These pretty tri-coloured bath bombs are a fizzy, bath-friendly tribute to the rather ubiquitous candy corn. If you’re not familiar with candy corn, it’s a triangular candy with a white tip, orange center, and yellow bottom. And, to state what might be a controversial opinion, it tastes awful (yet apparently over 35 million pounds are sold annually!). It is really quite striking, though, and the colour combo is perfect for some Halloween themed bath bombs!

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Our fizzy base stars acidic citric acid of cream of tartar reacting with baking soda. That’s held together with some fragrant cocoa butter and some polysorbate 80 so the cocoa butter emulsifies with your bath water, and then some sparse spritzes of witch hazel and 70% isopropyl alcohol. The addition of wee bits of water helps the crystallized citric acid and Epsom salts dissolve a wee bit so we can smoosh ’em together and leave them to re-crystallize, binding the bath bombs together.

While the Cream of Tartar is optional in the strictest sense of the word, I really don’t recommend leaving it out—making these bath bombs without it is like bath-bombing on hard mode. It’s a simple addition that will make your life much easier, and it makes the end bath bombs much nicer as well. If you’re finding the Cream of Tartar at your local grocery store is crazy expensive, make sure you check your DIY supplier—it’s usually much more affordable from DIY stores!

I used some yellow and orange micas to get the yellow and orange bits, and decided to leave the centre white for no real reason other than I like how white centred bath bombs look. You can definitely switch things around if you want the order of the colours to be more authentic!

I’ve kept the scent soft and Halloween-appropriate—straight vanilla, with some faint cocoa-y wafts from the inclusion of cocoa butter in the bath bomb base. You could easily customize the bath bombs by using something different, like perhaps a fall-ish fragrance oil, or even cocoa absolute. It’s up to you!

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Candy Corn Bath Bombs

Oil phase
16g | 2% Polysorbate 80 (USA / Canada) or Olivem 300 (USA / Canada)
32g | 4% cocoa butter (USA / Canada)

Powdered phase
416g | 52% baking soda (USA / Canada)
208g | 26% citric acid (USA / Canada)
76g | 9.50% Epsom salt (USA / Canada)
40g | 5% Cream of Tartar

8g | 1% benzoin resinoid

2g | 0.25% yellow mica
2g | 0.25% orange mica

Witch hazel in a mister, as needed
70% isopropyl alcohol in a mister, as needed

Weigh the oil phase ingredients into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Melt the ingredients together—both a water bath or short bursts in the microwave will work.

Measure the powdered ingredients into a large bowl and mix them together.

Add the melted oils to the powdered ingredients, stir for a wee while, and then add the benzoin. Blend everything together using a flexible silicone spatula, and then switch to using your hands when the melted oils are no longer hot and you won’t be soaking your hands in benzoin. When you’re done blending the final mixture should be uniform and resemble cookie dough a bit. If you grab a handful of the mixture and squeeze it should hold together a little.

Now it’s time to add just enough liquid to get the mixture to hold together in a mold. Not too much, though, or it will react in the bowl/mold, not in your bath. That’s why we’re using misters (they’ll spread the moisture better) of witch hazel and 70% isopropyl alcohol. The reaction isn’t as vigorous when you use witch hazel and alcohol (with the alcohol being less vigorous), plus the bath bombs dry faster.

Spread your mixture out in your bowl so you have as much surface area as possible, and spritz in some witch hazel—I found I needed 6–8 spritzes of witch hazel. Use your hands to quickly combine, misting and mixing. Once you can grab a fairly good handful of the mixture and it’ll hold together, mix in a few spritzes of alcohol. The final mixture should hold together quite well—you should be able to tap a squeezed handful with your finger and have it hold together.

Quickly divide the mixture between three bowls; you want one bowl that’s mostly white, and then two smaller bowls to colour—one yellow and one orange. I’d say you want about 70% white, 15% yellow, 15% orange. Use the micas to colour the two smaller bowls.

Once the mixture will hold together, it’s time to mold it! You’ll want a bit of yellow in one half of the mold, a bit of orange in the other half, and then heap on the white to create the middle. If the bath bombs start to become finicky as you work, that’s likely because the mix is starting to dry out—mist in some more liquid until they become workable again. When you’ve used up all the powder, leave the finished bath bombs to dry overnight.

To use, drop in a hot bath and enjoy! This recipe will make ten to fourteen 2″ bath bombs, depending on how many survive molding.

Because these bath bombs don’t contain any water once they dry, they do not require a broad-spectrum preservative (broad spectrum preservatives ward off microbial growth, and microbes require water to live—no water, no microbes!). Be sure to keep them dry to ensure they last as long as possible—don’t let any water get into the container/bag you store them in and they should easily last a year.

Substitutions

As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.

• As I’ve provided this recipe in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams this recipe will make 800g.
• You can use  more citric acid instead of Cream or Tartar, but I would strongly advise you not to.
• You can use a different brittle or soft butter in place of the cocoa butter
• The micas are optional, though you will obviously lose the candy corn theme if you eliminate them!
• You can use a different essential or fragrance oil if you prefer.