The answer, is, well, kind of? lol.
So when you use a bath bomb, you can expect it to swirl and foam and color the water (especially if it's a Soakey Dokey Bath Bomb ;) but it doesn't quite fill the tub with bubbles like you might expect from bubble bath or a Bubbly Bar.
Here's an image showing how you might expect a bath bomb to perform. In this case this is our Sunset Bath Bomb.
See how it foams as it colors the water? Night quite a bubble bath, but every bit as luxurious as one! :)
If you guys have any questions or if there's a topic you'd like us to address feel free to leave a comment below.
Happy Bombing! :)
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We cover how to tell if your new product is a bath bomb or a bubble bar, and how to use it!
]]>These are common questions that we're asked fairly frequently, so lets take a look at each of these products and learn what they are, what they do, and what the difference is between a bath bomb and a bubble bath bar.
A Bath Bomb, in it's simplest form, is a product you add to your bath water that fizzes like a giant alkaseltzer. They come in many different, shapes, sizes, fragrances, and colors, but at the end of the day they're all meant to improve the quality of your bath time experience. Some do this by making pretty colors on the surface of the water. Others color the water directly, and still others release various salts and oils, such Epsom Salt and coconut oil, into the water.
Bubble Bath Bar:
Bubble Bath Bars, while similar to Bath Bombs in that they enhance your bath time experience, take a somewhat different approach. As the name suggests, these products are primarily bubble bath, only instead of being liquid, they're solid (kind of.) And where a bath bomb might fizz and foam in your tub, a bubble bath bar's main focus is to produce mounds and mounds of bubbles!
Much like bath bombs, many of these are scented and add a nice fragrance to your bath time. However, unlike bath bombs one bubble bath bar should get you 2-3 bath nights worth of bubbles. :)
Bath Bombs are about as easy a product you can use. You can check out our blog post on it here for more details (please?), but the short version is to simply fill up your tub with water, unwrap your bath bomb from it's packaging, and plop it right into the water. That's it! The bath bomb will take it from there :)
While still easy to use, Bubble Bath Bars are a little different in operation. If you unwrap your bubble bath bar and just plop it in the tub, you're sure to be disappointed as it will just kind of, well, do nothing. And for people who are new to these products this is a fairly common first experience with bubble bath bars (this is literally what I did the first time I ever used one).
To use your bubble bath bar properly, you'll want to break off a chunk roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of the bar, and while the water is running, gently massage the piece of the bar under the running water. The disruption from the running water is what leads to the creation of your mounds of bubbles, and the higher you have the water turned up the more bubbles you'll produce! Using a bubble bath bar also eliminates the problem of pouring liquid bubble bath into the tub, only to have the running water make a few bubbles and then push the rest of the bubble bath to the back of the tub!
As mentioned above, there are a couple of core differences between how bath bombs and bubble bath bars perform, but the big question is 'how to do I know which is a bath bomb and is which is a bubble bath bar?
More than any other characteristic, the answer to this question simply comes down to feel. Bath bombs are typically very hard. If you tap your finger against one you should feel a satisfying clinking sound, almost like it's made out of porous rock. Bubble bath bars on the other hand have much more of a doughy / clay like feel to them.
And while both products are available in a whole host of shapes and sizes, an easy test you can perform to be certain is to simply push your fingernail into it. If it's a bath bomb, it should more or less resist your fingernail, whereas a bubble bath bar will yield to the pressure and your fingernail will leave a little indent in the bar.
Another point to keep in mind is that, generally speaking, bubble bath bars are meant to be broken into smaller pieces, where bath bombs aren't. So if you can gently break a piece off your product, it's probably a bubble bath bar (if you can gently break a piece off of it and it turns out it's actually a bath bomb, contact your retailer for a refund!)
And now for the big question:
I really hope you didn't expect Me to answer that question, because I've been asking myself precisely that for YEARS to no avail!
Ultimately, it comes down to your personal bathing preference. If you like pretty bath art with lots of foamy colorful swirls, than bath bombs are probably more for you. If you like to be immersed in big mounds of bubbles, than a bubble bath bar is likely more your style.
But the very best part about Bath Bombs and Bubble Bath Bars, is that you can use them both, at the same time, and have a colorful, fragrant, bubble filled relaxing bath while you try not to worry about what people will think about your most recent blog post! ; )
Do you have a preference to bath bombs over bubble bath bars?
Is there a point of interest that I didn't list in my comparison?
Are there other bath product topics you'd like covered in a future blog?
Leave a comment below and let us know what YOU think!
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Ah, the old standard, Air Drying. This is typically the first method every bath bomber uses when starting out. It's easy, free, and reliable. This works particularly well if you're using clam shell molds for your bath bombs, as you can just leave them in the mold over night and in the morning have a nice round dry bath bomb. This is ideal for new bath bombers who only have a handful of bombs they need to make at a time, though it can become prohibitive once your sales start to increase as you'll have to buy more and more molds to hold bath bombs, and even the cheap little plastic clam shells started to get really expensive once your sales pick up. Additionally, because most e-commerce sites penalize you if your ship times are too long, it can become troublesome having to wait 24 hours before you can ship your bath bombs once your business starts to grow.
Which brings us to option 2.
The next method we moved on to when we were starting out was drying our bath bombs in the oven. This is a great option for you bath bombers out there that only need a few oven's worth of bath bombs at a time. It's effective, easy, and doesn't cost anything (aside from electricity). To dry your bath bombs in the oven, simply turn the oven to the 'warm' setting, let it come up to temp, and then leave them in there to dry for 1-4 hours.
This is a great solution for when you have a specific type you need to make in the morning and need to be able to ship it later that day. If it's an absolute emergency, you can usually get away with only drying it for about an hour, but remember, the longer you leave it in there the better the odds of it showing up to your customer in one piece!
Another benefit is that when we baked our bath bombs they would come out and almost have something of a 'shell' on the exterior. It felt very hard, and made a satisfying clicking sound when you tap your fingernail against it.
The main drawback with oven baking is that for it to be effective, the bath bombs should be removed from their molds and placed onto an oven rack. This can be challenging if you're using clam shell molds and your bath bombs are fragile right after you've made them. That was one of our biggest challenges when we first started making our own bath bombs. This is mainly due to your baking soda and the citric acid mix being too dry, so if this is a problem you encounter, the best course of action is to continue to experiment with your recipe until your bath bombs come out perfect and durable every time.
And one of the best ways to achieve that result is...
At the end of the day, if you're going to grow your bath bomb business, you should really consider adding Kaolin Clay to your recipe. When we first started using it, it proved to be a real game changer for us. Our bath bombs became instantly more durable when removed from the mold, and were dry enough to ship within 3 hours if needed. We could make our bath bombs in the morning, and know that they'd be ready to ship by the afternoon whenever we needed them.
The only real drawback to adding the kaolin clay was the added upfront cost, though when I worked out the numbers at the end of the month it turned out that what we spent on the Kaolin clay was offset by the amount of product we didn't lose to crumbled bath bombs. So for us it was a no brainer, and we've been using it in every bath bomb we've made since. One (very important) caveat, is that the Kaolin Clay comes in powdered form, so as with all powdered ingredients you want to make sure you're always wearing a dust mask or a respirator when handling it so that you don't breathe the powder into your lungs.
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Ingredients:
1 Cup Baking Soda
1/2 Table Salt
3/4 Capful Vegetable Oil
5-8 sprays of 50/50 Lemon Juice and Water (Lemon Juice Optional)
Mix all ingredients in a bowl, and pack into mold. Remove from mold and let dry for approx 2 hours.
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One of the most common questions we get is what is / how do I use a bubble bar?
For starters, bubble bars are kind of like solid bubble bath. While bath bombs are meant to release oils and salts for you to soak in, bubble bars are for, well, BUBBLES!!! And while they come in many different shapes and sizes, they all pretty much operate the same way.
The best way to use your bubble bar is to start filling up your tub like you normally would. Once you get the water to that perfect temp (which if you're anything like me is just after scalding but juuuuust before lava), and then hold your bubble bar under the running water and slowly massage it until it starts to crumble. You want to to try to keep from having large chunks floating around, because the running water helps activate it, and large pieces of bubble bar will more or less just float around.
The great thing about bubble bars is the ridiculous amount of bubbles you get, and it pairs PERFECTLY with a bath bomb. In fact, we even sell bath bomb / bubble bar combos just for that reason!
See??
The top half of our Diva cupcake is all bubble bar, while the bottom is an AMAZING smelling bath bomb (think 1000 wishes). So to get the most out of your bath, you simply pop the top off of the cupcake, hold it under some running water, and then once your tub is full of bubbles, pop the bottom part of it in the water, climb in, and then sooooooooak!
And that's it!
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The first time we here at team Soakey Dokey ever experienced a bath bomb it was a gift. Frankly, we had no idea what to do with it, lol! We had LOTS of questions that are quite common for first time bath bomb users.
Do you just throw it in the tub? Do I use the whole thing? Will it stain the tub? Will it stain ME????
The answers, as it turned out, were: Yes, Sure!, nope, and nope : )
Do you just throw it in the tub?:
To use a bath bomb, all you have to do is fill up your tub, toss it in there, and watch it go! You can expect the bath bomb to create a ton of fizz, all while adding colors, fragrance, salts and coconut oil into your bath. It's your one stop shop for a luxurious bathing experience!
Do you use the whole thing?:
Our bath bombs are larger than a lot of our competitors. We typically offer a 4.5 ounce bath bomb, while many companies settle for 2.5 ounces, which in our opinion is just too small to get a great bath out of. So while your certainly welcome to cut your bath bomb in half (we did with our first one so we could try it out and get an idea of what to expect), we recommend just tossing the whole thing in there to get the full experience.
Will it stain the tub?:
We choose our colorants carefully, so that we can provide a bath bomb that will wonderfully color you water, not your tub! Since we opened our doors in the bath bomb world, out of the thousands of customers we've been blessed with (WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!) we've had ONE person contact us with concerns about one of our bombs staining their tub. In that isolated case they had had a special enamel applied to their tub. However, this was easily remedied by simply applying a surfectant to the tub and gently scrubbing.
Will it stain me.
Nope! Though when I first tried a bathbomb, this was a concern of mine. I didn't want to end up going in to work the next day looking like a smurf! I'm happy to report that this has never once happened to us or any of our customers. : )
Will it clog my drain?:
This is a good question we get occasionally, and an important one. A bath bomb will dissolve completely in the water, so it will not clog your drain. However, some of our bath bombs come with flower buds or other toppings. When using those we recommend you use a simple drain catcher, as those could potentially clog a drain until they dissolve. This prevents you from having to collect every piece of oatmeal or ever Lavender bud when your bath is over. : )
So in summary, feel free to fill up the tub, pop in a Soakey Dokey Handmade Bath Bomb, and enjoy!
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