Last year I made some bath bombs that contained both milk powder and a surfactant, and while I loved them, I found that any large amount of milk powder negatively impacted the structural integrity of the bath bombs. I wanted more milk, dangit, but the bath bomb format just wasn’t having it! So, I decided to stray from the solid format and move to a lovely powdery concoction so I could really get my bubbly milky bath time goodness on without any fits of frustration from trying to get a bath bomb that had far too much milk powder in it to be a bath bomb.

How to Make Foaming Coconut Bath Milk

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This powdery blend is crazy simple to make (the video is a single take), and the end product is wonderful. Add a few spoonfuls to your bath while the water runs and you’ll be rewarded with fluffy bubbles and silky, coconut-scented bath water that leaves your skin wonderfully smooth and happy.

 

How to Make Foaming Coconut Bath Milk

 

How to Make Foaming Coconut Bath Milk

We’re just using four simple ingredients. #1: fragrant coconut milk powder. You could use a different milk powder if you prefer, or a blend, but I love the coconut scent that powdered coconut milk brings to the concoction.

How to Make Foaming Coconut Bath Milk

#2: SLSa (Lathanol LAL/Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate)—this anionic surfactant brings the bubbles! It is a very fine powder that loves to float up into the air and make a beeline for your nostrils, so a dust mask is a MUST. Inhaling surfactant powder is unbelievably unpleasant as well as being not great for your lungs. WEAR YOUR DUST MASK.

How to Make Foaming Coconut Bath Milk

How to Make Foaming Coconut Bath Milk

#3: Cornstarch. This silky white powder contributes a beautiful silkiness to the bath water. Once upon a time I read that cornstarch in bath water can cause yeast infections, but when I looked into this more recently I couldn’t find anything to back this up—though I did find a study to the contrary. So, I think we’re safe.

#4: Colloidal oats. This simple powder of ultrafine oaty goodness helps soothe and protect skin. Booyah. An extra soothing bath? Sign me up!

And that’s it. Seriously. Simple, sudsy, soothing, coconut-scented bath time goodness awaits!

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Powdered Coconut Bath Milk

60g | 60% powdered coconut milk (USA / Canada)
20g | 20% Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSa) (USA / Canada)
10g | 10% corn starch
10g | 10% colloidal oatmeal (USA / Canada)

Put on your dust mask.

Weigh all four ingredients into a medium sized bowl. Stir to combine, breaking up clumps with the back of a spoon. That’s it!

I transferred mine to an 8oz paperboard jar from YellowBee, but any similar sized jar would work. To use, add a few spoonfuls to your bath while its still running and enjoy silky bathwater and fluffy bubbles!

Shelf Life & Storage

Because this bath milk does not 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 it dry to ensure it lasts as long as possible—don’t let any water get into the container 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 100g.
  • You can use a different type of starch, like arrowroot starch, instead of cornstarch
  • You can use a different type of milk powder (cow, goat) instead of coconut milk powder
  • If you don’t have colloidal oats you can replace them with more milk powder
  • You could use powdered Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI) (USA / Canada) instead of the SLSa. Use 15% SCI, and add the extra 5% to the milk powder.