If you’re looking for a Christmas project that gives you the perfect combination of bubble and fizz, our fizzy bubbly bath bombs will be your new favourite. Whether you’re looking at adding these to your business, making them for yourself or planning on homemade gift-giving and stocking-stuffers, these fun bath-time wonders are not only easy to make but come with its own packaging by utilising clamshells often associated with wax melt making.

Whilst you may already be familiar with fizzing bath bombs, making them bubble as well is as easy as adding one additional ingredient – Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSa) – which changes the experience from a fizz to a bubble!

SLSa is a surfactant used in bath & body products to create bubbles and a cleansing foam. This foaming agent is vegetable derived, gentle on the skin and has a large molecule size. The larger molecular size means that it cannot penetrate the skin causing irritation like similar surfactants can.

And creating a bubbling bath bomb isn’t much different to your more traditional bath bombs aside from that one extra ingredient. Packaging it into a clamshell allows it to be multi-use too. Simply break it into segments under a running bath and replace any unused product back in it’s packaging to get additional uses out of just one block.

Ready to jump in? Check out our video tutorial below to be taken through the steps or read on for our detailed written tutorial with pictures.

Please note: Our tutorial is designed for personal use only. You will need to follow all legal responsibilities before selling any products that come into contact with skin.

See our Bath Bomb Assessment here if you are considering selling bath bombs and be sure to check out our blog post Assessments & CSPR: How to Sell Bath & Body Products in the UK for further guidance.

If you’ve just started making bath bombs, you may want to start your bath bomb making journey with our How to Make Bath Bombs tutorial which will walk you through the steps and allow you to get comfortable with the process before moving on to the more advanced techniques shown here.

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Makes: 5 Clamshells

Ingredients

• 400g Bicarbonate of Soda
• 200g Citric Acid Anhydrous
• 6g Kaolin Clay
• 6g Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate
• 18g Cranberry Peppermint Fragrance Oil
• 6g Apricot Kernel Refined Oil
• 6g Polysorbate 80
• Tip of teaspoon of Red Water Soluble Dye mixed with a tiny bit of hot water
• Water or Isopropyl alcohol for spraying

Equipment

• 2 large mixing bowls
• 6 small pots/containers for ingredients
• Set of kitchen weighing scales
• Sieve
• Disposable gloves
• Teaspoon
• 5 x Star Wax Melt Clamshells
• Spray bottle for water/isopropyl alcohol

Step 1 - Weigh, Sieve and Combine

Weigh out all your ingredients, being sure to sieve all your dry ingredients.

Combine the bicarbonate of Soda, SLSa and kaolin clay (leaving the citric acid to one side for now).

Step 2 - Add Your Oils

Add your fragrance oil, apricot kernel oil and polysorbate 80 to your bicarb mixture.

Step 3 - Combine the Mixture

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together with your hands, gently rubbing between your fingers to combine. Your citric acid & red dye should still be separate at this point.

Step 4 - Add the Citric Acid

Add the citric acid to your mixture. Again using your fingers, gently rubbing between your fingers to combine.

You will need to have the mixture at a consistency of “damp sand”. When a handful of the mixture is squeezed together, it should hold its form.

Pro Tip: It you find that the mixture is too dry, you can use either water or isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle to dampen the mix but do not make the mixture wet.

Step 5 - Split the Mixture Into Two

Now split your mixture into 2 bowls. You will need to work relatively quickly from now on. Add the red water soluble dye into one of the bowls and mix in very quickly to stop it activating.

Remember, when you add the dye to one of your bowls, the mixture will start activating due to the water (which is why you should only add a very small amount of water to the dye!).

Step 6 - Mix In the Red Dye

Work the mixture through your hands again until the red dye is thoroughly mixed in.

Both mixes should be of a consistency where if you squeezed a handful together it should form a solid. It should be similar to damp sand (not wet). If the mix doesn’t hold you can spray with a little isopropyl alcohol or water to dampen.

Step 7 - Fill Your Clamshells

Begin filling your clamshells with a mix of both the white and the red mixture. You can do this in turns in any order you like.

We liked the effect of a more random placement but feel free to layer, make stripes or in any other design you like.

Step 8 - Pack the Mixture

Fill the clamshell making sure the mixture is packed in tightly and solidly. You can use the back of a spoon to smooth off the back. This can be a bit of a messy project so we'd recommend using a small dry paint brush to dust off any mixture from the packaging before closing the clamshells.

Step 9 - Leave to Dry

Leave the lid off the clamshell for approximately 1-2 hours so the mixture can dry. If your work space is humid and damp, you can place the lid straight on to save the bath bomb mixture activating.

We'd recommend allowing at least 24 hours for your bath bombs to fully dry and set before using. You can either use the whole block in the bath or you can break off segments and place the rest back into the clam to keep dry.

These bubbling bath blocks work best when adding them to running water.