Bath Bomb Problems

[dafferna]

Hello! I recently started making and selling bath bombs, soaps, and beard oils. I'm still working on my bath bomb recipe.

In my first recipe I did not include corn starch, water or witch hazel and simply added more coconut and essential oils for the wet ingredients. The bombs were easy to mold and held up in a stainless steel mold quite well. However, I had issues with the oil seeping into the packaging and leaving little greasy patches (I do not use plastic in my packaging and would like to continue to use biodegradable materials). The bombs were also not as solid as I would like them to be.

I decided to try new recipes that included witch hazel and some kaolin clay. In every batch I have made the bombs are a lot harder (which is good), but a lot of them have warts, small cracks, and are sticking to the their drying surface (usually a ceramic plate).

I am at a total loss and would appreciate some feedback. Thanks!

 

[MySoapyHeart]

Hello! I recently started making and selling bath bombs, soaps, and beard oils. I'm still working on my bath bomb recipe.

In my first recipe I did not include corn starch, water or witch hazel and simply added more coconut and essential oils for the wet ingredients. The bombs were easy to mold and held up in a stainless steel mold quite well. However, I had issues with the oil seeping into the packaging and leaving little greasy patches (I do not use plastic for in my packaging and would continue to use biodegradable materials). The bombs were also not as solid as I would like them to be.

I decided to try new recipes that included witch hazel and some kaolin clay. In every batch I have made the bombs are a lot harder (which is good), but a lot of them have warts, small cracks, and are sticking to the their drying surface (usually a ceramic plate).

I am at a total loss and would appreciate some feedback. Thanks!

Hi, and welcome, dafferna! Feel free to pop over in the introduction part of the forum when you have some time.

I am just wondering why you are selling them if you have issues with your recipe??

If you want to save you and your customers some troubble, please, just focus on perfecting your recipes before selling anything you make. I promise, it will be worth it in the end : )

Bath Bombs with warts, cracks and not holding up:
This is a recipe problem, and you need to post your entire recipe, we can`t really help you narrow down the problem otherwise.

Generally speaking,warts can come from humidity in the air when they are drying, or things in your recipe, like course salts, etc.

Cracks can be to much water (or too little).

If they don`t hold up they aren`t formulated correctly, not enough of this or that, so we really need your recipe to be able to help you narrowing down the problem.

Even the way you package them may cause a problem in the end. Paper will allow air to get in easily, and the bathbombs will deteriorate and lose fizz faster. Scent/essential oils will fade faster too.

Btw, greasy paper tell me your bathbombs are perhaps having too much oil in them. I have oil in mine too, and have never had them give off any oil untill they are in the water.

Plastic comes biodegradable too, and bath bombs tend to hold up better when wrapped in plastic, so you don`t have to avoid that.

You say you just started to make soaps too. Are they cold process soaps, or Melt & Pour?

I can highly recommend you to get everything you make absolutely perfected in the best possible way before letting any money change hands.

So, perhaps you can take a step back and evaluate things?

That is always a good idea, because selling things prematurely will make your business hurt, and your future business will be damaged, and also your reputation.

After all, the things you make are going to go on peoples skin, and you need to be 100% certain that everything you put in are at safe levels, and clearly marked so people can know what you put in it. And you stated you just started to make and sell your things. That is why I got a bit concerned

 

[dafferna]

My recipe is as follows:

3 cups baking soda
1.5 cups citric acid
1/8 cups Epsom salt
1.5 tbs kaolin clay
1/2 tsp essential oil
1.5 tbs coconut oil
spritz with witch hazel as needed

I started selling because I thought my recipe was solid :\ I didn't notice the issues with the oil until I took my products to my local farmer's market this weekend and decided that I needed to perfect the recipe. I've been doing some more research and saw that some people will allow their bombs to cure for as many as 5 days! Should I allow them to dry longer than 24 hours?

The beard oil and soaps I have made before, I meant that I only recently started selling them.

 

[lsg]

Because you are having trouble with oil seepage, I would certainly let the bath bombs cure for several days before packaging. You might try substituting 99% isopropyl alcohol for the witch Hazel.

 

[dafferna]

Thanks for the suggestions! I think I'm going to start letting them cure for at least 2 days now. The new recipe I tried was a success! No warts, no cracks and waaaay less oil

 

[TBandCW]

That's what it takes! Lots of trial and errors. I tried tons of different oils, amts etc. before I got what I was looking for.