Home-made Bath Fizzes

Home-made bath fizzes are really simple and fun to make at home. There are loads of different recipes you can use – ours is a pretty simple version, based primarily on what ingredients we have available to us, and what suits both mine, and the kid’s skin.

For a plain bath fizz you will need…

150g of Citric Acid

300g Bicarbonate of Soda (from the baking aisle)

A little water

Additions…

We also added 5 ml of Almond Oil and 2.5 mls of Natural Vitamin E (In a carrier oil), fragrance and colour.

Citric acid is considered by many to be a great product for treating skin problems such as mild acne, pigmentation, clogged pores, excessive sun tanning, wrinkles, and dark spots.

Bicarbonate of Soda is an alkaline substance that is reported to have antibacterial, anti-fungal, antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties.

We used a Tangerine fragrance oil, which we have used before, and that has a scent we love. If you decide to use an essential oil for your bath bombs, please, remember, that essential oils should always be diluted with a carrier oil rather than being applied directly to the skin, and that not all essential oils are suitable to be used by all people (use particular caution with children and pregnant women).

The colour we used is one that is designed for soap making, you can also use food colouring but be aware that large amounts of it will mean giving the bath a clean after use.

We simply sieved our Citric Acid and Bicarbonate of Soda into a Bowl, and gave it a really good mix. We find it easiest to do this with gloved hands – Citric Acid does sting if it gets into broken skin or your eyes, so we strongly recommend using gloves.

We mixed our oils together, and added the fragrance and colour to them, before adding it all to our mixture. The oil didn’t cause our mixture to fizz, and we simply rubbed it into our dry mix until it looked well combined.

You simply want to add enough water to moisten your mixture, so it’ll stick together. You are looking for the consistency of damp sand (see the photo above, right). Adding water will make your mixture fizz, and many of the tutorials I have seen suggest using a spray bottle to add a little at a time. We didn’t have one available, so simply added a teaspoon at a time – with my daughter throwing it in while I mixed. This method worked fine for us, although it meant there was no opportunity to take a photo of this stage. In total we only needed to add about 15mls of water so please add cautiously – too much will cause your chemicals to react, and you’ll end up with all the fizzing now, rather than when you add them to the bath!

We used little silicon cup cake cases for our moulds – simply press your mixture in firmly with your fingers – we left ours rough on top so we could embellish them with some little sugar flowers. I think they would look even prettier with some dry petals added. The mixture does harden quickly, so you will need to work fairly fast.

Our bath fizzes had hardened enough to remove from their cases in less than an hour – we then left them out to completely dry before packing them into glass jars. They will absorb moisture really easily, so we recommend that you store them in an airtight container to maintain their fizz.

Here is a little clip showing them in action…

These are great fun to make (and use), and would make a lovely little gift. Please make sure if you do give them away as a gift that you include the ingredients you have used on the label – that will allow your recipient to make an informed choice to whether the ingredients you have used are suitable for them.

 If you have enjoyed this tutorial, please check out our Home-Made Herbal Bath Tea Bags and our Rosemary and Peppermint Foot Scrub. We’d also love it if you shared our post with your friends.