Bath melts, also known as tub truffles, are like bath bombs in that they're small balls of stuff that you throw into the bath, but they're made of delicious, nourishing oils or butters. They melt into your bath, releasing skin-softening oils and wonderful aromas.

Because they're made of oils and butters, I figure they belong on the lotions section of this site, so I've put the recipe there – click through to read how to make bath melts and tub truffles.

This recipe is for bubbling or foaming bath bombs – instead of fizzing, they foam! That's because they contain an extra ingredient which is similar to the one you find in commercial bubble bath / bath foam mixtures.

You need the following dry ingredients:

• 10 parts baking soda
• 5 parts citric acid
• 2 parts Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (note this is not the same as sodium laureth sulfate or sodium lauryl ether sulfate – more info on the difference on the ingredients page)

And the following wet ingredients:

• Fragrance. This can be either about 2 tsp of fragrance oil, or about 20 drops essential oil, in whatever fragrance you like.
• About 2 tsp water (ideally filtered or distilled) or witch hazel.
• A few drops of 'soap safe' colorant, in a color to suit your choice of fragrance.

If you like, you can also include a couple of tablespoons of oil, such as grape seed oil or jojoba oil.

And the following equipment:

• A big glass mixing bowl
• A whisk
• Measuring jugs, cups and spoons
• Molds
• A small squirty bottle makes adding your water or witch hazel easier

Making your foaming bath bombs

1. Mix the dry ingredients together in your mixing bowl. You want to make sure everything's really well mixed, and that there are no lumps, so stir, whisk, and sieve till you get to that point.
2. Add in your fragrance and color, plus the oil if you're using it, and mix it all together really well. You can do this by hand – rub the wet ingredients in the way you would rub butter and sugar together. Or you can use a whisk. Keep going till the color's evenly distributed through the mixture – that's probably about five minutes.
3. Now start adding your water or witch hazel. Spritz a little in, and mix it in really well. Keep going till you get the right consistency, which is a bit like damp sand – you want it just wet enough that if you squeeze it in your hand, it just about forms a nice clump and stays clumped.
4. Now put the mixture into your molds. You can use purpose-made bath bomb molds, or get some of those Christmas baubles that you fill with candy. Pack the mixture into the two halves as tight as you can, then squeeze them together.
5. Wait a couple of minutes, then gently tap the bath bombs out of the mold (if they crumble, not to worry – put the bits back in the bowl, mix in a little more water, and try again). Leave them to dry overnight and you're done! Store them somewhere dry, if you don't use them immediately.

One way to vary the basic bath bomb recipe is to add some bath salts. Bath salts have all kinds of wonderful benefits, and have been used to soothe tired and sore muscles for hundreds of years.

There's also a neat trick you can do when you're making bath bombs with bath salts, to produce a cool speckled effect – like this gorgeous one by Purple Sparkle Crafts.

As we're using salts in this recipe, we might as well carry the theme right through – so let's use a Salty Caramel flavor for our salty bath bombs!

For tons more recipe ideas check out The Handcrafter's Companion.

You need the following ingredients:

• 2 cups baking soda
• 1 cup citric acid
• 1 part salt. There are lots of salts you can use, eg Epsom salt, sea salt, Dead Sea salt, or a mixture. See my Homemade Bath Salts site for more detailed info on the different kinds of bath salts.
• 2 tsp of Brambleberry's Salty Caramel Ice Cream fragrance oil
• A few drops of brown coloring (soap-safe)
• 2 tsp of a nice nourishing nut or seed oil, such as almond or jojoba (optional, but gives lovely soft skin!)
• About 2 tsp water or witch hazel. The amount that you need will depend on the humidity where you live, so you just have to play this by ear – details on how to do that below.

And some equipment:

• 2 nice big bowls for mixing – glass is best, as some plastics react badly to oils.
• A whisk for mixing. A sieve can be helpful, too.
• Measuring jugs, cups and spoons
• Molds
• A small spritz or squirty bottle makes it easier to add your water or witch hazel

Making your salty bath bombs

1. Mix the baking soda and citric acid together in your mixing bowl. Stir, whisk, and sieve till there are no lumps and everything's mixed in really thoroughly.
2. In another bowl, mix the bath salts with the color. Stir it all in really well, till the color's completely soaked in.
3. Now combine the two mixtures together, and add in your fragrance plus the oil. Mix it all together really well. You can do this by whisk, or you can rub it in by hand. You'll find that the color seeps out of the bath salts into the rest of the mixture, but only to a certain extent – this is what produces the yummy speckled effect, as the bath salts end up a deeper color than the rest of the mixture.
4. When everything's mixed in thoroughly, spritz in just a little at a time of your water or witch hazel, and then mix it in really well. Go slowly, because if you add too much, the fizzing will start. Keep adding and stirring till you have the right consistency – a bit like damp sand. It should be just wet enough that if you squeeze it in your hand, it forms a nice clump. If it crumbles, add some more water or witch hazel.
5. Now the mixture's ready for the molds. You can use cookie/cake molds, or specialist bath bomb molds, or those clear plastic balls that you get at Christmas – the ones you fill with candy and hang on the tree. Or you can squish your mixture into balls by hand for that homemade look! Whichever you use, pack it in as hard as you can.
6. Wait a minute or two, and then gently tap your bath bombs out of the mold. Leave them overnight to dry, and you're done! Store them somewhere dry. But don't wait too long to use them, as vegetable oils don't last very long without preservative.

This recipe for chocolate bath bombs is one of my favorites for making as gifts. Not only do they smell delicious, you can make a really special gift just by presenting them in a well-chosen box. The whole effect is so yummy that it's a good idea to put a nice decorative card inside which says DO NOT EAT!

Here's how to do it.

You need the following dry ingredients:

• 3 cups baking soda
• 1.5 cup citric acid

And the following wet ingredients:

• 3 different chocolate flavored fragrance oils – you're going to use a tsp of each. I like to use one ordinary chocolate, one mocha, and one white chocolate. Eg:
  • Chocolate: Brambleberry's Dark Rich Chocolate or Soapylove's Chocolate Fudge.
  • Mocha: Brambleberry's Chocolate Espresso Cybilla or Turkish Mocha.
  • White chocolate: Just By Nature's White Chocolate or Nature's Garden's White Chocolate Truffle.
• About 3 tsp water (ideally filtered or distilled) or witch hazel.
• A few drops of 'soap safe' colorant, to produce two shades of brown (one darker than the other) and one cream.

And the following equipment:

• 3 glass mixing bowls
• A whisk
• Measuring jugs, cups and spoons
• Molds
• A small squirty bottle makes adding your water or witch hazel easier

Making your chocolate bath bombs

1. Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly together in your mixing bowl.
2. Divide the mixture into three batches.
3. Into each batch, put a tsp of fragrance, and color to match. So, into your first bowl put a tsp of chocolate fragrance and a few drops of brown color. In your second bowl put a tsp of mocha fragrance and a few drops of darker brown color. And in the last bowl, put a tsp of white chocolate fragrance, and a teensy bit of yellow or orange color to create a creamy color.
4. Mix the three bowls together really well. It's best to do everything from now on one bowl at a time, otherwise the first bowl will dry out while you're mixing the next one. You can  mix by hand or with a whisk, but keep going till the color and fragrance are evenly distributed through the mixture – that's probably about five minutes.
5. Now start adding your water or witch hazel. Spritz a little in, and mix it in really well. Keep going till you get the right consistency, which is a bit like damp sand – you want it just wet enough that if you squeeze it in your hand, it just about forms a nice clump and stays clumped.
6. Now it's time to make the little bath bombs. If you're using molds, you want nice small molds, small cake molds or chocolate molds – hearts are cute. Alternatively, you can make little balls by hand – I like this approach as it makes them look like little hand-rolled truffles. Whichever way you do it, back the mixture together firmly, so that it won't crumble.
7. If you're using a mold, wait a couple of minutes, then gently tap the bath bombs out. Leave them to dry overnight.

The chocolate box

The thing that makes this recipe extra special is the presentation, so finding the right box is half the battle. You need something which is the right size for a chocolate box – just an inch or so deep. Use an old chocolate box if you like – but do make sure you put a 'do not eat' sign in!

Arrange your different flavored 'chocolates' inside the box – the different colors look really delicious together. Then tie a nice satin ribbon round the box to complete the effect.

A couple of extra touches, if you want to go the whole hog:

• If you roll your mini bath bombs in a little epsom salt, it looks like sugar crystals.
• You can also put them in some tiny truffle/cake papers – very cute.

Here's my guide to bath bomb ingredients, and where to find them.

Baking soda

Baking soda is one of the two key ingredients in a bath bomb – it's the reaction between the baking soda and the citric acid that makes the fizz. It's also one of the easiest ingredients to find, because we use it all the time in cooking. People often use it for cleaning, too.

Don't confuse baking soda with baking powder – baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate, and that's what you want. Baking powder has all kinds of other stuff in – flour and salt and stuff – so that's not what you want.

You can get baking soda in most supermarkets, in the baking section. You can also buy it cheap in larger quantities on eBay or Amazon.

Citric acid

Citric acid is the other half of the dynamic duo of ingredients that creates the fizz in a bath bomb. The name sounds scary, but citric acid is actually totally natural and safe. It's just the stuff that makes lemons sharp! It's sometimes called 'sour salt'.

It's used as a preservative in jam and jelly making, also for water softening and cleaning. So, one place you can get citric acid is in the canning section of your local supermarket. You can also try a large drug store or pharmacy (ask at the prescription counter – sometimes they don't keep it on the shelves), or your local health food store. Failing that, you can get it online in bulk quantities at places like Bulk Foods.

Witch hazel

Baking soda and citric acid are dry ingredients, they come as powders. So to make them into bath bombs, you need some moisture to get them to stick together! For this you can use water – but a lot of people prefer to use witch hazel, as it tends to be less likely to set off the fizzing early.

You can get witch hazel in pretty much any health food store, and most supermarkets. If you get it in a spritz bottle, it makes it easier to add to your mixture.

Fragrance

Bath bombs would be pretty boring without fragrance.

You have two main options for bath bomb fragrance. You can use essential oils, which have the advantage of having aromatherapy properties.

Alternatively, you can use fragrance oils. That gives you a wider range of options, as you can get fragrance oils in all kinds of incredible flavors, from delicious food-like scents to perfume-like blends of fruit and floral. Make sure you get skin-safe fragrance oils, not the kind made for burners.

See my resources page for some suppliers of essential and fragrance oils.

Optional ingredients

Colorant

It's best not to use food coloring for bath bombs, as it may stain your tub. Instead, go for skin safe soap colorant. Micas are good. Also, LabColor make some specialist bath bomb colors called La Bomb Color.

See my resources page for some suppliers of bath bomb colorants.

Herbs and spices

Essential oils are great, but if you want to really get creative, you can go one step further back and add actual herbs and spices to your bath bombs. Herbs have all kinds of beneficial properties besides their smell. The Handcrafter's Companion has some great ideas for using these kind of ingredients in your bath products.

Oil

It's often nice to include a dash of some nourishing natural oil in your bath bombs, to make the skin feel soft and silky. Any nut, seed or vegetable oil will do, and you can have fun trying out different kinds. Be aware, though, that most will deteriorate quickly, so if you plan to sell your bath bombs, you'll need some kind of preservative or anti-oxidant to stabilize them. Jojoba oil is one oil which lasts a little longer.

Salt

Bath salts have all kinds of great benefits (visit my homemade bath salts site for more information), and you can add them to bath bombs, too – 1 part salt to 1 part citric acid and 2 parts baking soda is about right.

Any kind of salt will do, but for maximum health benefit I recommend Epsom salts or Dead Sea salts.

Here's a cute tip – if you add the color to the salts, and then add the salts to the mixture, you'll end up with a nice speckled effect, as the color will seep into the salts thoroughly, then disperse into the rest of the mixing, leaving you with darker specks of salt in a paler mix.

Kaolin clay or Bentonite clay

A little clay will make your bath bombs harder and less likely to crumble. Use about a tsp per 1 cup citric acid and 2 cups baking soda

Cornstarch or oatmeal

Cornstarch and oatmeal are nice skin softeners. If you use oatmeal, make sure you grind it up into a fine powder. One warning – avoid using cornstarch in your bath bombs if you have a yeast infection, as it can make it worse.

Sodium Laureth Sulfate and Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate

Sodium Laureth Sulfate is a foaming agent used in lots of commercial bath and hair products – basically anytime they want a product to lather. It's often used in bath bombs to create bubbles.

However, you shouldn't include sodium laureth sulfate in any recipe for sensitive skin, as it's known to be irritating. In fact, a lot of people prefer to avoid it altogether, so if you're looking to make all-natural or gentle bath products, it's best avoided. Check out the Natural Health Information Center for information on the possible dangers of sodium laurel sulfate.

A better option is Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate, which is a gentler and more natural foaming agent. To do a quick compare and contrast, Sodium Laureth Sulfate is made from sulfuric acid, monododecyl ester, and sodium salt – yuck. Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate, however, is made from coconut and palm oils, and is skin safe – I'm told it's safe even for children, but as always, I'm not a chemist, so please do your own research or ask an expert to be sure.

You can buy Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate from various specialist suppliers such as bathbodysupply.com.

See my bubbling bath bombs recipe for how to use it in your bath bombs.

Borax

A lot of people use a little borax to help the bombs hold together. I personally don't like it because it's toxic, and as much as people insist it's safe in small quantities, I just figure why take the risk?

People quite often ask whether it's possible to make bath bombs without citric acid, because they're having trouble finding it.

The answer is yes, but the alternatives aren't as good. So before we get onto how to make bath bombs without citric acid, let's look at where you might be able to find citric acid, as it may not be as hard as you think.

Where to buy citric acid

Citric acid is a completely natural product – it's the stuff that makes lemons taste sour. It's actually used in all kinds of common products, so it may not be as hard to get hold of as you think.

For example, it's used in canning – it's a preservative, it helps canned fruits and vegetables keep their color. So one good place to look for citric acid is in the canning section of your local supermarket.

It's also used for water softening, and cleaning. So, if you supermarket doesn't stock it, try a large drug store or pharmacy. Ask at the prescription counter – sometimes they don't keep it on the shelves.

Next stop – your local health food store. They may stock citric acid in their bulk section.

Failing that, there are online suppliers who will sell it in bulk – such as Bulk Foods.

Lastly, if you ask for citric acid and people are giving you blank looks, try asking for 'sour salt', which is another name for it.

Bath bomb recipe without citric acid

If you really can't get hold of citric acid, then the best common alternative is cream of tartar. You need half as cream of tartar as you would citric acid. So, normally you use 2 parts baking soda to 1 part citric acid. But here you want ½ a part of cream of tartar.

Here's what you need.

• 2 cups baking soda
• 1/2 cup cream of tartar
• Water or witch hazel in a spritz bottle
• Fragrance
• Color

Mix the baking soda and the cream of tartar really well. Add fragrance and color to your personal taste. Mix them in really well – it's easiest to do this by hand. Now spritz in some water or witch hazel (witch hazel is less likely to start the fizz early) and mix that in really well, and keep going until you have the right feel. What's the right feel? Well, squeeze a handful of your mixture – if it sticks together in a clump, then that's good. If it falls apart into little clumps, then it needs more water or witch hazel.

Now press the mixture into your molds – pack it in really tight. Leave it for a couple of minutes, then gently tap out your new bath bombs, and leave them overnight to dry.

Cupcake bath bombs are always one of the most popular kinds. They look so delicious!

The usual recipe uses an egg and sugar meringue-type mix for the topping, in order to get a consistency that can be piped into pretty shapes. Personally, I don't like putting sugar in my tub, so I'm also going to give my own sugar-free recipe.

These are basic proportions, so if you want to make larger batches, just multiply the quantities.

Cupcake bath bomb recipe with piped topping – uses sugar

For the base, you need:

• 2 cups of baking soda
• 1 cup of citric acid
• Fragrance oil – about a tsp, but you can use less or more according to how strong you like the smell. Normally I recommend essential oils for making spa products, but with cupcake bath bombs you really want something yummy-smelling, and the best options for that are purpose-made fragrance oils. Brambleberry has some really great ones – I like their Butter Cream and Snickerdoodle fragrance, but there are tons to choose from.
• A few drops of color to produce a nice rich cake effect – again, Brambleberry has some great choices for cupcake bath bombs.
• Witch hazel or water in a spritz bottle
• Cupcake liners, and a muffin tray to put them in

And here are some optional extras you can add if you want:

• 1 tbsp of a nice nourishing nut or seed oil (eg almond oil), for silky-smooth skin
• 1 tsp Bentonite clay – this produces a harder bath bomb
• Up to 1 tbsp sodium lauryl sulfate – this produces bubbles in the bath

Mix up the dry ingredients in a large bowl. You can use a whisk (but be careful not to breathe in the powders), or rub then together with your hands – make sure they're really well mixed, so the base is nice and smooth. If you're using sodium laurel sulfate, then be especially careful not to breath it in, as it's really irritating – you may want to wear a mask.

Now add the color, fragrance, and oil if you're using it, and rub it in really well with your hands. It'll probably take about five minutes of rubbing in to get the color and fragrance evenly mixed in.

Now, take your little bottle of witch hazel or water, and spritz a little into the mix. Mix it in immediately. Keep spritzing and mixing until the mixture has the right texture. How do you know? Well, take a handful of mixture and squeeze. If it stays in a nice clump, it's about right. If it falls apart into little clumps, it needs more moisture. (If you add too much moisture it'll start fizzing.) As a clue, when it's about right it will feel like damp sand.

Now put the mixture into your paper cupcake liners, inside the muffin tray (if you're going to be doing this a lot, you might want to invest in cupcake molds). Pack it down well – the better packed it is, the less chance the bath bombs will crumble before they get to the bath.

Put to one side, and start on your topping mix.

For the topping, you need:

• 3 tbsp of meringue powder or powdered egg whites
• 1 lb powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar
• 5-6 tbsp warm water
• 1tsp fragrance oil – Brambleberry have a nice Cream Cheese Frosting fragrance, but of course you can go for any flavor you might naturally find on a cupcake. Island Coconut is a nice one. Any vanilla will work well, but if you use a fragrance that includes vanilla, remember to add an equal amount of vanilla stabilizer, to stop discoloration.
• A few drops of color, to suit the fragrance.

(Credit for this topping goes to Anne Marie of Brambleberry, as I never use this recipe! I use the sugar-free version I give below.)

You probably want an electric whisk for this, as it's hard work by hand, but you may need to fold things loosely together before you turn on the mixer, or you'll have powder everywhere!

Mix together the meringue powder with the warm water. Now add the powdered sugar, the cream of tartar, and the fragrance and color. Mix till it forms stiff peaks.

Spoon the mix into a piping bag – or if you don't have one, cut the corner off a regular freezer bag. Pipe the topping onto the cupcake bases, in a pretty spiral. Sprinkle on some decorations if you like. Leave overnight to dry.

Cupcake bath bomb recipe with spread top – no sugar

As I was saying, I'm not a fan of sugar in my bath tub! So I make my cupcake bath bombs with an ordinary bath bomb mix.

Make the base the way that I described above, but when you pack in into the molds, instead of making the top flat, put some more mix in and make it rounded. You want it curving right out of the paper liner, as it if had risen in the oven.

Now make a second batch of mix with the same formula, but a different color and flavor. I like a chocolate topping, so I might use this recipe:

• 2 cups of baking soda
• 1 cup of citric acid
• 1 tsp Brambleberry's Dark Rich Chocolate fragrance oil
• A few drops of color to produce a nice rich chocolate color
• Witch hazel or water

So I mix this second batch in exactly the same way as I made the base. Then I take a spatula and smear a good layer of the 'chocolate frosting' onto the rounded top of my cupcake. I like to leave in the spatula marks – it looks more authentic!

Then I just decorate the 'frosting' with a few sprinkles, or perhaps by sprinkling a little epsom salt on top to look like a sugar topping. Leave overnight to dry, and you're done!

Because bath bombs fizz, people sometimes think it might be hard to make them at home, but actually it's pretty easy. The fizz is all down to two very ordinary ingredients – baking soda, and citric acid.

Here's how it works. Citric acid is an acid, obviously, and baking soda is an alkali. As long as they're in powder form, you can mix them with no reaction. But when the bath bomb goes into the water, the two powders dissolve and are able to react with each other, and that chemical reaction is what creates the fizz.

So, for homemade bath bombs, all you need is some citric acid and some baking soda, and then you add in whatever you want in the way of fragrance, color, and oils.

What you need to make bath bombs:

Here's what you need for your homemade bath bombs. This is the basic recipe, and as you'll see, there's lots of room to vary the mixture – different kinds of salts, different fragrances and oils, etc. (If you want some inspiration, The Handcrafter's Companion has a ton of great ideas for recipes.)

You need the following dry ingredients, in these ratios:

• 2 parts baking soda (note, baking soda is pure bicarbonate of soda – it's not the same thing as baking powder, which contains extra ingredients like starches)
• 1 part citric acid

And you can include the following optional dry ingredients:

• 1 part salt – this can be epsom salt, sea salt, or a mixture of the two
• 1 part cornstarch (this makes the water and your skin feel soft and silky)

So, for example, we can use 2 cups of baking soda, and 1 cup each of citric acid, cornstarch, and salt.

You also need some wet ingredients. If we're using the above quantities of dry ingredients, you need:

• About 2 tsp water (ideally filtered or distilled) or witch hazel (some people prefer witch hazel instead of water, as they feel it's less likely to set off the fizzing early). The amount that you need will depend on which of the optional ingredients you've chosen to add, and also the humidity where you live, so you just have to play this by ear – details on how to do that below.
• 2 tsp of some kind of fragrance oil. This can be essential oil or perfume oil, but if the latter, make sure it's 'skin safe', rather than the stuff meant for oil burners

And you can include the following optional wet ingredients:

• 2 tsp of any kind of skin-friendly vegetable oil, for soft and silky skin. Nut oils, seed oils, jojoba, olive oil etc – all good.
• A few drops of coloring. Get 'soap safe' colorant if you can, as food coloring may stain your tub.

And here's the equipment you'll need:

• A nice big bowl for mixing! Glass or metal is best – some plastics react badly to oils.
• A whisk, and maybe some spoons, for mixing. A sieve can be helpful, too.
• Measuring jugs, cups and spoons
• Molds
• A small squirty bottle for adding your water or witch hazel. An old lotion bottle works just fine if it's cleaned out thoroughly.

Making your bath bombs

1. First mix the dry ingredients together in your mixing bowl. You want to make sure everything's really well mixed, and that there are no lumps, so stir, whisk, and sieve till you get to that point.
2. Now add in your fragrance and color, plus the oil if you're using it – basically, all the wet ingredients except for the water or witch hazel. And mix it all together really well. Often it's easiest to do this by hand – just rub all the wet ingredients in, the way you would rub fat into sugar when you're baking. Keep rubbing till the color's evenly distributed through the mixture – it'll probably take about five minutes.
3. This next stage is the bit where practice makes perfect, so take it slowly at first. You're going to spritz in just a little at a time of your water or witch hazel into the bowl, and then mix it in really well. The reason this bit can be tricky is because if you add too much, the fizzing will start, because water is what allows the citric acid and the baking soda to start reacting. So do just a little at a time, and if it starts fizzing, mix it in well till it stops.
4. You're looking to get just the right balance between wet and dry. If it's too dry, it won't stick together to make bath bombs. If it's too wet, well, it fizzes! The consistency you want a bit like damp sand - just wet enough that if you squeeze it in your hand, it just about forms a nice clump and stays clumped.
5. Now it's time to put the mixture into your molds.You want to pack the mixture in as tight as you can, that helps them keep their shape. You can use all kinds of molds for this – cookie molds, etc. If you want round bombs, then get some of those clear plastic balls that you get at Christmas – the ones you fill with candy and hang on the tree. They come in two halves, so they're easy to fill, just pack each half till it's slightly over-filled, and then press them together hard. Or squish them into balls by hand for that homemade look!
6. Most of the time, you only need to leave them for a minute or two, and then you can tap them out of the mold. If you get some that crumble, just pack them back in the mold and try again. If they keep crumbling, squirt or spritz in a little water. Leave them overnight to dry, and you're done! Store them somewhere dry, if you don't use them immediately – a sealed container is good.

Bath fizzies are fizzy, sherbet's fizzy – so the two are a match made in heaven! Here's my sherbet bath fizzies recipe.

You need the following dry ingredients:

• 2 cups baking soda
• 1 cup citric acid

And the following wet ingredients:

• Fragrance. You have two options for this:
  • 2 tsp of fragrance oil. This produces the best sherbet effect. Soapylove do a fabulous set of dessert fragrances called Delectable Desserts, which includes a delicious Orange Sherbet flavor. You can get it at Brambleberry. Brambleberry also do some gorgeous fruity fragrances of their own – their Coconut Citrus Sorbet and Pomegranate and Blackcurrant are perfect for sherbet bath fizzies.
  • If you'd rather use essential oils, use about 18 drops, plus ½ tsp of a carrier oil like grapeseed or jojoba. I'd suggest 5 drops orange, 5 drops lemon, and 3 drops vanilla.
• About 2 tsp water (ideally filtered or distilled) or witch hazel.
• A few drops of 'soap safe' colorant, in a color to suit your choice of fragrance.

And the following equipment:

• A big glass mixing bowl
• A whisk
• Measuring jugs, cups and spoons
• Molds
• A small squirty bottle makes adding your water or witch hazel easier

Making your sherbet bath fizzies

1. Mix the dry ingredients together in your mixing bowl. You want to make sure everything's really well mixed, and that there are no lumps, so stir, whisk, and sieve till you get to that point.
2. Add in your fragrance and color, plus the oil if you're using it, and mix it all together really well. You can do this by hand – rub the wet ingredients in the way you would rub butter and sugar together. Or you can use a whisk. Keep going till the color's evenly distributed through the mixture – that's probably about five minutes.
3. Now start adding your water or witch hazel. Spritz a little in, and mix it in really well. Keep going till you get the right consistency, which is a bit like damp sand – you want it just wet enough that if you squeeze it in your hand, it just about forms a nice clump and stays clumped.
4. Now put the mixture into your molds. I like to use round molds for sherbet bath fizzies, because then they look like scoops of sorbet! If you put several different flavors together in a bowl, they look just beautiful. You can use purpose-made bath bomb molds, or get some of those Christmas baubles that you fill with candy. Pack the mixture into the two halves as tight as you can, then squeeze them together.
5. Wait a couple of minutes, then gently tap the bath bombs out of the mold (if they crumble, not to worry – put the bits back in the bowl, mix in a little more water, and try again). Leave them to dry overnight and you're done! Store them somewhere dry, if you don't use them immediately.

Extra tips

I really love making streaky sherbet bath fizzies. I mix two batches with different colors – say one orange and one red – and then mix them together loosely, before putting them in the molds. It products a nice streaky layered effect that looks a lot like sorbet. Yum.