Monday, January 27, 2014

DIY Cocoa Bomb Bath Bomb Kit

Who wants to make bath bombs? This great kit from SupplyEmporium gives you all you need to make luxurious, moisturizing bath bombs in your own home!

Following is a step by step, picture tutorial of how to make these. Please note, I've never made bath bombs before so even though I'm an experienced bath and body maker, this process was completely new to me. My point? You don't need to have experience in order to do this!

Here's what the kit comes with:
2 bags of dry ingredients (marked "1" and "3")
1 bottle wet ingredients (marked "2")
1 bottle fragrance oil (fragrance specified upon ordering)
1 bag fair-trade unrefined cocoa butter
1 pipette
1 60mm round bath bomb mold
1 80mm round bath bomb mold

You will also need:
1 large glass bowl
1 small glass bowl
whisk or other stirring implement
gloves (recommended)
eye protection (recommended)




Let's begin!
Step 1:
Add contents of bag "1" to a glass bowl. I used a large Pyrex measuring cup for this.



Step 2:
If you decided to grate the cocoa butter, add it to the large bowl with the dry ingredients. (You can either grate the cocoa butter or melt it. I chose to melt it so you'll see me add it later)

Step 3:
Add any other dry ingredients such as micas, flower petals, dried spices, etc. I added some purple amethyst mica:



Step 4:
Mix dry ingredients until well incorporated.

Step 5:
Pour half the liquid (or 1oz by weight) of bottle "2" into a small bowl.


Step 6:
Add desired amount of fragrance to the liquid. (I used .5oz)

Step 7:
If you're using a liquid colorant, or if you melted the cocoa butter, add it now. Here's a pic of my pre-melted cocoa butter:



Step 8:
Mix the liquids.


Step 9:
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Add slowly in small amounts and incorporate thoroughly. You should have a barely damp consistency after adding. (I recommend using a spoon instead of a whisk for this part. My mixture kept clumping in the whisk so a spoon made it a lot easier)


Step 10:
Add the ingredients from bag "3". You may need to sift the clumps out. Add slowly and mix thoroughly.
You can see there were some clumps in mine so I just broke them up with my fingers.


Step 11:
At this point, you want to get the consistency to exactly where you want it. It should clump and hold when pressed but not be too wet or show signs of reactivity (fizzing or expansion). If too dry, add drops of liquid from bottle "2" with the pipette.

Mine was perfect without needing any extra liquid!



Step 12:
Pack into the molds and gently release them and place on a tray to dry. With the round molds, it is suggested to pack each hemisphere tightly then dump a generous amount in the middle and press together.


A picture of a filled mold:


This is a picture of the smaller mold. For some reason, this one didn't want to cooperate with me so I dumped it out and proceeded with the larger mold instead. The large one didn't give me any problems.

Let the bath bombs dry fully (2-3 days) and store in an airtight container.

My finished bath bombs. Obviously, practice makes perfect. My third one (top right) looks the best out of them all.


I was able to get 3 large and half a small bath bomb out of this kit. The large bombs weigh between 8-10oz each.

Now for the fun part! Testing!
The bath bombs developed some cracks during their 3 days of drying but they were solid as a rock. They also lost some weight, which I expected due to the moisture drying out of them.

Here's a pic of the bath bomb in the tub:


Of course, no testing is complete without actual human testing! So, for the sake of this blog post (poor me, I know) I had to take a nice long bath with it:) The result? I love it! The scent was just perfect. Enough to smell good but not overpowering. It remained on my skin after I was done. The cocoa butter...Oh my gosh! I didn't even need to use lotion after my bath. I give this kit 2 thumbs up!

Here's a video of the bath bomb in action. Listen to that fizz!



Are you ready to buy a kit yet?
Here's where you can get them:
www.SaharasSupplies.etsy.com
www.supplyemporium.com

And be sure to follow them on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/SaharasSupplies?ref=hl
www.facebook.com/SupplyEmporium?ref=hl

If you make these, be sure to come back and leave a comment!


Monday, January 13, 2014

Studio Tour

Every January I completely redo my workroom. I get rid of everything that I don't need anymore and reorganize everything that I do. While it's clean (this won't last long, trust me) I thought you all might like to see what my room looks like.

My new door shelf to hold my fragrances:

One of my worktables and new curtains I made: (Made with two $5 bed sheets from Walmart. I even had enough left over to make curtains for the window!)

Random crafting and shipping supplies: (see the window curtains?)

Soap curing racks and storage cabinet: (those shelves need to be restocked!)

Wanna see what the curtains are hiding? Random supplies:

And another messy worktable!
I hope you enjoyed the tour! I'd love to see your workrooms if you're willing to share! Post a link in the comments.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Let the Games Begin!

Guess what?! On New Year's Eve I hit 2500 sales in my Etsy shop!!


As promised, that means a game and contest!! Here's what we're gonna do. I've hidden the image below in one of my Etsy listings. You find the picture and message me through Facebook or Etsy, telling me where you found it. In addition, comment "found it!" HERE on my Facebook page. Please do NOT leave a comment with where you found it. You don't want to give away the answer!


The contest will end on January 17, 2014. Everyone who messaged me with the correct answer will be entered into a drawing to win a $20 gift certificate to my shop! The lucky winner will be notified on January 18, 2014.

Good luck everyone!