Black bath bombs - charcoal, mica, or...?

[TheBobbiesRSurly]

Hiya folks!

So I was playing around with some black mica today for my bath bombs. Man, that stuff got everywhere despite gloves (I wore a mask thankfully, the glitter got all over in the air... surprised I'm not seeing sparkles every time I blink though!). The mixture seems pretty dark, but not as black as I'd like it...

For those who have played around with black bath bombs before - what works best; charcoal, mica, or something else? I'm still torn on using poly 80. I have some, but I may try adding some SLSA to try and counteract sticking to the tub first.

It'd be great if there were a way to use FD&C colors, but I can't seem to mix them right to get a nice strong black shade.

 

[Omneya]

Use Lakes or dyes and combine primary colors together. That makes black and you don't have to worry about activated charcoal, that should not be in your bath and micas that are just not black enough.

 

[TheBobbiesRSurly]

I'll try again with my lakes then - I tried once before, but I kept ending up with a black that was more bluish or reddish. I gotta be combining them wrong :think:

 

[icg]

Definitely try charcoal. A lot of people say it's really messy, but I usually see micas staining worse, even with 7% polysorbate 80. Just make sure to add the charcoal into the polysorbate 80 before you add the other dry ingredients. Many of my favorite bath bomb recipes are colored with activated charcoal. The more charcoal you add, the more poly 80 you add. I add around 1 tsp poly 80 per 2-4 tsp charcoal.