Bath Bomb Help

[Mrs T]

Hi guys,
So iv decided to fill my lockdown time with researching and learning some new projects one being bath bombs(around my new job as my children's teacher that is lol) ..... I expected bath bombs to be finicky but iv made a few batches and was hoping for some advice. Please could you take a look at the recipes below and give any feedback. Thankyou in advance for any replies

Test Batch type 1.

Dry ingredients....
300g Bicarbonate Soda
150g Citric Acid
45g Kaolin Clay (10%)

Wet ingredients.....
18g Cocoa Butter (4%)

I used 99.9% isopropyl as my binding agent.
FYI it is purposely unscented
So when I was making this batch it felt very dry which was expected because there is very little liquid so when I was molding the first bath bomb was fine then the mix seemed to dry out quick and the others became more difficult. After unmolding and drying the first seems OK quite hard with a tiny bit that brushes off the surface if your rough with it, the other two crumbled. Is this because I used alcohol which evaporates quickly?

Test Batch Type 2.

Dry ingredients....
400g Bicarbonate Soda
200g Citric Acid
60g Kaolin Clay (10% of the above mixture)
1.5g of Mica (I used 0.25g per 100g)

Wet ingredients.....
20g Fragrance Oil (3%of total dry mixture)
13.2g (14g) Polysorbate 80 (2% of total dry mixture)

I again used the isopropyl to add extra moisture to the bath bomb.

I tested one after being sat over night and it smells great, fizzed great, the colour was great and was lovely on the skin. The problem with this one is that it was too soft. I have now left it for 48 hours and whilst it does feel a bit drier it's still soft.

As I said any guidance to help me tinker with the recipes would be marvellous
Oooh also they sink so any tips on adjusting the recipe to get them to float too would be great.

Im so sorry this is a mamouth post and if you made it to the end...thankyou for your patience.
Look forward to hearing your opinions!

Thanks
Kelly

 

[lsg]

I used melted cocoa butter in my bath bombs and have had no trouble with crumbling.

 

[Mrs T]

I used melted cocoa butter in my bath bombs and have had no trouble with crumbling.

Thankyou for your reply, I used melted coco butter in the first recipe and that did hold together and dry much better. Can I ask. What percentage of cocoa butter you use? I put 4% in!

 

[Angie Gail]

I have recently decided to try bath bombs too but I'm in Texas where it's very humid and I'm afraid they just aren't going to hold together so instead I'm making fizzy bath soak (also sometimes called bath bomb dust). It still fizzes but you sprinkle it in the bath like bath salts instead of in one "clump" like a bath bomb. My bath salts are very popular and I'm hoping these will catch on too. I'm packaging them in these cute bags. So just an FYI, if you can't get them to hold together, there are other options. Good luck!

 

[Mrs T]

I have recently decided to try bath bombs too but I'm in Texas where it's very humid and I'm afraid they just aren't going to hold together so instead I'm making fizzy bath soak (also sometimes called bath bomb dust). It still fizzes but you sprinkle it in the bath like bath salts instead of in one "clump" like a bath bomb. My bath salts are very popular and I'm hoping these will catch on too. I'm packaging them in these cute bags. So just an FYI, if you can't get them to hold together, there are other options. Good luck!

Thankyou for the tip, funnily enough I was lying in bed last night thinking whether something like that would be an option. I'm in the UK so whilst it isn't generally hot the humidity is still high at times as we have alot of rainfall but having said that, people do make and sell pressured bath bombs here so il keep on trying

 

[lsg]

Thankyou for your reply, I used melted coco butter in the first recipe and that did hold together and dry much better. Can I ask. What percentage of cocoa butter you use? I put 4% in!

A little over 10% of the recipe.

 

[Mrs T]

A little over 10% of the recipe.

OK, thankyou. I will try some adjustments.

 

[sherrig]

I dont know if this will help but I use this recipe. I have several.

All done by ratios, I just switched over recently and have not had a failed batch since I moved over

Not that being the official bath bomb tester is a hard job, but knocking it out of the park consistently feels good after a while.



Add the witch hazel to the rest of the wet ingredients and then drizzle the wet into all the dry (All but the citric acid) until mixed

Mix it up, it will be pretty wet, sandcastle wet. When fully mixed then add your citric acid

Mix more then mould.

Some of these are hard numbers and others can be tweaked, but this should give some a starting place.


I use a moon cake mould so my recipes are designed for them, but they also transfer over to some metal moulds

 

[Mrs T]

I dont know if this will help but I use this recipe. I have several.

All done by ratios, I just switched over recently and have not had a failed batch since I moved over

Not that being the official bath bomb tester is a hard job, but knocking it out of the park consistently feels good after a while.



Add the witch hazel to the rest of the wet ingredients and then drizzle the wet into all the dry (All but the citric acid) until mixed

Mix it up, it will be pretty wet, sandcastle wet. When fully mixed then add your citric acid

Mix more then mould.

Some of these are hard numbers and others can be tweaked, but this should give some a starting place.


I use a moon cake mould so my recipes are designed for them, but they also transfer over to some metal moulds


View attachment 53728

Thankyou for sharing this with me. I will have a look and give it a try. Is there a reason for adding the citric acid last?

 

[Angie Gail]

Thankyou for sharing this with me. I will have a look and give it a try. Is there a reason for adding the citric acid last?

It's best to add it last so it has less time to interact with the wet/liquid ingredients and then it doesn't "activate" too soon and start fizzing.

 

[alex777]

My ratio is:

– 2 Bicarb
– 1 citric acid
– 1 cornstarch
– 1 salt/ epsom salts
– 0.3 oil (liquid)
– 0.075 water/witchazel

Play around with this a bit. They are the main ingredients so you can customise it according to what you want. Eg. More citric acid for more fizziness. Less cornstarch if you don’t want so much cloudiness in the water afterwards. I'm reading glacier bay products reviews to find some decent products.