Red wine soap

nframe · Mar 21, 2017

I have some leftover red wine (which does not happen very often in this house :wink

and I would like to try to use it in soap. I know you need to boil it, let it reduce and then freeze it before using but I would like to know two things:

1. Does the lather stay white?
2. Should I replace all the water with the wine or just some of it? What is better?

BattleGnome · Mar 21, 2017

When I've made wine soap I reduced the wine to 1/4 or less then added 1tsp-1tbsp PPO at trace. The last batch I made was almost 5# and I used 2tbsp of reduced wine. I had no noticeable change in color for either the batter or the lather but I did add other colorants to the batch.

Soapprentice · Mar 21, 2017

Sorry for hijacking the thread but I have been seeing wine soap threads and would love to learn the added benefit of it to a soap?

mommycarlson · Mar 21, 2017

I'm very interested as well, so see where this thread goes, as I've been seeing that people use 100% boiled wine as the liquid. That was my plan until seeing this thread. My FO arrives tomorrow, I've already boiled and frozen my wine so now I am going to watch this to see what others do.

BattleGnome · Mar 21, 2017

Soapprentice said:
Sorry for hijacking the thread but I have been seeing wine soap threads and would love to learn the added benefit of it to a soap?

Label mostly. I'm not sure that anything survives the lye except sugar content. The extra sugars in the wine boosts lather but in the end you can just add plain sugar and not worry about the extra steps to boil off the alcohol.

I first made wine soap because my dad makes wine. No one in my family seems to care that I was able to combine my dad's hobby with mine but it seemed to go over well in the swap.

cmzaha · Mar 21, 2017

Wine and beer add label appeal and bubbles due to the sugar. Other than that it is another liquid. When my customers ask them what beer adds to the soap I simply tell them bubbles. I do not make wine soap, at least very seldom because I do not like the color it turns unless I use a white wine

SunRiseArts · Mar 21, 2017

I am also interested in this, and would love to see pictures! I made beer soap, and I loved it. SO I am ready to try the wine one! Does the red color survive through the process if you use red wine?

Pics pretty please!!!!!!

BattleGnome · Mar 21, 2017

These were made with cherry wine using the method I described above. Wine was only added to the white portion, the top red/pink parts were a failed attempt at a layered ribbon pour.

This was a high olive oil soap and I haven't had a chance to use more than a small tester. Other wine soaps I've made have wonderful bubbles.

Spice · Mar 21, 2017

cmzaha said:
Wine and beer add label appeal and bubbles due to the sugar. Other than that it is another liquid. When my customers ask them what beer adds to the soap I simply tell them bubbles. I do not make wine soap, at least very seldom because I do not like the color it turns unless I use a white wine

These pictures are not really my best. I used a 50% clove eo blend, making my stearic on the first and the second picture it began to seize up before I even added the wine. It would be a failure if I don't look will the experience. I have redone my 50%clove eo blended to 10%. Haven't made soap yet though.

I dont boil my wine (funny....how we are taught is how we soap), because I learned how to make straight out of the bottle. I use 30% wine to 40% water. When I make wine soap, I have a small window to work with, after I pour the wine. The reason is, the soap batter will seize; so I have to be quit.

Not sure why others boil the wine though?

SunRiseArts · Mar 22, 2017

wow Love them all. I do like the swirl on the first one a lot! Keep it coming please!

BattleGnome · Mar 22, 2017

Spice said:
Not sure why others boil the wine though?

The alcohol content is what makes soaps seize. I boil off the alcohol but want to sure I can recreate a soap if I find something everyone enjoys. It makes sense in my head for future measuring to reduce to a specific amount rather guess if the alcohol has dissipated.

nframe · Mar 22, 2017

How is the lather? Does it stay white?

smengot0 · Mar 22, 2017

Spice said:
These pictures are not really my best. I used a 50% clove eo blend, making my stearic on the first and the second picture it began to seize up before I even added the wine. It would be a failure if I don't look will the experience. I have redone my 50%clove eo blended to 10%. Haven't made soap yet though.

I dont boil my wine (funny....how we are taught is how we soap), because I learned how to make straight out of the bottle. I use 30% wine to 40% water. When I make wine soap, I have a small window to work with, after I pour the wine. The reason is, the soap batter will seize; so I have to be quit.

Not sure why others boil the wine though?

Love the swirl in the first one too....and the rugged look. Very pretty. Thanks for sharing

SaltedFig · Mar 22, 2017

Soapprentice said:
Sorry for hijacking the thread but I have been seeing wine soap threads and would love to learn the added benefit of it to a soap?

Some, but not all, wines have lactic acid in them. Finding actual percentages is nearly impossible, because it's a controlled (the winemaker deliberately encourages or discourages) bacterial process that converts the wine's malic acid to lactic acid, so a wine may have anywhere from no lactic acid to a maximum of about 1mg/L (as far as I have been able to find).

That puts the red wine maximum lactic acid content never higher than 1/10th of the lactic acid of a milk based product like yogurt, at best.

The way to tell in a red wine? Taste it - malic acid is sharp like young wine, lactic is softer, like mellowed or barrelled wine. Hmmm. Like the good wine is going in the soap! :lol:

Spice · Mar 22, 2017

nframe said:
How is the lather? Does it stay white?

yes, lather is white.

Spice · Mar 22, 2017

SunRiseArts said:
wow Love them all. I do like the swirl on the first one a lot! Keep it coming please!

The swirl is cacoa powder, cocoa is the same thing. I tried to use indigo blue, and it was ok, but I like the brown better with a r

ed wine. I think a white wine would do better. Next time.

Spice · Mar 22, 2017

This is the indigo blue color, the others got DOS, and I don't know why. Not bad, but I can see those little devils. And then there are those drag marks.

Soapprentice · Mar 22, 2017

SaltedFig said:
Some, but not all, wines have lactic acid in them. Finding actual percentages is nearly impossible, because it's a controlled (the winemaker deliberately encourages or discourages) bacterial process that converts the wine's malic acid to lactic acid, so a wine may have anywhere from no lactic acid to a maximum of about 1mg/L (as far as I have been able to find).

That puts the red wine maximum lactic acid content never higher than 1/10th of the lactic acid of a milk based product like yogurt, at best.

The way to tell in a red wine? Taste it - malic acid is sharp like young wine, lactic is softer, like mellowed or barrelled wine. Hmmm. Like the good wine is going in the soap!

Wow. But if it contains 1mg/L, can it help at mere 1tbs PPO?

mommycarlson · Mar 22, 2017

I made this Merlot soap today. I boiled my wine and then froze it. I didn't have quite 10 oz of wine so I added a little distilled water and then added the lye. The wine/water turned brown immediately. When I added the liquid to the oils it did help a bit with the color, but really it was just a lovely rich brown. I colored half the batter with Merlot Sparkle Mica from BB and the other half with Velvet Pearl mica from Nurture. The FO is BB's Berry Wine. Just did a basic drop swirl and textured/glittered the top. It's in the box right now, hopefully it'll be pretty! when I added the Merlot Sparkle mica, it was just a gorgeous color! Fingers crossed!

SaltedFig · Mar 22, 2017

Soapprentice said:
Wow. But if it contains 1mg/L, can it help at mere 1tbs PPO?

Key word being "if" ... but maybe that's where reducing it comes in - if the wine is reduced to 1/10th or further from it's original volume, then that would (theoretically, at least) concentrate the lactic acid to an amount not dissimilar to yogurt. I did a reduction last week, of both brown beer and red wine, but I haven't soaped it yet. In the past the lather of mine for both of these alcohol produces has been white (I don't colour them with the pretty mica's).

Red wine soap

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