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Add some holiday cheer to your bath! These Christmas bath bombs with 3 seasonal scents are a fun and festive DIY for the holidays. They also make the perfect homemade gifts!
Christmastime is the perfect time to indulge in a hot bath! The cold weather and long days on your feet decorating or baking call for some soothing time in the tub.
I always need at least one homemade product to enhance my bath experience!
It’s just not the same without some homemade bath oil or DIY bubble bath. Or one of my homemade bath bombs!
However, during the holiday season, I don’t want just any bath bomb. I want it to smell like Christmas! The scents of fresh-cut trees, spicy candy canes, and warm cookies just make the season brighter.
That’s why I created these Christmas bath bomb recipes! They are fun and festive for the holiday season.
If hot baths are your self-care of choice, you’re going to love these seasonal bath bombs.
They also make beautiful homemade Christmas gifts for your loved ones, so be sure to make a few extras to share!
Why You’ll Love Them
- Level up your bath: A warm bath is always a great experience, but when you get to add a colorful, fizzy bath bomb to the mix? Perfection! These fun seasonal scents offer great aromatherapy to help you relax, too.
- Homemade gifts: Christmas bath bombs make such a fun and thoughtful gift. Use them as a homemade stocking stuffer or add to a DIY Christmas gift basket!
- Festive recipe: Christmas crafts and DIYs just make the season better. With season-specific essential oil blends and colors to match, this recipe will get you in the holiday spirit!
What You’ll Need
- Citric acid: This reacts with the baking soda to give homemade bath bombs that fun fizz when they hit water.
- Essential oils: These bath bombs smell amazing without any artificial fragrance, thanks to essential oils! You can choose from 3 different seasonal blends (or come up with your own).
- Mica powder: How we add color to the bath bombs naturally. Always make sure you are getting your mica powder from an ethical source; I buy from Mad Micas.
Find the full list of ingredients with their measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
How to Make Christmas Bath Bombs
Step 1. Stir the baking soda, citric acid, cornstarch, and Epsom salt together in a medium bowl.
Step 2. Stir in coconut oil and mica powder, then lightly spray the mixture with water, one spray at a time, mixing as you go, until it holds together when you squeeze it.
Step 3. Press the mixture into both halves of the lightly greased molds until it’s overflowing, then press the halves together, squeezing pretty hard, and wipe off the extra.
Step 4. Let them dry for 48 hours before popping them out of the molds.
3 Holiday Scents for Christmas Bath Bombs
Homemade Christmas bath bombs are scented with essential oils for a wonderful, natural fragrance and relaxing aromatherapy! If you love the smells of Christmas as much as I do, you’ll probably have a hard time choosing which of the 3 scent blends to make first!
Candy Cane
- 30 drops peppermint essential oil
- ½ teaspoon red mica powder
Christmas Tree
- 16 drops Douglas fir essential oil
- 14 drops spruce essential oil
- ½ teaspoon green mica powder
Sugar Cookie
- 12 drops vanilla essential oil
- 12 drops sweet orange essential oil
- 6 drops lemon essential oil
- ½ teaspoon gold mica powder
If it’s more your style to create your own, you are always welcome to experiment with the essential oils! Just aim for about 30 drops of oil total. You can also check out my Christmas essential oil blends for more inspiration.
How to Use Bath Bombs
To use a bath bomb, fill your bathtub with hot water. Right before stepping into the tub, toss a bath bomb into the water. The ingredients in the bath bomb will react with the water, causing it to fizz, color the water, and release its soothing scent.
When you’re done with the bath, you can drain the water as normal. There may be some colored residue left on the tub, but it should rinse or wipe away easily.
Expert Tips
- Go slow with the water: It can be difficult to get the right texture when adding the water. Too much and it’ll fizz too early, and too little and it’ll crumble on you, so I try to get it just wet enough that it holds together when I squeeze it between my fingers.
- Overfill the molds: I pack each half until it’s overflowing so I can press the two sides firmly together, and that’s what gives you a solid bath bomb that holds its shape!
- Stuck in the mold?: If one doesn’t pop right out, which they never do, I tap the sides of the mold with the blunt end of a butter knife several times until it pops out.
- Let them dry completely: If you take them out of the molds too early, they can crumble, so I give them the full 48 hours.
Notes
- The recipe yield will depend on the size of your molds. It made 6 small bath bombs with my molds.
- Don’t go overboard with the mica powder. More than ½ teaspoon per batch can leave a ring in the tub (but it’s nothing my homemade bathtub cleaner can’t fix). Beetroot powder instead of mica powder works perfectly for a softer pink on the candy canes!
- Store them in a cool, dry place, and they’ll keep for up to 6 months!
- No bathtub? No worries! You can still get a similar experience in the shower with my homemade shower bombs or DIY shower melts. You can add the same colors and essential oils to make them just as Christmassy as this recipe.
Recipe FAQs
Definitely! You’ll just need to split the wet mixture into different bowls before adding the mica powder. Check out my tutorial on how to make rainbow bath bombs for all the specifics.
This can be because you didn’t let them dry for the full 48 hours or you didn’t add enough water. It can take a little practice to get the right amount of water, but if the mixture is crumbling in your hand before it goes into the molds, it will crumble after it’s dry. You can still use the crumbly bath bombs even if they aren’t as pretty as you’d hoped!
Absolutely! You don’t have to stick with the classic sphere shape. In fact, I used a fun-shaped mold in my tropical bath bomb recipe.
Looking for more self-care this holiday season? Bath bombs are featured in my 12 days of homemade self-care post, and the other 11 days are just as exciting! Treat yourself (or your loved ones) to a little pampering.
More Christmas DIYs
- 5 Christmas Sugar Scrubs
- DIY Peppermint Bath Salts
- DIY Orange Creamsicle Soap
- Holiday Spice Soap Bar
- DIY Christmas Scented Candles
If you tried these Christmas Bath Bombs or any other tutorial on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Christmas Bath Bombs
Equipment
- Mixing bowl and spoon
Ingredients
- 1 cup baking soda, (10 oz / 283 g)
- ½ cup citric acid, (4 oz / 113 g)
- ½ cup cornstarch, (2.5 oz / 71 g)
- ¼ cup epsom salt, (2.1 oz / 60 g)
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted (2 oz / 57 g)
- 30 drops peppermint essential oil, or see blend variations below
- Spray bottle of water
- ½ teaspoon red mica powder, or see blend variations below
Instructions
- Stir the baking soda, citric acid, cornstarch, and epsom salt together in a medium bowl.
- Stir in coconut oil, then lightly spray the mixture with water, one spray at a time, mixing as you go, until it holds together when you squeeze it.
- Add mica powder and mix in well.
- Press the mixture into both halves of the lightly greased molds until it’s overflowing, then press the halves together, squeezing pretty hard and wipe off the extra.
- Let them dry for 48 hours before popping them out of the molds.
Notes
Scent and Color Variations
Christmas Tree- 16 drops Douglas fir essential oil
- 14 drops spruce essential oil
- ½ teaspoon green mica powder
- 12 drops vanilla essential oil
- 12 drops sweet orange essential oil
- 6 drops lemon essential oil
- ½ teaspoon gold mica powder
Notes + Tips
- Yield: The recipe yield will depend on the size of your molds. It made 6 small bath bombs with my molds.
- Go slow with the water: It can be difficult to get the right texture when adding the water. Too much and it’ll fizz too early, and too little and it’ll crumble on you, so I try to get it just wet enough that it holds together when I squeeze it between my fingers.
- Overfill the molds: I pack each half until it’s overflowing so I can press the two sides firmly together, and that’s what gives you a solid bath bomb that holds its shape!
- Stuck in the mold?: If one doesn’t pop right out, which they never do, I tap the sides of the mold with the blunt end of a butter knife several times until it pops out.
- Let them dry completely: If you take them out of the molds too early, they can crumble, so I give them the full 48 hours.
- Don’t go overboard with the mica powder: More than ½ teaspoon per batch can leave a ring in the tub (but it’s nothing my homemade bathtub cleaner can’t fix). Beetroot powder instead of mica powder works perfectly for a softer pink on the candy canes!
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