Hiya! I've made a few batches of bath bombs and had good success (though there were little things I fixed along the way. I used oils and epsom salts. I really liked them.
Last night, I decided to try the "stress tabs" kit I bought off of WSP. I'm not into kits normally, but I thought I'd try these because it was something different and fairly affordable. The ingredients are:
2 lbs baking soda
1 lb citric acid
4 oz. kaolin clay
2 oz Essential Oil
So, I followed the directions right up until it said to spray alcohol on the mixture until it hold together. I didn't do that because I felt like it was holding together well enough (from my experience with the bath bombs). The disclaimer here is that I've never worked with a clay mixture like this (mine always had oils and no clay). It was pretty dry, but just barely wet enough to hold together - or so I thought. I pressed the mixture (very hard) into the guest size soap molds. It said to wait 15 minutes before unmolding, so I did, but it pretty much crumbled out. I figured it was too dry. So, I tried again after spritzing the mixture a little bit with witch hazel. This time I waited 30 minutes. The mixture still crumbled apart when I tried to unmold. At this point, I didn't have another hour to waste, so I decided to put these into bath bomb form. The first one worked, but the second didn't, so I figured it was too dry. I spritzed more witch hazel. Still didn't work (the two halves of the bath bomb came apart when I tried to take the mold off. The two halves held together well, but wouldn't stick to each other. I was so annoyed after about 30 minutes of this that I spritzed more witch hazel (which didn't help) and kept trying again and again, spritzing the mixture more and more. Clearly, I had overspritzed by the end. It was late, I was not having any success, so I had to give up. I put the mixture into a gallon ziploc bag (slightly open) and set it aside.
Is there anything I can do to save this mix tonight or is 24 hours too long to wait? I know that when I have set aside a citric acid/baking soda mixture in the past (with nothing else in it), it hardened to a hard rock all by itself (making it useless, of course). I assume that's what's going to happen to this mixture unless I can do something with it. I've heard people do scoopable bath bombs (a dry mixture that you just toss into the tub). Maybe I can do that, but how??? I thought about letting the mixture harden and then crumbling it up with a hammer? Or can I try to mold these again tonight - maybe they've dried out some?? I'd love any help with this because I HATE wasitng ingredients.
Thanks!!
Last night, I decided to try the "stress tabs" kit I bought off of WSP. I'm not into kits normally, but I thought I'd try these because it was something different and fairly affordable. The ingredients are:
2 lbs baking soda
1 lb citric acid
4 oz. kaolin clay
2 oz Essential Oil
So, I followed the directions right up until it said to spray alcohol on the mixture until it hold together. I didn't do that because I felt like it was holding together well enough (from my experience with the bath bombs). The disclaimer here is that I've never worked with a clay mixture like this (mine always had oils and no clay). It was pretty dry, but just barely wet enough to hold together - or so I thought. I pressed the mixture (very hard) into the guest size soap molds. It said to wait 15 minutes before unmolding, so I did, but it pretty much crumbled out. I figured it was too dry. So, I tried again after spritzing the mixture a little bit with witch hazel. This time I waited 30 minutes. The mixture still crumbled apart when I tried to unmold. At this point, I didn't have another hour to waste, so I decided to put these into bath bomb form. The first one worked, but the second didn't, so I figured it was too dry. I spritzed more witch hazel. Still didn't work (the two halves of the bath bomb came apart when I tried to take the mold off. The two halves held together well, but wouldn't stick to each other. I was so annoyed after about 30 minutes of this that I spritzed more witch hazel (which didn't help) and kept trying again and again, spritzing the mixture more and more. Clearly, I had overspritzed by the end. It was late, I was not having any success, so I had to give up. I put the mixture into a gallon ziploc bag (slightly open) and set it aside.
Is there anything I can do to save this mix tonight or is 24 hours too long to wait? I know that when I have set aside a citric acid/baking soda mixture in the past (with nothing else in it), it hardened to a hard rock all by itself (making it useless, of course). I assume that's what's going to happen to this mixture unless I can do something with it. I've heard people do scoopable bath bombs (a dry mixture that you just toss into the tub). Maybe I can do that, but how??? I thought about letting the mixture harden and then crumbling it up with a hammer? Or can I try to mold these again tonight - maybe they've dried out some?? I'd love any help with this because I HATE wasitng ingredients.
Thanks!!
