Lush Marathon Bubble Bar Dupe Attempt

THIS is the much-lamented, utterly discontinued Marathon Bubble Bar from Lush.

Sigh... how i miss you!

This particular product produced massive amounts of cinnamon leaf and peppermint scented bubbles.  It was fantastic the day after a particularly strenuous workout.  That could have been the effect of the essential oils or the luxury of the bubbles or just because you were soaking in a lovely hot bath, but however it worked, it worked.  When I found out this, my very favorite Lush product, had been discontinued, I was quite, quite sad.


Since then, I have learned to make several types of bath products, but bubble bars seemed too daunting.  Then just a few weeks ago I found this recipe and it looked simple enough.  So I purchased the one supply I didn't have on hand, and got ready to do some mad soap science.


I followed the recipe fairly closely.  For the essential oil, I used cinnamon leaf extract and peppermint.  I wish I'd used just a little bit more than I did.  I ended up using WAY too much orange pigment.  The color doesn't really start to show up until the liquid is added, so I kept adding more and more to the dry ingredients.  I still only had a pale orange mixture, until I started adding the glycerin, and then POW, ORANGE.  I will know in the future I don't have to use so much, but for now it doesn't hurt anything, and gives me orange bubbles in the bath.


I did add a little sweet almond oil in place of a bit of the glycerin.  This probably decreased the amount of bubbles I'm getting with these, but the texture of the bars is a little closer to the source inspiration, and also, I really like sweet almond oil in my bath.

This is what they looked like.  Weird little things.  :)

They are not totally solid, but after about 5 days, they held their shape enough to put them all in a ziplock bag so that the house didn't smell like them anymore.


As to what they do in the bath... I'm pleased.

Orange bubbles!

A fantastic amount of thanks to the wonderful Amber Johnstone for the inspiration for this project!