Teach Soap

Hey everyone, I'm new to this site and I've been reading a lot of you guys comments and such on others which helped me but I'm still having trouble with my bath bomb keeping its shape. I've tried a fluffy towel with wax paper on top of it. I've tried keeping it in one part of my Christmas ornament but it would crack the orniment and the bomb would crack itself. I live in Louisiana so it's very humid and I keep my bath bomb in the oven to dry over night. So any suggestions on the best way to keep the bath bombs there shape or best way to dry them ?

My ingredients
1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup citric acid
2 tbls of coconut oil
Food coloring
10-15 drops of essential oils
1-2 sprays of witch hazel

Here's a few things I want to point out to help you out.

Cracking is caused by two things:
1. Too much water/witch hazel causing the bomb to expand/crack in the mold
2. Too little water causing them not to stick together in a mold.

Looking at your ingredients, I will rewrite them, but combined with mine as I noticed a few things wrong.

1 cup baking soda (Good)
1/2 cup citric acid (Good you want a 1:2 ratio which you have)
1/2 cup of Corn Starch (I use corn starch as it allows for a harder bomb and it helps float. This will also make sure you don't have as many cracks.
1/2 cup of Epsom Salt (I use Epsom salts as they're good to soak in and are great to have in the bomb)
2 tbsp of coconut oil (Good)
Food coloring (Good)
10-15 drops of essential oils (I use 2 teaspoons, but 10-15 drops is good.)
spritz with water (You want to use water or rubbing alcohol as witch hazel actually is the most reactive with bath bomb ingredients. I found a scientific video that was an hour long and in which they tested all possible mixtures and the witch hazel caused the most premature reaction. I use water and they're perfect every time and I use a spray bottle until they're sticking together in my hand when I squeeze.

Optional: 2 teaspoons of sodium lauryl sulfoacetate

Best of Luck

I live in Galveston, so most likely the 2nd most humid place in the US, after NOLA, of course, haha!

I have found that you DO NOT need cornstarch. My bombs act better without out it. I don't know it it retains water or what, but they are smoother and airy.

DO NOT USE WATER SPRITZ IN OUR PART OF THE US. To be completely honest, if where you are is ANYTHING like Galveston in regard to humidity, you will likely need NOTHING at the end. No water no WH, no Alcohol. We just got a got spell yesterday and I made some bombs today that required 1 spritz of 90% alcohol. That's it. And I consider today to be an extremely dry day @ 64% humidity according to the weather.

I only use 1 TBSP of coconut/olive/grapseed oil. 1 tbsp fragrance. Any more than that in our area and you are gonna have a wet bomb. Try to mold before you think it is ready, do not pack, pack, pack, but heap on each side instead and smash.

DO NOT use liquid or gel colorant. Powder only due to our climate.

Err on the side of dry. The mixture continues to dampen from our environment as you work.

Refrain from running the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. Don't work as someone showers. Don't bother if it is raining unless you are making bombs for yourself and you are ok with irregulars. If you can, run the A/C high to kill of the humidity and if you can afford it, buy a DE-humidifier for your working area.

That's all I can think of for now.

Cheers

adding: the oven trick NEVER works for me. Leave them in a well ventilated room with a/c and fan circulation. Whatever you do, do not cover them in wax/towel etc. Don't lay them on a towel, but on a foam egg crate instead. The towel holds moisture from the bomb that you put on it=flat bottom, slow drying bomb.