Whiskey Soap? How to?

[jenn624]

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!

 

[ilovedoxies]

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.

 

[jenn624]

rats....

thanks ilovedoxies

 

[Lindy]

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

 

[ilovedoxies]

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

If anyone tries it, please keep us posted

 

[Lindy]

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

 

[outlawsoaps]

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.

 

[paillo]

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

 

[Lindy]

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....

 

[DeeAnna]

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

 

[melstan775]

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?

 

[Lindy]

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

 

[la-rene]

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.

 

[melstan775]

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

 

[la-rene]

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!

 

[Loolee]

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.

 

[jcandleattic]

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.

 

[chicklet]

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.

 

[Soapzoom]

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?

https://www.lovinsoap.com/2015/12/bourbon-whiskey-vanilla-bean-cold-process-soap/

 

[TheGecko]

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, wine 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.