# bought a bath bomb press



## NOLAGal (Feb 4, 2017)

Just got it in the mail today and haven't had a chance to get it set up. Still need to buy the air compressor. Will post some results once it's up and running and if anyone would like me to do some testing for them let me know. Ready to start experimenting.... 

Anyone else here using a press from bath bomb press ?


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## SunRiseArts (Feb 4, 2017)

OMG Please post a picture!


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## Luviesmom (Feb 5, 2017)

Love  to see the press too!


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## Kamahido (Feb 5, 2017)

Even though I do not make bath bombs I would love to see this!  Can we get a video?


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## NOLAGal (Feb 5, 2017)

SunRiseArts said:


> OMG Please post a picture!




Have a sick little one at home and haven't been able to play with it yet, but it's the same one I bought from here: http://www.bathbombpress.com


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## Luviesmom (Feb 5, 2017)

Let us know how that goes! Was it worth the price??

Just got it in the mail today and haven't had a chance to get it set up. Still need to buy the air compressor. 

did you get the compressor?  I would really love to know how it works!


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## earlene (Feb 5, 2017)

I saw one in use while at SoapCon this past year.  It was pretty cool to watch.  But I didn't really look at how it was attached to the compressor, so if you do do a video, please include a bit about the set up of the equipment as well as actually show how it works making bath bombs.


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## NOLAGal (Feb 6, 2017)

earlene said:


> I saw one in use while at SoapCon this past year.  It was pretty cool to watch.  But I didn't really look at how it was attached to the compressor, so if you do do a video, please include a bit about the set up of the equipment as well as actually show how it works making bath bombs.



Here is one of the videos they give, it makes it look soooo easy. BUT (big but) it seems everyone that has purchased one has gone through a tough learning curve using it. They say, you will need to tweak the mixture you use by hand to make it work with the press. Several people have commented that it took them some time through experimenting and trial and error to get it figured out for them, but once they have it worked out it does work like you see in the video... pops them right out.  Since I haven't perfected a mixture by hand yet I won't have much of a setback like others who have purchased it. (I'm still trying to figure it all out anyway). 

No air compressor, have to wait till the little one is well enough to go back to school so I have spare time during the day to get it setup and play with it. 

Video: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqe62NgBDt0[/ame]

If I can get it working like in the video I think it will be worth the price. I'm hopeful the press will make the bath bombs hard and fizz stronger / longer. We will see :-D


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## Relle (Feb 6, 2017)

Just had a look at the cost of it :silent:.


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## NOLAGal (Feb 6, 2017)

Relle said:


> Just had a look at the cost of it :silent:.




I know, not cheap at all. The manual presses where you pull a lever down were in the $500 - $750 range. The molds seem to be the most expensive part. The air compressor ones like I bought range from about $1000 - $1500. 

I've spent about $2500 on this venture so far between the press and all my supplies, hopeful that I can eventually get it all figured out and maybe turn it into more than a hobby.


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## Luviesmom (Feb 7, 2017)

NOLAGal said:


> I've spent about $2500 on this venture so far between the press and all my supplies



Wow! I thought my mini cookie cutter addiction for embeds was bad. Haha My husband has been pretty supportive of my bath bomb obession. Bath bombs drying in the living room, our room, laundry room. Hey the house smells good! But, if came home with a $1,500 press, I think I would be stoned to death with my own bombs!:twisted:

I really hope it creates some awesome products for you! Please keep us posted.


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## shunt2011 (Feb 7, 2017)

It looks nice but too expensive.  I've seen several of these listed on destash groups as they didn't perform as they expected.  Hope you have better luck.   I prefer making mine by hand.  It's theapeutic for me.


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## TBandCW (Feb 7, 2017)

I'm jealous!  Can't wait to hear how it goes!
Hope the little one feels better soon.  We have some nasty bugs going around where I live.


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## maya (Feb 7, 2017)

I would love to see a video of you making BB with the press. I make them by hand with a piece of pipe and a piece of wood for a totaly cost of 4.00 dollars or something.


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## SunRiseArts (Feb 7, 2017)

OMG So expensive!  But yet so cool.



Luviesmom said:


> Wow! I thought my mini cookie cutter addiction for embeds was bad. Haha My husband has been pretty supportive of my bath bomb obession. Bath bombs drying in the living room, our room, laundry room. Hey the house smells good! But, if came home with a $1,500 press, I think I would be stoned to death with my own bombs!:twisted:
> 
> I really hope it creates some awesome products for you! Please keep us posted.


 
 lol I can relate to that!

I also think of how much fragrance and citric acid I could buy with 1000!!  :think:


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## Luviesmom (Feb 7, 2017)

Yea. Yea. I made some embeds. I have waited for fragrance from west coast. I will complete final product  tomorrow.  Yeah, yeah!


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## SunRiseArts (Feb 8, 2017)

NolaGal more power to you! I wish I could purchase myself, I am so jealous. 

Please post your experience. I am curious to know if you feel your bombs are different when you use them? Would they be more compact?

I am fixing to post some I made. I love using different molds and hand paint them. I am actually an oil painter first, so I try to get creative


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## Luviesmom (Feb 8, 2017)

no.... not me. make my bad boys by hand. Sorry.


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## SunRiseArts (Feb 8, 2017)

Sorry!  I meant NolaGal


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## Luviesmom (Feb 9, 2017)

SunRiseArts said:


> I am fixing to post some I made. I love using different molds and hand paint them. I am actually an oil painter first, so I try to get creative



I would love to see them! I just painted some embeds one for a rainy theme, one for a beachy them. Going to try and get them put together today. I used lake dyes to paint. Interested to see how it colors the water. Do you use micas to paint?


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## froggybean37 (Feb 9, 2017)

Funny, I'm just looking at purchasing one myself - wondering how bath bomb recipe gets altered when using a press? Up until now I've just been doing bath melts (bath bomb with cocoa & shea butters, so they harden as they cool - no real drying required)


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## DeeAnna (Feb 9, 2017)

Someone on a FaceBook soaping destash group was selling these recently for making bath bombs: 







I'd think this gadget would be a more cost effective alternative for smaller quantities of bath bombs, although I concede the aluminum version is built like a tank.

To find sellers, you need to look at fishing supply houses, not B&B suppliers. Search for "groundbait ball maker" on Google, and you'll get a good number of hits.


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## NOLAGal (Feb 10, 2017)

shunt2011 said:


> It looks nice but too expensive. I've seen several of these listed on destash groups as they didn't perform as they expected. Hope you have better luck. I prefer making mine by hand. It's theapeutic for me.


 
I checked ebay first, as I always do to try to find stuff used. There were none listed (at the time I checked) and I looked back over the last 6 months to see if any sold and there was only 1. It sold for about 90% of the purchase price. So, if nothing else and all fails I can always sell it and get most of my money back. 

I would have much rather spent less and bought a used one but couldn't find any (I only checked ebay and craigslist) didn't know of any other places.



froggybean37 said:


> Funny, I'm just looking at purchasing one myself - wondering how bath bomb recipe gets altered when using a press? Up until now I've just been doing bath melts (bath bomb with cocoa & shea butters, so they harden as they cool - no real drying required)


 
I was told that you do need to alter your recipe, needs to be a little dryer. And most felt like :headbanging: for a while until they tweaked their recipe and process to work with the press. It's basically like starting over and experimenting till you get it just right. In my case, I haven't gotten there yet by hand so it would be as much of a reset for me lol. 

Air compressor and press all set up and ready to go. Will start testing in the morning when little one goes to school.

Humidity was up yesterday to 65%, I'm thinking I am going to need to get a dehumidifier i've had terrible luck with bath bombs drying so far.


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## SunRiseArts (Feb 10, 2017)

Luviesmom said:


> I would love to see them! I just painted some embeds one for a rainy theme, one for a beachy them. Going to try and get them put together today. I used lake dyes to paint. Interested to see how it colors the water. Do you use micas to paint?


 

I posted some picks of the bath and body section.  I use regular water base soap colorant for the body of the bomb, and do paint the top with micas.  If the area is big, I have some of those that are specifically for bath bombs, but I only have the three primary colors for those.  If some I just use regular cosmetic soap safe micas.  Just use some of that poly 80.

Recently I found a bunch of silicone ice molds for movie characters, they are so cool, and I think I will use them for fizzies.

:mrgreen:


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## NOLAGal (Feb 10, 2017)

DeeAnna said:


> Someone on a FaceBook soaping destash group was selling these recently for making bath bombs:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



 That definitely looks like something worth trying instead of using the traditional bath bomb molds by hand .


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## NOLAGal (Feb 10, 2017)

I was able to successfully make a large and mini bath bombs with the new press today . It sure did take some experimenting I had to adjusting the pressure on the air compresser and experiment with packing or not packing the mixture into the mold,  tweaked the recipe some until I got the consistency just right.  It took me a couple hours but I finally feel that I have a decent grasp of it now.  I did a small amount for experimenting purposes,  which allowed me to make one large and three small bath bombs. In the picture there is one large bath bomb and two small ones right next to it which were done by the press and the small one to the left was done  by hand with my plastic mold. 

It was also the first time I was using the new powder dye and I was very very pleased with the color it produced, A little bit sure does go a long way.

Now it's just wait and see how long it will take them to dry which is something I've had a lot of trouble with. Once they are dry I will test them out.


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## TheDragonGirl (Feb 10, 2017)

They look great!


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## Luviesmom (Feb 10, 2017)

Great job! Stuck together well, eh?


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## NOLAGal (Feb 11, 2017)

Luviesmom said:


> Great job! Stuck together well, eh?



I started off dry to play it safe, and they wouldn't take form or if it tried to it crumbled easily. I would add 2.5ml of oil, stir and try again. The consistency kept getting better as I would add more. Eventually I got it right and it took great shape but would split so I tested with plastic mold and worked perfect. Once I felt comfortable my mixture was good I had to experiment with packing vs non packing, slow down press or increase speed (psi) etc. sometimes it packed tight two halves, sometimes it was broken into 3, once everything was tweaked it seemed to work good. Getting the smaller mini ball right was a little harder.


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## NOLAGal (Feb 11, 2017)

I've noticed that the bottom of the big bath bomb got just a little flat. I'm guessing it's from its own weight ? because the mini bath bombs are still 100% round and they were used with the same batch. 
I also weighed it and it is 8.3 ounces. Seems heavy, is anyone else making them this size/weight. 

I will have to try using an egg crate type surface to set them down on in the future.


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## NOLAGal (Feb 11, 2017)

Luviesmom said:


> Wow! I thought my mini cookie cutter addiction for embeds was bad. Haha My husband has been pretty supportive of my bath bomb obession. Bath bombs drying in the living room, our room, laundry room. Hey the house smells good! But, if came home with a $1,500 press, I think I would be stoned to death with my own bombs!:twisted:
> 
> I really hope it creates some awesome products for you! Please keep us posted.



Well he signed off on it. I think he likes the idea of this becoming a business or at least something I can do from home to make extra money. :think:
I explained how much faster I could make them with the press :-o:-o and the consistency / weight would be the same. By hand using the same mold I would make bath bombs that varied in weight by a couple ounces!


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## NOLAGal (Feb 13, 2017)

Yeah, after 2 days my test bath bombs kept their shape (minus a very little flat spot on bottom that developed pretty soon on the large one). They are also hard now. I don't think hard enough to drop on the floor from waist high, but definitely hard enough to handle and use.


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## TBandCW (Feb 19, 2017)

Try turning them every 15-20 min or so till they get a little dry.  I used to make round bombs.  I'd put a hand towel in a muffin tin to place them in and turn them.  Never had a flat spot!

By the way, I'm so excited for you with the new press!  Now the hard part starts:  selling those puppies!!


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## SunRiseArts (Feb 19, 2017)

whoa they look amazing!  What powdered color did you use?


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## TeresaT (Feb 19, 2017)

I just bought a bunch of soap trays from SoapEquipment.com.  They have something called "fizzy foam" that fits into the trays.  It is something to put your bombs on so they don't get any flat spots.  You can take a look at it here (http://soapequipment.com/bathbomb/).  It is at the bottom of the page.  I received a sample of it when my trays came in.  I was going to buy it along with my trays, but decided to wait a while.  After getting the sample, I'm definitely going to purchase the foam.  I haven't started making bombs yet, but that is on the agenda.  I've got three different sized molds.  

BTW:  For anyone that is interested:  The trays are expensive; however, because they are stackable, there is no wasted space between each tray like there is on a fixed shelving unit. That's the problem I was having.  I was running out of space for soap after a few batches, but I had tons of vertical space between the shelves.   The surface area for the trays is 29x15 and the total height of the five trays and the trolley (which is actually a tray with wheels) is  29.5 inches.     The total surface area of my shelving unit is 33x17 (there are 4 posts cutting into that, though).  The 29.5 inch mark only includes two shelves.  The trays definitely store much more in much less space while still maintaining plenty of air flow.


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