Solid Bubble Bath Bars

Recently I've had a lot of requests to share my favorite bubble bar recipe. Today has been a wonderful day, so I'm in a sharing mood :)

I welcome you to use this formula as-is and even post it to your own site, as long as you give credit to me and post a link back to this blog. Deal? OK, here you go.

Shannon's Favorite Bubble Bar Formula:
Dry Phase:
SCI 4% (I'm experimenting with higher percentages of this)
SLSa 18% (Working to replace with Disodium Lauryl Sulfosuccinate)
Cream of Tartar 26%
sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) 37%

Wet phase:
cocamidopropyl betaine 8%
coco silky cleanse (or DLS Mild or some other gentle liquid surfactant) 6%
fragrance 1%
color (I've used liquid lakes and mica. they both work fine) It only takes a teensy amt of color!

Step 1. pulverize the dry ingredients (like in a coffee grinder or food processor.) Be patient - the SCI may take a beating before it surrenders into powder. Make sure everything is well blended. I've recently discovered the Ninja Power Prep food processor and love it for this application!

Step 2. Using gloves, pour the wet ingredients over the dry. Work quickly to blend it all together well. Once the blend forms a dough and becomes less sticky, mold into your choice of shapes. Ice cube trays are about right for a single use bath size. You can make them into bars so the user has to break off a piece. It's up to you.

Step 3: Allow to dry for an hour or so before trying to unmold. They will not hold together well if unmolded too soon. Package them or use once they're nice and dry. I usually wait a couple of hours at least. I've stored them in the open in our main bathroom and they work just fine.

Notes: These will begin to puff up as you mold them. You can either leave them rustic, or smoosh them down into the mold to get them more dense. I like them dense so they take longer to dissolve under tub water. The texture of this blend should be similar to stale Circus Peanut candy (come on, you know what Circus Peanuts are )

This blend should produce lots of billowy foamy suds using a very small amount of bubble bar. My typical size for a 'single serving' is about 15 grams - roughly a tablespoon. That's how concentrated and powerful the synergy of the surfactant blend is.

I have softened well water and these bubble for a good long time. As the water cools let out some of the water, add more hot water to the tub and enjoy a recharge of SCI bubbles.

Have fun!-Shannon