have you noticed....

[lindsaycb]

That bath bombs made with just BS & CA don't fizz as much as ones that incorporate corn starch?

I wanted to make sure I was seeing it right.

I really don't like the feel of corn starch in my bombs. Sometimes they feel solid, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they crack...blah blah blah. Is Corn starch the culprit in this tempermental attitude? I think so!!

So I did a batch with dead sea salts (crushed) instead. Well these suckers weigh a ton! But fizz is just a little bubble.

Anyway, we know that some of the big bombers out there just use BS & CA...so do theirs not really fizz & whirl like they say?

[blazerina]

I've only made or used the ones with CS... so I don't know. But do you mean they die faster? I would imagine that the cornstarch might act as a time release agent for lack of a better description, lol. I think it is what makes them hard, gives them substance... and I think the harder they are the longer lasting they are. The more dense, the slower to fizz out completely.

Because I have noticed that the crumbly ones I make vs the ones that stay together out of the same recipie fizz for longer. But probably even a really hard one with only BS and CA would still have less of a barrier to resist the instant effects of water on that combination.

Any body else?

[lindsaycb]

actually, no, if I don't have CS in my bombs...they take MUCH longer to fizz out..because its such a slower fizz. CS makes them go crazy in the fizzing department.

BUT, if I also have CS in my bombs, they're lighter in weight. So actually, my bombs without the CS are more dense.

I've also taken note...that the more CS in my bombs it almost increases the bath tub temp. Can that actually be true? Literally, the water around the bomb feels hotter.

[blazerina]

Sounds like it's pretty scientific, lol... but if I were to guess i'd say... sure that makes sense because the atoms involved with the bomb (roflmboo- listen to us! We could be talking something else entirely here :lipsrseal !) are in motion. That would create heat. Enough for the average person to notice it????? I don't know.

In the end it would all depend on the ratios, right? Meaning, not all recipies call for the same amounts of the same ingredient and will call for more of one while another calls for less, and make up for the lack of that ingredient by calling for more of another. Does that make sense? I'm not even sure, lol. I'm just trying to say that one can't really compare densities, and fizz factors based on the inclusion or occlusion of an ingredient per say...it's probably more about ratios and balances. You can take out one ingredient and note the results, but you would have to start with the perfect recipie first right? And you can only compare notes with people who are using the exact same recipie. You also have to consider that ingredients can be of poor quality, too aged, exposed, etc. Denser Fo's might kill some fizz factor as well.

Orrrrrrr....maybe I'm being 'too' scientific period. :rolleyes2 Lol- so i'll just back away and let an expert chime in.

[Crafty1_AJ]

I really don't like the feel of corn starch in my bombs. Sometimes they feel solid, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they crack...blah blah blah. Is Corn starch the culprit in this tempermental attitude? I think so!!

I don't know that cs would be your culprit. In my experience, weather conditions make a huge difference in cracking and such, however. Relative humidity has to be fairly low for me here in order to get consistently good bombs without cracking. Also, you have to work really FAST to get those boogers molded up, because the mixture dries out like greased lightning. When I was slower at making them, the first ones in a batch would always turn out well, with subsequent ones getting crackier and crackier. KWIM? And making bombs in high humidity? Trust me ... don't even go there. LOL Skip the rainy days unless you like lots of warts and cracks. Oh, and don't even get me started on the Incredible Expanding Pancake bombs! "BOMBS" is right!

[lindsaycb]

But see the humidity just doesn't make sense. All summer long, I made bomb after bomb..after bomb. And never did they crack or collapse. Its all in the dry air that they crack for me.

I don't have a/c, so the house isn't closed up at all. & in even a monsoon (okay, we don't have them here..but we have humidity) they were just fine.

I say they're just odd ducks