Kids Craft...Brooke makes bath bombs

Brooke and I went to the mall and she bought a bath bomb (which was way too expensive!); we decided to try making them and found out they are really easy and the ingredients aren't costly (so why are they so expensive in the store?!). Watch how cute she is:

I searched online for instructions - this is the one we settled on. Click here for the original post. 

Homemade Bath Bombs, makes two large size or 3-4 "Easter Egg" size depending on your mold (you can easily double or triple)

4 oz. baking soda
2 oz. corn starch
2 oz. citric acid 
2 oz. Epsom salt
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon essential oil 
1 1/4 teaspoon oil (I like coconut or olive oil here)
1-2 drops food coloring (optional)

In a bowl combine the dry ingredients (the first four listed above). Whisk to remove any clumps, corn starch tends to be clumpy. In a small glass jar stir together the wet ingredients (the last four ingredients listed). If you're using coconut oil, give it a quick melt in the microwave or stove top first so it will more easily combine with the other ingredients. Slowly pour the liquid mixture in with the dry mixture, whisking as you go. If you see the mixture fizz or foam, you may be adding the liquid too quickly. Once all the wet ingredients are combined with the dry, take a small amount in your hand and squeeze it together. It should stick together fairly well in one or two big chunks. If it's still too powdery to hold together, just add a tiny bit more water and mix until it does hold together. 

Fill molds and let them set for a few minutes to harden a little, then carefully remove from the molds and let air dry for a few hours or overnight. 

Note: Brooke and I used a giant ice cube ball mold but after making these I have been seeing instructions everywhere and all kinds of molds are used - I've seen muffin tins, ice cube trays for little ones...look around and see what you have that can be used for a mold if you don't want to purchase actual molds!

Bath Salts

I have a big jar of Epsom salts next to my bath tub, I've been buying them already scented but I decided this time to make make my own - I'm asking myself why haven't I been doing this all along? There are lots of "recipes" online but I didn't want to do anything fancy, just plain old scented salts - so I put about 6 cups of salt in a big glass bowl and added 30 drops each of eucalyptus and lavender essential oils, mixed it all up and then realized that the eucalyptus wayyyyy overpowers the lavender so I added more lavender until it smelled like both scents. Just like my cooking, I just added more until it was what I wanted :). So easy!

Tip: I keep a small plastic scoop in the jar and add a few scoops to the running bath water. I made the mistake of keeping a pretty wood scoop in there before but the salt destroyed it! Lesson learned - I recommend using plastic.

If I make this as a gift in the future I'll probably tint it a pretty color using dye that's ok for your skin - I have a bunch of colors for when we make soap.