Mid-summer bath bombs ...

I'm just loving these long, balmy summer days. And it's great that our barmy British weather is finally playing along with the notion that it's summer time.

How better to relax after a hot, busy day in the sun than with a long soak in a rose-scented bath? And that's just what these amazing bath bombs will deliver ... in spadefuls. They smell wonderful and, as they dissolve, they release a swirling eddy of little pink petals into your bathwater. Divine! Things could be only be improved upon further with the addition of some lovely music and a glass of something cold and fizzy to wet your whistle ... just saying ... .

Anyway they're super easy to make. Here's my recipe ... 



Ingredients

130 g Citric Acid
250 g Bicarbonate of Soda
120 g Corn flour (or corn starch if you're in the US)
120 g Epsom Salts
3 teaspoonfuls/ 15 ml of water
6 teaspoonfuls/ 30 ml of Rose Essential Oil
3 tablespoonfuls/ 45 ml of Argan Oil or almond oil
a couple of drops of red food colouring to turn things pink
A couple of handfuls of dried rose petals.

Now here's what you need to do: 

Mix all the dry ingredients in a great big mixing bowl, including the rose petals. I like to add them at the end so that they get the least amount of physical abuse being stirred around with everything else.

I'm using some lovely petals that I bought from an ethnic food shops in West Ealing. They are edible according to the packet - and they certainly look good enough to eat.

Carefully measure out the wet ingredients. I've taken to using these little measuring glasses that I found in Tesco. They make the whole business of getting 6 teaspoonfuls of anything measured out a great deal easier than would be the case with a teaspoon. I usually have the radio on, or some music belting out; maybe at the critical moment the Wonder Dog and I will be throwing a few dance moves, safe in the knowledge that no one's watching ... and it's easy to lose concentration and not quite remember how many spoonfuls have gone in.

I use a jam jar with a screw-on lid to mix my oils. I pour them all in ...

... screw on the lid, give them a really good shake ...

... and, hey presto, everything goes a little bit pink. Be careful, though: don't overdo it with the red food colouring or it will look like you've drained the blood of a small mammal into your jam jar!

And talking of food colouring, here's how I've taken to storing mine:

They're just so unbelievably messy. No matter how carefully I wipe them down (irreparably staining my dish cloth in the process) they always seem to leave lurid-coloured circles wherever they've been sitting. So I've recycled an old Nutella pot, which now stores they very neatly out of harm's way. 

Now get a tray, put a bath towel on top and a sheet of baking paper on top of that. This is going to be the resting station where you'll leave your bath bombs to dry out on. You need to leave them overnight to harden up, but if you leave them on a hard surface they'll end up with flat bottoms, which isn't a good look on anything other than the mixing bowl!

It's time to add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Just pour the oils in and you'll see a certain amount of fizzing as the water makes contact with the bicarbonate of soda. Mix it all about until you have an even consistency.

You should end up with something that has the texture and moistness of the perfect sand-castle-building sand.

If you've got one of those fancy gizmos for making bath bombs, dust if off, and get cracking at shaping your munitions. I don't run to any so sophisticated and use my hands to shape the bombs. I've got smallish paws so mine come out rather undersized by comparison with what you might buy in Lush, but I double them up and drop them in two at a time. Take care, however, to press them really, really hard to get a good, cohesive set with your mixture. If you leave them all loose and fluffy they'll fall apart once they've dried out. 

Now leave them in a quiet spot where they won't get disturbed by any ball-throwing/ ball fetching children or dogs for about 12 hours. Don't leave them for much longer or they'll dry out too much and start to fall apart. 

When they're ready I store them wrapped loosely in baking paper in plastic gift bags ready to give to my friends or use myself. The baking paper/ wrapping up bit is important as it conserves the oils and stops your bombs from drying out too much and falling part. If they do fall apart, whilst they're not as pretty to look at, it's not the end of the world as the crumbly bits do just as good a job when they're dissolved in your bath water. 

Enjoy!

Bonny x