Bubble Bath Meltdown 😩😂

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MeeraBubbles

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Hi everyone,

I’m new to making bubble bath. The original recipe i found calls for:

1/4 cup Vegetable Glycerin
1/2 cup Distilled water
1/2 cup unscented Castile soap

I came up with a lovely combination of essential oils and makes my first batch. Aromatherapy wise it was perfect but my bubbles were nonexistent.

In Effort to create more bubbles, today, I tried
1/2 Cup Vegetable Glycerin
1/2 Cup distilled wate
1/2 cup unscented Castile soap

Still, my bubbles were flimsy. I tried adding another 1/2 cup of glycerin and Castile soap...Better.. but not what I’m looking for. I even tried adding about a cup of coconut oil and that’s the closest the bubbles got to what I always imagined they could be 😩 and still nothing.

I read somewhere that sugar may help. Can I add it to what I already have and would it even help? Is my formula wrong? Is my Castile soap garbage? Any insight will help. I am attaching photos of the ingredient lists of the products I’m using in the case they are what’s causing me problems.

I appreciate your help!
 

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I don't have much experience in this, but: first off, this is not really castille soap (that should only have olive oil). Also, you may want to use more soap if you don't get enough bubbles; glycerin is not going to help with that.
Your essential oils will float on the water of the tub, which may be dangerous. (To avoid that, you may want to look at a solubilizer, like polysorbate 80 or such).
So, I'm not sure this is going to work at all, but the first thing I'd do is try reducing the distilled water & the glycerin amount.
But also, I'm not sure you'll ever get big, foamy, stable bubbles with what is basically a watered down liquid soap...
 
Like atiz said, this is basically a watered down liquid soap solution.
There are many "recipes" like this floating around the internet but frankly none of them would actually work like the commercial bubble baths.
Castile soap don't have much bubble to start with. If you want to make an actual bubble bath from scratch you will need more specialized materials like surfactant (SLSa,Cpab, etc.), solublizer for fragrance (polysorbates), perservative for liquids, etc.
I see that you are new, pls introduce yourself in the introduction forum. And for bubble bath question, this thread belongs to the bath and body forum more than soap forum.
 
You're recipe will never be a nice bubble bath. You could buy a pre-made base from a supplier (WSP, Nature's Garden, Catalina Naturals). Then just color and scent it to your liking. Otherwise you would need to make your own from scratch which may be costly.
 
Here's a recipe I received from Voyageur Soap & Candle about 20 years ago. I recently wrote them to ask if I could share it as it's no longer on their website. They gave me permission to share as long as I attributed the recipe to them and let people know that they carry all the ingredients. It's very easy to make and really does make "Lots of Bubbles".

Lots of Bubbles Bubble Bath

Yield: 1 kg

50 gm BSB surfactant
200 Amphosol CG surfactant (Cocamidopropyl Betaine)
230 gm Biotherge AS40 surfactant

500 gm distilled water

10 gm Glycerin
5 gm Aloe Vera Extract

5 gm Germall Plus

Mix all ingredients together. Because all ingredients are liquid, there is no need to use hot water. Preservatives and fragrance can be added at the same time as the other ingredients. Colour as desired.

To thicken, add salt in small amounts, stirring to fully incorporate until the desired thickness is achieved.

If desired, you can also use Crothix to thicken at approximately 2% in place of the equivalent amount of water. You would then add this at the beginning, to the surfactants, heating to melt. You would then have to wait until cool to add preservative and fragrance.
 

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