wine in soap

[brandnew]

brandnew here, running before I can walk....just made (my third go) what I thought would be a pink swirl right? Red wine plus the base =pink...NOT despite all the things I've read concerning blue and purple colorants...Well at first I was horrified thinking it'd be black but thought that could be interesting too then I got a de-licious butterscotch colour!! Does red wine always turn brownish? I'd added a tsp of honey to the base ingredients. It was a smallish batch 500g.lard and 195 palm fat so.... any advice in general for wine? beer? I would love for it to stay that rich colour but am afraid it's bound to pale. Thanks...it's great... only with soap making can a 'disaster' in the kitchen can be looked upon as a success!!! :roll:[/b]

 

[Hazel]

I experienced the same thing with my first wine batch. I was told the color becomes brownish because of the tannins in the wine. However, mine did lighten slightly and became more of a tan color so the purplish swirls could be seen a little bit.

I don't know if the honey you added contributed to the butterscotch color or not but maybe you'll get lucky and it won't fade. On the other hand, it might fade into another beautiful color. Soapmaking - every time is an adventure!

BTW, be careful with adding honey into a wine or beer batch. It can cause the soap to overheat so you'll want to watch it.

 

[brandnew]

thanks for the advice! Hope I don't wake the hubby creeping in to have a look!! Don't want a volcano! Is it better not to insulate?

 

[Hazel]

I'd still insulate it if you want it to fully gel. I'm not an expert so I can only tell you what I've seen and done with my batches. If I see signs of over heating (like cracks or "wrinkles" - sorry I don't know what else to call them), I leave the towel off for a few minutes then wrap it back up. I check again in about half an hour to an hour. Usually the cracks have disappeared so I cover it again and leave it set until the next day. I've only had one batch that was still overheating the next time I checked it. It was a salt bar batch in which I had used Peak's Love Spell FO. I don't know if it was because the salt batch was just hot or if it had something to do with the FO. I decided to leave the towel off this one because I didn't want it to crack or get crumbly. It still gelled. Althugh, there isn't anything wrong with soap that's only partially gelled. It's more of an aesthetic issue.

There have been discussions about wine soap if you want to search for them. However, this discussion about beer soap should be helpful because it's the same principle.

http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19275

 

[brandnew]

thanks for your help!!

 

[Hazel]

You're welcome!

 

[serfmunke]

My wine soap is a light tan as well but I used a light pink wine. I cooked it down hoping to concentrate it for better color. I think I might swirl it in near trace next time to see what becomes of it. Also the EOs went bad it seems. I did rosemary and lavender and the soap stinks like yuck, not sure if it was because of the wine or not.

 

[brandnew]

let me know if the smell changes with the curing...didn't even THINK about fragrance was so concerned with just the colour. IT didn't 'blo' fortunately! Seems alright...

 

[serfmunke]

The soap still smells weird. I added it into another batch as a flower embed. But sadly it seems that that batch is failing as well. It may pull through, it is really, really soft still after 30 hours in the mold.

Soooo, next experiment with wine is to swirl the cooked down wine into a medium traced soap mixture. I wonder if it will mix in or cause the entire soap to fall apart? I wonder. I need to research a little more till I move ahead with this idea. If this fails, I may abandon wine soap.

 

[Hazel]

serfmunke -

How long ago did you make your wine soap? I noticed mine smelled funny for at least a week - maybe slightly longer. I don't think the wine would stay swirled in your soap. I think it would absorb into the batch. I use wine as the liquid and only use enough water to dissolve the lye.

The batch that is still soft - did it have a high percentage of olive? How much water did you add?

 

[brandnew]

the honey stayed a LOVELY butterscotch-y colour. The hoped for wine'swirl' was the wine incorporated into part of the batch then added to the honey soap and I think the wine plus the honey made the trace too heavy (and I think I poured too much in, to swirl) it's more of a blob..so let's call it a two-toned soap, shall we? My daughter thinks the wine part smells like liver- the lard?--I didn't scent unfortunately and the part with the wine is still soft-ish but is hardening up slowly. I think I'll go on to honey soap but not giving up on wine completely because to satisfy my curiosity I tried a bit of it and it seems to lather up much more even at this early stage! Is beer more successful than wine, Hazel? (if you're still with us)

 

[Hazel]

Is beer more successful than wine, Hazel? (if you're still with us)

I'm here now. But as for being with you, I'm barely hanging on to consciousness. I have got to stop staying up so late.

I'm glad it stayed a butterscotch color for you. I haven't had any problems with beer or wine but I use them just as the liquid. Did you simmer off the alcohol before trying to swirl it? If there was still some alcohol in the wine, it might have caused the soap to start to seize. Other than that, I don't know why it would have blobbed up in your soap. I've never combined wine and honey (although that does sound wonderful) so I don't know if the honey contributed to the problem. I've been meaning to make another batch of wine soap. I'll have to try the combination and see what happens.

I've been told it's the sugar in the beer and wine that helps with the lather.

 

[brandnew]

Thanks Hazel...I don't think I simmered the wine enough at all after reading one soaper got her bottle down to a cup or so!!! Will try again...can you suggest an EO that goes well with the wine? Please let me know hw your soap turns out! I think the base was too light and the wine layer too heavy and it just sank alas.... :cry:

 

[Seventeen Soaps]

I made a wine soap once with Merlot...simmered off the alcohol for about half an hour on very low as you don't want to loose too much to evaporation. I didn't swirl or anything but I coloured it with Dark Red Mica and when cured it looked the same colour as red wine so I was happy. I scented it with orange and Lavender eo. You could still a wine aroma for a couple of weeks but then it faded. The bars did have a wonderful lather.

 

[brandnew]

thanks seventeen! guess after I've got a few more batches under my belt I'll TRY again!!

 

[Seventeen Soaps]

You're very welcome
I love going back and trying things that failed for me first time round so I hope you have better luck achieving what you want!

 

[serfmunke]

serfmunke -

How long ago did you make your wine soap? I noticed mine smelled funny for at least a week - maybe slightly longer. I don't think the wine would stay swirled in your soap. I think it would absorb into the batch. I use wine as the liquid and only use enough water to dissolve the lye.

The batch that is still soft - did it have a high percentage of olive? How much water did you add?

Hi Hazel, I made it a while ago, say a month ago, and have noticed the scent was not as off as when I first unmolded it.

My OO percentage is typically around 58% or less and my water is at 34%. I have been having issues with long trace times so I decided to soap at higher temps but even that didn't matter the other day. Soap came out fine, just took forever trace! Not sure why, weather? It is cool and damp here, I dunno. But I remember the days of quick traces and frantically trying to incorporate Eos and additives. Now I have plenty of time, I guess that is a good thing :wink:

 

[Hazel]

Thanks Hazel...I don't think I simmered the wine enough at all after reading one soaper got her bottle down to a cup or so!!! Will try again...can you suggest an EO that goes well with the wine? Please let me know hw your soap turns out! I think the base was too light and the wine layer too heavy and it just sank alas.... :cry:

It's so frustrating when something doesn't turn out like you plan. I don't know what EO would go well with wine. Although, Seventeen Soaps suggestion of orange & lavender sounds good to me. Have you looked at the EO profiles on AromaWeb. You might see something that you think might work. However, Strawberries & Champagne FO is super in wine soap. Everyone I gave a bar to loved it. I didn't care for the scent myself but I did like it in the soap.

Well, I'm not making wine soap this weekend. The wine mysteriously disappeared. I have a theory that soap gremlins drank it. It's either soap gremlins or my brother-in-law. :wink:

, I made it a while ago, say a month ago, and have noticed the scent was not as off as when I first unmolded it.

My OO percentage is typically around 58% or less and my water is at 34%. I have been having issues with long trace times so I decided to soap at higher temps but even that didn't matter the other day. Soap came out fine, just took forever trace! Not sure why, weather? It is cool and damp here, I dunno. But I remember the days of quick traces and frantically trying to incorporate Eos and additives. Now I have plenty of time, I guess that is a good thing :wink:

IMO, 58% OO is a high percentage but I generally keep it around 35%-45% in my batches. I've always heard OO takes longer to trace. Maybe that's why I have such problems with swirling. :roll: But I would have thought reducing the water would have helped.

How long does it take your batches to trace? I suppose weather might be a factor. I made a salt bar batch last year and it was storming that night. It was coconut with hazelnut oil and I thought it would never trace. I never thought of weather being a factor but maybe it did have something to do with it.

I'd say having plenty of time to play with your batch is a good thing, too.

 

[Seventeen Soaps]

serfmunke, is your stick blender working ok? I had trouble with long tracing times between 6 and 10 minutes and then discovered it was actually the blender as it wasn't going around fast enough and was actually putting tiny bubbles into the soap mix. As soon as I replaced the blender I had emulsion in 60 seconds and trace about 30 seconds later. This was in a 1.5kg batch so if you are making a bigger batch that will also account for a longer tracing time...high olive oil soaps only take about 60 seconds longer to reach trace in my experience.

 

[serfmunke]

I have been having air bubble problems and recently switched out my stick blender. The new one gave me bubbles too, so I am going to embrace my air bubbles, like Hershey, and market it as purposeful air bubbles :wink: My old one whipped up a storm and trace time was fine. The new one is way, way slower so maybe that is a factor.

Current trace time is around 20 minutes, long long time. I need to make a bunch of soap this next week or two so hopefully I work out my issues. The weather will be a bit more temperate, we will see if that makes a difference.