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I love LUSH and all of their bubble bars. Once I learned how to recreate my favorite bubble bar, I wanted to try to DIY other bubble bars as well. I love rainbows (who doesn’t?!) so I decided to make a Rainbow Bubble Bar and it was amazing. Check out my Rainbow Bubble Bar DIY!
Materials to create DIY Rainbow Bubble Bars
- 1c. SLSA
- 1c. baking soda
- 1/3c. corn starch
- 1/3c. cream of tartar
- 1/3c. glycerine
- 1 tbsp. almond oil
- 1 tbsp. water
- essential oil
- food coloring (I used two sets of coloring to get all rainbow colors; 1&2)
- disco dust (optional)
- parchment paper
- rolling pin
- mixing bowls
- sift/strainer
- gloves
- surgical mask
- large knife
DIY Rainbow Bubble Bar Recipe
Combine dry ingredients
Put on your surgical mask and sift all of your dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. The SLSA is a very fine powder that will billow up into the air; you definitely don’t want to breathe it in so take care to wear a mask or cover your face. Gently mix all of the dry ingredients together to combine.
Combine wet and dry ingredients
Combine the glycerine, water, almond oil (or any body safe oil), and the essential oils together. I chose bergamot essential oil because it’s one of my favorite scents — you can use whatever essential oils you want just make sure to add a decent amount. I used a lot in this bubble bar batch and it smells amazing. You want to add enough essential oils that the scent hits you in the face just like walking into a LUSH store. ❤ Combine the wet and dry ingredients together and mix thoroughly into your bubble bar dough.
Divide bubble bar dough + add food coloring
Put on your gloves and section out your bubble bar dough into as many colors of food coloring you will be using. I used eight colors to make my rainbow bubble bars so I sectioned my dough into eight different pyrex bowls. Because food coloring can stain your work surface, be sure to put down parchment paper or other protective covering. A few things to keep in mind during this step:
- the outside layers of your rainbow bubble bar will need more dough than the inner layers in order to cover a larger area, so be sure to divide your dough accordingly, and
- work quickly to incorporate each color into the dough because it will start to harden as it sets. Don’t worry though, if the dough starts to harden just sprinkle a few drops of water onto the dough to make it pliable again.
I kept switching gloves with each color I used in order to avoid mixing any two colors together. Once you have your bubble bar colors all incorporated, you’re ready to layer them together to make your rainbow bubble bars.
Layer colors to make your rainbow bubble bar
I wanted to make my bubble bar like an actual rainbow, so instead of layering the colors and rolling it into a log for a “swirl” design like my original DIY Bubble Bar post, I carefully layered each color over one another in an arch shape.
Start with the innermost color of your rainbow and make a little mound shape. I used purple for the center of my rainbow and just shaped it with my hands to the desired shape and thickness. Remember, you’ll want to make sure you have more dough for the outermost layer of your rainbow since it’ll need to be large enough to cover the entire bubble bar.
On your parchment paper, roll out the next color layer until it is the correct length needed to cover the arch. If your dough is too hard, just add a drop or two of water. If your dough is too wet, add a tiny sprinkling of baking soda. Depending on how much food coloring you used, the different colors may have different consistencies.
My bubble bar looked a little like a play-doh rainbow at this stage, but that’s perfectly fine. You just need to get your colors layered so that when you cut into it, it’ll be crisp and pretty!
Continue to roll out and layer each color of your rainbow onto the previous layer until you’ve added all of the colors. This bubble bar should be big, not like the little cutesy bubble bars I made last time. This is a mega bubble bar.❤ I love it! And it’s so pretty.
Take a piece of parchment paper and cover over the rainbow bubble bar — gently, but firmly press to ensure each color is joined with each other.
Slice bubble bar + set aside to harden
I cut my bubble bar in half but you could cut it into multiple slices if you’d like. It would be so cute to cut it into thinner slices and give them to friends or family. I prefer having two mega size bubble bars so that it’s more like an actual bubble bar from LUSH.
See how a half of my rainbow bubble bar compares to the size of some of the LUSH bubble bars:
Once you’ve sliced your rainbow bubble bar into the size you want, set it aside to harden. Mine was hard and ready to use in 24 hours, but your bubble bar may need longer depending on the climate in your area. I suggest waiting about three days just to be for sure that it’s not still soft in the middle.
Once my rainbow bubble bar had hardened, I added some disco dust to get that extra special rainbow effect!
Rainbow Bubble Bar Demo
I love how pretty this rainbow bubble bar turned out. ❤ Check out this demo and the bubbles I got using just a small piece:
I hope you enjoyed this DIY; I had so much fun making it. If you make your own Rainbow Bubble Bars, tag me on instagram. I’d love to see them ❤
