So this a few weeks ago I had a craft session with my friend Helen. She came up with the idea of creating our own ‘kindness advent calendars’ instead of buying cheap (or overpriced) supermarket ones. Don’t get me wrong, I love the nostalgia of an advent calendar but this seemed like fun and had more purpose. You can see what we did here.

So on day three I dipped into my lucky dip of tasks and chocolate and drew this:

I thought everyone would expect me to give a cake recipe, and I nearly did but I couldn’t decide on just one as my favourite. So I thought I’d share my bath bomb recipe instead. They make great gifts, so get stuck in and make some of you own using my base recipe as a starter, then add your own flare!

To make ‘Lush’ style bath bombs you’ll need: 

• A bowl for mixing
• A whisk for blending
• Measuring cups for measuring ingredients
• Silicone moulds for shaping
• A spray bottle for water
• A saucepan for melting scent and oil

I like to get everything out before I start so I’m prepared, just like when baking.

The base recipe:

• 1 cup bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 a cup of citric acid
• 1/2 a cup of Epsom Salts
• 2 tbsp of oil (coconut, olive, almond etc.)
• 2 tsp of scent (essential oils preferably)
• Purified or filtered water
• Extras like dried flowers, glitter or colouring

The method:

I’ve put together an easy to follow YouTube tutorial here.

Or you can follow these steps:

1. Measure the dry ingredients into your bowl and give them a good whisk to bland and get rid of lumps
2. In the saucepan melt or heat your oil. Add your essential oils right at the last-minute so you don’t burn off the scent.
3. Give the oil and fragrance a good mix before adding it into the dry mixture
4. Give the mixture a good mix till it starts to clump together
5. Add any extras such as glitter or dried flowers. You could also colour them with regular food colouring. (Don’t worry you won’t get dyed by it as it is so dilute once it’s dissolved in a bath.)
6. Spray a couple of sprays at a time over your mixture. Don’t go overboard or you’ll start it fizzing and it’ll be too wet
7. Test that the mixture holds together by squeezing it with your hand.
8. If it’s holding together pack it tightly into your silicone mould.
9. Smooth off the top and leave for at least 24 hours before taking out the mould.
10. Gift-wrap or enjoy your bath bomb

Tips:

• I always use essential oils over fragrance as they have more depth and benefits. They are expensive but I think worth it
• Silicone works well as it peels off the moulds
• Use simple moulds or the bomb may crumble
• You could also make them inside cookie cutters that are simple.
• When using dried flowers less is more. They’re lovely but too many floating in the bath gets a bit yucky
• I’m the reverse with glitter as I love the stuff and you can never have enough!

So that’s it. I’d love to see some of your creations. What scent combinations would you use? Please ask questions or make suggestions by leaving a comment.