A review of Gelli-Baff

[trollsb]

Does it give the chemical formula for Gelli Baff on the carton? Quite by accident whilst researching a completely different subject I found an entry for Natrosol in Martindale's Extra Pharmacopoeia. It gives Natrosol as hydroxyethylcellulose (which is available in a number of different grades, for example 25, 450, 8000 and 25000, the numbers indicating the average viscosity, in centipoises, of 2% solutions at 20 degrees). Natrosol itself (grade 250) was a trademark of a company called 'Hercules' but that may have changed now as my copy of the book is dated 1972.

You'll find its sodium polyacrylate,( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_polyacrylate and http://www.chemblink.com/products/9003-04-7.htm) which is similar in properties as polyacrylimide which is what people use for jelly wrestling, ie water saving crystals. Unpolerimised acrylimide is quite toxic but is safe once polymerised but you cant be certain there are no unpolymerised units. The advantage of sodium polyacrylate is that since it will react with salt -(sodium chloride) which is all the dissolving package is. The presence of the sodium ions reduces the water absorbency greatly so no longer the 100-300 times weight down to about 50%. Acrylate is the ion of acrylic acid and it is reacted with sodium hydroxide to create sodium polyacrylate http://depts.washington.edu/chemcrs/bul ... rylate.pdf

Whilst it is non toxic though the second msds sheet has the toxicity note for injection amounts of a rate and skin contact of a rabbit, it can be an irritant and you should be careful not to inhale powder.
http://www.sciencestuff.com/msds/C2688.html
http://www.accepta.com/prod_docs/2032.pdf

[messylou]

I tried it myself a while ago - see pics - but must admit I far prefer Natrosol.
Problems are
1- It doesn`t really make a huge amount of substance and if you do go for quantity it is too runny.
2- You have to use a dissolving agent to get rid of it. This you add to the bath when you are finished and add loads more water to break it up . Fine , but if you don`t get the dissolving agent into every bit of the clothing you have used you will end up with a lumpy residue in your clothing even if you put it through a washing machine.
Regards

[bosunbob]

Coming at this from a slightly different angle we used it on a couple of shoots for the site. It got a mixed reception from the girls but we certainly had no clean up problems. My main problem with it was a photography one. We had the green stuff and it had two problems, firstly custard and natrasol have a pleasing habit of dripping slowly down once they connect with a body so I can get several shots in. The gelli-baff was far more watery and it was over in secconds allowing me very few shots even if it was poured slowly. It also dripped off rather quickly. The seccond was it looked almost translucent under studio flash and was quite hard to see in photos without some considerable editing on skin or clothes.

Natrasol is still by far the best in my opinion, its just a bit of a bitch to mix!

[leonmoomin]

We took our Hot Tub to a club and filled it full of the stuff! As mentioned it has a bitty consistancy and does NOT turn back to water! It was a fun night but would have been more fun if we'd filled it with Natrasol, except the mixing would have been a lot harder.

In my opinion the product is very poor!

[muckypup]

I've heard it is pretty good, and some pictures I've seen seem to back that up! Hopefully they might get posted here some day.

[eden]

We thought about getting some and based on what we've heard from people who've used it in thier kids baths, it seemed like too much of a pain in the arse.

(And a hot tub..in a Walkabout?!! That is just the least erotic thing I can fathom.)

[PleasePieMeMistress]

Gelli Baff isn't gunge like at all.
I have filled a bath with it (used 4 packs) for 'mutual bathing' and have previously played in it on my own.

It basically turns the water into little jelly beads which aren't much fun to play in and get into every nook and cranny. I didn't have any trouble getting mine back to water though. It just needs to be sprinkled correctly and then left to do its thing. Same when adding it to water, add a box sprinking over the entire surface, leave for two minutes, then stir, then add more.