# Whiskey Soap? How to?



## jenn624 (Feb 16, 2009)

I'm interested in making some whiskey soap. Does anyone have any info they could share? Do you just use straight whiskey in place of the water? Does it need to sit out or do I need to burn off the alcohol somehow? Does one brand of whiskey work better than another or will the cheap stuff work just as well? 
Thanks!


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## ilovedoxies (Feb 16, 2009)

I asked a question similar to this one a few months ago and the general opinion was that the alcohol in hard liquor will make the soap seize.


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## jenn624 (Feb 16, 2009)

rats.... 

thanks ilovedoxies


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## Lindy (Feb 16, 2009)

I just did a beer soap and for me I found that the trick is to boil the alcohol off and reduce the liquid so you end up with all the scent and no alcohol.....I put my beer in at light trace and the soap is really nice - well so far - it's too early to try it.... :? 

HTH


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## ilovedoxies (Feb 17, 2009)

Boiling works with beer and wine.  I don't know about hard liquor.  

If anyone tries it, please keep us posted


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## Lindy (Feb 17, 2009)

We'll need to confirm it with LamondSoap because she has made one http://www.lomondsoap.com/page3.htm and I have heard of others.  When cooking I know the alcohol can be cooked out but you are doing to be dealing with a high sugar content depending on how much you use......What I have no idea about is the amount you would use and I hoping Corrie will come by and answer that one.....

Cheers
Lindy


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## outlawsoaps (Mar 25, 2013)

*I tried it. It was a mess.*

Hi there. I'm new to this forum but was doing a search for Whiskey soap and found this thread so thought I'd share my experience.

DON'T DO IT.

Or, rather, do it, but expect to lose a lot of perfectly good whiskey. Also, you'll make a toxic mess:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...8042731.152126.577784945572450&type=3&theater

The lye doesn't really dissolve all that well, but that's just the beginning. It got VERY hot very fast and I threw it in an ice bath pretty immediately. It was very unstable.

By the time it cooled down to 120 and I got the oil up to 120, the thing was steaming some awful toxic stuff. I'm very glad I have a huge industrial fan over my workshop.

As I poured the lye/whiskey mix in, there was some strange chemical reaction that caused the whole thing to seize in a mushroom cloud up the center of my blender. It was VERY exciting. It looked like the whole thing might just erupt, but it didn't. It just turned into a solid bucket of soap.

I tried to scoop it into molds, but it was absolutely the most disgusting toxic mess I've ever seen. Even worse than the non-stick coated pan. And even worse than the frothing glitter issue.

So, in other words, "don't try this at home." (Unless you want to... because it was pretty cool.)

We've been experimenting with Whiskey fragrance oils instead and have been having very good success: http://www.outlawsoaps.com/lifestyle-soap/hair-of-the-dog/ 


I've heard of a lot of people having great luck with beer. The Soap Queen had a nice video about Kahlua. I think the water content of both make those a little different story than the whiskey.


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## paillo (Mar 25, 2013)

Did you boil it down first to evaporate the alcohol? I've never tried whiskey, but with beer I always let it go flat then boil it for good measure. Wine I always boil down. Whiskey I would imagine would take a good deal of boiling down - I'm afraid to try! Glad you are OK and no injuries from the adventure


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## Lindy (Mar 25, 2013)

I have tried whisky and even though I boiled it down I ended up with seized soap.  It was awful.  Not quite as bad as Outlaw's, but bad.  Won't try it again *plus* it makes for a super expensive soap....


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## DeeAnna (Mar 25, 2013)

Be careful heating hard liquor over an open flame -- depending on the % alcohol, it could ignite rather than just boil off. Flambe, anyone?


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## melstan775 (Mar 25, 2013)

So, I'm curious, this thread has a lot of alcohol in it.. anyone drunk in the shower yet? ;-)  

Anyway, Soaping101 says not to boil the alcohol out of your beer because you may destroy the benefits of having beer in your soap. Also she demonstrates beer soap using the ice cube in place of water method successfully. Any thoughts anyone?


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## Lindy (Mar 26, 2013)

LOL - no open flames were involved......


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## la-rene (Mar 26, 2013)

I made soap with some Amontillado Sherry.  Boiled down to a syrup, then added to water to make the lye solution.  Smelled horrible, even in the finished product.  Kind of like a rotten nut.  It didn't seize though.  But, it did heat up quite a bit.


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## melstan775 (Mar 26, 2013)

Amontillado huh? Immidiately what comes to mind is the Cask of Amontillado...  Did the smell ever go away?


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## la-rene (Mar 26, 2013)

No. I threw it out. The lather stank too. I didn't use any fragrance in it though. I wanted to see how it would do and what it would smell like. 

I love that story! So creepy. D*mn waste of some good alcohol, too!


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## Loolee (Mar 26, 2013)

Maybe it would be better if you boiled it down (reduced by half), then dissolved your lye into 50% water, added to your oils, THEN added your whiskey.

Or how about treating it like a fruit... 5% max usage.


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## jcandleattic (Mar 26, 2013)

I never boil my beer and have never had a problem. It gets a tad thicker than my normal CP, but I'm still able to swirl, etc., 
I just pour the bottle in a container, add a little salt, then freeze. I add my lye very slowly (like you would with GM) and it will stay pretty cool. 
Because beer tends to overheat I don't insulate my mold and it still gels just fine.


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## chicklet (Mar 26, 2013)

I don't boil or reduce my beer either, but I do let it get pretty flat. I pour it into plastic containers, weigh it, label it, and freeze it.


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## Soapzoom (Dec 22, 2020)

Sorry for reviving an old thread but what is the final verdict on whiskey soap.. to make or not to make..?  

Shall I add a bit after boiling at light trace?

Here is a link to whiskey soap from lovinsoaps. Is it a good idea to follow this? 









						Bourbon Whiskey Vanilla Bean Cold Process Soap
					

I'm sure you've heard of beer soap, but did you know that you can add hard liquors and spirits to soap? It can be a bit tricky because of the alcohol, but here is how I do it.    First of all, I don't make a



					www.lovinsoap.com


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## TheGecko (Dec 22, 2020)

jenn624 said:


> I'm interested in making some whiskey soap. Does anyone have any info they could share? Do you just use straight whiskey in place of the water? Does it need to sit out or do I need to burn off the alcohol somehow? Does one brand of whiskey work better than another or will the cheap stuff work just as well?



Unless you are going for label appeal, there is no sense in wasting good whiskey on soap.

And while the alcohol may smell good going into the soap, you're not going to have any scent coming out. You'd probably want to look up the 'notes' in your alcohol and then find a FO or combination thereof to give a similar scent.

And then there is the alcohol itself to deal with. Alcohol and CP soap doesn't mix very well because of the alcohol itself and high sugar content which can cause volcanoes and seizing. Beer (in the US) has an alcohol content of 4% to 6% _by volume, w_ine has an alcohol content of 12%, hard liquor has a much higher content...between 40% and 70%. Check you label. Anyhoo...knowing the alcohol content tells you how much you're going to have to reduce you liquid to burn off the alcohol or how much more you going to have to add for xx amount. Let's say I want to use an ounce of Pendleton Whisky (only for someone I really, really, really like)...at 40% alcohol content, I would need to boil two ounces of whisky. Why the extra amount? Steam. 

All of the above, except for the first line and how much I would have to like someone to use good whisky is based solely on research.  There are tons of YT videos and some very humorous accounts of using alcohol in soap available on the webs.


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## Obsidian (Dec 22, 2020)

Soapzoom said:


> Here is a link to whiskey soap from lovinsoaps. Is it a good idea to follow this?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I wouldn't. Even a small amount of alcohol can cause seizing, overheating or a volcano.

You really do need to cook off the alcohol, it doesn't take long to simmer the  alcohol down to a concentrated syrup you can add at trace.


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## Soapzoom (Dec 22, 2020)

TheGecko said:


> Unless you are going for label appeal, there is no sense in wasting good whiskey on soap.
> 
> And while the alcohol may smell good going into the soap, you're not going to have any scent coming out. You'd probably want to look up the 'notes' in your alcohol and then find a FO or combination thereof to give a similar scent.
> 
> ...



I have access to some good quality whiskey which will come as gift... but I’m just looking for a perfect foolproof recipe...but I guess when it comes to hard liquor in CP soapmaking it is a big gamble. Maybe I’ll just go for beer then. Thank you so much for your response. 



Obsidian said:


> I wouldn't. Even a small amount of alcohol can cause seizing, overheating or a volcano.
> 
> You really do need to cook off the alcohol, it doesn't take long to simmer the  alcohol down to a concentrated syrup you can add at trace.


 
I’m reading a lot of warnings  against using whiskey. I think I’ll go for beer and wine.  Thank you.


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## amd (Dec 22, 2020)

I think the method described in the article you linked will work.
Also consider boiling the whiskey - not necessarily to a reduction as suggested in the older posts on this thread, but just enough to get a good quantity of alcohol burned off. A good boil for 10 minutes will remove approximately 70% of the alcohol (boiling for longer only decreases it marginally after that initial 10 minutes, and you can't boil it down to 0% alcohol unfortunately) which may help reduce some of the issues seen (seizing) with a full strength whiskey. It may only accelerate rather than seize. I would try it with a cheap whiskey in a small batch and save the good stuff for "thinking deep thoughts". There was a soapmaker who does soaps for a distillery local to her, but I can't remember her name now. I used to follow her on Instagram, but she may not be making soap anymore, thinking of it I haven't seen her in awhile.


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## Soapzoom (Dec 23, 2020)

amd said:


> I think the method described in the article you linked will work.
> Also consider boiling the whiskey - not necessarily to a reduction as suggested in the older posts on this thread, but just enough to get a good quantity of alcohol burned off. A good boil for 10 minutes will remove approximately 70% of the alcohol (boiling for longer only decreases it marginally after that initial 10 minutes, and you can't boil it down to 0% alcohol unfortunately) which may help reduce some of the issues seen (seizing) with a full strength whiskey. It may only accelerate rather than seize. I would try it with a cheap whiskey in a small batch and save the good stuff for "thinking deep thoughts". There was a soapmaker who does soaps for a distillery local to her, but I can't remember her name now. I used to follow her on Instagram, but she may not be making soap anymore, thinking of it I haven't seen her in awhile.



Thank you for your response amd.  For a 500g batch how much whiskey you suggest I use..?


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## amd (Dec 23, 2020)

Soapzoom said:


> For a 500g batch how much whiskey you suggest I use..?


I would stick on the low end of 1/2 oz after boil - I think if I remember from the Lovin Soap recipe that was approx 1000g oils and they used 1 oz "raw" whiskey.


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## Soapzoom (Dec 27, 2020)

amd said:


> I would stick on the low end of 1/2 oz after boil - I think if I remember from the Lovin Soap recipe that was approx 1000g oils and they used 1 oz "raw" whiskey.



Ok, so to my 500g batch I’ll put in 14 grams of whiskey. I won’t put it raw, i’ll boil it for over 10 mins. Thank you, amd.


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## Soapzoom (Dec 28, 2020)

amd said:


> I would stick on the low end of 1/2 oz after boil - I think if I remember from the Lovin Soap recipe that was approx 1000g oils and they used 1 oz "raw" whiskey.



So just an update: I gave the whiskey soap a go. The batter thickened fast after the whiskey add. Usually my other soaps are firm within a few hours, but this soap is still soft.


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## CatahoulaBubble (Dec 29, 2020)

You can use it as an additive but it's going to seize quickly so you have to mix it to a very light trace and then add the whiskey at the very last minute, stir it in by hand and be prepared to pour it right away because you have about 30 seconds before it turns to cement. lol 

It's really a waste of alcohol because the scent doesn't carry over.


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## Soapzoom (Dec 29, 2020)

CatahoulaBubble said:


> You can use it as an additive but it's going to seize quickly so you have to mix it to a very light trace and then add the whiskey at the very last minute, stir it in by hand and be prepared to pour it right away because you have about 30 seconds before it turns to cement. lol
> 
> It's really a waste of alcohol because the scent doesn't carry over.



Pic attached, decorated with barley on top and some flour to give it a pastry look. It’s for two of my pastry loving spiritual brothers who are connoisseurs of very expensive whiskey. It’s a surprise for them.  Added the whiskey after a good boil so batter thickened but didn’t cement thankfully.


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## CatahoulaBubble (Dec 29, 2020)

Soapzoom said:


> Pic attached, decorated with barley on top and some flour to give it a pastry look. It’s for two of my pastry loving spiritual brothers who are connoisseurs of very expensive whiskey. It’s a surprise for them. ❤ Added the whiskey after a good boil so batter thickened but didn’t cement thankfully. ☺


You put actual flour on the top?


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## Soapzoom (Dec 29, 2020)

CatahoulaBubble said:


> You put actual flour on the top?



Yeah.. not recommended..?


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## Georgia13 (Jan 5, 2021)

I have made batches of whiskey soaps-made mistake in the first batch, like the others said above the soap was accelerating so quickly after I added whiskey. I used fresh whiskey, straight out of the bottle, did not boil or anything like that, about 2 tbsp per 48 oz of soap (one loaf) and I always soap at room temperature (both oil and lye liquid were around 80 degrees when I mix them. ) And I used fragrance oil that always behaves in the cold process soaps. Try to eliminate as many surprises as possible.  Here is what happened-so the first time, I added whisky (fresh) at light trace and used the immersion blender to mix, (that was a big no no....) the soap started tracing really fast and I had to scoop it out of the mold. The soap still turned out good. It had a pretty distinctive whisky scent for months-not so strong that makes you don't want to smell them again. After that first fail, I did one thing different which is to mix the whisky (still fresh) in the soap by hand, everything else is the same. Because my soap batter is almost liquid, it is not hard to mix in the whiskey and it DID NOT accelerate.


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