Goat Goat Etc.
Well-known member
So became fascinated with making one of these water bead air fresheners after buying a dud from Walmart. I figured I'd take much more pleasure in determining the scent and its intensity while watching these cool beads puff up and grow! Yesterday I went on the hunt for some beads at Hobby Lobby. You can usually find these beads in the section where floral foam is. I grabbed a bag of black ones that branded these beads as Deco Beads, they even had gel cubes too! They were $2.99. I go to my local grocery store and pick up a Sandalwood warming oil fragrance for $2 that's less than 2 oz but more than a little thing you'd get from bath and body works.
I looked up some of the few tutorials there were on this and one said to let the beads just sit in the oil for 1-3 days. I let the beads soak over 24 hours but I felt like I could add more beads. Plus the black beads were stilI tiny like caviar. They had absorbed some of the oil fragrance since it had a little bit of water in but not a significant amount. Next day I go to Garden Ridge on a hunch they would have water beads. Not only did they have them under the name Water Gems but they cost $1.99 and were three times the size what I bought at Hobby Lobby and what I saw at Walmart! *facepalmage* So went ahead and bought them in dark blue. I added some of the blue beads to the residing oil and black beads and within a few seconds they puffed up a little like the black beads did but still remained really tiny. After letting them soak for 5-6 hours I poured in some rubbing alcohol on a hunch it would help them absorb the oil a little and immediately added water. After all, oil and water don't mix and these beads absorb water.
If this fails I'll just try another batch with the giant batch I got from Garden Ridge. So at this point I'm waiting it out. Maybe next time I'll seek out a body mist and make that the base of of the fragrance since it's more water based.
