Bath Bombs

[Christinafko]

****Edited to add, I'm an idiot lol. It's been a long day and I just realized that I use 1 1/2 TABLESPOONS of water instead of TEASPOONS. Ugh. But still, does my recipe look okay? I still wasn't getting consistent results before that***

I don't know what I'm doing lol. The first batch of bath bombs that I made (with gel food coloring) came out perfect. The next batch that I made with mica powders came out fine too, but I didn't like the flaking and staining they made and didn't have any polysorbate 80, so I made my next batch with liquid soap-making colorants that are water soluble. I know it's not the colorants, but what am I doing wrong that makes the last batches that I've done react too soon. They expand and crack and wart while drying. UGH! Do I have too much liquid? I did 2 batches yesterday (same recipe) and one came out perfect and one out terrible. The difference I guess is the amount of colorant and essential oils, but that's like a matter of drops not even teaspoons or anything. Is it such a fine line getting the recipe right? Today's batches came out terrible too, already too expanded, cracking, and warts and I only made them a couple hours ago. It's too much liquid, right? My recipe is:

1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup citric acid
1/2 cup epsom salt
1/2 cup corn starch
2 tbsp oil (I use rosehip seed oil)
1 1/2 teaspoon water
~10 drops of essential oils

Does this recipe look okay? Also, I'm in Maryland and the humidity has been around 35-40% the last few days, is this high? Should I add/substitute clay?

 

[styarr]

Usually if they expand it's too much liquid. I use similar recipe, sans-cornstarch, I only add water once the other liquids and powders are mixed if needed (usually needed to some extent). Sometimes it's a bit less or a bit more depending on the humidity that day. You could also use witch hazel or isopropyl alcohol instead of the water.

 

[lsg]

I use melted cocoa butter and no liquid, except FO or EO.