Introduction to Making Bath Powders
- taralee
- Jul 31
- 6 min read
Disclaimer; I recommend wearing a Respirator and Safety Goggles when working with powders
Did you take Oatmeal Baths as a kid?
My brothers and I would get poison ivy all the time! So I have many memories of my mom giving us Oatmeal Baths to help soothe the itch. I even had poison ivy in my eye once.
We would get rashes from random things, my moms solution, Oatmeal Bath. I sweat it was her solution to any skin irritation, but I haven’t taken an oatmeal bath since I was a kid.
So I wanna talk about how you can make your own Bath Powder, Milk Bath or Oatmeal Bath, at home. Or maybe, an Oatmeal Milk Bath Combo!!!
First off, let’s get the Oatmeal Bath out of the way because it’s the easiest to make.
DIY Oatmeal Bath
The best Oats for an Oatmeal Bath is Uncooked Colloidal Oats. You want fine ground colloidal oats that dissolve in water. So you could use your own store bought colloidal oats from the store and grind them using a Coffee Grinder but if you are selling an oatmeal bath. I recommend purchasing some Colloidal Oatmeal from a Cosmetic Ingredients Supplier to use.
Literally all you need to do is add the Colloidal Oats to a bath, wait for them to dissolve and sit back and enjoy. You want to use about 1-2 cups of Colloidal Oats for your bath.
Don’t worry, I’ll share a more fun Oatmeal bath recipe later in this post. But first I want to introduce to you the key ingredient we will be using for out Bath Powders.
Colloidal Oatmeal Skin Benefits - Helps soothe dry irritated or itchy skin.
Natrasorb Bath Starch (INCI: Tapioca Starch)
According to WholesaleSuppliesPlus.com Natrasorb Bath Starch is “a specially modified tapioca starch made to absorb many times its weight in oils and water. It was formulated specifically for cosmetics and personal care. This starch was made with unique "pockets" that carry the oils essentially in a solid, powdered form.”
Remember, this is a specifically modified Tapioca Starch. Not all Tapioca Starches perform the same as Natrasorb. So you can’t use just an Tapioca Starch. There is another Tapioca Starch I see being sold on WholesaleSuppliesPlus.com called Tapioca Starch Modified. It does seem to act similar to Natrasorb bath starch, as it can hold many times it’s own weight in oil and then dissolves in water and disperses the oil, but they are different ingredients. So if you don’t have Natrasorb Bath Starch you can try using Tapioca Starch Modified instead.
You don’t need to use Natrasorb Bath Starch in your bath powders, but if you want to add in some fragrance, essential oils, or even some jojoba oil, sunflower oil, or whatever oil you desire, then you need to add in Natrasorb Bath Starch. This will help evenly disperse the oils and fragrance in the bath.
Benefits - Holds many times it’s weight in oil and helps disperse fragrance, essential oil, or carrier oil in your bath. It’s natural and gives the water a soft feel.
How to use - Mix together your oil and Natrasorb Bath Starch first before adding into the other powders.
Powder Milks
There are so many different types of milk powders you can add into your bath powders. These are great for marketing, just keep in mind who your target audience is if you are selling. Some people may prefer a vegan milk bath over an animal milk bath, even if they aren’t vegan. There is a growing trend of people wanting vegan cosmetics even if they don’t eat vegan.
Here is a list of different milk powders you can use in your bath powder. They all claim to have similar skin benefits. Some claim to have more benefits than others. Click on each milk powder below to read about their claims.
Other Powders
This is the category you get to be super creative with because there is a never ending list of different powders you could add to your bath powders. I will name a few popular ones.
Corn Starch - help soothe irritated skin.
Cream of Tartar - help make bath water feel more luxurious as it helps soften water.
Citric Acid - helps soften water and when combine with baking soda makes a fizzing effect in bath water.
Baking Soda - helps soothe irritated skin.
Honey powder - moisturizing & soothing
Powder Surfactants
When it comes to choosing a surfactant you want to look for two things. It needs to be a powder and it needs to be a more coarse powder. Not too coarse that it won’t dissolve in water easily, but not too light that is goes airborne super easily. The Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate Powder (SCI) I have is way to fine of a powder to add into a milk bath, but my Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSA) is coarse, so it does’t flow in the air as easily. So overall any powdered surfactant can work, you just don’t want it to flow all in the air when you go to use your bath powder.
Salts
Salt baths can help soothe muscles and inflammation, relieve stress, soothe skin, & promote healing. There are a bunch of different salts to choose from, but I would say the most common is Epsom Salts.
Dried Herbs & Botanicals
This category of ingredients you really need to be careful with. If you put a whole bunch of tiny dried up herbs in a bath powder, think about how hard that is going to be for your customer to clean up. So for that reason I don’t recommend adding in a bunch of dried herbs, unless they are big enough to easily remove from the bath after. Obviously if you are just making this for yourself, you can do whatever you want, but if you are selling you need to keep in mind, the clean up. If you are wanting to add in a bunch of herbs for actual skin benefits then I would suggest adding those into a tea bag or some sort of mesh bag so the herbs won’t be floating all around the tub.
Have fund with adding in any dried herbs or botanicals, just keep in mind, the clean up!
Oils
This category of ingredients I’ve already talked about, but I’ll mention again. You can add in a fragrance oil, essential oil, or carrier oils. Just mix them with Natrasorb Bath Starch or Tapioca Starch Modified first before adding in the rest of the ingredients.
This formula is extremely similar to the Caprabella Foaming Milk Bath recipe by lotioncrafter.com except I changed the goats milk powder to coconut milk powder and I changed the percentages a bit.
Phase A
Phase B
4% Fragrance (I used Eucalyptus Essential Oil)
Directions;
While wearing a Respirator, combine all ingredients in phase A. It’s recommended to use a Seive to sift each ingredient. I recommend using a large container your Seive can fit snug in. Sift each ingredient as you add it into your container.
In a separate container combine both ingredients in phase B and mix well.
Place the Seive back on your container and add in phase B.
Mix everything together and pack into desired container.
Soothing Oatmeal Bath
Phase A
Phase B
13% Jojoba Oil
Directions;
While wearing a Respirator, combine all ingredients in phase A. It’s recommended to use a Seive to sift each ingredient. I recommend using a large container your Seive can fit snug in. Sift each ingredient as you add it into your container.
In a separate container combine both ingredients in phase B and mix well.
Place the Seive back on your container and add in phase B.
Mix everything together and pack into desired container.
Fizzy Strawberry Milk Bath
Phase A
Phase B
2% Whipped Strawberry and Cream Fragrance oil
Phase C
Directions;
While wearing a Respirator, combine all ingredients in phase A. It’s recommended to use a Seive to sift each ingredient. I recommend using a large container your Seive can fit snug in. Sift each ingredient as you add it into your container.
In a separate container combine both ingredients in phase B and mix well.
In another container combine the ingredients in phase C. Use as much mica as you would like and adjust the formula adding that percentage in. So if you use 1% mica subtract from the baking soda percentage.
Pour phase C into phase B and mix. The Poly 80 and mica did clump up, so try your best to break it up with gloved hands.
Place the Seive back on your container and add in phase B/C.
Mix everything together and pack into desired container.
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