Best Bath Bombs For Kids: *Recipe for ages 6+
Homemade bath bombs for kids are all the rage these days when trying to add some more fun in the tub. Bath bombs are easy to make at home, safe, and even your child can partake in this fun craft. Join us as we explore the best bath bombs for kids.
Making a bath bomb in theory is easy. Essentially we’re mixing together dry and wet ingredients, and arriving at a mixture consistency that holds a shape, usually spherical.
Moreover, as long as you’re using all-natural, skin safe fragrances and materials, there may be nothing more that can make for an exciting bath time. If done correctly, not only do bath bombs bubble, spin, fizz, float and make the water memorizing colors, you can even incorporate a little surprise toy inside.
Less Is More?
When making bath bombs for kids, less is more. Many bath bombs use upwards of 15 plus ingredients. However, keeping a kids interest is sometimes doing it slightly simpler. With that said, you could use almost half those ingredients and get a much desired effect.
Be sure when choosing your ingredients or if buying a set of kids bath bombs off of Amazon, to look for ingredient labels. Stay away from ones with harsh cleaners, non-skin safe fragrances or synthetic dyes, all of which can irritate the skin.
Scents:
We prefer essential oils when adding aroma’s to kids bath bombs. Now, this is not to say you cannot use fragrance oils, but there is a caveat. Using essential oils from a reputable company, adding 4-6 drops per bath bomb is a good place to start. This is generally a safe usage rate for bath bombs.
However, fragrance oils incorporate another dimension. That is, you should understand IFRA guidelines. This is a tool used to identify how much fragrance oil is considered safe to use in specific products. For example, lotions, soaps, shampoos, candles, even bath bombs.
A Quick Word On Essential Oils:
Although essential oils are all natural, that doesn’t mean they are safe to place on the skin, undiluted.
This is the big caveat here when discussing essential oils and children, or anyone, on fact. John Hopkins Medicine has a good read on essential oils and children. They detail more usage instructions such as:
- Not using undiluted oils on the skin. Generally safe range is 0.5-2.5%.
- Don’t add undiluted oils to bath water
- Never swallow these oils
- Keeping oils away from ears, eyes, and nose
Read more about essentials oils and use on children, here. The big takeaway here is to dilute these oils in carrier oils, like sweet almond oil, like in the case of the bath bombs we’ll discuss.
With that said this recipe is for kids, not babies. We recommend the child be over the age of 6 to use our recipe.
Choosing a Fun Mold:
One of the coolest aspects about bath bombs (in 2024) is that they can literally take the shape of about anything. You’ll find more and more crafters, even 3D printing bath bomb molds into detailed shapes, images, or characters.
However, more detail, usually equates to the the crafter needing to be slightly more familiar with there ingredients and recipe. The more detail, equals, the more that can go wrong molding, in general.
So what can you choose for a kids mold?
Anything from nautical themed bath bombs (which you can easily find) on Amazon, to empty Easter eggs lying around the house. Cada Molds even has a wide selection of fun bath bomb molds. You can even keep it simple by using cupcake trays.
Regardless of the mold you choose, make sure it’s sturdy enough to press together. Oftentimes, weaker silicone doesn’t keep it’s shape when compacting the mixture.
Embedding Toys Inside A Homemade Bath Bomb:
This part all depends on what you are embedding. You have to think about size of the product and whether it is something that should actually be placed inside a bath bomb.
Our advice is to always encapsulate the toys. This does two different things. Firstly, the ingredients will not damage the toy. Secondly, the capsule helps the bath bomb float because of the air pocket it creates in the center.
We recommend using plastic capsules or vending capsules to house these toys, like you would use for bath bombs with rings or jewelry inside of them.
However, we have seen some cool designed kids bath bombs with little rubber toys in them without the capsule, like these dinosaur bath bombs from Amazon.
If you choose not to embed the toy into a capsule, then your surprise toy will be exposed to the mixture inside of the bath bomb. It’s just more fun having to open the capsule, once it fizz’s out.
A third option is to have the toy embedded into the top part of the mold. This requires you to place the toy in one-side of the mold first and then place the mixture over-top. When the two halves are pressed together, the surprise will be reveled on the surface of the bath bomb.
(Disclaimer #1: bath bombs with small toys should be used with caution around young children. They can be a choking hazard, so always supervise your young ones with small items like these).
Disclaimer #2: In this recipe, we call for sweet almond oil. Oils of any kind can make the slightly slippery.
Dry Ingredients:
(Makes Roughly 2-3 medium to large sized bath bombs)
- 1 Cup baking soda.
- 1/2 Cup citric acid.
- 2 TBSP corn starch – slows down fizz reaction. Helps bath bomb to float.
Wet Ingredients:
- 1 TBSP sweet almond oil – Use caution, tub may be slippery after use.
- 1/2 TBSP polysorbate 80 – helps disperse colorants and oils.
- Spray bottle with witch hazel – used to moisten mixture.
- 5-10 drops food coloring of choice – Here is a great skin safe colorant choice.
- 15-20 drops peppermint essential oil. *added to carrier oil*.
A great place to look for fun kids bath kits is Brambleberry. They have everything included to make an awesome bath bomb for children ages, 6-15.
Once gathering your ingredients for your kids bath bomb, now what?
Directions:
Step 1: Mix Dry Ingredients (-) Citric Acid
Firstly, measure & mix your dry ingredients together, minus citric acid. We recommend you use a sifter for all dry ingredients. You can use your hands (with gloves) or a stand mixer.
If you choose to hand mix, take a handful and then rub the mixture together. Repeat this process, until well blended.
This allows the mixture to become very fine.
Step 2: Mix Wet Ingredients
Mix together your essential oil, polysorbate 80 and sweet almond oil into a separate bowl.
Step 3: Color Your Mixture
Now add your colorant to the mix to desired shade.
Step 4: Add Wet Ingredients To Dry
Pour wet ingredients into your dry and mix again using your hands (with gloves), or stand mixer.
Step 5: Add Citric Acid
Add this point, add citric acid and continue to blend for a few minutes. Furthermore, making sure all of your colorant is dispersed evenly.
Step 6: Spray To Perfection
Use a spray bottle (of witch hazel) to mist the mixture 3-4 times. Don’t overdue this step or your mixture will become to wet.
Step 7: The Test
Squeeze your mixture in the palm of your hand, if it stays together in one clump & and doesn’t stick to your hands, you are most likely at a good consistency, ready to mold.
You can also do the drop text. Squeeze your mixture and then drop it from about 6 inches above the bowl. If the mixture stays together it is ready to mold. However, if it’s to dry (cracks), add more spritzes of witch hazel. If to wet (looks like it’s expanding), add more baking soda.
Step 8: Time To Mold
Fill one half of the mold with the mixture and add the capsule or toy inside. Cover capsule slightly with a little more mixture. Then add mixture to the other half of the mold.
It’s important to over-fill each half of the mold with mixture. Next, step press both sides together firmly for 5-10 seconds. Tap the outside of the mold, and remove one half of the mold while holding it in the palm of your hand.
Now tap the bottom and dump the bath bomb into your opposite hand or onto a soft (foam-like) surface.
Let these molds dry 48 hours before using in the tub. Place these in the tub carefully and slowly as they will be more likely to float.
Final Thoughts!
These is the foundation for making the best bath bomb for kids with toys inside of them. The kids will go crazy over these, bath time may never be the same again.
Thanks for stopping in. Be sure to share our posts and products on social media if you’d like!
References:
- https://www.hopkinsallchildrens.org/ACH-News/General-News/Are-Essential-Oils-Safe-for-Children
