Amy's Soap Challenge - Using Alcohol in Soap

White Zinfandel and Berries

Hello everyone!!

Today I went ahead and did Amy's Soap Challenge #4, soaping with alcohol. I wasn't going to do it because I had such a horrible experience trying to make soap with beer. But, I felt I should give it a go one more time. This time I decided to use wine. I had a couple bottles of wine that weren't expensive so if it didn't turn out I wouldn't cry too much. It was either a white zinfandel or a merlot. The zin won. 

I boiled the wine a bit and put it in the fridge to get cold and decided I wasn't going to add my lye directly to the wine like I did the beer. I diluted the lye in water first and then added the wine.

OMYGOSH!! What a foul stench that was! My daughter came over and asked if somebody threw up.. ha ha ha. Then my granddaughter refused to go in the kitchen because it was "stinky".

Ok, so back to the soap... I kept the lye temp at about 93 F and my oils were 92 F so it was time to get going. I added my fragrance oil to my oils before adding the lye mixture just in case it moved real fast. I put that wonderful FO that I tried out yesterday that smells like berries. I have never soaped at such a low temp before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm usually mixing it up at about 110-120 F. 

I was totally expecting it to accelerate but it didn't at all. I was actually worried because the temp was not moving up during mixing. I mixed and mixed and it stayed fluid. At this point I decided I would go ahead and add some color if it was going to behave so well. I added some titanium dioxide to the whole batch and then split off a small bit to color pink. I was thinking of a blush color like the zin wine. I didn't want to get too fancy just in case it started to accelerate or, at worse, didn't turn out to be usable soap.

I poured it and swirled it and didn't have one issue. I'm still suspicious. I put it in my warmed oven and its still sleeping. I will see how it went tomorrow. I like to cook my soap a couple of hours after I put it in the oven to force a gel. But I was told that the sugars in the alcohol would heat it up so I didn't oven process this time. It took a long time for the soap to warm up. When it did I felt a little better. I thought it may not be a total waste. I have not seen one sign of a gel, but either way it's ok with me. I just want it to turn out to be soap, unlike the beer fiasco.

My camera battery died so I tried to get a couple pictures on my phone.

Lye mixed with wine in an ice bath

Zinfandel scented with Fresh Berries

Wednesday update: The soap is still in the mold. It looks firm but so did the beer soap. It has that playdough smell to it like the beer soap did too. I have a feeling I am not meant to make soap with alcohol.
Took the baby soap out of the mold. It's still rather wet. I used full liquid so I won't take the big loaf out for another day or so.
I am not thrilled with the smell or the texture. I totally hope it wasn't a waste of supplies again. Please soap Gods?

Stay tuned :)


Friday: Finally took the soap out of the mold and it seems good so far. It's not smushy like the beer soap. It came out of the mold without issue and I was able to cut it without issue. The smell is getting better. I can definitely smell the wine and the berries. It's also starting to turn a little cream colored instead of white. That's ok with me :)


Thanks Amy for all the fun challenges... can't wait till the next one!!