Let it foam! Let it foam! Can’t hold back these bubbles anymoreeeee.
Yea, I had to be lame and use a Frozen reference. Don’t pretend that you don’t blast that “Let It Go” song in your car when no one is around and sing with your hands in the air like you really mean it….ok maybe it’s just me. I digress.
So for the past couple of weeks I have been obsessed with DIY bath projects and currently, bubble bars are the bane of my existence. I’ve pretty much become obsessive with reading forums and blogs and whatever else I can find on how to create these little bars of joy.
I guess I should start with explaining the little bars of joy to everyone. Bubble bars are solid bubble bath bars that you can crumble into your bath which will produce a plethora of bubbles. You can add in moisturizing oils, essential oils, colorants and what not to create a luxurious bath experience. Some people make bath truffles which are a combination of bath bomb, bubble bar, and bath melts (we’ll get into these later). These bubble bars seem to have longer lasting bubbles and have the added advantage of essential oils which contain therapeutic functions. Sure, you can drop some oils into your normal bubble bath mix, but somehow I just don’t think it’s as exciting as crumbling an oz. of these bars to create a tub full of long lasting foamy bubbles.
The problem is bubble bars from Lush are pretty pricy in my opinion. A bubble bar alone would cost you ranges from $5-10. And honestly, combined with the price of a bath bomb, who is that balling to take $10+ baths all the time? Certainly not I. With that in mind, I set out on my bubble bar adventure.
After sifting through all the information I could find online, I narrowed it down to 3 different recipes. The base ingredients were very similar but the chemical reaction part of the recipes differed. Now, let me disclaimer myself and say that I am no professional soap maker nor am I a chemist so bear with me as I go through this process.
Thus far, I have tried 2 of the 3 recipes. The third recipe most closely resembles the ingredients from Lush, but it also contains some chemicals I just didn’t have on hand so I haven’t tested that recipe just yet.
Many of the recipes you find online contain either Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) or Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSa). These are the chemicals that create the fluffy clouds of bubbles everyone wants in their tubs. Lush uses SLS which many people try to avoid because of their skin sensitivity. There has also been a lot of research done regarding the dangers to your health when using SLS. According to the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database, SLS is a “moderate hazard” that has been linked to cancer, neurotoxicity, organ toxicity, skin irritation and endocrine disruption. I am up in the air about the whole issue but I also assume that if Lush is using it and is making millions of dollars, that you can probably use SLS if you really wanted to.
SLSa is a milder chemical that is actually derived from coconut and palm oils and is considered of natural origin. Many people prefer SLSa over SLS because it doesn’t penetrate your skin cell which means less likelihood of any allergic or skin sensitivity. SLSa will create a lather that removes surface oil, dirt, and bacteria without stripping your skin. Most of the recipes I found used SLSa so I went with that.
The other ingredients I found that were common in most recipes were:
Baking Soda
Cream of Tartar
Corn Starch
Essential Oils
Glycerin
Tapioca Powder
The first recipe I tried was from SoapQueen.com. You can find it here:
I had high hopes for this recipe since she does call herself the Soap Queen and had some pretty good reviews. One downside is that her original recipe is by weight which I thought at first would be more accurate, ended up working to my disadvantage. Personally, if I was to try her recipe again I would go by measurements. When I measured everything out by weight, it definitely did not equal out to her measurements given.
7 oz. Liquid Glycerin
1.8 oz. Castor Oil
0.7 oz. Celestial Waters Fragrance Oil
10.1 oz. Baking Soda
7.4 oz. Cream of Tartar
2.7 oz. Corn Starch
0.6 oz. Modified Tapioca Powder
5.8 oz. SLSA (Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate)
12 mL Diluted Emerald Lab Color
15 mL Diluted Blue Mix Lab Color
Or by measurement
1 cup Baking Soda
1 cup Cream of Tartar
1/2 cup Cornstarch
1 tablespoon Tapioca Powder
1 1/2 cups SLSA
1/3 – 1/2 cup Glycerin
1 tablespoon Castor Oil
2 tablespoons Celestial Waters Fragrance Oil
The problem I found with the weight recipe was that 7oz. of glycerin by weight was way too much and ruined my bars. This may not always be the case because the level of humidity in your area will play a role in how much glycerin you need. Glycerin is a humectant which means that it will automatically attract the moisture in the air.When I first rolled out the bars, the dough seemed a little too wet and squishy but Anne Marie mentioned in her video that the dough would be sticky. I figured they would dry out in the curing process but I was very wrong.
My bars looked fine when I initially cut them and put them out to dry but by day 2, the bars turned into piles of wet/dry sand…kinda looked like Thing from Fantastic Four. The sides that were touching the parchment paper started oozing out liquid which turns out to be called “glycerin dew” by soap makers. I’m just going to say that the bars were sweaty. I did read in the reviews that people did have some sweating issues with their bars and that maybe it could be remedied by just allowing the bars to cure longer.
And so I waited. 4 more days go by and the bars have lost more of their shape and have turned into little mounds of blue and purple wet/dry sand. I couldn’t take it anymore and decided that I would fix these bars somehow since I used the most expensive essential oils I had on this test recipe. Next time I test a recipe, I’m going with the cheapest throw away oils I have on hand.
To remedy this blobby bar situation, I decided I would just smoosh all the bars back together into one big dough ball and add more dry ingredients to combat the high amount of glycerin. I didn’t measure and kinda just kept sprinkling different dry ingredients based loosely on the ratios that were given in the original recipe until I got dough that I felt would be more moldable and less like marshmallow fluff. I ended up adding a little over half of its own weight back in dry ingredients to combat all that glycerin.
The bars are curing again now and are on day 2 of the curing process. So far, the bars look a million times better and are holding their shape. Whether they may contract the dreaded glycerin sweat is still out for debate but I have faith that these will have more of a Lush like texture.
Keep in mind that if you try out this recipe, and your bars get sweaty, they are still usable even if they are a wet blobby mound. You just won’t get the fun of crumbling it under the water. I took a small piece of the dough and threw it into a bowl when it was still wet just to see if it would make bubbles and was I surprised. I looked like a little kid who just discovered science or something.
I’ll update you guys on how they turn out!
TTFN
MAK SWAG 