Wash your cares away with No Trouble Bubbles!

This bubble bath recipe is no trouble at all!

At the end of a tough day, is there anything better than a bath? The only thing better, in our humble opinion, is a bubble bath! Bubbles add a touch of luxury, feel extra relaxing, and we have to admit that they’re pretty fun too. That’s why we decided to come up with a new bubble bath recipe that you can whip up in 10 minutes and scent as you please. No Trouble Bubbles will not only help take your stress away, it’s also no trouble to make! 

To make this DIY bubble bath, you’ll need not one, not two, but three surfactants! The combined effect yields a wonderful foaming bubble bath with bubbles that really last. The trio of surfactants also yields a product with the consistency of a shower gel: as many of you pointed out, our first bubble bath recipe is very liquid. Getting the texture right was lot more difficult than we initially imagined. But after many weeks of research and tests, we’ve found the perfect proportions for the homemade bubble bath of our dreams! Bravo to our R&D department, once again!

Let No Trouble Bubbles wash your worries away!

How to make bubble bath

Before you begin

To make this bubble bath, you’ll be handling ingredients with extreme pHs in their pure state: decyl glucoside has a pH of 11 and coco glucoside a pH of 11–12. You must wear safety gear, including safety glasses and gloves throughout the whole process. But don’t worry, the final product has a pH of 9, which is perfectly safe—especially when you consider that it will be dissolved in a lot of water.

Ingredients

• 19.2 g (32%) decyl glucoside
• 13.2 g (22%) coco glucoside
• 24 g (40%) coco betaine
• 2.4 g (4%) aromatic essence of your choosing
• 4 drops lactic acid
• 1.2 g (2%) cellulose gum
• A few drops liquid colourant (optional)

Tools

• Two small stainless steel bowls
• A few ramekins
• Small silicone spatula
• Scale, accurate to 0.1 g
• Pipette
• Funnel
• Cosmo bottle with disc top, 60 ml
• Personal protective gear

Good to know!

• Coco glucoside, decyl glucoside, and coco betaine are surfactants. Coco glucoside has strong foaming power but tends to yield very liquid products, while decyl glucoside is less foaming but thickens the product. Coco betaine is also thickening but most importantly, it activates the foaming power of the two other surfactants: without it, you’d have no bubbles at all. None of the surfactants can be replaced without changing the texture of the final product or its foaming power—that is, the “bubbliness” of this DIY bubble bath.
• You can replace the aromatic essence with the same proportion of an essential oil. If you do so, you can omit the lactic acid, as adding it will no longer do anything.
• Lactic acid is used to balance the pH of the product and stabilize the mixture.
• You can replace the cellulose gum with the same proportion of xanthan gum, which will yield a slightly thinner product.
• This bubble bath recipe contains no preservative because all of ours are either rendered ineffective at this pH or because their inclusion destabilizes the product. However, because this bubble bath is so concentrated and stable and contains no aqueous phase, it will keep for at least one month. After that time, we recommend that you keep a close eye on your homemade bubble bath for any changes in texture, smell, or colour—all of which indicate that the product is no longer usable.
• The final product has a pH of about 9, which is perfectly fine. However, it’s important to note that as a bubble bath, this product is not formulated to be applied directly to your skin: it’s meant to be dissolved in water. It should therefore not be used in the same way as a shower gel, or it may dry out your skin.

Steps to follow

1. Prepare and disinfect your equipment and workspace.
2. Weigh the decyl glucoside and the coco glucoside in the small bowl. Using the small spatula, mix gently, so that the mixture doesn’t foam up.
3. Weigh the coco betaine in the second small bowl and add it to the first small bowl. Mix gently with the spatula for about one minute. The mixture should thicken.
4. Weigh the aromatic essence and add it to the small bowl. Using a pipette, add the four drops of lactic acid. Gently mix together with the spatula.
5. Weigh the gum and add it to the small bowl. Mix gently with the spatula until the mixture is homogeneous.
6. Add a few drops of liquid colourant, if using, and mix gently with the spatula.
7. Gently pour your bubble bath into the bottle using a funnel. It’s ready!

Use and conservation

Pour a little bit of your DIY bubble bath into the tub, close to the stream of water running from the faucet, to help bubbles form.

When made in optimal sanitary conditions, your bubble bath will keep for at least one month.