How to make bath bombs at home as naturally as possible using essential oils & natural colours

Today we are going to show you how we make bath bombs as naturally and safely as we believe possible.

When it comes to natural, there is no specific definition of what the term "natural" really means in relation to bath and body products, so it is very much down to personal definition.

Both citric acid and bicarbonate of soda can be found naturally within the environment, but due to cost and supply and demand issues, the majority of citric acid and bicarbonate of soda used within the bath and body industry is actually manufactured in a lab. For this reason, we don't believe it is possible (by our own definition) to create a 100% natural bath bomb as to us, using an ingredient that has been lab manufactured (even if that same ingredient can be found in nature) makes it synthetic (to us at least!)

We also add an ingredient to act as an emulsifying agent into our bath bombs (for us, this is SCI powder, but other emulsifying agents are available). SCI powder is naturally derived from Coconuts, our suppliers do refer to it as a natural ingredient, but we prefer the term "naturally derived" as to us this seems more honest. We add in the SCI powder to ensure the oils and water in our recipe combine together and do not separate when the bath bomb goes into the water. Making bath bombs containing oil (including essential/fragrance oils) without adding in an emulsifier of some kind can lead to the oil and water separating, leaving a layer of oil floating on top of the bath water, which can lead to safety issues, both in the form of slipping and also in relation to the risk of neat essential/fragrance oils coming into direct contact with your skin, which can cause sensitisation issues. Though there are recipes available online which use oils but do not contain an emulsifier of any kind, we personally wouldn't recommend these for the reasons mentioned above.

If you wish to recreate our bath bombs, then here is the recipe which we used today which will make 6 bath bombs of approximately 170g each.

Portion One (White Part)

Bicarbonate of soda 336g
Citric acid 168g
Cream of Tartar 18g
SCI powder 15g
Grapeseed Oil 9g
Sweet Orange essential oil 5g
Water 8g

Portion Two (Orange Part)

Bicarbonate of soda 336g
Citric acid 168g
Cream of Tartar 18g
SCI powder 15g
Grapeseed Oil 9g
Sweet Orange essential oil 5g
Water 6g
Liquid Annatto extract (from The Soap Kitchen) 2g

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