch and BOOM… perfect gift assortment!

Okay, let’s jump into it! If you need substitution suggestions, I added them after the ingredients and directions so you don't have to sift through a 40 page dissertation on everyday kitchen crap that we all know about… lol!

INGREDIENTS

½ cup Corn starch
½ cup Citric acid
½ cup Epsom salt
1 cup baking soda
1 Tablespoon dried assorted flower petals and / or buds
10 drops rose otto essential oil
25 small rose quartz crystals or 5 larger ones
2 ½ tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1 Tablespoon water
1 Bath Bomb Mold

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl or in your kitchen aid type mixer, add the corn starch, citric acid, Epsom salt and baking soda and mix until thoroughly combined. If you have any other dry additives that you are substituting in, add those and mix them in as well.

In a separate smaller bowl, mix together the coconut oil, essential oil and water. If you needed to sub out or add any other wet ingredients, put them into this bowl as well and mix together.

Very slowly add the bowl of wet ingredients to the dry ingredients while stirring in between. I love using my kitchen aid so I can have that whisking slowly the entire time while I pour. You want to take your time here because if you add the wet ingredients too fast and aren’t mixing in between or the entire time you are pouring, you’re going to start fizzing up pre-maturely. When everything is added, mixed well and looks like wet sand, you're ready to mold!

In the top of your bath bomb mold, add a few smalls crystals or one large one and add your flowers around the crystal / crystals. You can take your time and get the design as particular as you want here. Wherever you put things, that’s how they will come out on the top when you unmold. Then I overfill each side of my mold with the mixture we just made, pressing it tight and making sure it’s still overflowed a bit. Then I press the two sides together and crush with all my might until I feel like everything is compressed together. Then I gently remove the mold, place my new bath bomb in a dry area and repeat until I’m done with all 5.

I leave them for 24 hours to harden and dry out, then that’s it! They are ready to use! For storage, you can put them in decorative airtight glass containers in your bathroom, store them in Tupperware or wrap them up for gifts.

SUBSTITUTIONS

Corn Starch
I’ve been in a pinch and have had to use arrowroot flower. It works perfect and it feels exactly the same. If push comes to shove, you can also use a very fine cake or pastry flour. If you don’t have any of these things, you can make a fine flour by blending your regular all purpose flour in a coffee grinder or a really bad ass blender for 2-5 minutes until it’s a super soft, fluffy, fine powder.

Citric Acid and Baking Soda
My number one choice is to have both of these for sure. They actually cause the best reaction for super fizzy bath bombs. But, I have gotten desperate and replaced the citric acid with a 1/2 cup of super duper duper fine ground salt (I added regular salt to my coffee grinder for 2-5 minutes) and a tablespoon of lime juice squeezed over it. I mixed the salt and lime until it looked like wet sand, spread it out thin on my counter and left it to dry for a few hours. It actually worked pretty darn good!

Epsom Salt
I’ve switched Epsom out with all kinds of regular salts. My favorite ended up being Himalayan Pink Sea Salt that I ground smooth in my coffee grinder. I try to at least grab something with some extra oomph to add something special to my bath for my skin, but I have totally used regular table salt when I was in the middle of making bombs and completely ran out of all of my specialty salts.

Flowers and Crystals
If you only have one type of dried flower, go for it! If you don’t have any, you can use herbs from your cabinet. If you have absolutely nothing to decorate your bath bomb with, add a couple drops of food coloring to color them if you’d like. You can also use ground herb powders for fantastic colors if you don’t have food coloring. Some common types I usually have around are ground clove, annatto, nutmeg, paprika and cocoa powder. My only suggestion here is to avoid things that are spicy like cinnamon or stinky like garlic powder… lol!

Rose Otto Essential Oil
You can swap for any kind of essential oil you like. I’ve been completely out and used regular kitchen extracts. I make ice cream from scratch at home so I tend to have a TON of extracts on hand. I’ve used just plain peppermint and I’ve also mixed coconut and rum extract. One time when I was really desperate, I ground dried herbs into a super fine powder and mixed it with the melted coconut oil from the recipe. I let that sit overnight and the next day I used that mixture and voila! I ended up with color and scent and decorations embedded throughout!

Coconut Oil
I’ve substituted coconut oil with Crisco shortening before. I’ve also used butter… LMAO! What else have I gotten into… ah yes! I’ve used shea butter. I’ve also used 1.5 tablespoons of cocoa butter mixed with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. I’ve also used coconut milk fat / coconut cream.

Bath Bomb Mold
Not everyone has bath bomb molds just laying around the house. I just happen to have several types because of all the DIY things I do at home on the reg. You can honestly use anything that has 2 sides and isn’t too big. I’ve used two sake cups before. I’ve also used those egg things that kids get with the surprise toys in them. I’ve also been in a real bind and used one small round bowl. I just smashed everything into the bowl and used the counter to press the stuff inside really good. I left it for 24 hours then just tapped out the half round one flat side bath bombs. They looked awesome and they didn’t roll away. I actually really loved that accidental design. There are no rules here. All shapes and sizes will fizz and float. Have some fun with it!