Bath Bombs, Careful! They Actually Are A Bit Dangerous
My dear friend and all-star crafter,
Jen, and I decided to make bath bombs during a get away to Kiawah
Island. We used the
Soap Queen's tutorial for Mondo Bath
Bombsand the Supplies from Bramble Berrysupplies as suggested.
Although we are both expert crafters, we are soap making rookies.
Jen had made the bath bomb cupcakes from the Soap Queen's kit prior
and had mixed results and I have never tried my hand at soap
making, but we were certain we could tackle some bath bombs and
dove right in.
The supplies we used are:
Stainless Steel Bath Bomb Mold
32 oz Citric Acid
64 oz Baking Soda
.75 oz Pink Grapefruit Fragrance Oil
.75 oz Tropical Vacation Fragrance Oil
Witch Hazel
Red Mica
Aqua Mica
*please see note at the end of the post*
With our supplies and recipe in hand, we dove right in. (Thanks for
all the supplies Jen!). We ran into a few minor bumps in the road.
Some measurements in the recipe had to be converted from ml to
teaspoons or vice versa for to accommodate the supplies from
Bramble Berry. The consistency of the finished mixture is based on
feel and not exact measure of the Witch Hazel, which became
important later. But all in all, things went smoothly at
first.
Jen also brought adorable packaging supplies. So we knocked those
out too and got everything ready to package our lovely bath bombs
after they had a chance to dry,
Word of warning: The Soap Queen suggests on her
website that you might want to wear gloves for her projects. I
would STRONGLY suggest wearing gloves, a mask and
doing this in a well ventilated area. Jen and I both have sensitive
skin and were bothered by the mixture on our hands; we both
experienced other break-outs on our skin-even into the next day.
And we both ended up with headaches and nearly asphyxiated from the
airborne bomb mixture! Oh, and it wrecked our nails too. Careful!
Bath bombs are dangerous.
By the time we finished up and headed off to bed, we both had
headaches but were satisfied with our mondo bomb results. Good
night little bath bombs!
Then in the morning.....
disaster!
The tropical vacation bath bombs held
together, but were softer than the bombs sold at lush. They had
become flat on the bottom and not held their bomb shape, but still
looked giftable. The pink grapefruit bombs however looked like a
crime scene. One had completely exploded and the others had grown a
good deal larger than their molded size. They had a crater-y, not
smooth texture, and were spongy. SO DISSAPOINTING!
We did some triage, remolded the pink grapefruit bombs, in an
effort to salvage them and wrapped all the bombs in saran wrap in
hopes of preventing any other explosions, and at least keeping the
bomb parts out of the paper shred in the packaging if they did
decide to combust.
We looked to the Soap Queen to try and find out where we went
wrong. The bombs, although we made them with the same recipe, at
the same time and assembled them the same way, had different
results. And none of them really turned out as hoped.
***The first thing that we found on the Soap Queen website was a
NEW BATH BOMB TUTORIAL with a NEW RECPIE posted only days before.
http://soap-queen.blogspot.com/2010/06/soap-queen-tv-bath-fizzy-fun.html
The updated recipe adds clay to the mix and the video tutorial also
mentions that you might want to use less witch hazel in humid
climates…that would have been helpful to know. ***
Anyway, we tried to salvage our bombs and they did look cute once
they were all packaged up.
Jen and I are both perfectionists, and
didn't know if these guys are really giftable. They don't look as
professional as the lush bath bombs when unpackaged but they doo
fizz like crazy and smell delicious. Over all results: this
tutorial was fun and we enjoyed making them. It would have been
more enjoyable if the recipe had stated to specifically wear a mask
and gloves and work in a well ventilated area. The info about the
humidity levels would have been key also. We were both a little
disappointed with the results. Although the bath bombs are
functional, they are not as professional looking as we would have
liked-just borderline giftable, but fine for home use. I plan to
try the new recipe with added clay-I'll keep you posted! In the
mean time, any bath bomb tips from you fellow crafters out there
would be greatly appreciated!