Bath Bombs Make a Great Herb Gift

Here’s a simple and fun herb gift idea that can be done with kids… These are little hard-packed mixtures of citric acid, baking soda, almond oil and essential oil that fizz when you put them in your bath. Besides being a fun herb gift, they give the water a beautiful, smooth feel and wonderful scent once they’ve dissolved. Besides the ingredients mentioned above, you will also need some kind of mold to shape your bath bombs. We just used an empty egg carton and it worked fine. Citric acid comes as a powder and is made from the fermentation of fruit sugars. It acts as a preservative and is what makes these herb gifts fizz. It can be a mild skin and eye irritant in this powdered form, so caution children helpers not to touch their eyes with it on their hands. Simply rinse with water to alleviate any irritation that does occur. Bath bombs make a great herb gift.

How to Make Bath Bombs

What you’ll need…

• 1 cup citric acid
• 1/2 cup baking soda
• 4 teaspoons almond oil
• Essential oil of your choice
• Need herbs? Visit Mountain Rose Herbs.

Mix the citric acid and baking soda in one bowl.

Mix the almond oil with about 30 drops of the essential oil of your choice in a separate bowl. Lavender or rose will make for a nice relaxing bath. Try peppermint or lemon for a reviving bath.

If you’re using plastic or metal molds for this herb gift, oil them with a small amount of vegetable oil. (We didn’t need any oil for our egg carton mold.)

Now, take half of the powder mixture and mix in half of the oil mixture.

Pack the mixture firmly into the molds and let sit a few minutes.

Once the bath bombs have hardened a bit (it really only takes about 5 minutes), remove them from the molds and place on wax paper to dry for at least 24 hours. We just cut the center pillars from the egg carton and twisted it like an ice cube tray to loosen them, and then turned them over onto the wax paper.

Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

My kids loved dropping their creation into their bath the next morning, and watching it fizz!

For an herb gift, you can get creative and package them in decorative containers or boxes. Use your creative flare! Bath bombs make a great herb gift!

Written by Kimberly Gallagher

Kimberly Gallagher, M.Ed., CCH is author of Aphrodisiac, the Herb Fairies book series and creator of the Wildcraft! board game. She is also co-founder and co-CEO of LearningHerbs. Kimberly is parent to two amazing grown kids and is passionate about sustainable living, cultural transformation, healthy cooking, and storytelling.