Posted by on 3/29/2020 to
Let's Talk: Relax, Soak and Unwind after Work
Winter Inspired Bath Bomb: Recipe for Making and Decorating a Snowman Bath Bomb
Most of us have to deal with the realization of some pretty cold winters. What better way to warm your bones up then with a nice hot bath? Why not accompany that with a cute snowman bath bomb filled with beautiful aroma's sure to put your mind at ease.
This winter inspired bath bomb is not only a great DIY, but today we are going to teach you some tricks to also decorating it yourself using just a touch of cosmetic grade mica powder.
Cool fizz, relaxing bubbles, smoothing oils, and calming aromas to make for the perfect relaxation activity after a long day's work.
Molds
There are tons of places to buy snowmen and other holiday molds, heck you can even use a snowman shaped cookie cutter and decorate that if you want something super easy and quick.
Our favorite snowman bath bomb mold would have to be a shop on ETSY, you can find it here. These are 3-part molds and work great for getting more of a 3-D looking snowman right down to the details.
It is also easy to paint with the mica, which we'll discuss later.
Supplies & Ingredients Needed?
- Mixing Bowls (2)
- Measuring Cups & Spoons
- Gloves/Eye-wear/Mask
- Water Bottle with Alcohol/Water Mix (50/50)
- Baking Soda - 2 Cups
- Citric acid - 1 Cup
- Epson Salt - 1/4 Cup
- Corn Starch - 1/4 Cup
- Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSA) - 1/4 Cup *Optional, however gives much more bubble action*
- Cream of Tartar - 1 tsp
- Grape-seed Oil - 1 TBSP
- Fragrance - 1 TBSP of Skin Safe Fragrance Oil
- Mica - For this you will need black, orange and red cosmetic grade mica powder.
- Small Paint brush
- Rubbing Alcohol
Step-by-Step Recipe
1.
Start off by measuring all of your ingredients. Place the dry ingredients, including your baking soda, citric acid, Epsom salt, corn starch, SLSA, cream of tartar in one bowl and mix together.
There shouldn't be any lumps in your mixture so make sure to either sift out the lumps or use your hands to break them down. Do not do anything with the mica just yet.
2.
Now, add your wet ingredients into a separate bowl. This includes your oil & fragrance of choice.
3.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Mix well.
Again there should not be any large lumps in the mixture. At this time you will probably be able to squeeze your mixture and it may stick together slightly, but is not yet ready to be molded.
4.
Add in a few sprays of your water/alcohol mixture (3-5 sprays) to the mixture and begin to stir immediately. You can use a hand or stand mixture, but for small batches like this one, I prefer my hands that way I can get a feel for the overall consistency of the material.
5.
How can you tell it's ready, is probably your next question?
Do the simple drop test.
Squeeze a handful of the mixture and drop the mixture back into the bowl from about 6-8 inches. If it stays together it is ready to mold. If it breaks apart you probably need more water/alcohol.
Repeat step 4.
Tip 1: It should feel like damp sand when it is ready to be mixed.
Tip 2: You don't have a ton of time to do the molding process, so once it is ready to be molded, start filling your molds. At some point you may have to add more water/alcohol sprays to get it back to the damp consistency, and this is completely normal.
6.
Simply overfill the bottom half of the snowman mold slightly with your mixture. The "body" of the mold should also be connected to the bottom, if using the mold we recommended.
7.
Press the top of the mold down onto the bottom with the mixture. It's easiest to set the mold down and put your weight behind the press.
Now press the top of the mold through the body of the mold. Take off the top of the mold and you will have your snowman bath bomb.
8.
Place on something soft like bubble wrap and let dry 24 hours.
Painting your Snowman Bath Bomb
a.
Now that you have your dried snowman bath bomb, it's time to decorate it with your mica.
b.
Take your black, orange and red mica and place in a separate small cup. This can be medicine cup sized. Add your mica along with 99% Isopropyl Alcohol in a 2:1 ratio and mix each one at a time.
You only need a very small amount of mica to paint this snowman, so unless you have made an enormous batch, a little mica and alcohol will go along way.
c.
Once mixed you simply take your paint brush and almost dip the brush into the indents or details in the bath bomb. You don't really need to do all out paint strokes, you can simply dab the areas you want color. With this snowman bath bomb, we like to paint the scarf red; button, mouth and eyes black, and the nose orange.
CadaMolds on ETSY
That's it!
Another really cool and simple bath bomb that you can enjoy all winter long. If you like this recipe and other blog posts, please share on your social media platforms.
Hope to have you by again soon!