This may be a surprise, but in my almost 10 years of formulating, I've never made bubble bars. But I have wanted to make them for years. My family is not doing gifts this year, but I want to have a little something to hand out to people, since I am hosting. So I decided to try making some bubble bars and giving those away as some gifts to people. Now most recipes you see for bubble bars online R and cups in tablespoons, but my brain doesn't really work that way when it comes to formulating.
So I decided to do is take a look at some bubble bar recipes on YouTube and I just guesstimated a formula by looking at that. Here are links to both of the videos that are used to create this guestimated formula;
No, I didn't test out this formula before making a 2,000 g batch, but it actually turned out perfect. The only thing is, I think maybe they could've been just a little bit more wet. They started to crumble a bit when I was trying to roll them up, but it also could've just been because it's really dry in my house right now because the heat is running or maybe I just let the bubble bar batter sit for too long since I was filming on my phone and for Patreon. So that's just something to keep in mind. Either way, if you decide to use this formula it will work out totally fine. But if you do like a more wet bubble bar, then increase the wet ingredients and subtract probably from the baking soda percentage. Also, I have tested out these bubble bars and honestly I'm not too impressed with the amount of bubbles it makes. I'm wondering if they will bubble more if I just used SLSA instead of a combination of SLSA and SCI. So I definitely want to do more bubble bar experiments. They did bubble up, just not as much as I was hoping.
Formula;
Phase A (Dry Ingredients)
25% Baking Soda
20% Cream of Tartar
10% Corn Starch or Arrowroot Powder can you turn up the heat (I used a mix of both)
Phase B (Wet Ingredients)
6% Glycerin
3% Fragrance Oil - I used Bramble Berry’s Watermelon Sugar Fragrance Oil
2,000 Gram Recipe; (makes 12 - 3" x 3" bars and 5 duds)
Phase A (Dry Ingredients)
500 g Baking Soda
400 g Cream of Tartar
200 g Corn Starch or Arrowroot Powder (I used a mix of both)
Phase B (Wet Ingredients)
120 g Cocamidopropyl Betaine
120 g Glycerin
100 g Polysorbate 80
60 g Fragrance Oil - I used Bramble Berry’s Watermelon Sugar Fragrance Oil
Substitutions;
SCI or SLSA (I used a mix of both) - Sodium Coco Sulfate (SCS), Sodium Lauryl Sulfate Powder, or Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate Powder (any anionic powdered surfactant should work)
Baking Soda - You could try using more cream of tartar or corn starch or arrowroot powder in place of it
Cream of Tartar - Citric Acid, but it will make bubble bar hard to crumble. Using more Corn Starch or Arrowroot Powder might be a better substitute. Could also try Tapioca Starch.
Corn Starch or Arrowroot Powder (I used a mix of both) - Tapioca Starch or you can try more baking soda or cream of tartar in place of it.
Polysorbate 80 - no sub
Fragrance Oil - Essential Oil
Benefits/purpose of each ingredient;
Baking Soda - reacts with the cream of Tartar to make more stable bubbles & helps form the bubble bar.
Cream of Tartar - helps stabilize the foam and bubbles. Helps form the bar, and helps keep the bar from getting too hard so you can easily crumble it.
Corn Starch or Arrowroot Powder (I used a mix of both) - helps to soften skin, helps form the bubble bar, and helps stabilize the foam/bubbles
Glycerin - helps bind everything together.
Polysorbate 80 - helps disperse the colors and the fragrance oil. Also helps keeps the coloring from staining your bathtub. So don't skip using this unless you want a stained bathtub!
Fragrance Oil - makes your bath smell good
Directions;
Put on a respirator & combine Phase A (Dry Ingredients) in a large bowl and mix with a whisk or with your hands. I found it easier to mix with my hands(Gloved). Also make sure to break up any chunks.
In a separate container combine Phase B (Wet Ingredients) and mix.
Pour Phase B (Wet Ingredients) into Phase A (Dry Ingredients) a little bit at a time while mixing with a spatula or with your hands(Gloved).
At this time it might seem like there isn't enough wet ingredients to completely saturate the dry ingredients, but keep mixing it with your hands(Gloved). It takes some time to get it all combined.
Once the two phases are combined, you can divide it up into separate bowls, depending on how many colors you want to make.
I divided mine up into three separate bowls; coloring one Blue with FD&C Blue N0. 1 Aluminum Lake. Red using Baku Red Mica, & Yellow using Bright Yellow Raincoat Mica. I mixed each of the colors in using my hands (Gloved)
Once your bubble bars are colored, lay out a piece of Parchment paper or Glade Press N Seal and flatten out once of the colors in a rectangle. I placed another piece of Press N Seal on top and then used a 4 oz Glass Bottle as a rolling pin to flatten it. An actual Rolling pin would of made the process much easier though.
Then once that was flattened break up and sprinkle the next color on top of the first layer, place the Press N Seal on top and flatten again using a Rolling pin. I used my hands to fix any gaps and flattened it again. The middle always ends up being the thickest, so I kept grabbing chunks from the center to sprinkle around the edges to try to make it more even.
Repeat the process again with the last color (or however many colors you have)
Once all of your colors are stacked on top of each other, you can begin rolling in up from one side to the other. Are used the Press N Seal to help lift and roll up the bubble bar. Once I had a lot of access press and seal I would cut that off and then continue rolling it until it was all rolled up into a loaf.
I did find it to be a bit dry and if that happens spray it with a bit of rubbing alcohol to help soften it to get it to you at roll up better.
Also once it was completely rolled up there was some cracks on the outside of it, so I just sprayed the whole thing with rubbing alcohol, wrapped it in the Press N Seal and smoothed out any of the cracks.
I started by cutting the loaf in the center, wiped off the knife, then cut in the middle of one of the halves, wiped off the knife, cut into the middle of the other half, wiped off the knife and continuing doing this until each piece was too small to cut.
Lay out all of the bubble bars on some Parchment paper or the Press N Seal to let them dry for at least 24 hours. Mine were pretty hard by the next day.
How to use a Bubble Bar;
Break off a chunk of the bubble bar and crumble it under running water. You should be able to get a couple uses out of one bubble bar, but this really depends on how big you make them. If you make your bubble bars small, then you will only be able to get one use. I made mine roughly around 3" x 3" so I'll be able to get 2 to 3 uses out of them.
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