bath bomb problems

[madde hughes]

Hi All,
So I live in South Louisiana. My grandma and I own a soap shop and we ventured into bath bombs recently. We are struggling to say the least. We have tried 5-10 different recipes, and have found a downfall to all of them in some way.

Here are some recipes we've tried

• Baking Soda – 1 cup (250 grams)
• Citric Acid – ½ cup (100 grams)
• Cream of Tartar – 1 tablespoon (12 grams)
• Kaolin Clay – 1 tablespoon (3 grams)
• Corn Starch, Tapioca Starch or Arrowroot Powder – 1 tablespoon (10 grams)
• Avocado Oil – 1 teaspoon (5 grams)
• Polysorbate 80 – 1 teaspoon (5 grams)
• Scent – 7 grams
• Color

Another recipe

• 1 cup baking soda
• 1/2 cup citric acid
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1/2 teaspoon sodium lauryl sulfoacetate (SLSa)
• 8 milliliters fragrance
• 6 milliliters polysorbate 80
• 5 milliliters water.

There is also another recipe we use that incorporates buttermilk powder.
Anyway, sometimes the bath bombs stay together, sometimes they dry and break apart.
Last night, while making, this has never happened before, the mixture was sticking extremely bad to one side on the mold, but not the opposite side.
We do have a humidifier in the room we make in.
Honestly, I don't know if I even have a question. Just at a loss, and want some advice. Recipes that work for you. Tricks that work for you. If you live in the south, what do you do? Etc.

TIA!!!

 

[glendam]

I am in the South, the recipes from “Humblebee and me”were the first ones I tried and worked well for me.
I also bought the ebook “Fun in the Tub” from Amanda and her high humidity recipe also worked. I further modified it though as it was taking too long to dissolve when using it. I would replace the avocado oil with cocoa butter or any other butter (melt it before using it) in the first recipe. I try to only make a few bath bombs at a time, larger batches start failing halfway, and I don’t make them when it is raining.

 

[AliOop]

The basic recipe from Creative Bath Lab works well for me. I don’t follow her process, however. First, I premix all the liquids (PS80, water, FO/EO) before adding them to the mixed dry ingredients, minus the citric acid. I add the citric acid last, after all other wet and dry ingredients have been well incorporated.

To rewet a batch that is drying out, I do use her suggested mix of PS80 and water, not just water, and definitely not alcohol, which doesn’t work for me.

My experience is that working time is greatly increased by using my little manual bath bomb press, rather than using the sphere molds in my hands. My theory is that the greater amount of pressure created by the press overcomes the dryness problems that I used to have towards the end of every batch.