DIY: Heart Shaped Bath Bomb Tutorial

I guess there are a lot of different people with different hygiene routines. For me, I love to shower and I really, really love to bathe. It probably comes from all the way back to when I was way little. I’d play hard outside and would come in with feet black and sticks in my pair and dirt on my knees and before bed, it would be time for a nice, hot bubble bath.

As a little kid, I had very sensitive skin. I desperately wanted to hop into a tub of Mr. Bubble but guess what? The one time I did was an epic disaster. So my bath was run with Palmolive dishwashing soap instead which wasn’t as cool but it bubbled up so I was happy.

These days I do like the occasional bubble bath but I’m more into epsom salts and oils and bath bombs. But guess what? I still have ridiculously sensitive skin which is why I make a lot of my own beauty products these days. And guess what again? It’s totally easy and doable and a lot of the things you’ll need to get cross over so you can make your own lotions and bath salts and whatnot!

For this project you will need:

• 1 box of baking soda
• 1 cup of citric acid
• 1 cup of cornstarch
• Sweet almond, jojoba or olive oil
• Essential oil – lavender is used here!
• Food coloring
• Heart Mold

You don’t need a huge bowl to knock this out but bigger than what I used is really a good idea! Pour your baking soda, citric acid, and cornstarch into your bowl and mix until well incorporated.

Add 3 tablespoons to 1/4 cup of oil (I prefer sweet almond oil) and mix. The oil is going to kind of clump up on you so you might want to grab a fork to help mix things up a bit better.

Continue adding oil about a tablespoon at a time until your mixture easily stays together when you squish it together in your hand.

Add a few drops of food coloring and oil…

…and mash that business up. The more you blend the more uniform color you will get. You can also lightly blend to get splotches and dots of color. I tend to really, really like this effect.

Pour some of your mixture into your mold (this is a plastic heart-shaped dish I found at Hobby Lobby for a buck so you can use just about anything really).

Mash that business into your mold really well. And I do mean really well. Compress it down as best as you can and then go back over it again just to be safe.

Allow to sit in the mold for around 10 minutes and then smack it upside down onto something you don’t mind getting greasy. The shape should easily pop out BUT it will be super easy to crumble at this point. Don’t touch it!

I typically pop mine out on a piece of cardboard. They’re easy to move around and it doesn’t matter that it gets ruined from the oil.

These guys need a day to several to completely harden. Mine wasn’t quite there and you can see this one tried to crumble in my hands a bit.

Wrapped in tulle, these make pretty little presents for Valentine’s Day. Who doesn’t love the gift of pampering?

Allison

A crafter since her earliest years, Allison spends a little time every day making something. She crafts, sews, paints, glues things onto other things, and is a firm believer that a life spent creating is a life worth living. Visit Allison’s blog, Dream {a Little} BIGGER.