Bubble Bar Adventures Part Deuce

I’m backkkkkkkk. Imagine me saying that in some sneaky creepy Chucky doll way. Or maybe I should have gone with vmak’s back alright! But you would only get the reference if you know the Backstreet Boys song that line comes from.

After my epic failure with the SoapQueen’s solid bubble bar recipe, I told myself that I am fully capable of making these bars. I have a freaking college degree. I can make bubble bars!

I set out to find another recipe to try.

My journey brought me to Bonnie’s recipe from the Good Earth Spa. Her recipe uses the same ingredients as the SoapQueen’s but in different ratios which works better for me. The other thing I like about her recipe that is it uses less Cream of Tartar which is one of the most expensive ingredients to the recipe.
Last time, my bubble bars failed because the amount of glycerin used. I didn’t really understand how glycerin could be the complete downfall of my bars until I did some research. Glycerin is a humectant which attracts and retains moisture in layman’s terms and explains the sweaty bubble bars. The outrageous amount of glycerin was busy soaking up all the moisture in the air and trapping it inside my bubble bars. That bastard!

With that all in mind, Bonnie’s recipe seemed like it would produce better results due to the higher amount of corn starch in the recipe. Corn starch helps absorb any moisture that may be drawn in by the glycerin.

I found her recipe on various forums and figured I would give it a whirl. You can watch her video/recipe here:

1/3 Cup Cornstarch
1/3 Cup Cream of Tartar
1 Cup Baking Soda
1 Cup- 1 1/2 Cups SLSA (Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate)
1 Tablespoon Tapioca Starch
1/3 Cup – 1/2 cup Vegetable Glycerine
1 Tablespoon Moisturizing Oil
2 teaspoons, more or less Fragrance or Essential Oil
Colorant of your choice.

Before I started to bubble bar adventure part deuce, I watched the video just in case there were any special tricks or tips I should be aware of which actually helped a lot. The video gives you an idea of what kind of dough consistency to look for. I noticed on both the SoapQueen and Good Earth Spa recipes that there is no set amount of glycerin to be used and that there is a varying range, so seeing the texture in the video gives you an idea of what you want to achieve.

The steps are pretty simple. Mix your dry and wet ingredients separate and then together. Squish it all together until you get a dough ball that you can mold and cut up. Sounds fairly self-explanatory, right? It kinda is and kinda not.

Since I had ruined my first batch with too much glycerin, I was pretty reluctant to just dump in the full amount of glycerin and hope for the best. I found the best way is to start off with a small amount of glycerin that is fairly close to the amount in the recipe and slowly add in more until you reach the desired texture. SoapQueen’s recipe seemed to look for a wetter, squishier dough while Bonnie’s appeared more crumbly. Personally, I prefer the crumblier dough from Bonnie’s recipe. It’s moldable and you can rest assured that the amount of glycerin isn’t too high.

I got my dry ingredients and wet ingredients measured out minus the full amount of glycerin and started mixing it all together. My dough was too crumbly with just the 1/3cup of glycerin so I slowly added in 5ml/1 tsp of glycerin at a time until I got a pillowy but drier texture in the dough. I ended up using less than ½ cup which is why I don’t like to just dump it all in. I could have ended up with another over-glycerined bubble loaf. Rolling the dough out was easier this time since the dough was drier.

If you are going to attempt the swirl bubble bar design, I suggest you get the colored layers flattened to a nice thin layer otherwise the swirl will look more like a color blob with a little dot of color in the center. Another tip to keep in mind when rolling the dough out for the swirl, is that you want to shape the dough so it’s like a rectangle. You want to roll the dough on the shorter side. The longer edge of the dough is what helps create the swirls. The more times you roll the dough over equals out to how many rings of swirls you will get. Rolling the dough thin allows for more rings.
As you can see from my photo, I had to learn the hard way. I didn’t roll it out thin enough so that I would get a decent swirl. My OCD kicked in and I skillfully cut apart the bars and reswirled each one individually.
It ended up giving a smoother finish on the surface versus that texture look when first cut. Some people prefer the texture, some like it smooth. You can achieve a smoother cut texture if you allow your bubble bar log to rest for a while before you cut into it.

I made two batches using this recipe – one using 1 ½ cups of SLSa and the other using just 1 cup. Both batches have been drying for a few days now and look a million times better than my first attempt. The outside of the bars have hardened up with just a negligible amount of glycerin sweat on the bottom. It probably is just the humidity in the air since it’s been raining on and off. Sprinkling baking soda on your surface where the bars dry will help absorb any glycerin sweat. They are nowhere near the blobby mess I had before.
I can tell the bars haven’t fully cured because there is still some give in the center when I push in. I’m hoping these ends up curing to a Lush like texture where it’s hard enough to with stand normal interaction but soft enough that you can still crumble it into the bath. Right now, I would probably be satisfied since I could crumble it into the bath without a problem, but the exterior isn’t as hard as I would prefer. I’m going to give them another day or so before testing in the bath.

-vmak

Bubble Bar Adventures Part One

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

Bubble Bar Posts to Come!

So I wrote a couple of bubble bar recipe reviews a couple of months back but never got around to posting them. I had a few legit reasons such as my proofreader disappeared, the humidity in my house got wayyy too high to make more for process photos, and most importantly, I STARTED ANOTHER HOBBY! I know, I know. Do I really need any more hobbies?

Answer: Yes. This bitch has decided she is taking her creative talents and crafting to the lovely world of soap making. I’ll update you guys on those adventures shortly but for now, here are my bubble bar adventures. My apologies for the delay in posting but at least after a few months, I can give you a legit update on how the bars did over time and their performance.

Toodles!

Oatmeal Bath Bombs

Bath Bombs. Yes, Bath Bombs.

I started looking into Bath Bombs (bbs) because my friend, Lee Rong, had asked me to craft some home beauty products for her. Naturally, I got a little curious since I have never heard of such a thing. Standard procedure of any 20 something year old was to automatically Google “DIY bath bombs” which came back with a bunch of different recipes and YouTube videos on Lush Bath Bombs. Looks like Lush has got the market down for these bad boys (Ha that can also be what bb stands for).

BBs are basically balls of baking soda and citric acid combined with beneficial ingredients for skin such as Epsom salts, kaolin clay, corn starch, oatmeal, essential oils, etc. that you drop into your bath water. They fizz up and then release whatever oils or color into the water. The ingredients you add to the baking soda and citric acid is what provides the skin benefits to these balls of wonder.   You can really add anything you want into these as long as you make sure you have the right ratio of baking soda to citric acid to ensure for a good fizz.

The first bb recipe I came up with uses oatmeal as a binder along with Epsom salt. Most of the recipes I came across used corn starch which I felt was just a little weird. Maybe it’s just the Chinese in me, but I feel cornstarch+ water = gravy thickener and I just don’t want that in my bath. That’s not to say that corn starch doesn’t have its benefits but I noticed none of the Lush bombs used corn starch.

So I thought to myself, what can I use that is fine and powdery but also provide awesome skin benefits without weirding myself out too much? OATMEAL!

Oatmeal has been used in beauty products forever so I see no reason why you shouldn’t use it in a bath bomb too. Oatmeal can be used to treat acne, dryness, moisturize and relieve itchiness, skin lightener, and natural cleanser. I’ve seen some recipes that just mix whole pieces of oatmeal into their bath bombs which makes them look kinda like powdery granola balls and powdery granola balls do not look as cute as those Lush bbs with surprises and glitter, hence, the use of my handy dandy coffee grinder that I use to turn whole oatmeal into oatmeal flour.

Epsom salt is also used because it’s great for relaxing the nervous system, curing skin problems, soothing back pain and aching limbs, easing muscle strain, healing cuts, treating cold and congestion, and drawing toxins from the body. It also helps bind these balls together.

Throw in some essential oils and moisturizing oils such as coconut, avocado oil, jojoba oil, sunflower oil, etc. and we have bath bombs!

The hardest part about making bath bombs is the moisture content. Too little water and your bombs will crumble and fall apart. Too much water and the citric acid and baking soda reaction will occur and your bombs won’t fizz and will just be growing balls of oatmeal that sink to the bottom of your bath. To combat that, I suggest using a spray bottle so that you can lightly mist the mixture until it clumps together almost like wet sand. Some people suggest using witch hazel instead of water because the witch hazel won’t cause a reaction as quickly. I didn’t have any on hand so I just went with water.

Coloring the bath bombs is completely optional and some people may just prefer the plain ol’ white. I, on the other hand am obsessed with the idea of colored baths and have used both food coloring and soap colorants. I learned from the soap lady I get my colors from that all she really does for gel colorants is mix the mica powders with some glycerin. If you plan on making this a hobby, you may want to look into just mixing your own gel colorants. Mica powders are extremely strong and a little goes a long way. You are at a higher risk of staining your tub with mica powders than food coloring.

You can use a multitude of different molds to personalize your bath bombs. I’ve experimented with silicone which gave me those awesome little orange/pink slices and even used an ice cream sammich mold for that heart. I think plastic molds work a little better than silicone. The plastic gives a harder surface to compact your bath bombs against and you really wanna pack the mixture in. Silicone molds work but are a little harder to get the pieces out, especially if they are super detailed. You may end up ruining some of the details if the mixture isn’t just the right texture. Just look around the house and get creative with it. You would be surprised by what you can use to shape these things. I’ve even used cookie cutters!

 With all that being said, here goes the recipe.

 Oatmeal Bath Bombs

1 cup baking soda
½ cup citric acid
½ cup Epsom salt
½ cup ground oatmeal
3-4 tablespoon coconut oil (you can substitute any of the oils listed above such as almond, sunflower, jojoba, avocado, or even do a combination)
1 tsp essential oil (whichever scent you prefer)
2 tablespoon water or witch hazel (you won’t use all of it)
Food coloring (optional – amount depends on whether you want your bath to be really colored)

1. Combine baking soda, Epsom salt and ground oatmeal into a bowl. You can sift the ingredients if you want to make sure there are no clumps but I just like to run my hands through the mixture. If you have clumps, you will get little tiny warts on your bath bombs which won’t be pretty.

2. In a separate bowl, combine coconut oil and essential oils.

3. Slowly mix in your wet ingredients to the dry ingredient mixture. You will want to do this slowly as to not activate the baking soda. If you want to color your bath, add some drops of food coloring into the mixture as you combine the wet and dry ingredients. Keep in mind that however much color you add will be transferred to your bath water. If you want a really vibrant color in the tub without dyeing yourself with food coloring, you can purchase special colorants that are used for bath bombs.

4. Add in the citric acid into the wet/dry mixture and combine evenly. I like to add this more towards the end to try to minimize any baking soda/acid reaction that may occur while mixing in the wet ingredients. I noticed they also did this on the Lush manufacturing videos.

5. If your mixture is not moist enough that it clumps together in your hand like wet sand, lightly spray the mixture with water or witch hazel, one spray at a time to make sure that you don’t over moisturize the ingredients. There is no set amount of water you will need to add as humidity in the room can affect the mixture.

6. Once the mixture is able to clump together, you can start filling your bb molds. I use plastic ornaments that come apart and I like to use two different colors. You can fill your bath bombs with whatever kind of design you would like, just make sure to pack it in tightly. I mean really squish it in there. The more compact it is, the more fizzies you will have in the bath.

7. Let your bombs sit in the mold for a few minutes and then slightly tap on them to remove the mold. The bombs will need to cure for at least 24-48 hours before use.

Notes

*I used a 70mm plastic ornament from Hobby Lobby for $1.29.

*Depending on how well I compact the mixture into the mold, I get around a 6.5oz bath bomb. I would say this recipe created about 3.5 bath bombs.

*Since you are using hydrating oil in these bombs, your tub may be a little slippery when you get out. Use caution!

*For sanitary purposes, you should wear gloves while making these. If you are using two colors or more, be careful not to accidentally get some of the other colors mixed in together. I like to fill each color all at one time into the balls so I can rinse off my gloves between.

*The first test of this bath bomb did not float. I suspect it is the oatmeal that causes it to sink. I plan on experimenting with other mixtures such as kaolin clay and milk powder. I’ll let you know how it goes. A small leftover bomb I had floated just fine so if you want to keep the oatmeal, just make the bombs smaller and they should float.

*I used less than 10 drops in my mix the first time around and I wasn’t impressed with the color. I wanted a fireworks show. I added more food coloring the next time and the bath had a pretty tint to it without staining the tub. I used at least 12 drops for half the mixture.

Clay and Oatmeal Mask

At 26, you would think I wouldn’t be too worried about wrinkles and my face just yet, but I am. Thanks to Mingo, I was blessed with huge pores. I mean huge. A lady at work once told me I had nice makeup on but I needed to use some pore filling cream. After that, I definitely started paying more attention to my skin and face.

First I started buying some Kiehl’s Rare Earth Pore Cleansing Masque. $23 for a 5oz jar. That’s pretty pricy, but I gave in and bought some when there was a 20% off sale. I figured it’s cheaper than Botox.

I wasn’t really impressed. I mean my face felt softer and all that but it wasn’t necessarily spectacular.

When I started looking into all these DIY projects, I figured there was easy at home face masks that I could do to produce the same results with less chemicals and for far cheaper.

I’ve been doing this clay and oatmeal mask every other day for a few weeks now and even White Man noticed my pores looked better. He pointed out the largeness before too. Thanks, Babe.

1TBSP Ground Oatmeal
1TBSP Bentonite Clay
1/2TBSP Greek Yogurt
1/2TBSP Honey
1/2TBSP Milk
1/4 TSP Sunflower Oil (Optional. Great for dry skin or if you want to let the mask sit longer.)

For the oatmeal, I put regular non-instant oatmeal into my coffee/spice grinder and just grind until its flour like. I grind a bunch at a time and keep it in a mason jar.

I bought my bentonite clay on Amazon. 32ozs of clay for $10.25…compare that to the Kiehls mask. Cray talk!

Make sure not let the clay come in contact with anything metal. It will neutralize some of its magnetic properties which helps suck the dirt out of those pores!

I’m sure you can figure out where to acquire the rest of the ingredients. Probably your pantry and refrigerator.

I always like to make mine in one of these smaller mason jars. Its glass and easy to store any extras in the fridge. I always like to put a saran wrap layer between the lid and the jar just to make sure the clay doesn’t touch any metal.

Mix up the ingredients. I use Popsicle sticks. They are cheap and can be helpful for spreading the mask all over your face.

Make sure you get a nice smooth paste. If it’s a little too thick still, just add in a little more milk. I like to switch up the consistencies sometimes depending on how much time I have to leave the mask on.

Once you reach the right consistency, just slather it on. Avoid your eyes. You know the standard instructions.

Let it sit for 10-15 minutes.

There is some debate whether you should let it dry on your skin because the clay begins to take out moisture when dry. Personally, I don’t have a problem with it because I find the milk and honey helps keep the skin moisturized and I usually do a sugar face scrub before I put the mask on. The scrub usually leaves enough oil on my face that my skin is still soft and hydrated even with the clay drying. So I let mine sit for longer.

When you’re ready to remove the mask (depending on whether you let it dry or not), try to get as much of it into the trash as possible. You never know if the clay will clog your pipes. If you let it dry as much as I do, you can start to just rub it off like little crumbles into the trash.

Your face should be nice and soft, maybe a little red but that will subside in a few hours. People with chronic acne swear by bentonite clay and I’m starting to understand why. I just imagine the clay making this sucking sound while it’s pulling all the toxins out of your skin.

Cheers to cleaner pores!