Too much moisture in my bath bombs???

[ALimestoll]

My bath bombs popped out of their molds. I made them with 2 cups baking soda, 1 cup epsom salt, 1 cup citric acid, 2 tsp olive oil, 2 tsp distilled water…. And a little witch hazel. So nothing worked with this recipe. It grew out of the mold completely, the second batch I left out the witch hazel so it only expanded a tiny bit.
Not sure what I should do differently….??

 

[AliOop]

I have a lot of trouble whenever I use Epsom salts. They draw so much moisture from the air, and that makes my bombs activate, just like yours did.

I've become a huge fan of the Creative Bath Lab recipe from Dora. She lives in Louisiana, with very high humidity. My humidity isn't that high where I live, but her recipe turns out perfectly for me every time, except one day when it was raining (I should have known better). She shares it freely on her YT channel: 1 cup baking soda, 1/2 cup citric acid, 1/4 cup corn starch, 1/2 teaspoon SLSA (optional but makes great foam), 8 milliliters fragrance, 6 milliliters polysorbate 80, 5 milliliters water. You can add mica for color, or liquid dye if you reduce the water accordingly. I converted all that to weights and then percentages so I could scale up and down.

Anyway, removing the Epsom salts really made a difference for me. However, unlike Dora on Creative Bath Lab, I mix all my dry ingredients except the CA. Then I mix all wet ingredients together in a separate container. Then I dump the wet into the dry mix, completely incorporating everything very well, before adding the CA last. It's never activated when I do it that way, and the bombs turn out rock hard.

 

[ALimestoll]

Thank you for your reply. It makes sense. I’m in Ohio, and we had melting snow when I made them. Probably wasn’t a good time to make them, especially using Epsom salt like I did.
Thank you again, for your reply.

 

[AliOop]

Ah yes, if you’ve made this recipe successfully in the past, then the high humidity from melting snow that day may be the problem.

You could also try reducing the ES so the bombs draw less moisture from the air. A 2:1 ratio of bicarb to ES is pretty high compared to most other recipes I’ve seen which do include ES.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!

 

[Savage Daughter]

My bath bombs popped out of their molds. I made them with 2 cups baking soda, 1 cup epsom salt, 1 cup citric acid, 2 tsp olive oil, 2 tsp distilled water…. And a little witch hazel. So nothing worked with this recipe. It grew out of the mold completely, the second batch I left out the witch hazel so it only expanded a tiny bit.
Not sure what I should do differently….??

O'm a little late replying to this but....

Personally, I use some grain alcohol - not isopropyl or denatured alcohol as they can have things like acetone & other things in them which I don't want in my bath water - mixed with some distilled aloe & some witch hazel. I find this helps moisture dissipate more quickly. My granddaughter & I just made some really nice bath bombs last month which turned out perfectly, and rock hard.

I also find that, because I add things like clays as natural colorants, this tends to absorb some moisture. I use clays in very small amounts as you don't want too much moisture being held in the clay. I do find them to be excellent colorants though, and they add a nice feel to the water.

Turkey red castor oil can be used in place of polysorbate 80 as well, which works just as effectively & adds some nice skin conditioning benefits. It keeps your tub slip-free as well.

Epsom salts to attract moisture, for sure. Observe how fast they clump up in a bag or bottle. You could try pink Himalayan salts or dendretic salts, which I find helps with scent retention.

I hope you figured things out