Making homemade bath tub paint is easier than you might think and gives you the flexibility to control the color and ingredients. This Kids Bathtub Paint Recipe is the greatest thing since… your kids first discovered how much they love amazing, messy, regular paint! Toddlers and preschoolers will love painting their own masterpieces at bath time and you will love how easily it cleans up.
Painting in the Tub
My preschool kids love to paint and I don’t love to clean up the mess. What if you could combine painting with cleaning the bathtub?
Wouldn’t that be awesome?
Yes! And we loved this activity so much that we included it in our best-selling first book, 101 Kids Activities that are the Bestest, Funnest Ever! This DIY bathtub paint is washable, does not stain, and will help you clean your tub. So sit near the bathroom with a good book and let your kids have a blast!
Note: Test the paint on a patch of your tub to ensure that your food coloring does not stain – and have fun! <–We have never had a problem, but don’t want you to be sad!
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Related: Make your own DIY bath crayons with this simple bathtub coloring idea and 22 Easy & Awesome Balloon Painting Ideas for Kids
Ingredients Needed To Make Bathtub Paint
- 1 Cup of Dish Detergent or liquid soap*
- 1/2 Cup of Cornstarch
- 1/2 Cup of boiling water
- Food Coloring (liquid kind is best)
*I use antibacterial scented hand soap when making this recipe with liquid soap. Whatever you use, know your kids will coat themselves with it – so be sure to pick something you know they don’t have a reaction to.
Directions to make bathtub paint
Step 1
In a saucepan, mix the cornstarch into the hot water until it is dissolved and the consistency is pasty.
Step 2
Add the soap and mix until there are no chunks.
Step 3
Heat on medium until just boiling. The soap should have a gel-like consistency as it cools.
Step 4
Pour your mixture into individual containers. Add food coloring. Put the lid on to store your bathtub paint.
Related: Things to make with soap
Storing Homemade Bathtub Finger Paint
The paint may separate slightly when stored, so be sure to stir before use.
Finished Homemade Bath Paint
Now that you have homemade bath paint let your little one create as much washable art as they’d like! Make rainbows, draw portraits, leave handprints, the bathtub is your canvas!
Kids Easy Bathtub Paint Recipe
Can you paint a bathtub? Yes, you can with this bathtub paint! You can make it thick and use it as bathtub finger paint, or you can dilute it and use it with paintbrushes.
What other items can you use to paint your bathtub? You can use items like:
Related: We have a really fun shaving cream-based bathtub paint idea – homemade bath paint shaving cream! <–Yay!
Homemade Bathtub Paint for Kids
Kids are going to love this homemade bathtub paint.
Materials
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 1 cup dishwashing soap or hand soap
- Food colors
Tools
- Saucepan
- Spatula
- Airtight containers
Instructions
- Pour the water into a saucepan on medium heat.
- Once the water is hot, add the cornstarch and stir completely.
- Add the dishwashing liquid and continue stirring.
- Once it's just boiling, remove it from the heat.
- Pour the mixture into individual containers.
- Add food color to each container and stir completely.
101 Kids Activities That Are the Bestest, Funnest Ever!
What Our Book is About: One-of-a-kind activities range from making edible play dough and homemade sidewalk chalk to playing shoebox pinball and creating a balance beam obstacle course. And with outdoor and indoor activities and tips for adjusting according to your child’s age, this book will provide hours and hours of never-ending fun with your family.
This parenting life raft is also the perfect way to make sure caregivers are spending quality time with your little ones.
More Bathtub Fun from Kids Activities Blog
- Check out our bubbles and bathtub coloring page for a lot of out of the bath fun!
- Make your bath more fun because it is organized…all those toys! Check out the Baby Shark bath toy holder.
- Make our own bath fizzies…how fun!!
- Try this simple floating science activity as one of your fun bath activities!
- We love this glowing bathtub idea for a special bath time experience.
- Let’s make homemade lemon bath salts or these bubble gum bath salts…fun for home or to give as a gift!
- Check out this fun way to make waves in the design of a kids bathroom.
- We have some fun bath games kids love to play.
- Make your copycat Crayola Bath paint recipe.
- How to organize a bathroom!
How did your bathtub paint turn out? Did your kids love painting in the tub at bath time?
Magnificent site. Plenty of useful information here. I’m
sending it to some buddies ans also sharing in delicious.
And naturally, thank you on your sweat!
Found this through pinterest! I am interested in making this for my nephews for Christmas, but I have a question. Will the food coloring stain their skin? Is there another alternative if the food coloring stains or did you find it washed right off of their skin?
I was looking for the information, keep it up.
We’ve been making bathtub paint for years and use a similar recipe but a much lazier way. 🙂 All I do is mix up little cups of mild shampoo, a few drops of food coloring and a spoon full of corn starch. I don’t cook it or add water or anything. They paint on the walls and then wash it all off. It’s easy frugal fun!
We are definitely going to try this one- we have bathtub markers but they are running out! She loves painting in there though- so this will save the day!
My kids are going to love this! I think I will use baby soap in stead of regular soap. Thanks!
.-= Lisa´s last blog ..Thankful Thursday =-.
found you through another site, but I have a question:
you said you used hand soap to make it, did you use that INSTEAD of the detergent?
dish detergent sounds like the powder…and the instructions say that as well. So I guess I’m confused because of your handsoap comment. :/
Thanks for clarifying. (email addy is with my comment)
Bree, I used the hand soap in place of the detergent – it smells better. Dish detergent works just as well. My kids tend to break out easily so I wanted something more gentle for them.