'Tis the Time for Gift Making!

Last night was our first Gift Givers Class of the season, and it was a blast! We made lip balm from scratch, bath fizzies, and salt and sugar scrubs. Each person created unique gifts for four people, with personalized scent, color, and additives such as rose petals, lavender buds, apricot seed powder and ground loofah. Above are some other examples of handmade holiday presents, including soy candles and the ever-popular gingerbread man soap. If you can't make it to one of our classes, here's a fun little bath fizzy tutorial inspired by student Jeanine who created beautiful blue snowflake fizzies in last night's Gift Givers group. Our next class will be on Tuesday November 30th at 6pm, $30.

Here's what you'll need:
Witch hazel in a spritzer bottle
Baking Soda
Citric Acid
Fragrance
Color
Mold

Step 1.
Combine 1/2 cup citric acid and 1 full cup baking soda. Blend well and add 2 ml fragrance. I used Peppermint 2nd Distillation Essential Oil.

Step 2:
Add color and blend. Just the tip of a teaspoon is all you need! I used Cellini Blue Mica pigment. Blending everything together is key so that you don't end up with little bumps in the end.

Step 3:
While hand-mixing, spritz with witch hazel. This will bind the batch together so it holds shape in the mold. Too little witch hazel creates a loose and crumbly fizzy, and too much be too wet and set off the fizzy process.

Step 4:
When you can squeeze the mix in your hand and it holds its shape, you are ready to fill the mold!

Step 5:
The harder you compact the mixture into the mold, the firmer and longer-lasting your bath fizzy.

That's it! Now turn over your mold to pop them out and set them on the table to dry for a few hours. Careful, they will drop out really quickly and if you are holding your mold up high, they could fall and break on the counter. Also, keep in mind that if you spray them with witch hazel as a final touch to add hardness, it will set off the fizzy process on the surface and blur those gorgeous details.

Wasn't that easy? Bath fizzies are really fun and make great gifts, plus the kids will be begging for bath time. For a bigger batch (this made 8 fizzies), simply follow the basic recipe of 1 part citric acid to two parts baking soda. Enjoy!

Fun for the Kids!

These fun little bath bombs were a success and fizzed for over a minute! I used Yuzu Cybilla fragrance oil and hydrated green chrome pigment. I found a flexible triangle tray mold that I used for the tablets, but I wouldn't recommend using a flexible mold because it chipped the edges as I popped them out. A stiff, plastic mold works best, like the spaceships mold that I used for a slightly bigger bath bomb.

Basic Bath Bomb Instructions

• Gather your ingredients:
  

1 part citric acid
2 parts baking soda
witch hazel
coloring of your choice
fragrance oil of your choice
bath bomb mold

• Blend, blend, blend! Blend the citric acid and baking soda-- this step is super important-- if you don't blend well, you end up with a grainy bomb. I use a whisk and then break up the remaining clumps with my fingers. We also use a mixer on our larger batches.

• Once you've blended really well, add your colorant. Dry pigments or a specialty bath fizzy colorant like La Bombs work best-- don't add too much though-- the color shows up once you add the witch hazel. We start with 5 ccs of dry colorant per 2 pounds of bath fizzy mix.

• Add fragrance according to your preference. We start with 0.5 ounces of fragrance in 2 pounds of bath fizzy mix.
  

• Now this is the tricky part. Spritz (with a squirt bottle) the witch hazel onto your batch while stirring with the other hand. When your batch sticks together when squished, you need to start putting it in molds-- time is of the essence. If you wait too long, the mixture will get hard. If you spritz too much, the mixture will be too wet and "grow" or start the fizzing reaction.

• Put the bombs in molds-- wait a few minutes and tap them out. Let them air dry for 3 or 4 hours and voila! Wonderful, hard bath bombs. The harder you pack the bath bombs, the more dense, heavy, and durable bomb you will get. Enjoy!!