Many parents are familiar with the fraught-but-periodically-necessary ritual that is bath time. It can be hard to convince my 4- and 2.5-year-old kids to engage with the tub, so I often resort to gimmicks to make it seem like more of a treat. (Sometimes, these ploys backfire. See: the gorgeous Japanese bath crayons that work a little too well for everyday use and had me scrubbing the sides of my tub with a little more elbow grease than usual.)
So naturally, when I was at a local pharmacy with my kids a few weeks ago and the girls spotted a large display of colorful oversized bath bombs, I didn’t think twice about getting them. They were cute and inexpensive, and I appreciated that the jumbo, individually-packaged bombs contained a small treasure (which turned out to be things like necklace charms) — something that I suspected would entice the kids into sitting down and letting me wash their hair or scrub food off their faces without screaming.
Turns out I was right. After we did one bomb-accompanied bath time, it was obvious that I’d need to be keeping more on hand for emergencies, tantrums and special occasions, so I hit the internet in search of the ones I’d purchased locally and happily found a treasure trove of them at Target.
The bath bombs in question were from Da Bomb, a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company that was founded in 2011 by two preteen sisters, ages 10 and 11 at the time, who loved using bath bombs but were disappointed when the bombs had dissolved, so they made sure to include a surprise in each one. Now, the sisters are in college and their wares can be found a host of major retailers.
Target offers the affordable tchochkes in a variety of sizes and themes, including ones aimed towards fans of franchises like Spiderman, Barbie and Hot Wheels. There are also some tropically-influenced options and small variety packs that are perfect for moms like myself who are interested in having a bulk stash on hand. Reviews vary, but most of the ones I scoped out on Target had at least 4 stars and glowing reviews numbering in the hundreds.
Take a look at what some reviewers had to say about these magical little orbs, or just scroll down to add several to your cart to keep in your bath time arsenal.
“I got this for Christmas and the fragrance was amazing. I could smell it in the hallway when I was running my bath. It made the bath yellow which looked like pee. But I loved it, the surprise is great, just wanting to figure out where to enter the code on the surprise inside.” — DT76
“This was in my daughter’s stocking and she loved it. I liked the smell, but not sure what the scent was. I did think that it would change color as it fizzed, but it was really just yellow. It has a colorful plastic heart in the middle which my daughter loved, and she was asking for more bath bombs the next day.” — Katie
“My kids love these & they smell good” — JessicaK