tutorial tuesday: pop pop, fizz fizz

I'm one of those people who takes A LOT of baths. I generally do 3 or 4 good soaks a week (more in the colder months) as a way to relax, warm up my body, and take good care of myself.

A friend of mine who knows how much I like a well-done bath took me to LUSH for the first time early last year and needless to say, I was overwhelmed by how much joy one tiny little shop could bring me! Their arnica foot lotion and coconut deodorant powder are now some of my self-care staples, but what really floored me was the wall of bath bombs. So many different colors and scents and and and... siiiiigh. The problem is, those suckers are spendy. I can't afford to buy more than a couple at a time and even then, I try and take the bomb out when it's about half-way dissolved so that I can get a second bath out of it. Go ahead, call me a penny-pincher. Whatever.

About a month ago I sat down with my friend Anna to brainstorm ideas for more DIY classes I could teach at the gallery she owns, and one of the things that came up was bath and beauty products, and more specifically, bath bombs. Before then, it had never occurred to me to try and make them. It seems so obvious now. The class went fantastically, with each attendee making a batch of 6-8 bath bombs and then everyone traded their different scent & color combos so that we all took something different and lovely home.

A couple of us even went back to make a second half-batch! We had all sorts of wonderful-smelling concoctions going: Orange/Clove, Spearmint/Lime, Rosemary/Lemongrass, Lemon Eucalyptus/Lime/Orange, Peppermint/Wintermint... with more people, I bet we could have dreamed up a few more, even!

When you add in colors things get really interesting. For the class I brought dusty pink, bright purple, sea blue, and a coppery-orangey gold with some sparkle to it (I think that one was my absolute favorite).

They turned out to be the perfect project for our class! Easy, quick, only a wee bit messy, and not requiring so much focus that you couldn't sip some wine and hold a conversation while making them.

Here's what you'll need:

• 2 cups baking soda
• 1 cup citric acid
• 2 or 3 essential oils, totaling 30-40 drops
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• dry pigment color (loose pigment eyeshadow will work!)

Mix your baking soda and citric acid well, then drizzle olive oil over the mixture. Add your drops of essential oils (spread this out to help it blend better) and sprinkle a little bit of color over the top. I started with about a 1/2 tsp and then added more as I needed to get to the shade I wanted. A little bit goes a long way. At this point you're going to be stirring A LOT. Use your spoon/spatula to break apart the oil clumps against the wall of your bowl. Once it's well mixed and has no clumps left, grab a spray bottle of water set to a fine mist and spritz your mixture 3 or 4 times. It may start bubbling a little, but that's fine as long as you only do 3 or 4 sprays each time. Mix, mix, mix. Spray, spray, spray. Repeat this process until you get a mixture that clumps in your hand, rather than crumbles apart. Don't add so much water that your mixture gets foamy and fluffy. It will still work, but it will be much harder to put into a mold and will expand as it dries.

You can use many different things to mold your bombs. For the class, I brought plastic lined paper party cups, but plastic cups meant for dying easter eggs would work, an old muffin tin would work (though you basically have to drop it on a concrete floor to get the bombs out!) or really anything you have around the house that's of the right size and shape could be used. It all depends on what you want the presentation to look like, since these are not only great for personal bath use, but make great gifts and are also fantastic for selling at craft fairs, farmers markets, etsy, etc! Just have fun with it.

And those of you making batches at home, leave a comment letting me know other possible scent combinations you come up with!