If you’ve been out in the world lately you’ll know that unicorns are de rigueur. From onesies to lattes to inspirational posters to holographic eyeshadow palettes, you can unicorn-ify every aspect of your life. I even found unicorn printed toilet paper for anyone who truly wants to take their unicorn relationship to the next level 😂 Anywho—while this Fizzy Unicorn Bath Parfait will not kiss your backside with the magic of a mythical horned, rainbow-maned creature, it is pretty darn fun, easy to make, and oh-so-pretty.

This bath parfait is part bath bomb, part bubble bath, and part bath salts. It’s got the fizz of bath bombs thanks to a base of baking soda and citric acid, with added foaming fun from the inclusion of some Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSa). This part is pretty much the only “making” of the recipe (the rest is assembling), and it’s really just weighing and stirring, so I feel like we can exchange unicorn-themed fist bumps right about now for the easiness of this project. *bump*

This fizzy/foamy powder is where we’re adding our scent and some pretty colours. I decided to stray from my essential oils and instead used a Black Raspberry Vanilla fragrance oil from Windy Point. I chose it purely because it smelled the most unicorn-y out of everything in my scent stash (scientific, eh?). If you want to stick with essential oils I think a blend of rose, lavender, and benzoin would be lovely, as would anything citrussy. We’re talking unicorns here, so use your imagination and have some fun! Nobody can tell you you’re wrong, and if they can… get details. There’s a story there.

I divided the fizz/foam powder and used two different micas from YellowBee to colour it purple and turquoise—they seemed to be appropriately unicorn-y colours to me. Again—use your imagination and what you have!

The bath salts part comes from layering two different salts in with the purple and turquoise fizz/foam powders—like a parfait! I used sparkly, diamond-like Epsom salts and soft pink Himalayan pink sea salt. I loved the colour of the Himalayan salt for this project, but you can certainly customize the salt part to work with whatever you’ve got. You could even toss a bit of coarse salt with some pink mica to give yourself a pink layer if you don’t have Himalayan salt!

Once you have all the parts (which is pretty easy), all that’s left is layering up some unicorn-inspired pretty bath time fun. You could use several smaller jars to create a few gifts, or one larger one. If you’re using a big jar (more than a single bath’s worth), be sure to instruct your end user to really dig down (just like when mom used to make a layered salad) so they can get the full spectrum of unicorn-y goodness!

Fizzy Unicorn Bath Parfait

168g | 56% baking soda (USA / Canada)
84g | 28% citric acid (USA / Canada)
43.5g | 14.5% Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSa) (USA / Canada)

3g | 1% essential oil blend or fragrance of choice

0.25% | 0.75g purple mica
0.25% | 0.75g turquoise mica

Himalayan pink salt, as needed (USA / Canada)
Epsom salts, as needed (USA / Canada)

Weigh the baking soda, citric acid, and SLSa into a bowl and stir to combine, using a spatula or the back of a spoon to break up clumps. Once the powders are relatively well blended, scatter the essential oil blend or fragrance overtop using a disposable pipette, and blend that in as well, stirring thoroughly and continuing to break up clumps.

Divide the powder between two bowls. Stir the purple mica into one, and the turquoise mica into the other. The addition of the mica will make any remaining clumps extra visible, so take this opportunity to further break them up.

Now it’s time to make your parfait! You’ll want a glass jar; a taller, narrower one will make for more distinct layers. I used one of these from IKEA.

Here’s the order of my layers:

• Turquoise powder
• Himalayan pink salt
• Purple powder
• Epsom salts
• Turquoise powder
• Himalayan pink salt
• Purple powder
• To top: a split layer of purple and turquoise with a strip of Himalayan pink salt between them

I recommend spooning out each layer so you can get even cover and use the back of the spoon to smooth out each layer—shaking the jar to settle things will cause layer overlap. You’ll want to fill the jar as full as possible to reduce the amount of mixing that will happen if the jar is jostled, but don’t pack the powder in or you may find it seizes up and is hard to get out of the jar.

That’s it! To use, scoop some out into your bath and enjoy the fizzy, bubbly fun. Add while the water is still running for the most bubbly fun!

Shelf Life & Storage

Because this bath parfait does’t contain any water it does 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 the powder dry to ensure it lasts as long as possible—don’t let any water get into the jar and it 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 300g.
• If you don’t have/don’t want to include a surfactant, leave it out and adjust the base to 66g baking soda and 33g citric acid. This will remove the foam and leave you with just fizz.
• You can feel free to choose different colours for your bath parfait, and to use more or less mica to get the desired level of pigmentation
• You can also use different pretty salts, depending on what you’ve got access to
• Scent it as you please!