Solid bubble bars

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busymakinsoap! said:
I found this one that look soooo cool (just like the lush ones) I really want to try it but can source SLS (**** living in a small country :( )

http://purali.blogspot.com/2010/12/soli ... orial.html

I've never made a bubble bar but it looks super easy. Any one have any ideas on how I could tweak the recipe to exclude SLS?

I have tried this recipe as well and worked well.

I replaced the SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfacte) with SLES (Sodium Laureth Sulfate) in all of my recipes. SLSa is readily avialable at lots of suppliers sites. It can be found under the names SODIUM LAURYL SULFOACETATE or LANTHANOL LAL POWDER. Both SLES and SLSa work really well.
 
Thanks for that Bergamot & Bubbles. I might give that a try :D might go check out that other recipe as well. :D OOOOhhh can feel a good thing coming on! :D
 
Bergamot & Bubbles said:
busymakinsoap!":xud3qk3n]I found this one that look soooo cool (just like the lush ones) I really want to try it but can source SLS (**** living in a small country :( ) [url="http://purali.blogspot.com/2010/12/solid-bubble-bath-tutorial.html said:
http://purali.blogspot.com/2010/12/soli ... orial.html[/url]

I have tried this recipe as well and worked well.
[/quote:xud3qk3n]

B&B - did you find that it dissolved by itself in running water or did you have to help it along with your fingers? Thanks! :D
 
SudsyKat said:
Bergamot & Bubbles said:
busymakinsoap!":2rvznzu6]I found this one that look soooo cool (just like the lush ones) I really want to try it but can source SLS (**** living in a small country :( ) [url="http://purali.blogspot.com/2010/12/solid-bubble-bath-tutorial.html said:
http://purali.blogspot.com/2010/12/soli ... orial.html[/url]

I have tried this recipe as well and worked well.

B&B - did you find that it dissolved by itself in running water or did you have to help it along with your fingers? Thanks! :D
[/quote:2rvznzu6]

You can't just drop it in the bath like a bath bomb. I crumbled them under the running water with my hand. The small crumbles that landed in the tub did dissolve during the course of the bath.

I do have a recipe for a foaming bath bomb (it contains a surfactant for the bubbles) if that is what you are looking for. I have not tried it yet but let me know if you would be interested in trying it.
 
Foaming Bath Bomb Recipe

Hi Bergamot and Bubbles - I'd love to try your foaming bath bomb recipe. I have a regular bath bomb recipe that I usually use but I tried a bath bomb from Pier 1 that foamed and seemed to fizz forever, so I'd like to do a little experimenting with other recipes :lol:

Thanks!
 
I'm always up for new recipes and I'd love to try the foaming bath bomb. thanks!
 
I have not tried this yet so the recipe may need to be tweaked (maybe not).

Foaming Bath Balls
1 cup Citric Acid
2.5 Cups Baking Soda
1/4 cup of SLSa
1/4 cup Cream of Tartar)
1 teaspoon coconut oil
1 spray bottle of Distilled Water, Floral Hydrosol, or Witch Hazel
1/4 - 1/2 oz fragrance oil

Step 1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. If coconut oil is solid, warm it in the microwave and then blend your fragrance oil into it. Add color, fragrance/coconut oil mixture, and any herbs if desired (like chamomile powder, rose petal powder, kaolin clay, etc.)

Step 2. After you have your ingredients blended in your bowl, mist over the contents in the bowl with your water (or hydrosol or witch hazel), while continuing to mix well until you reach a ‘grainy’ or cornmeal type texture.

Step 3. Test your bowl ingredients by taking a handful and squeezing hard. When you are at the point that your mixture will stick together when compressed, stop misting with the spray bottle of liquid. Your mixture must be damp enough to stick together when compressed, but not too wet

Step 4. Using your mold such as a 2 piece plastic Christmas ball, scoop mixture up with both halves of the mold, overfilling both halves. Quickly press the two halves of the mold together, compressing the excess mixture into the center of the mold. Press hard and hold for about 15 to 20 seconds.

Step 5. Gently release the two mold halves from your bath ball. If you have difficulty, tap each side gently with the back of a spoon.

Step 6. Set bath ball to dry for 24 - 36 hours. When dry and hard, shrink wrap.
 
Still Trying to Get a Good Bubble Bar Recipe Formulated

Good morning everyone:

I have been working on bubble bars and after the first few batches I made, I have decided to leave glycerin out of my recipe. Lush Bubble Bars don't include it in their ingredient list AND my bars were tacky-feeling because of the glycerin.

So in my last batch, I left out the glycerin, added a little more of my dry ingredients, and also left out Cream of Tartar (trying to save a bit on costs).

That batch came out a little better in that they were no longer tacky-feeling, but that's about all the improvement I got. They still didn't crumble, and I still had to really work to mash the pieces between my fingers to get them to dissolve.

So it's back to the drawing board for me. I probably shouldn't have left out Cream of Tartar, I bet. And I'm also wondering if I need to add another dry ingredient into the mix . . . like corn starch or something. The only dry ingredients I use now are 8 oz Baking Soda, 8 oz Lathanol LAL (SLSa) and 5.5 oz Cream of Tartar.

Anyone have any helpful tips? I'm willing to do the legwork and make some failed batches, but in this economy, I can't afford to spend a fortune re-inventing the wheel. So I'm hoping to keep my experimental costs to somewhere under one million dollars ;-)

Thanks to the sweethearts who have already assisted me to give me a good starting point at which to begin my quest for a good Bubble Bar :)
 
Bubble Bars

Hi Krissy:

So my next recipe might look something like this?

100 g cornstarch
100 g baking soda
50 g SLSa
100 g liquid surfactant

Which 'liquid surfactant' do you use? My original recipe called for both Cocamide DEA (2.4 oz) and Cocamidopropyl Betaine (2.2 oz).

Thanks so much for your help!
 
So you don't use any Cocamide DEA or Cocamidopropyl Betaine at all? Hmmmm . . . I love the Lush ones and they use those two ingredients, which makes me think I need to use them as well. But if you don't use those ingredients, and you are happy with the ones you make, then that certainly makes me re-think my recipe. Interesting . . .

So if you're pretty happy with your recipe, maybe I need to order some of the Sulfoacetate/Sulfosuccinate Blend and try it.

I do have a question though, Amanda says "If I wanted more of a dough, then I almost have to double the Sulfoacetate/Sulfosuccinate Blend." Has that been your experience as well? Because I do want my bubble bars in a doughy texture so that I can work with them instead of pressing them into molds.

Thanks for letting me pick your brain about this. I really REALLY appreciate it!
 
Midnightstorm, I too have used Amanda's recipe for bubble bars and am looking for a more dough-like consistency. I have had to add quite a bit more of the Sulfoacetate/Sulfosuccinate Blend to achieve this. I love Lush's bubble bars and thats what I have always wanted to make but can't seem to get there just yet! I wish there were more on the web about making them!
 
Lush Top Secret Bubble Bar Recipe Wanted

If only we knew the secret recipe! :D

I read somewhere on one of the soap discussionboards about a person claiming to have once worked at Lush, but the recipe they gave for the Bubble Bars had several ingredients that were different than what Lush lists on their web site, so I don't really think that person knew the recipe.

The recipe this person gave out had glycerin in it and Lush doesn't use glycerin because it's not on their ingredient list. The Lush Bubble Bars can sit out (unwrapped) in the air and don't sweat or get ruined. That's the texture I'm looking for.
 
this is my reply on Amanda's site about the bubble bars:

i just finished making these but i subbed out the arrow root powder for cornstarch. just that one change made such a difference in my outcome compared to yours. i ended up with a moldable dough that wasn’t sticky and held together perfectly instead of the more powdery mix that you have. funny cuz i was wanting the powder this time…
i love this recipe and am so excited that it works so well for me! thanks again Amanda!
 
No, I haven't tried this one but it's very similar to another one I have been looking at. The only difference in this new one you posted the link to is that it contains Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLS), which mine doesn't. A lot of people seem to be afraid of SLS and they use SLSa instead, but your recipe has both. I have the Tartar but not the SLS, so maybe I'll try to find it and try this recipe. It does look promising :D
 

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