Baking Soda

Baking soda is an alkaline (basic) abrasive powder.

Sodium bicarbonate

White powder

It depends on the use; probably no more than 60% in most cases, and those cases would be bath products where it is highly diluted (in bath water) when used.

Abrasive semi-fine powder

A bit salty & bitter

9

Water

It reacts well with acids like citric acid to create fizzy products like bath bombs, fizzing bath salts, and fizzing scrubs. It can also be a useful abrasive as a household cleaner.

Baking soda is too basic and too abrasive to be regularly used on the skin—read more on this here. For this reason, I do not recommend using it unreacted in facial scrubs or deodorants. It can be fine as an ingredient in bath salts for occasional use as it would be highly diluted in bath water and is unlikely to be used on a daily basis.

Not unless you want to make fizzy bath things.

All baking soda is refined.

Excellent for creating fizzy bath products.

Too basic for use in skincare products.

When you need baking soda it’s really the only thing that’ll do. Good thing it’s inexpensive and widely available!

When blending it with acids like citric acid and Cream of Tartar be sure to keep the mixture as dry as possible until the moment of use to prevent pre-emptive fizzing.

Stored somewhere cool, dark, and dry, baking soda should last indefinitely.

Baking soda is much cheaper if purchased from an online store in bulk rather than at the grocery store, so if you really like making bath bombs I’d recommend going online. DIY suppliers typically have it for good prices, and so does Amazon.

For bath bombs, I’d recommend at least 500g (1.1lb). For pH adjusting, 30g (1oz) would be enough.

 Buy it from an online DIY ingredient supplier or Amazon.