Black bath bomb dye for Halloween and a certain vendor on Etsy - Very not happy with my order

[MelissaG]

I ordered black bath bomb dye on Etsy. I've tried making my own and it never ever worked. It was purple, or it was red, or it was green or it was blue. I tried following Robyn's from Bath Fizz Foam but that totally ended up purple on me. So I figured I might as well give it a shot. I bought 10 grams for $7 plus shipping.

750 grams (I use grams in everything but soap even though I live in the US because it's more accurate) of baking soda. It took FIFTY 0.15cc microscoops, at LEAST 30 grams of water with an hour of mixing it into the baking soda with my mixer to get black. With such a high dye load, I'm scared it will dye skin or the tub. These are for small bombs but that's alot of dye. Even with poly 80 mixed in.

The only thing I can really think of is taking a small amount of what I made, adding a bit of baking soda and seeing if it keeps its color after it dries hoping it doesn't go back to green (that's the color it started out as).

What do you think? I'm wondering if I should bother at all and just resort to painting them black with mica.

 

[BWt]

Try 1/4 tsp which is 1.25 cc scoop or 1 gram. Then use only 1 lb or 454 grams of baking soda.
Is there any indication of the dye load given on the packaging?
I had tremendous success with Robyn’s recipe however I was using Nurture Soap dyes water soluble and they are in the 90% and up dye range.
I can’t speak to the Etsy vendor dye but if it is a Lake Dye you are going to be using more because imho Lake dyes are about 60% dye load because the dye sits on an aluminum base. Lake dyes always require more dye because of how they are made.
Adding a reference link: What Are FD&C Dyes And Lakes (and how do they differ)?

 

[BWt]

Have been learning dyes recently. Wanted a much deeper color for bath bombs. I ordered from Nuture Soap because I wanted to mix my own colors and they have excellent reviews and fair pricing. What I’ve discovered is that a scoop can weigh more depending on how it is scooped, whether you level off the top or tap off the scoop on the side of the container. Here are the measurements I came up with. The weight can vary. Some colors seemed to weigh more than others (additional research needed). All blooming was done into dry baking soda after thoroughly dissolving the dyes into warm water. Nurture Soap has a video of how to bloom dyes.
Here are the measurements I settled on. 1.25 cc scoop = approx 1 gram or 1/4 tsp. Using a 1.25 scoop of dye to bloom 454 grams (1 pound) seems to be a good start. Attached is my first attempt at violets. There is also a black and an indigo in this image.

 

[BWt]

I ordered black bath bomb dye on Etsy. I've tried making my own and it never ever worked. It was purple, or it was red, or it was green or it was blue. I tried following Robyn's from Bath Fizz Foam but that totally ended up purple on me. So I figured I might as well give it a shot. I bought 10 grams for $7 plus shipping.

750 grams (I use grams in everything but soap even though I live in the US because it's more accurate) of baking soda. It took FIFTY 0.15cc microscoops, at LEAST 30 grams of water with an hour of mixing it into the baking soda with my mixer to get black. With such a high dye load, I'm scared it will dye skin or the tub. These are for small bombs but that's alot of dye. Even with poly 80 mixed in.

The only thing I can really think of is taking a small amount of what I made, adding a bit of baking soda and seeing if it keeps its color after it dries hoping it doesn't go back to green (that's the color it started out as).

What do you think? I'm wondering if I should bother at all and just resort to painting them black with mica.

In rereading your post I want to ask if you thoroughly dissolved the dye in water before adding that dye & water mix into your baking soda. If you are using a dye it must be dissolved before blooming in baking soda.
If you are using a dye and did not pre dissolve then your bath bombs could be very very dark with that much dye in the baking soda. However the baking soda will not look dark because the majority of your dye while mixed in is not dissolved yet. Just a thought. You can use this type of bloomed dye however the strength of the dye color won’t be known until your bombs hit the water. I would make a one ior two small bomb batch and test in tub.
If the bomb is too dark or stains you could consider using this baking soda dye mix to make embeds. If you do use a strong dye mix as an embed I advise adding Poly 80 to the embed. In my recent experiments the dark embeds break loose from the bombs and go off fizzing happily on their own. That leaves a path of dark dye that could stain skin. So from now on am adding poly 80 to all darker embeds.
Hope this is helpful. P.S. I had a broken glove, did not notice. Removed gloves and instant Smurf hands!! Then accidentally transferred Smurf color to my face. Comedy ensued!!

 

[MelissaG]

In rereading your post I want to ask if you thoroughly dissolved the dye in water before adding that dye & water mix into your baking soda. If you are using a dye it must be dissolved before blooming in baking soda.
If you are using a dye and did not pre dissolve then your bath bombs could be very very dark with that much dye in the baking soda. However the baking soda will not look dark because the majority of your dye while mixed in is not dissolved yet. Just a thought. You can use this type of bloomed dye however the strength of the dye color won’t be known until your bombs hit the water. I would make a one ior two small bomb batch and test in tub.
If the bomb is too dark or stains you could consider using this baking soda dye mix to make embeds. If you do use a strong dye mix as an embed I advise adding Poly 80 to the embed. In my recent experiments the dark embeds break loose from the bombs and go off fizzing happily on their own. That leaves a path of dark dye that could stain skin. So from now on am adding poly 80 to all darker embeds.
Hope this is helpful. P.S. I had a broken glove, did not notice. Removed gloves and instant Smurf hands!! Then accidentally transferred Smurf color to my face. Comedy ensued!!

Yes, of course. That's how dye's work. They have to be bloomed first.

 

[MelissaG]

Oh, I was wrong, it is still green. Looks like I will have to do remixing. And if you're wondering, it's Wyld Thyme Studio.