# A harder bath bomb....



## Guest (Jan 22, 2009)

My bath bombs which are made with this recipe.....are rather soft..even after several days. Is there anything I can add to make them harder??



Ingredients
1 1/2 cups bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) 
1/2 cup citric acid, powder 
2 teaspoons sweet almond oil 
essential oils (or fragrance) 
food coloring 

1First you need to make the base mix, to do this sift together the bicarb soda& citric acid in a large dry bowl. 
2Transfer 1/2 cup AT A TIME to another dry bowl, to this add any dried flowers, glitter etc. 
3Set aside. 
4In a small bowl mix together 1/2 teaspoon AT A TIME of almond oil, 6- 8 drops of your chosen essential oil& 6 drops of food colouring. 
5Pour the oil mixture into the 1/2 cup of base mix& mix QUICKLY before it starts to fizz! 
6Combine with your fingertips until all colour is evenly distributed. 
7Wipe a little sweet almond oil inside your moulds. 
8Fill the moulds with the mixture, packing it in firmly. 
9Repeat this process with 1/2 a cup at a time, using different fragrance/colour blends if you wish. 
10Leave the bath bombs to set for 24- 36 hours. 
11When set lightly tap the mould & ease out gently.


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## Tabitha (Jan 22, 2009)

I thikn it takes a good 5-7 days to get a very dry/hard bath bomb. You may wantto cut back a bit on the liquid too, if you can & still form a ball.


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## heartsong (Jan 23, 2009)

*x*

hi there!

i had a friend who made the most AWESOME bath bombs!  he took a 4-5" dowel-the thick kind you use in the closet, i think about 1-1/2" diameter.

he then took a 3" piece of pvc pipe that the dowel would just slide into.

he would place wax paper ontop of a marble cheese-cutting slab, put the tube upright on the slab, fill 1/3 the way with bath bomb recipe, tap the dowel down firmly with a hammer, repeat until it was the thickness he wanted, then used the dowel to push the bath tablet onto a lined baking sheet.  

after he made his tablets, he would put them in a WARM oven overnight to dry.

just a thought!


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## Lindy (Jan 23, 2009)

What an amazing idea!!!  I was just going to suggest making sure you really tamp it into your mold.  Now I have to try the tablet style.....so many things to make so little time....


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## Healinya (Jan 25, 2009)

I learned from someone on this forum that if you add a small amount of clay, they will be hard as a rock, and not brake.


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## AshleyR (Jan 25, 2009)

Good idea heartsong!

I'm curious about putting them in the oven to dry out. I did this with a similar bath bomb recipe, and my bombs actually kind of melted! There were a few drops of grapeseed oil in them, and I think it got too warm in the oven and the bombs just collapsed. I had the oven set at the lowest temp... I think it was 170.

I have heard the oven trick before, but it may not be a good idea for recipes with oils or butters in them?


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## SimplyE (Jan 25, 2009)

I have made bath bombs from the coastal scents recipe with some tweaks, which calls for spritzes of alcohol in order to pack them.  Although I have heard some people use water or witch hazel.  I would think that without some sort of actual liquid, your bombs would not get hard at all, since they seem to harden with evaporation of the liquid.  My bombs are rock hard after 12-24 hours.  I am not a bath bomb expert my any means, but these bombs rock and last for a long time in the tub.

HTH :wink:


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## Guest (Jan 28, 2009)

*bath bombs...*

OK...well it's been almost 10 days...and NOW they're hard as rocks. I guess it just took some time.


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## heartsong (Jan 30, 2009)

AshleyR said:
			
		

> Good idea heartsong!
> 
> I'm curious about putting them in the oven to dry out. I did this with a similar bath bomb recipe, and my bombs actually kind of melted! There were a few drops of grapeseed oil in them, and I think it got too warm in the oven and the bombs just collapsed. I had the oven set at the lowest temp... I think it was 170.
> 
> I have heard the oven trick before, but it may not be a good idea for recipes with oils or butters in them?



good point-i didn't think about that!

as far as i know, he didn't use oils except essential and f/o's with his bath tabs.  i'm not really sure what all went into them, except that my skin felt sooooo soft and fragrant!

another trick i learned from him was after drying, he lightly sprayed them with an unscented airisol hair spray (like aquanet) which he said helped protect them somewhat against moisture-and the "crumblies".


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## heartsong (Jan 30, 2009)

*x*



			
				Healinya said:
			
		

> I learned from someone on this forum that if you add a small amount of clay, they will be hard as a rock, and not brake.



great idea!  clay is supposed to remove toxins from the skint, too.  a rose clay might make some lovely tablets!


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