Damn you, humidity!

I made a bunch of terribly cute little bath bomb pumpkins to embed in bigger bath bombs, but the humidity has gotten to them and they look all fuzzy! Grr! I wonder if there is any way to pretty them up again. Maybe I'll just have to call the bombs "fuzzy pumpkin."

I have been bombing... bath bombing that is.

The fruits of my recent labours. The beige one is oatmeal, milk, and honey, and contains colloidal oatmeal and goat milk powder. No actual honey because sugary things can cause yeast infections. :/ The pink and white one is rose scented, the solid light yellow-y one is champagne and smells hella boozy. The turquoise, orange, and yellow one is called tropical honeymoon, and is scented with a mix of pineapple, coconut, frangipani, and margarita. The frangipani was incredibly strong and overpowering when it was first made, but thankfully it has mellowed a bit and you can actually smell the coconut now. And the purple and white one on top that is not wrapped yet (because I just made it) is called seduction; it is fragranced with a mix of jasmine and sandalwood, a combination I quite enjoy. The white dots are 1:1 sodium bicarb:citric acid with no oils or solubilizers, to provide some really active fizzing, and maybe some spin; there are a few more white chunks buried inside.

Bath bomb redux

Soooo... I tested out the half-bomb from my black tea bomb batch. It fizzed great. However, there was a major issue. I had scented them at 2%, per Bramble Berry's fragrance calculator (using some random fragrance), for a medium-strength scent. They were way, way over-scented. Also, the fragrance oil was not emulsified, so when I set off the bomb in the sink, the oil all floated on the surface of the water. Since fragrance oils are concentrated and not meant (or indeed safe) to be used straight on the skin, I don't think they are usable. Aside from the fact that using it would be like a lemony tea kick in the face.

I tried again today with a smaller batch. (Is it possible to crush up and re-batch bath bombs the way you can with soap? I have 5 black tea bombs that could be diluted and emulsified....)

This time I made enough mix for just one bath bomb with some leftovers for making wee testers in an ice cube tray. I included some oat flour and powdered goat milk, polysorbate-80 and oatmeal, milk, and honey fragrance oil (at 1% this time). The polysorbate-80 should make this more of a foaming bath bomb than a fizzing one, but that's fine, it's meant to be a calming milk and oatmeal bath, not an exciting bubbly bath. ;)

The testers are like little bath bomb jujubes!

I definitely need to test this one before I let anyone use it. With a milk powder in it, there is a possibility that when it is put in water and the milk rehydrates that it might form curds due to the presence of the citric acid. Cheese is awesome, but not in the bath water. :D


UPDATE - Sept 6, 2016: I tried out one of the little tester bombs in a bowl of water yesterday. I made a video of it that I thought of uploading here, but the file was huge and was taking forever to upload from my phone to my Google Drive and I ran out of patience. Suffice it to say, it was a great success compared to the last batch. The bomb fizzed and foamed nicely. It smelled good and not overwhelming. The oils (FO and sweet almond oil I decided to include in this recipe) were reasonably well emulsified by the polysorbate-80, though perhaps I could use just a touch more. The milk powder didn't turn into curds and whey in the presence of the citric acid. And the only floaty bits were tiny pieces of ground oatmeal, which were 100% expected.

Verdict: Much better.

Dreams DO come true!

How quick was that?! 100 g of citric acid, 200 g of baking soda, some colourant, some fragrance, and a spray bottle full of denatured alcohol, and here we are, 5.5 - 1.75" diameter bath bombs later!

Cue the Staples button: "That was easy!"

The fragrance is New Directions Aromatics black tea, which is quite lemony. The colours didn't quite work out as I had planned; I'd hoped for brown and yellow, but I used liquid dyes so they kind of balled up in the powder. Maybe I really do need to buy more ingredients....

Pining for the fizzy fjords

I want to make bath bombs! I definitely have ingredients to do it, so I should probably just use what I have instead of visiting every supplier's website and making ever-expanding shopping carts.... I also don't know why I have a sudden bath bomb obsession, especially since I've never actually used one. I made a trail bomb a few months ago in the peak of summer's humidity. I had to aim a fan at it for 24 or 48 hours as it was drying out so that the water vapour in the air wouldn't set off the fizzing reaction! I set it off on the floor of my shower some days later to try it out. It was scented with spearmint essential oil and was uncoloured.

I kinda want to try making pretty ones. I have concentrated lab colours that that should work in bath bombs, and dog knows I have fragrance oils! Maybe that will have to be a project for tonight, or for the upcoming alchemy weekend I'll be having while my husband is away visiting friends south of the border. Can't wait!