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My house is overflowing with plastic Easter eggs. I've been using them for quite a few projects lately and now I have more eggs than I really know what to do with. An Easter egg hunt this year for the kiddos is inevitable.
Today, I'm using a pack of my larger plastic Easter eggs for a super fun project. Get ready because we're making Easter Egg Bath Bombs! You know, those fun little balls you throw into the tub that start to fizz and make your water smell heavenly. Yep, those are the ones. And yes, you can make them yourself!
Ingredients (Will make 6 large bath bombs)
- 8 oz. Baking soda
- 4 oz. Epsom salt
- 4 oz. Cornstarch
- 4 oz. Citric acid
- 3 teaspoons water
- 2 teaspoons essential oil or fragrance oil for soaps, etc.
- 2-5 drops food coloring
- Larger plastic Easter eggs or silicone/plastic mold
- Confetti sprinkles (optional)
In a large bowl, combine the Epsom salt, cornstarch, baking soda and citric acid. Stir the ingredients together using a whisk. In a separate small bowl, mix together your wet ingredients: water, fragrance/essential oil and food coloring. Notice I used Galactic Grape. It smells AWESOME. Did you ever chew grape Hubba Bubba gum as a kid? Yes? This fragrance oil smells just like it!
Pour your wet ingredients into the bowl with your dry ingredients and whisk together.
The mixture will start to clump a little. Use your fingers to ball up a bit of the mixture to see if it is starting to stick together a bit. If not, you can add a little more water, but be careful. ONLY add a very little at a time or you will ruin the entire mixture. Take one of your eggs and put a little of the confetti sprinkles in one side or both. Then start tightly packing the bath bomb powder into both sides of the egg. Make sure there aren't any air pockets - just a small hole is enough to make your bath bomb crumble so really pack the mixture in tightly.
This is also the step where you could place a very small toy inside the egg if you would like. Keep in mind this needs to be very small and light or the egg will not pack correctly. One time I tried to hide some turtle erasers in the eggs and they fell right apart.
Then push the sides together and let the egg sit on a towel covered with waxed paper for at least 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes carefully pry open the egg to see if the mixture has formed to the mold. If it has, it will look like this. The eggs need to dry completely overnight before you try and use them or package them up as gifts.
Just for fun, I had my 2-year-old help me out with a quick experiment. She dropped half of a bath bomb into this glass of water.
It worked better than we thought it would. It started fizzing and it fizzed more, and more, until I had a big mess on the table. Picture me placing my camera down as carefully and quickly as possible while I ran the glass of water to the sink to finish erupting. Really, Sara? Way to use your brain on this one. Sink next time, Einstein.
This is how my bath bombs turned out. Pretty sweet, right? These would be great gifts for friends and family and would be so much fun to put in the kids' Easter baskets. Since my kiddos actually saw these already, we'll just be playing with them in the tub this week.
Have fun making your own bath bombs! My house still smells like Galactic Grape and I'm LOVING it!
Easter Egg Bath Bombs
Materials
- 8 oz Baking soda
- 4 oz Epsom salt
- 4 oz Cornstarch
- 4 oz Ctric acid
- 3 teaspoons Water
- 2 2 Essential oil
- 2-5 drops Food coloring
- Silicone/plastic mold
- Confetti sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the Epsom salt, cornstarch, baking soda and citric acid. Stir the ingredients together using a whisk.
- In a separate small bowl, mix together your wet ingredients: water, fragrance/essential oil, and food coloring. Notice I used Galactic Grape. It smells amazing.
- Pour your wet ingredients into the bowl with your dry ingredients and whisk together.
- The mixture will start to clump a little. Use your fingers to ball up a bit of the mixture to see if it is starting to stick together a bit. If not, you can add a little more water, but be careful.
- Take one of your eggs and put a little of the confetti sprinkles in one side or both. Then start tightly packing the bath bomb powder into both sides of the egg.
- Make sure there aren't any air pockets - just a small hole is enough to make your bath bomb crumble so really pack the mixture in tightly.
- Then push the sides together and let the egg sit on a towel covered with waxed paper for at least 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes carefully pry open the egg to see if the mixture has formed to the mold.
Notes
- Precision in Measurement: Accurate measurement of ingredients is crucial for the success of your Easter Egg Bath Bombs. Use a kitchen scale to ensure you're measuring the baking soda, Epsom salt, cornstarch, and citric acid precisely. Even slight deviations can affect the final texture and fizziness of your bath bombs.
- Test for Consistency: Before filling all your molds, test the consistency of the mixture by squeezing a small amount together in your hand. It should hold its shape without crumbling excessively. If it's too dry, add a few drops of water at a time until you achieve the right consistency. If it's too wet, you risk premature fizzing.
- Gentle Handling: When removing the bath bombs from the molds, be gentle to prevent breakage. Use a careful and slow prying motion to release the bath bomb from the mold without damaging its shape. Placing the molds on a towel-covered surface helps absorb excess moisture and prevents sticking.
Betty
Do you have to grease up the plastic eggs so it doesn't stick the mixture? I am making these with 48 girl scouts at our sleepover and really don't want mess it up.
Sara
Hi Betty! No, you don't have to spray or "grease" the eggs. You could always do a "practice run" at home on your own before the sleepover to make sure you have the process down. Good luck!
Ashley
Do you think these would work with baby oil instead of fragrance oil?
Sara
The fragrance oil just adds some fragrance. It can be omitted if you don't want the bath bombs scented. I'm not sure what kind of effect baby oil would have on the recipe.
Ashley
Oh, I do want them scented. I just happen to love the scent of Burt's Bees baby oil. 😀 So I was curious if it would work.
Sara
Ashley, I think it will work. The only concern I would have is that the baby oil may make prevent the ingredients from sticking together like they should but I don't know for sure. I say try it and see what happens. Please report back! Thank you!
Brianne
Hello, I made these yesterday following all directions, eggs came out looking great but when tested in a bowl of warm water today, they did not fizz, at all. I got a small stream of bubbles from the center area and that was it. Any idea what went wrong?
Sara
Brianne, did you notice that when you were mixing things that there was some fizzing? I wonder if there's a chance they got a little too wet during the mixing stage and didn't have enough citric acid left to make them fizz when you dropped them in the water?
Lori
what a wonderful idea! perfect for what i want to do for my coworkers for Easter!
how many eggs does it make?
i have about 50 Coworkers, so i know i'm going to need A LOT of ingredients.
Sara
Hi Lori, the mold I used made 6 larger eggs. Since you're making eggs for so many, you may want to think about a mold where you can just pop the eggs out easily like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Even-Easter-Shaped-Silicone-Bakeware/dp/B009325REA/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1486936040&sr=8-5&keywords=egg+silicone+mold
Lori
I have approximately 83 plastic eggs and a boyfriend who is very eager to help me, plus we aren't planning on making them all at once, always good to space lots of work, seeing as we only have weekends to work on this stuff, but thank you
And I apologise for the silly question, I didn't see where it says "makes 6" until literally just now
Sara
I love your ambition, Lori!! Best of luck and let me know how they turn out!!
Lori
just made the first three, i think the eggs i have are a bit bigger than your's.
they turned out... almost perfect from what i can see...
i tried doing it last night but i was so tired i forgot the citrus acid... whoops
Also, do you know what kind of paint would be best to use on these? (not for this current project, but for a future project)
Sara
Forgetting the citric acid isn't the end of the world. The fact that you packed them well is the biggest hurdle. To answer your question about "paint" I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean food coloring? Refer to the materials photo in the post where I show which kind of food coloring I used. Good luck!
Amanda
So...um...if one forgot to remove the fizzies from the eggs and later realized they exploded in a fizzy mess, was that too much water?
Signed, Oops Busy Mom of Twins
Sara
Oh, Amanda. LOL. I feel for you! It probably wasn't because you added too much water. It maybe could have played a part, but the biggest mistake was leaving the eggs on. You want to remove them after a few minutes and then allow the fizzies to dry the rest of the way on an old towel, etc. They do expand a bit as they dry and the fact you didn't take them out of the eggs was probably the reason for the mess. Good luck, girl. Try it again! You can do it!
Tiffaney
Hi! My 8 yr old and I made these today. We packed it tightly into the eggs and put the eggs together (heard them snap so I know they were together correctly) and ran a quick errand for about half an hour. When we returned they had grown out of the eggs (pushed and expanded hard enough to pop the eggs open) and we had a tacky feeling, weirdly shaped bath bomb. It felt sort of like the over flow you might get when making muffins. Dry but tacky and spongy. Any idea what we did wrong? We were able to cram it back inside but it is continuing to try to expand and clearly isn't going to form a solid egg shape. Thanks!
Sara
If I could guess what happened it's that you may have added a bit too much water (where they started to bubble a bit) and then left the mixture inside of the eggs. After the eggs are packed, you'll want to check them after 10-15 minutes. When they're able to hold their shape, remove them from the plastic egg molds and allow them to dry on a towel overnight. Good luck!
Tiffaney
Thank you! We clearly left them in the eggs too long. Our efforts today went better and while they still aren't as polished as yours, they at least resemble eggs. 🙂
I'm finding they pop in half if I don't watch them carefully and from time to time go back and adjust them a bit. I'm sure the high humidity here in FL works against us a bit.
(And yesterday's efforts did not go to waste. We dumped the whole lot of it in the tub last night with my son. It was pretty awesome and fizzy!)
Sara
I'm glad they turned out better the second time around and the humidity is a good point, too! So glad your son got to enjoy the first round of eggs. Happy Easter to you and your family!
Angie
Mine are doing the same thing! My 4 yo and I just made them and they are exploding like crazy! I wondered about the water amount when it fizzed when I put it together. We will try again! 🙂
Sara
Did they work the second time, Angie? I hope so!!
Michele Webb
Crazy question, but are the confetti sprinkles the "sugar" decorating kind I would find in the bakery section at the grocery store?
Thanks,
Michele Webb
Sara
You got it Michelle!
Kathy
Hi Sara,
I made these yesterday... All went well until I tried to get them out of the eggs. The two halves didn't stay together and they wouldn't come out. I tried everything... Tapped around the edges, used a very thin knife to try to loosen the edges....even thought about putting them in the freezer thinking maybe the filling would contract....but didn't do that. Any ideas of what went wrong. I did pack the mixture in very tightly and I did snap the two haves together. I do have some egg halves that look OK, and I do have a bag of pulverized mix to sprinkle in the bath that smells wonderful... I used lavender.
Sara
Kathy, normally when you have trouble with the two halves sticking together, they may have not been moist enough. Sounds like you were packing them tightly, but the two halves were still separated. When you pack the eggs, try turning the top shell of the egg and taking a peek to ensure that the two sides are stuck together before you set them aside to dry.
Colleen Scholz
Hi Sara,
I tried making the bath bombs tonight after finally finding the citric acid. I'm afraid I would almost have to call mine a failure. The two halves wouldn't stay together, so I popped them out individually and then I did the worst thing --I tried to use white glue to hold them together! You guessed it...fizz, fizz! I tried using the blow drier to dry them. it only increased the reaction! I wouldn't be surprised if in the morning all I have left is gobs. What could I have done differently to get them to come out in one piece? What a dis appointment. Colleen
Sara
Oh no, Colleen. When you pack the eggs, you need to pack them very tight and then press the egg halves together with force, making sure the egg halves lock together. I like to twist mine a little at the same time to make sure they're going together correctly. If you're finding that you're having a tough time making the eggs, you could always have an Easter themed silicone mold close by and pack the mixture into the mold. That way you'll have something to show for your hard work. I hope you give it another go and they pack well for you next time. Fingers crossed!
Colleen Scholz
Hi again Sara,
When I woke up the next morning, lo and behold, the eggs were in one piece;but I sure would not recommend a water based glue to hold them together. They came out , but with a messy line around the middle. Oh, well, they look homemade. I was just glad they weren't gobs! I will try this again. They did pack ok, The halves just didn't want to stay together. Colleen
Sara
Well, I'm so glad they came out for you! The line around the middle is pretty common. Sounds like you figured it out! Happy Easter to you!
Diane
Are the sprinkle food or what? I think everyone would love it.
Sara
Hi Diane, yes, the sprinkles I found in the baking section of the grocery store. They dissolve in the bath water so it's all safe for your drain and septic!