Help with Bath Bombs in high humidity

laurahatt214 · Nov 8, 2017

HI everyone

I live in SC near Charleston and this is my 2nd time trying to make bath bombs. I made the 1st set from a kids kit but they did not work out as everytime I would go to add some water, it would fizz, even doing a drop at a time lol. I did manage to get 1 ball out of it though lol.

So I read somewhere that you can put the citric acid in after the water. So I went and got all of the individual stuff and tried again. That seemed to work much better and I was able to get a few nice size balls out of it. I was really happy about making them.

Then I came in about an hour later and found that they had gone from hard to soft, was fuzzy and had melted

Any advice?

BattleGnome · Nov 8, 2017

It’s helpful for us if you post you full recipe and percentages. Sometimes a tweak of a single ingredient can make all the difference but it might be an ingredient only one or two people use.

Without knowing your recipe I’d say switch to using rubbing alcohol instead of water. With luck that’s thinly switch you’ll need. Do you use Epsom salts or anything similar?

lsg · Nov 9, 2017

I use a recipe from the book "Kitchen Chemistry." It uses cocoa butter in the recipe, (no water), which makes a very hard bath bomb. Where are you storing the bath bombs? You might invest in a room dehumidifier. I have one in every room of our basement. It is amazing how much moisture they pull out of the atmosphere.

laurahatt214 · Nov 9, 2017

BattleGnome said:
It’s helpful for us if you post you full recipe and percentages. Sometimes a tweak of a single ingredient can make all the difference but it might be an ingredient only one or two people use.

Without knowing your recipe I’d say switch to using rubbing alcohol instead of water. With luck that’s thinly switch you’ll need. Do you use Epsom salts or anything similar?

Thank you for replying! Below is the recipe I used...

16oz baking soda
8oz cornstarch
8oz epsom salts
2 TBSP coconut oil
2 TBSP shea butter
4 TSP water
4 TSP EO
8oz citric acid

I mixed all the dry items together except for the citric acid and all the wet items. Then I put the wet items in with the dry and mixed it up and then I added the citric acid.

I thought I was doing really good lol as the balls were really forming and staying together.

laurahatt214 · Nov 9, 2017

lsg said:
I use a recipe from the book "Kitchen Chemistry." It uses cocoa butter in the recipe, (no water), which makes a very hard bath bomb. Where are you storing the bath bombs? You might invest in a room dehumidifier. I have one in every room of our basement. It is amazing how much moisture they pull out of the atmosphere.

Thank you for replying!! I plan on trying again today with the kids kit that I have, but instead of the water I am going to try the alcohol. For the cocoa butter to do just use the same amount that it calls for for the water?

I am looking into a dehumidifier also but right now just trying to find the dryest room in the house.

I will look into that book, thanks!

laurahatt214 · Nov 9, 2017

Hey guys I'm back!

So I decided to finish off the kit and make the last 2 batches. I tried the alcohol this time instead of the water and that did make a difference so thank you very much! The only problem I have now is that I could only get 1 ball to stick together, the other one kept breaking in half so I wanted to get this made plus I had to get back to work lol. So I decided to put them in my small soap molds.

I also put them under my aero garden light lmao to see if that helps with drying them out. I hope so lol.

Tell me what you think

Dahila · Nov 9, 2017

What alcohol did you use? I use 70% the higher dries to fast. When they activate you know that it is too much moisture in them when they come apart there is not enough moisture. Imagine taking in your palms wet slightly wet sand , this is how they powders should feel

BattleGnome · Nov 10, 2017

They look much better than my last batch of bath bombs. It sounds like you’re heading into the right direction. Epsom salts can draw some moisture from the air. Are they still holding up?

laurahatt214 · Nov 10, 2017

Hey

The alcohol I have is 91%

They are still holding up. I got them out of the mold yesterday and they are doing fine. I will go an wrap them later today, so hopefully, they do not break apart.

Help with Bath Bombs in high humidity

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