black bath bombs Archives

Black Salt Bath Bomb DIY

June 2, 2017 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Bath Fizzies

About a year ago, black bath bombs took the bath and beauty world by storm. This black bath bomb video went viral, and everybody wanted to create their own. Last July, we shared our black bath bomb experiments using various colorants; see them here. Some of the experiments were quite messy.

The takeaway from our experiments? If using charcoal to create black bath bombs, Polysorbate 80 is key! The emulsifier helps mix the charcoal into the water, resulting in less charcoal on your skin and tub.

These Black Salt Bath Bombs get their color from fine and coarse black sea salt. The salt is enriched with charcoal to give it a black color. The fine salt is added to the main bath bomb mixture, while the coarse salt is sprinkled into the molds for a finishing touch.

A good amount of polysorbate 80 disperses the charcoal in the bath water. We found the charcoal mixed into the water rather than pooling on top. Sultry Black Jasmine Fragrance Oil gives the bath bombs an alluring floral scent, perfect for the dark color of the water.

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Activated Charcoal Skin Benefits & Tips for Use

January 23, 2017 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Activated charcoal has become a popular ingredient for skin care products in the past few years. But it’s not new – charcoal has been used in the beauty and medical industries for years. Charcoal is known for its ability to absorb and draw out oil from the skin. This makes charcoal a fantastic addition to soaps, scrubs, masks and more.

There are various types, including activated charcoal, sugar charcoal and Japanese charcoal (aka white charcoal). The different types of charcoal have various origins and production methods. “Regular” charcoal usually comes from wood, coal or peat. This type of charcoal is often used as fuel. Activated charcoal, on the other hand, is most commonly used for medical, beauty or purification processes. To become “activated,” the charcoal goes through a high temperature steam activation process. This process increases its surface area, which increases the charcoal’s ability to absorb and filter. This makes activated charcoal the proper choice for medical and cosmetic use.

In particular, activated charcoal is fantastic for oily skin. Its ability to absorb oil and dirt from pores leaves skin feeling balanced. If you have dry skin, activated charcoal may be a little bit too drying. Some use charcoal in their hair care to add volume, and some even use it in their tooth care regimen (keep in mind the charcoal at Bramble Berry is not meant to be consumed in anyway).

Want to add charcoal to your bath and body products? Interestingly, activated charcoal is not water soluble. A great example of this was in the Black Bath Bombs Test; the bath bombs made with activated charcoal left plenty of residue on the tub, because the charcoal did not want to mix with the water. A touch of Polysorbate 80 helped the activated charcoal blend in better with the water.

Activated charcoal is not water soluble, and does not work well in bath bombs without an emulsifier as shown in this post.

If you’re adding charcoal to your project, dispersing it in oil helps it mix in easier. Use 1 teaspoon charcoal to 1 tablespoon 99% isopropyl alcohol for melt and pour soap and a lightweight liquid oil for cold process soap. Activated charcoal can be added directly to melt and pour or cold process soap batter, but dispersing does help get rid of clumps. If you’d like to try adding it to emulsified projects like lotion, I recommend a small test batch first. We actually tried adding it to the clay mask recipes (which are essentially lotions) and found the charcoal did not mix in very well, even with plenty of stick blending (see photo below).

In our tests, activated charcoal did not mix in very well to emulsified clay masks.

In addition to the skin benefits, activated charcoal gives products a beautiful black color. Charcoal can create a gray lather and transfer color to a washcloth if a lot is used in a recipe. In my experience, I have not found charcoal soap stains washcloths permanently. If you use enough charcoal to create a dark black color, chances are it will give your lather a little color. For cold process and melt and pour soap, start with 1 teaspoon of dispersed charcoal per pound of soap. Add more color until you get the shade you like. A light to dark gray shade in soap will most likely not create a gray lather.

Charcoal is dispersed in oil and added to the soap batter in the Charcoal & Cedar Beer Soap Tutorial.

Now, let’s talk about handling activated charcoal. There is no way around it – this stuff is messy. It’s a very small and light powder, so it has a tendency to “poof” up into the air. If you’ve used activated charcoal, you know it can have a tendency to get everywhere. When working with it, I recommend closing windows and shutting off any fans to help avoid an unnecessary mess. If you do get charcoal on your hands while working with it, I recommend washing it off with water and soap. Once, I left activated charcoal on my knuckles for about an hour while formulating recipes. My knuckles were extremely dry for about a week! It has some serious absorbing properties.

Looking for some charcoal recipe inspiration? Check out the tutorials below, and be on the lookout for more recipes this week!

Black Bath Bombs: A Cautionary DIY

July 13, 2016 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Bath Fizzies, Tips & Tricks

Black bath bombs are everywhere right now! Made with typical bath bomb ingredients (baking soda and citric acid), they also contain lots of black colorant. Once placed in the tub, the bath bomb turns the water black. The original black bath bomb video quickly went viral. It’s easy to see why. The smoky color that emits from the black bath bomb is hypnotizing.

After receiving lots of questions on how to make black bath bombs, I decided to give them a try. I made two different bath bombs, one colored with activated charcoal and another colored with Liquid Black Iron Oxide. I chose the Liquid Black Iron Oxide because it’s black oxide dispersed in glycerin, which is similar to a La Bomb colorant. To learn more about La Bomb colorants, click here. Since powdered colorants tend to cling to the side of the tub, I was skeptical about the black bath bomb trend. The idea is awesome, but won’t it make a huge mess? Won’t the color stick to the tub and your skin?

For this experiment, I made two different black bath bombs. One made with activated charcoal and another with Liquid Black Iron Oxide.

First, I made one big batch of bath bombs by mixing together 2 cups baking soda and 1 cup citric acid. Then, I split it in half. To one container, I added 4 tsp. of activated charcoal. To the other, I added 40 drops of Liquid Black Iron Oxide. I used my hands to thoroughly mix in the colorants. I added Espresso Fragrance Oil for scent. Once mixed, I spritzed the fizzy mixture with witch hazel until it was the texture of wet sand. Then, I pressed the mixture into Disk Mold & Package.

In the photo below, the activated charcoal bath bomb is on the left, and the Liquid Black Iron Oxide bath bomb is on the right. Because these colorants are not typically used to color bath bombs, they have a “speckly” look to them. The activated charcoal resulted in a slightly darker bath bomb. Once unmolded, I tested the bath bombs in a large bowl of water to get an idea of how they would behave in the tub. See the photos below!

Left to right: bath bomb made with activated charcoal, bath bomb made with Liquid Black Iron Oxide.

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