Bubble Bath Woes

It’s Valentines Day! And this post has nothing to do with that. Sorry. It’s more of a rant at how frustrated I am with the bubble bath confections right now. I had to tweak my recipe since the ones I made with the cookie press at Christmastime. The cetyl esters were NOT dissolving in the bath water as I had hoped. I realize that I did a poor job of testing, and take full blame for that.

The South Seas Siren Bubble Bath that I made for Valentines Day had a few issues because of the silicone mold I was using, but otherwise seemed to turn out very nice. So today I decided to try my adapted recipe in the cookie press using the Sweet Dreams scent. Took me 2 hours to make this much:

Two trays of Sweet Dreams Bubble Bath Confections

When I started, I had a few that turned out pretty nice:

Nice and puffy, well-shaped bubble bath confection

By the end, they were looking pretty rough:

Flattened shape, rough-looking texture

I don’t know how many times I had to re-do and re-do… My guess is at least 50 times based on the purple crumbs that were all around my bowl by the time I was finished. It went something like this: Press. Look at the misshapen mess. Sigh loudly. Scoop it up and throw it back in the bowl. Repeat.

By the end, I was just tired of it, so I rolled the rest into a couple of balls and pressed them down a bit:

Bubble bath pancakes amidst the confections

I have to be honest. I’m not sure it’s worth it. The ingredients are expensive, the process is time-consuming, and I don’t have a lot of customers beating down my door for these. Maybe I just need a break.

I think I’ll go edit the video that Cynthie and I made yesterday – making lip butter!! At least I know those turned out the way they were supposed to!

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  1. So sorry you had a frustrating time. People don’t really think about all the trials and tribulations that our lovingly made products put us through.

  2. I am surprised, Amy, that these confections aren’t selling well! I think they are darling. Even the ones you say are “rough” textured look adorable. I think you’ve got a great idea here, perhaps it needs a different, or stronger, marketing approach. I truly haven’t seen anything quite like them anywhere else. But I also understand the frustration factor. Perhaps you can come back to this project at a later date.

  3. Bummer Amy 🙁 You make so many other great things I don’t think you should continue to work with a product that frustrates you in such a way. Your choice of course but…maybe you can “play” with these just for special occasions?

  4. I know your pain Amy. I have the plastic ornaments to do mine. I found them in hearts, stars, and round globes and even those have a trick to using them and no session is without it’s frustrations…EVER.

    I agree with you about the cost and I don’t have a lot of customers wanting them either. I wonder why because they are really nice to use.

    Nonetheless, your confections that turned out, look wonderful! The ones that are so so, still look good. We’re such perfectionists =).

    Dawn

  5. I like to see your trial and error as well, Amy. Thanks! I’m going through that right now trying to come up with my own surfactant. So far I’ve made two batches and the first one didn’t bubble at all, but was very conditioning and was 100% castor oil. I think it will make a great scrub base though. It totally surprised me. The next one was 25% coconut and was better, but not good enough.

  6. Thank you for lovely comments! I just wanted to let you all know that we switched hosting companies over the weekend, and I am no longer receiving notification emails when I receive comments. I just looked this morning and realized I had several waiting to be approved. I miss having those emails though – so much easier to respond to each of you individually. I will keep working on this!!

  7. Ms. Berryer, you’re making your own surfactant, presumably other than soap? I’ve been wondering when hobbyists would start to do that. I considered making my own sulfosuccinate esters, although even the pros seem to have trouble with batches of those.

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