Bathbomb's with fragrance oil , itching skin?

[HoneyPunch]

So after years of making soap i decided to give some bath bombs a try. They worked out fairly well, had a nice uniform shape with no warts, even colour, nicely scented and a great fizz when plopped into the bath.

I made them in two sizes, the plastic molds from brambleberry and the "mondo" stainless steel molds, also from BB.

With the smaller bombs i found my skin would get very very slightly itchy, to the point i thought i might be imagining things. I tried one of the mondo bath bombs tonight and it confirmed that i wasn't imagining things.

After about 15 minutes my skin was so tingly and unpleasant feeling that i had to get up, drain the tub and then hose myself off.

Now my skin is pretty rhino like at times, in that i never react strongly to basically any product i've tried or made. I can use high % coconut oil soap with a 2-3% superfat and not even blink, but this was really bothering me.

I used a recipe from Soap Queen(tweaked the dry ingredient ratios a bit) so i'm hesitant to say i have too much fragrance oil in them, I even ran it through a fragrance calculator and i was well within the safe usage rate.

What do you think, maybe just dial back on the fragrance? or would adding ploysorbate 80 help, since it would likely help the oil disperse throughout the water, as opposed to have it float on the top. It was mostly my back and the bottoms of my legs and arms that were irritated, and they would obviously be what the majority of the oil floating on the surface would cling to.

750g baking soda
215g Citric Acid
65g corn starch
8g fragrance oil
2tsp clay
La Bomb colour.(different amounts for each colour, just dropped until they were lightly pastel)

 

[Wildcraft_Garden]

Did you check the skin safe percentage for the oil you used? Some of them are tricky, and are a very small percentage (I have one that I didn't realize was only safe at 0.4% until after I received so I have to blend with it.

Otherwise dispersing it would likely be a good idea. I haven't had that problem myself, I just mix the fragrance really well with the cornstarch or baking soda first.

 

[HoneyPunch]

Did you check the skin safe percentage for the oil you used? Some of them are tricky, and are a very small percentage (I have one that I didn't realize was only safe at 0.4% until after I received so I have to blend with it.

Otherwise dispersing it would likely be a good idea. I haven't had that problem myself, I just mix the fragrance really well with the cornstarch or baking soda first.

I broke the batches up and made four different bombs each with its own scent(orange eo + champagine fo, coconut cream fo, chocolate espresso fo and buttered mint fo), and they're all a little itchy.

Unless i'm majorly missing something, BB doesn't have a skin safe usage rate on their fo's description page. I've always just totaled up my weights and ran the whole thing through their fragrance calculator(set to 'salts' for these).

 

[penelopejane]

I broke the batches up and made four different bombs each with its own scent(orange eo + champagine fo, coconut cream fo, chocolate espresso fo and buttered mint fo), and they're all a little itchy.

Unless i'm majorly missing something, BB doesn't have a skin safe usage rate on their fo's description page. I've always just totaled up my weights and ran the whole thing through their fragrance calculator(set to 'salts' for these).

Soap Queen says you can use 1-5% FO and EO. You have only used 1% so it should be fine, in general for most people.

Some people are allergic to various FOs and EOs but since you react to each one of them, and have no doubt used them before, it seems strange.

Could it possibly be the bath bomb itself that your skin doesn't like? There would be some sodium citrate left after the reaction that your skin may not like?

 

[Obsidian]

Try a unscented one, its very possible its one of the dry ingredients causing you trouble. I can't use bath bombs, the baking soda dries me out and makes me itch.

 

[DeeAnna]

What Obsidian says -- you need to know if it's actually the fragrance. Or the clay, which seems to be another optional additive you might want to check on. Instead, it could be one of the basic ingredients, in which case, this type of bath bomb might not be something you can enjoy.

 

[TBandCW]

Try including a nice oil or butter for skin conditioning.

 

[Seawolfe]

I like to make my bombs with some melted cocoa butter, makes my skin nice and soft.

 

[shunt2011]

I too use cocoa butter in my bath bombs. But I also use SLSA for some bubbleage.

 

[LisaAnne]

I itch after bath bombs also. I don't why, but I don't use them anymore.

 

[HoneyPunch]

What Obsidian says -- you need to know if it's actually the fragrance. Or the clay, which seems to be another optional additive you might want to check on. Instead, it could be one of the basic ingredients, in which case, this type of bath bomb might not be something you can enjoy.

I guess i ruled out the dry ingredients because i often have just plain baking soda in my water, and have used other peoples bath bombs a bunch of times without problem.

Thanks for the tip though, i'll try making a plain one and plain one with clay added, see if either of those make me itch. If not, process of limitation points towards the FOs i think, lol.

 

[alwaysme07]

It could be the baking soda, I made some homemade deodorant with baking soda it irritated my skin. Have you used other bath bombs?

 

[HoneyPunch]

It could be the baking soda, I made some homemade deodorant with baking soda it irritated my skin. Have you used other bath bombs?

I actually just made a plain mondo bath bomb using the same ratios as per usual, just no colour and scent. It worked perfectly fine, left my skin feeling soft and warm and wonderful after the bath.

I did a little more experimenting and discovered that the only one that burns in mondo form is the buttered mint(it makes sense, menthol anything is just tingly by nature). I'm not a huge fan of it anyway, so i think i'll just not use that scent for bath bombs again.

I'll probably start adding polysorbate 80 anyway, but more because i want to add a bit of oil/butter to my bombs and dont want it to just float on the surface.

 

[Saponista]

I'm glad you managed to resolve the issue

 

[DeeAnna]

I've never made bath bombs, but I understand the amount of liquid in the bombs is critical. Since PS 80 is liquid, you're going to have to find a balance between adding enough PS 80 to emulsify/solubilize the fats you want to add vs. not adding too much liquid so the bomb keeps the right texture.

I think some people who want to make a bath bomb with emulsified fats use a regular emulsifier such as e-wax (emulsifying wax) that is solid at room temp. Not sure how they do it exactly -- but maybe this idea is worth checking out?

 

[green soap]

I used ewax to emulsify the cocoa butter with the bath water in my fizzy bath melts. We use essential oils because we love them, nothing harsh on the skin though. Essential oils could be omitted, but most people have some essential oil they tolerate, and IMHO they enhance the bath experience.

I melt the oils/butters with the ewax on a double boiler, then wisk them into the citric acid/baking soda mix. Let me know if you want the exact recipe/proportions, and I'll look for the recipe.