Water? Alcohol? Witch Hazel? This is confusing, which binder should I use to make Bath Bombs?

[@TheSoapChef2]

Let me clarify what I was saying about customers complaining..........they come into my booth ALL the time complaining about OTHER makers who sell bath bombs. The customer complaints are 1) they fizz out too soon 2) there's little to no scent omitting from the bath bomb. I did a whole different intro that made that point clear but then I decided to go in a different direction with the intro. Hope that clears up any confusion. Again, customers don't complain about MY bath bombs........they question me if mine do the same things that they don't like from other sellers.

[@ramonecd]

Thank you so much for the unboxing ❤ and the information from your video.

[@TheSoapChef2]

It was my pleasure. Thank you again for the awesome goodies.

[@Icechelly24]

Thank you for all this info. It’s super helpful! I’ve been using water and run into the same issue with them drying out about half way to 3/4 of the way through. Do you think it would make sense to try to use the spray of WH/RA even if I used water as the initial binder?

[@TheSoapChef2]

Not sure because I’ve never tried that, but do a very small batch, like 100 g. Try it and see if it works for you.

[@skuldarchleone]

There is something i never understood, maybe you can explain it. The witch hazel i know is just hydrosol. And thats, in fact, nothing more than water with botanical properties in it. My logic tells me that it theoretically must react the same way as plain water. Is the witch hazel in the us different than ours, does it have more/other ingredients or is it differently made?

[@TheSoapChef2]

Witch Hazel is indeed a distillate made from a shrub but also includes about 14% alcohol. Then I put more alcohol on top of that. Therein lies the difference between my bomb spray and plain ole water.

[@skuldarchleone]

@@TheSoapChef2 thank you for explaining, the hydrosols we could pourchase contain no alcohol. So when i want to make your bomb spray i have to use more alcohol than you

[@TheSoapChef2]

@@skuldarchleone you could make your own distillate using any type of herbs or flowers that you’d like. Take that beautiful hydrosol and use 86% +14% alcohol and you will have made your own witch hazel. That’s a very bare-bones basic way to do it. The big guys do it differently obviously.

[@SeagrassSoapCo]

I have a fragrance question please. Wondering if I have this correct. If I'm reducing the amount of fragrance because of IFRA then I would make up the % difference in the baking soda %?

[@TheSoapChef2]

@@SeagrassSoapCo you want to swap liquid for liquid and powder for powder. So if you’re reducing the amount of scent due to ifra, increase the binder. That being said, ps80 is usually the same amount as your scent so if your lowering you’re scent, lower the ps80 too. Make up those liquids by increasing your binder.

[@SeagrassSoapCo]

@@TheSoapChef2 Aha! Thank you for this, not sure where my brain was?!?

[@TheSoapChef2]

@@SeagrassSoapCo you should see my brain fog today after spending 28 hours this week going cross eyed doing R&D for a document for my Patreons. 😵

[@SeagrassSoapCo]

@@TheSoapChef2 lol! Can't wait - I am one of your patrons ;)

[@donnamixon6850]

I'm brand new here. I didn’t understand the measurements at all! 😮

[@TheSoapChef2]

A true formula is written out in percentages, not ounces or cups or tablespoons. What specifically didn’t you understand? Maybe I could explain it further.