A fun carnival inspired craft idea, these DIY Cotton Candy Bath Bombs smell just like the real thing, transforming your bathroom into a candy wonderland! They would be perfect for a birthday party “goodie gift” or a fun rainy day project with tweens.

A fun homemade bath bomb recipe perfect for homemade goodie bags, this Cotton Candy Bath Bomb makes your bathroom smell like Willy Wonka's candy factory!

DIY Cotton Candy Bath Bombs

If you’ve been around Sugar, Spice and Glitter before you know that after the $13 bath bomb incident (when I agreed to a bath bomb without checking it’s price), I’ve been pretty committed to making DIY Bath Bombs at home.

While it can be tricky to get the consistency perfect at first, once you get a good sense of what the texture of the bath bomb materials should look and feel like at the various stages of preparing, you’ll be making DIY bath bombs whenever the opportunity arises!

I love being able to make fun, themed bath bombs with my daughter for any occasion – and also, I feel better knowing that while I’m saving money, I’m also confident in what is going in those bath bombs. Since you literally soak in the dissolved bath bomb, you want to feel confident in the ingredients:

Citric Acid is a food additive that can be used in DIY cleaners, canning food, or in making your own beer
Baking Soda is great for cleaning and balancing skin pH
Coconut Oil is moisturizing and anti-fungal
Essential Oils have great anti-fungal properties and are credited with helping stabilize moods

The trickiest part about this recipe was figuring out how to make a cotton candy scent. While there are are flavor candy oils you can buy (like this one), I wanted to figure out a mixture of essential oils that achieved the same scent for readers who prefer to skip artificial scents/add-ins.

By combining a mixture of grapefruit essential oil, ylang-ylang essential oil, and eucalyptus essential oil, we achieve a scent that is uncannily similar to cotton candy!

Can you use food sprinkles in bath bombs? This question (or people calling me names for using them) happens on nearly every bath bomb post were we use a decorative element found in the baking aisle. The amount of sprinkles in a bath bomb is not going to cause any issues with either altering your skin’s pH balance or dying your skin/bathtub rainbow colors. They add a few fun pops of color while the bath bomb is fizzing, but nothing else.

This bath bomb will still be a hit if you choose to skip the sprinkles, or swap them out for some dried flower petals or bath pearls (like with our Little Mermaid bath bomb).

Check out our quick video to see how easy it is to make these Cotton Candy Bath Bombs – and then don’t forget to scroll down to grab your free printable recipe card:

Cotton Candy Bath Bomb Ingredients

Citric acid
Corn starch
Baking soda
SLSA (Sodium Laurel Sulfoacetate), optional
Cream of Tartar
Water – helps bind the bath bomb
Coconut oil – reduces the amount of water needed to bind the bath bomb. Any quality/edible oil can substitute
Essential oils or Cotton Candy Soap Scent
Light Blue Mica Coloring or Soap Coloring
Rubbing Alcohol
Rainbow nonpareils or sprinkles

Scroll down to the printable recipe card for full measurements.

Tip: if trying to source all of your materials locally, you can pick up citric acid in bulk at home brewery suppliers.

Tools You May Find Helpful

Stainless steel bath bomb molds
Spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol
1 large mixing bowl
Whisk
Spray bottle of rubbing alcohol

How to Make Cotton Candy Bath Bombs

Steps 1-4: Add dry ingredients to a large bowl.

Step 5: Sift or whisk dry ingredients.

Step 6: Add mica powder

Step 7: Using your hands, break down any lumps in the dry mixture while incorporating the mica into the dry ingredients.

Step 8: Add lavender essential oil

Steps 9-10: In a small microwave safe bowl, melt coconut oil in microwave for 25-30 seconds. Add cotton candy scent to oil.

Step 11: Add liquid to dry mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time.

Step 12: Whisk liquid or use your hands to incorporate into dry mixture.

Step 13: If mixture is still too dry, spray rubbing alcohol a bit at a time and incorporate into dry mixture using your hands.

Step 14: You will know when the mixture is perfect when it feels like wet sand and you can press the mixture together in your hands and it stays together. **Please note** You may need to use your spray bottle of rubbing alcohol to spritz your mixture if it gets too dry as you are adding it to your mold. Give a few spritzes and mix together until it has that wet sand feel again.

Step 15: If you like, add a bit of sprinkles to the bath bomb mixture. Totally optional.

Step 16: Add a bit of sprinkles to bath bomb.

Step 17: Add bath bomb mixture into both sides of mold. Be sure to overfill on each side.

Step 18: Firmly press molds together. Gently tap top and sides of mold and release bath bomb. Allow to dry overnight.

Pin this Sprinkle Cotton Candy Bath Bomb craft:

How cute are these Sprinkle Bath Bombs?! They smell just like cotton candy and can be made two different ways, both resulting in a delicious candy-scented bath bomb!

Grab your free printable instructions for our easy sprinkle bath bombs recipe:

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Yield: 6-8 large bath bombs

Cotton Candy Bath Bombs

Prep Time 20 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Difficulty Medium

Estimated Cost $5

Materials

Using cotton candy flavoring oil or cotton candy soap scent:

1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup citric acid
1/2 cup SLSA (Sodium Laurel Sulfoacetate), optional
1/4 cup cream of tartar
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 tablespoons rubbing alcohol
10-20 drops lavender essential oil (optional)
Cotton candy soap scent
Light blue mica powder
Rainbow nonpareils or sprinkles

Using essential oils only:

1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup citric acid
1/2 cup SLSA (Sodium Laurel Sulfoacetate), optional (helps the bath bomb bond easier)
1/4 cup cream of tartar
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 tablespoons rubbing alcohol
10-20 drops lavender essential oil (optional)
12 drops grapefruit essential oil
6 drops ylang-ylang essential oil
3 drops eucalyptus essential oil
Light blue mica powder
Rainbow nonpareils or sprinkles

Tools

Bath bomb molds
Spray bottle of rubbing alcohol
Mixing bowl
Whisk
Measuring cups and spoons

Instructions

Add dry ingredients to a large bowl.
Sift or whisk dry ingredients.
Add mica powder
Using your hands, break down any lumps in the dry mixture while incorporating the mica into the dry ingredients.
Add lavender essential oil
In a small microwave safe bowl, melt coconut oil in microwave for 25-30 seconds. Add cotton candy scent to oil.
Add liquid to dry mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Whisk liquid or use your hands to incorporate into dry mixture.
If mixture is still too dry, spray rubbing alcohol a bit at a time and incorporate into dry mixture using your hands.
You will know when the mixture is perfect when it feels like wet sand and you can press the mixture together in your hands and it stays together. **Please note** You may need to use your spray bottle of rubbing alcohol to spritz your mixture if it gets too dry as you are adding it to your mold. Give a few spritzes and mix together until it has that wet sand feel again.
If you like, add a bit of sprinkles to the bath bomb mixture. Totally optional.
Add a bit of sprinkles to bath bomb.
Add bath bomb mixture into both sides of mold. Be sure to overfill on each side.
Firmly press molds together. Gently tap top and sides of mold and release bath bomb. Allow to dry overnight.

Recommended Products

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This candy inspired bath bomb recipe is such a fun DIY to make with the kids and it makes a great homemade gift!

For more fun DIY Beauty Ideas, check out our Caramel Apple Bath Bombs or our Copycat LUSH Jelly Soaps.

One Comment

Momnet says:

October 24, 2019 at 4:50 am

She has been carrying around a mini-briefcase ever since, so I thought it would be fun to make our own Niffler, inspired by the cute and mischievous creature who kept escaping from Newt Scamander’s briefcase.

Cotton Candy Bath Bombs (with Video)