COVER STORY .

Dropping The Bomb

Bath Bombs by Sarah Powell


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Published: Dec 2, 2009

By: Neal Santos

If Sarah Powell were anyone else, she'd likely look spent. She works full-time as a medical anthropologist at Temple, has a 3-year-old daughter and manages her business, Lilith's Apothecary. Lucky for her pores, the Apothecary specializes in herbal bath and skin-care products. "Western medicine is critical for acute care, but hopeless for chronic conditions and prevention," says Powell. Despite her hectic schedule, Powell's skin, naturally, is glowing.

The naturalist describes her bath bombs as "little snowballs on a bed of lavender." When tossed into a hot bath, they fizz, moisturize and release the calming smell of the pale purple flower. Like most of Powell's products, they are all-natural. The lazy can pick them up for $3 a pop at Cornerstone Market (19 W. Girard Ave., 215-634-4800, cornerstone-market.com), Affordable Skin Care (537 E. Girard Ave., 215-203-0995, affordableskincaresalon.com) or lilithsapothecary.com.

1 In a bowl, whisk together 1 cup of baking soda, 1/2 cup of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of citric acid. (The citric acid adds the "fizz.")

2 In a separate bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of almond oil, 1 tablespoon of water and 1/4 tablespoon of lavender oil. (Another oil — like tea tree oil — can be subbed for the lavender, but it's important to use only a naturally extracted essential oil and not an artificially manufactured fragrance one.)

3 Here's the tricky part: Pour a very thin stream of the liquid mixture into the baking soda mixture while whisking constantly. Dumping the liquid in willy-nilly will ruin the bath bomb — you should hear a faint fizzing while mixing. If it bubbles up quite a bit, you might want to start again.

4 Spoon the snow-like mixture into a plastic mold for forming spheres or half-spheres (you can purchase one at fromnaturewithlove.com or snowdriftfarm.com), and pack it in as densely as possible. You can optionally sprinkle some actual lavender — or another herb — into the mold before adding the mixture.

5 Remove from mold and let dry for 24 hours.

6 Place in a pretty container. Everything's better in a pretty container.

(lauren.friedman@citypaper.net)