Bath bomb growing/exploding...

[JustAMommie]

Hi all, I’ve been trying out some recipes and having success, but trying to find a recipe that the whole family likes. I’ve gone through a few recipes and found one that seemed fun, but when I made it and got the bombs in the molds the molds began growing apart and the mixture spilled out of the molds. The only ingredient that was new to me was powdered milk, the recipe was pretty much the same as all the other ones that I’ve tried. Here’s the ingredients list:

• 1 cup baking soda
  
• 1/2 cup citric acid
  
• 1/2 cup powdered milk
  
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essential oil
  
  (oleoresin)
• 2 tsp fractionated coconut oil
  
  (or almond oil)
• 2 tsp water

Any ideas what went wrong? Here’’’s a photo of what they looked like not a minute after molding them. Was thinking either something to do with the milk or the liquid.
Thanks y’all!

 

[earlene]

The first time I made bath bombs with my granddaughter, that happened. Is it really humid where you live right now? Did you possibly use too much liquid? A combination of both?

We made several BBs and left them unwrapped, but still in the molds on a tray on top of a dresser, then went away for a week. We came back to huge overgrown BBs that look like a pink mushroom cloud. It was really quite a shock to see, but after doing it again with less water and not leaving them open to the humidity, it's never happened again.

 

[LilyJo]

Growths and warts are generally too much liquid - I have the opposite problem, cant get the dryness right mine keep cracking!

 

[NsMar42111]

Try witch hazel instead of water?

 

[Holly8991]

1st time I made them they looked so pretty in the mold...then my husband got wild hair to go to the beach so I left them in the molds. Came back 2 days later to a BB lava because he turned down the AC and the humidity got to them.

 

[lsg]

You might try using melted cocoa butter instead of other liquid. My cupcakes made with melted cocoa butter set up very hard. Humidity can do a number on bath bombs unless they are in a sealed bag or container.

 

[Sandra@SS]

If you add water you will activate the reaction between the acid and base.
Humidity may also activate the bomb,
but adding water imho is asking for an 'event'

 

[Nita]

Growths and warts are generally too much liquid - I have the opposite problem, cant get the dryness right mine keep cracking!

Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by growths and warts? Is it just as imagined (bumps sticking out of the bath bombs?)

 

[JustAMommie]

Oh my goodness. Sorry, that I didn't see these comments ladies. I greatly appreciate your responses. I am going to go read each one right now. I got seriously sidetracked by my chickens. We are dealing with predators and I haven't even made a bomb in a couple of weeks now! :-(

 

[JustAMommie]

The first time I made bath bombs with my granddaughter, that happened. Is it really humid where you live right now? Did you possibly use too much liquid? A combination of both?

We made several BBs and left them unwrapped, but still in the molds on a tray on top of a dresser, then went away for a week. We came back to huge overgrown BBs that look like a pink mushroom cloud. It was really quite a shock to see, but after doing it again with less water and not leaving them open to the humidity, it's never happened again.

I wouldn't say that it's humid, normally throughout the year it is very humid here. But we are in the dry part of our year and other recipes have come out just fine. This is the first recipe I'd tried with powdered so I felt that could have something to do with it, but I think you may be right and it was just too much liquid. I haven't tried this one again, but I'm going to try to get to this one again this weekend. Thanks!!!

 

[JustAMommie]

Try witch hazel instead of water?

I honestly can't remember if I'd switched to witch hazel when I did this recipe, but now I only use it. No water. When I try it again I am going to decrease the liquid and see if that helps.

 

[JustAMommie]

1st time I made them they looked so pretty in the mold...then my husband got wild hair to go to the beach so I left them in the molds. Came back 2 days later to a BB lava because he turned down the AC and the humidity got to them.

Exactly, looked like a volcano exploding, except mine did it in just a minute or two! Yikes!

 

[JustAMommie]

You might try using melted cocoa butter instead of other liquid. My cupcakes made with melted cocoa butter set up very hard. Humidity can do a number on bath bombs unless they are in a sealed bag or container.

I just got some cocoa butter in some I am hoping to give that a try instead of coconut oil. Though, I love coconut oil over any other oil I've used to date. Thanks for the tip!

 

[JustAMommie]

Growths and warts are generally too much liquid - I have the opposite problem, cant get the dryness right mine keep cracking!

It's so funny. I have been trying different recipes. But I've made the same recipe and I've had different results ranging from them being perfect to cracking. I wasn't keeping good track of my actual amount of liquids. I am now. So maybe I'll see what's causing it. It is getting really dry here for our area, the Pacific Northwest, so maybe the air is drying them out some days??

 

[Nita]

Oh my goodness. Sorry, that I didn't see these comments ladies. I greatly appreciate your responses. I am going to go read each one right now. I got seriously sidetracked by my chickens. We are dealing with predators and I haven't even made a bomb in a couple of weeks now! :-(

I just lost all my girls. I think a raccoon got in the coop. All I found of the 3 girls was one leg! I now have 5 chicks growing I’ll fix the corner of the coop before the babies go out of course! I have 2 aerial predators. Hawks and owls. It has distracted me from soap making too.

 

[Becky1024]

I HATE making bath bombs. When I started my business nearly 5 years ago, I felt I had to have bath bombs in the product mix. I tried and tried and could not make them good consistently. They either got warts, exploded or crumbled. I gave up. Then I noticed my customers were mostly shower lovers! Basically to use up the raw materials I had bought I started making shower fizzier which are much more forgiving and my customers love them!