I have been looking for something soothing to put in my daughter’s bath to help with her extremely dry skin— besides olive oil (which makes her very slippery 😉 ). So in honor of Bubble Bath day we decided to whip up our own bubble bath.
If you don’t want to make your own bubble bath it is at least a good reason to enjoy a nice relaxing bath!
Please read note about this project at the bottom of the post.
Homemade Bubble Bath
3 oz glycerin
1 – 4 oz bar of castile soap
4 cups distilled water
skin safe 100% pure essential oil (we used about 10 drops of lavender)
The ingredients can all be found at a grocery store. The glycerin was in the pharmacy/health and beauty section near the band-aids. The essential oil was in the health food section. Make sure the essential oil is 100% pure and safe for the skin.
Grate or finely chop the bar of castile soap.
Make sure it is finely chopped, it will make it easier to dissolve in the water.
Mix the chopped soap, 3 ounces glycerin, and about 6 or more drops of essential oil into 4 cups distilled water. I didn’t have distilled water so I boiled four cups of water. I allowed the water to cool slightly. I think the warm water helped the soap to dissolve.
Pour the bubble bath into a container. We put some of it in this container my daughter found at Hobby Lobby. They are made for sand art. The bubble bath is now too thick for this container— but wouldn’t have made cute favors? They have loads of different shapes, even a rocket.
The verdict, no bubbles. We used about half a cup in the bath. It made a milky looking bath. As long as it helps my daughter’s skin and keeps her from complaining it is a success. But it is not a winner for bubbles.
HELP – Later in the day the bubble bath was a really thick mixture, like thick pudding. I re-made the bubble bath with distilled water to see if the hot water had changed the structure of the mixture — same results.
Does anybody know what I did wrong?
If you have a recipe for a moisturizing bubble bath for very sensitive skin please share in the comments!
I am off to drown my disappointment in a warm bath!
Another vote for Dr. Bronner’s liquid castile. You can get it at Good Earth, here in Utah County. It is wonderful stuff! I use it in all my bathroom soap dispensers and sometimes in my kids baths. It bubbles wonderfully and is so good for your skin.
We used Amway LOC and for the kids we would occasionally get a gallon jug of the high suds style. Worked great and our youngest son has eczema and I don’t think it ever g ave him a bit of trouble!
I didn’t read through all the comments but add oatmeal for dry skin. Very soothing. Also, castile soap isn’t bubbly….it isn’t like soap at all since it only breaks the bond between clean & dirty. (You can see I obviously have a PhD in physics & chemistry.) A little goes a long way & it makes the water milky like. We’ve been Dr. Bronner’s fans for years. So…if you’re looking for bubbles from castile soap…I’ve never had it happen. Jason’s & Auria Cacia makes some bath stuff that fizzes… :{ ..
Careful with the oatmeal if you do lots it can make the tub slick. I like to add some oats that have been whirled in the blender to make a flour. Sprinkle them to the water & swish. Lavender oil in the water is good too for skin issues.
I love using Suave Kids Free & Gentle Body Wash for my boys. It makes great bubbles in the bath and is very gentle on the skin – no dies, scents, or harsh soap. I even use it to wash their hair.
to get bubbles like your ‘typical’ bubble bath, you have to use SLS unfortunately. As far as i’ve experimented there’s really not any way around it…SLS is what makes everything lather up, like shampoo, bubble bath, hand soap, etc. Yucky, i know. Sorry!
Commenter Erin: I love it. Cloud Star Buddy Wash. Funny, but like you said, nice ingredients. Human baby wash with an ingredient list like that is at least twice as expensive!
I don’t know about the bubble bath, but if you use 1 part of the glycerin to 4-5 parts distilled water (tho i prefer aloe vera water & a bit of witch hazel) you’ll have a wonderful, if very liquid, dry skin spray or “lotion.” My skin was so dry last year & nothing worked until i found this.
I love Dr. Bronners. Its great for sensitive skin. My daughter had dermitites (sp) when she was little. the only thing that worked was give her a oatmeal bath and slather (i dont think that is a word!!) with Nivia Cream. she slept with socks on her hands and feet for years. She was a little blond and her scalp was black from the scabs that this condition caused. i had to use tar shampoo on her and scrape her head with a comb every time it got bad enough to see. Luckly, she has pretty much out-grown it, except a little on her fingers and toes. So, i guess i am saying by the time she is 35, like my daughter, it might go away!!!!!!!
We make something similar and use liquid castile soap. There are bubbles, but only for a monent. I think it’s just the nature of natural ‘soaps.’
I also give my kids a massage wtih grape seed oil after baths in the winter to help with dry skin. We all like it a lot.
I know what you mean. My daughter has very dry skin and on her arms,(since she was 2 or 3) she has small reddished scratchy bumps.The dr diagnosed it as a form of psoriasis.I have looked for many different bath soaps that will moisturize but nothing perfumey.I have not made my own bath soaps and such as of yet.
Coconut oil by itself works really well as a skin moisturizer. I have psoriasis and live in the midwest, and it’s been keeping me sane this winter. I found my big jar for about $7 near the olive oil in the health food section of a grocery store. It’s solid at 72 or less, but if you scoop out a little, it warms in your hands in a matter of seconds.
I have had great luck with homemade milk baths and oatmeal bath for my ds with skin issues (no milk alergies here!). I can dig up our recipes if you are interested.
Thanks for the recipe.
I have a recipe for homemade shampoo that calls for one spoon full of glycerin as a thickening agent, mixed with 2 cups of other liquids. I think it takes about a day to fully set up to shampoo consistency.
Thanks for telling me where to find it in the store, I was about 10 minutes away from ordering online.
Cindy, your tips have been such a blessing to me (In fact I tweet & post your links all the time) that I dropped what I was doing to check all my “sources”. What I found was what you did was right. I was going to reccomend Dr. Bonners but see it has already been reccomended. Definatly use the liquid, as I used the bar for laundry detergent and was dissapointed. I went to tipnut.com and found this recipe for liquid hand soap, bubbles there, you may be able to try this http://tipnut.com/homemade-liquid-soap/. Coconut Oil is a good one, look for me on twitter-ValerieNeal, and the next time Tropical Traditions offers a free jar of oil to review, I will make sure you get the tweet. I’ll keep looking, I need to pull out my soap e-books and check them, and if I find anything I will run right back over and let you know!!!!