While homemade bubble bath sounds wonderful in theory, the fact is, making a DIY natural bubble bath just isn’t that easy! In fact, an easy, homemade bubble bath just doesn’t exist- sorry!
Why Eliminate Traditional Bubble Bath
Like many products, a bubble bath contains harmful, seemingly unnecessary ingredients.
When checking bubble bath into the EWG app, most brands were coming back as high risk. Even “natural” brands. This is because so many companies add fragrance” to their products.
The fragrance comes with a host of health risks as fragrance can be anything.
Companies don’t have to declare what ingredients their formulas are made of. This is by far not something I am comfortable with having my daughters soak in.
Is it safe to use dish soap as a bubble bath?
For a traditional bubble bath, you need a foaming agent. So, yes dish soap can be used. However, it needs to be mixed with something to make the bubbles last.
Likewise, you’d want to use more natural dish soap if it’s going to be used on your skin. And some natural brands may not work as well as the traditional ones.
Can I Use Body Wash As Bubble Bath?
Body wash doesn’t tend to work as well for a bubble bath.
This is because most body washes are made to create a lather and not actual bubbles. Again, if mixed with something else it may. However, it also may get pricy if you’re purchasing natural brands of body wash.
Why Is Homemade Bubble Bath Ineffective?
All of the DIY bubble bath recipes I tried failed for one of the following reasons:
- No bubbles appeared once poured
- The bubbles were too small (more like foam)
- The bubbles dissipated within moments
You can read more below about the specific issues with the two most common recipes.
Homemade Bubble Bath With Egg Whites
To be honest, this particular recipe freaked me out the first time I read it. I mean, who wants to bathe with egg whites? Umm yuck. But the internet world assured me that it would work splendidly. The recipe is pretty much just:
- Egg whites
- Castille soap
- Oils
Egg whites are what was supposed to help the bubbles to be larger and not disappear too quickly.
The internet was wrong.
And on top of it just not working was the fact that it was just gross.
This recipe did produce bubbles for a brief period of time. And then it produced slimy chunks. It turned the water white and somewhat sticky.
So basically, my daughter bathed in the egg whites for the next twenty minutes which left her hair the next day sticky and weird.
It was lovely.
Okay it wasn't, honestly it was just gross and I'll never forget the creepy feeling of the bath water.
The Glycerin Recipe
So after the disaster that was the egg white "bubble" bath, I obviously switched gears towards the glycerin approach. This recipe goes something like this:
- Castille soap
- Vegetable glycerin
- Essential oils
The glycerin should keep the bubbles intact.
This recipe wasn't as horrific as the last one but it still sucked.
It does produce some bubble when you pour it in (though you need to use about a cup of mixture!) but the bubbles last less than two minutes. After which the water turned a gorgeous diluted milk color.
Ever the optimist, I tried the glycerine style recipe again. I tweaked the ratios, added almond oil, and tried literally everything I could think of.
It. All. Sucked.
What To Use Instead
In my opinion, if you really want to make a homemade, natural bubble bath you’d need to use surfactants. Similar to a homemade shampoo bar.
Even then I think that it would be a tricky combination.
Likewise, soaking in surfactants could also pose problems like drying out the skin which would defeat the purpose.
This means that from a cost-effective, easy, and sanity-preserving perspective, it may be best to purchase a natural bubble bath. Below are a few I’ve tried that seems to work alright. All of them rate low on the EWG app as well.
- Clean Kids Naturally Wild Bubble Bath
- Attitude Bubble Bath (Anything from the attitude brand will be approved)
- Carina organics Bubble bath
Need more natural products? Check out the full list of safe products I use.
Note: you can also purchase these bubble baths on Amazon (check them out here) but I found the price difference to be slightly insane.
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Don't forget to pin this homemade bubble bath fail!
While I love making homemade products for my family. I'll be the first to admit it's not always possible or practical. Thus, bubble bath is one of those things that are better off purchased.
After all, no toddler should have to go without a foam fun bubble bath at the end of the day!
Jessica says
I make my own bubble bath with surfactants that are natural and produce lots of bubbles. If you know what you are doing it’s not difficult at all. I’m a formulator so it may be why I can make it with no problem.
fitasamamabear says
Haha I'm sure with the right experience it works but hot damn mine were so bad lol
Robert says
I did make homemade bubble bath -- a very mild yet very foamy one. Of course being a biochemist, I used real bubble bath ingredients: sulfosuccinate esters and alkamidopropyl betaines. Friends encouraged me to commercialize on it, which failed, but you can read about my attempt at my Web site (linked here).
Yes, soap does fairly well suck as a bubble bath base. It'll make suds in soft water (or you can use a TON to soften hard water), but only by getting the water as soapy as laundry water. Or you can force your breath thru a soapy washcloth to make heaps of suds instead of making the bath water itself soapy, and as a bonus you get a soapy washcloth you can actually wash with.
fitasamamabear says
Haha I think you have an advantage over me being a biochemist and all! I had wondered if soap berries would have been better but haven't played with them that way...
Robert says
I know of people who've tried making a bubble bath from saponins -- soap berries, soapwort, quillaja, soapbark -- and found they had to use a lot of material to make it work in a large volume of water. I know historically it was done with a jetted tub. It might be possible with rosin too. Bile salts are also somewhat foamy but unpleasant and don't hold the bubbles long without aeration.
But I'm not the only amateur doing this sort of thing. Look at the ingredients of real bubble baths, decide which ones are to your liking, and experiment with them. Some of them may be hard to obtain in hobbyist amounts, but some of them aren't. Check out swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com (Susan Barclay) or itsallinmyhands.com for tips on materials and formulation.
fitasamamabear says
There are definitely a couple of good recipes out there! I've tried a few since this and some bubbles can be made (I think it used cornstarch) but if I'm being honest it was so much work for such a little amount it never ended up worth it. I have soap berries though and didn't think to try with them, that's a great tip!
Robert says
It's been a year, did you eventually try the soap berries? My hunch based on what I can gather from others is that unless you used a jetted or air-infused tub, you'd have to use more to make suds than you would for cleaning, and therefore that the knock on them for bubble bath would be the same as for soap in soft water: low ratio of suds to grease cutting. Sort of like using controlled-suds detergent as bubble bath. But that was just a hunch, and I'd like to know your experience.
My understanding is that although the American Indians, among others, did use saponins obtained from plant roots as detergents, they couldn't just lather them in their hands but had to rub them on a washcloth. The use of saponins in aerated tubs (for some kind of therapeutic baths) was like a hundred years ago, i.e. before Dreft and the like.
fitasamamabear says
I didn't try them as a bubble bath but have tried them for laundry which I don't mind. Honestly, I found that bubble bath wise it was far too much effort in terms of reward haha much easier to just buy a semi-natural brand. Interesting on having to rub them on the washcloth, perhaps it's the texture? Thank you millions for dropping by again and checking in!
Robert Goodman says
To answer your question, cloth does two things in that use: (1) Helps macerate the tissue of the saponin-containing roots or berries; (2) provides a lot of little loops on which bubbles can form when air goes thru them. Check out writeups and pictures of the hamam (Turkish bath) as a way of making a bubble bath from soap, forcing air thru a soapy cloth over a wet client who isn't soaking in a tubful but lying on a flat surface. You can do the same on a smaller scale in shower or tub with a washcloth pressed tightly around your mouth so no air can escape except thru it when you exhale; look up "soap snake" to see homemade children's toy apparatus for doing the same thing without getting sore skin around your mouth from pressing soap there.
Also, don't downrate compositions or procedures that result in what you call "bubbles...too small (more like foam)", since in my experience a tiny-bubble foam is exactly what kids prefer to play with. Adults may prefer a bath with lacey, piled-high, large-bubble fragile suds, but children if they had a choice would like to play with wet, resilient soap-like lather if they could get it in greater amounts than they could make themselves by rubbing a bar of soap, even if it didn't approach the volume that would cover the tub with a tall bubble layer. That dense lather is exactly what they get from the play foams shot from pressurized cans, but those are expensive for the volume of foam they deliver.
fitasamamabear says
That's true, kids do like the mini bubbles. When I think of bubbles I think of large, soapy ones. The two ways I tried it though were truly terrible lol.
Kyla @ A Life Adjacent says
Ugh, I'm one of those people who get headaches and a stuffy nose from fragrances too. And they're in practically everything. Carina Organics has such wonderful products, so I'm glad to hear they carry a nontoxic bubble bath too!
fitasamamabear says
I get headaches now too! Once you remove fragrances it KILLS you when you're around them. And the least relaxing thing would be a headache inducing bath lol
Alice | Letters to my Daughter says
Thanks for trying it so we don't have to! The egg white one sounds minging! And congratulations because someone loved this post so much, they added it to the #BlogCrush linky! Feel free to collect your "I've been featured" blog badge 🙂
fitasamamabear says
Haha oh god the egg whites! I don't think I'll ever forget the grossness and my daughter WOULD NOT let me drain the bath lol yuck
Anna says
I've been meaning to look into homemade bubble bath.... Thanks for saving me the time and headache ?. I think I'll look into the ones you suggested instead ❤
fitasamamabear says
Haha no problem! It was uh, quite the trial 😉
Rin says
Thanks for telling the truth instead of throwing up recipes you've either never tried or you tried but don’t care that they don’t work, because you can still make money off posting about it! And thank you for jumping in the egg white grenade for us!
fitasamamabear says
Thanks for this comment! It really means a lot. I tried SO HARD to make it work haha what a mess 😛 Oh god, I still have egg white flashbacks.. so gross lol
linda spiker says
I have never tried making my own. Very good to know! You saved me some time:)
fitasamamabear says
Haha I saved you a crazy egg white bath!
Melissa @Real Nutritious Living says
This is so true and mama's know, their baby's need bubbles! Thanks Shelby!
fitasamamabear says
I truly thought I could figure it out but for the love of god store bought is easier lol
The Food Hunter says
I'm good...I'm a shower girl all the way! 🙂
fitasamamabear says
Perfect! I like baths every so often but with two kids it just ends up annoying as one tried to climb in 😛
Daniela says
my kids will love this as they're always asking for bubbles!
fitasamamabear says
It was quite the adventure!
Raia Todd says
Haha. Well, thanks for trying so I don't have to!
fitasamamabear says
Anytime 😀