{"id":7253,"date":"2011-11-27T19:20:43","date_gmt":"2011-11-28T01:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatcakessoapworks.com\/handmade-soap-blog\/?p=7253"},"modified":"2011-11-27T19:20:43","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T01:20:43","slug":"bubble-bar-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greatcakessoapworks.com\/handmade-soap-blog\/index.php\/bubble-bar-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Bubble Bar Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

I decided over a month ago to try to formulate some solid bubble bars. The kind you crumble into the bath water for super luxurious bubbles and great fragrance and leave your skin soft – not dry and irritated. My first attempt was a disaster! I had the great idea to add some borax to the mix for extra water softening. Well, that created a volcano!
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First attempt at solid bubble bars<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nI kept stirring it down until it finally stopped growing and let the girls use it in their bath. It smelled like strawberries, and they enjoyed the bubbles!<\/p>\n

The next attempt was better. It was actually solid! The only problem was that it ended up being too dry, so it was cracked. I tested this one myself and ended up with TONS of bubbles that lasted for a long time.
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Dry, solid bubble bars<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

However, now that this batch has sat around for several weeks, it is as solid as a ROCK and the colors have faded considerably.<\/p>\n

The next two attempts yielded softer results – too soft. Several weeks later they are finally pretty solid. I used water soluble colors for these batches as well, and they have also faded quite a bit.
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Lavender and Honey Almond bubble bars<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

At this point, Hubby suggested that I try using a cookie press to make them look better. So I ordered one from Amazon, and it arrived the day before Thanksgiving! By Thursday night, I was ready to try it out. I tweaked my recipe just a bit to see if I could find a happy medium of hardness. I am using some really mild surfactants, plus baking soda, cream of tartar, arrowroot powder, and cetyl esters for an extra silky feel on the skin. I also decided to use micas for color so that they won’t fade as much over time. And I added a just a tad more fragrance, using a sample I had never used before. Oh. My. Word. Those first bubble bath “cookies” that I made with the cookie press were so strong, I ended up throwing them out – no photos even! The house stunk and I was getting a headache! But the good news was, they were reasonably hard by the next morning! <\/p>\n

So Friday morning, I decided it was time to get into production mode. These are the three kinds I came up with:<\/p>\n

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Sugar Cookie Bubble Bath Confection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Smells like a vanilla cookie – comes in 5 different colors, each sprinkled with glitter.<\/p>\n

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Candy Cane Bubble Bath Confection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Made with peppermint essential oil and sprinkled with red & green glitter.<\/p>\n

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Sweet Dreams Bubble Bath Confection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Soothing blend of lavender, patchouli, palmarosa and ylang ylang essential oils and sprinkled with glitter of course! Two of these got smashed, or fell apart, so I let the girls try them out in their bath last night. I took a photo of the tub, so you can see how many bubbles you get with just two:<\/p>\n

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Two bubble bath confections make a good amount of bubbles!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is probably the minimum amount that you would want. I would use more for a truly luxurious bath! Even my older daughter who gets excema in the winter months hasn’t had any flare-ups from testing my bubble bath – which is great news since she loves bubble baths, and all the store-bought brands definitely cause flare-ups! <\/p>\n

At this point, the Candy Cane batch is the only one showing signs of being hard enough to ship. The other two are still a bit spongy and I would worry about them breaking in transit. If all else fails, I will just sell these batches locally and try to find time to re-formulate new batches for shipping. Any words of wisdom in the area of packaging and formulating are greatly appreciated! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I decided over a month ago to try to formulate some solid bubble bars. The kind you crumble into the bath water for super luxurious bubbles and great fragrance and leave your skin soft – not dry and irritated. My […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[704],"tags":[706,705],"class_list":["post-7253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bubble-bars","tag-solid-bubble-bars","tag-solid-bubble-bath"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t