Wine Soap

[ctay122]

I have the potential to get a contract with a local winery making soap out of their wine. I purchased a bottle of cheap cab to practice with and decided to make a 2 lb log. I reduced the wine by half. I took 1/2 the calculated amount of water for the lye and added 1/4 of my reduced wine (saving the other 1/4 to add after mixing the initial lye/wine solution). The most horrid smell ever (worse than using goat's milk), even though I had on a mask and tried to stay as far away when mixing. Soaped at about 116 degrees for the lye and 120 for the oils (was making it outside thank goodness! Smell = ugh!). Heated the other 1/4 wine slightly and added to the mix. Since I didn't have any wine FO, decided to make a "mulled wine" scent using 1/2 tsp Orange EO, 1/4 Cinnamon EO and 1/8 tsp allspice added at trace. The color when I poured was a reddish brown color (I didn't have any colorants, I'm waiting on an order along with a wine berry FO). Will be interesting to see what color it turns out, will post pics tomorrow when I take it out of the wood mold. My next thought is to make another 2 lg log, this time reducing what I have left of the wine even further and adding it at trace. For oils I used 48.41 % pomace, 30.26 % coconut, 18.15 palm, 2.42% shea butter and .76 castor, (I wanted 8% superfatted). I prefer my soap to gel, and I did cover it with a piece of saran wrap to keep away the powder which I sometimes get. Any one else recently soap with wine? (ps why does the picture size show in my photo and how do I get rid of it? Using Image shack)

 

[krissy]

it looks nice, i cant wait to see cut pics!

 

[carebear]

Do you really think you are ready for this? You just started making soap.

 

[ctay122]

Carebear, I might be a "beginner" as you are implying, but I've made about 25 - 5 lb batches of soap since I took my week long soapmaking class in Feb and I'm not afraid to take on anything. I have nothing better to do but make soap.

 

[paillo]

Do you really think you are ready for this? You just started making soap.

i'm with carebear. even though you have some experience under your belt it sounds to me to like you need more confidence in what you're doing, which comes with a lot of experimenting, trial and error, failures and successes... hopefully it turns out really well!

in my experience (humbling to say the least), trying to sell a winery on my soap without a WHOLE lot of experience was, well, not successful... i hadn't been soaping for quite a year yet, and realized in that humbling experience that i still had a whole lot to learn, and to gain the confidence that goes with it. then there's the finessing, the unique 'look,' packaging, testimonials, sales approach and terms, proof of insurance, etc. etc. the winery said they loved it (as did several others), but nobody ever actually called me back to order.90

make sure you've got a really superior product and can stand behind it and produce it consistently, which may take months and months of experimenting and curing various batches to see what does best. i'd cure a bunch of batches and wait at least six months before i approached a good winery. believe me, you'll be amazed at what you learn in that time regardless of how much you think you know now.

as for me, i'm going to wait one more year to approach other local wineries and make sure i have everything down TOTALLY pat (even though i think i do now, i now know how much i didn't know). it was a really enticing opportunity, and i hope i have another chance at it, but i really wasn't ready at the time.

... all that said, wishing you all the best, and will be eager to hear how it goes!

 

[Deda]

Read through this:
http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17621

 

[sandyfootfarm]

If you've only been making soap since Feb then how do you know what will happen to your soaps after a cure? It's not the amount you can make you need to see what happens over time. Some of my soaps look as professional as those I've seen being sold but the more I make the more I know I have to learn. You will have too many unknowns simply because you haven't had any soaps curing long enough.

What will you say if the winemaker asks you what colour your soap will be in 6 months, a year? You need answers to all the potential questions before you are ready to sell commercially.

I completely understand why you need to do your time in the testing phase because we have the same problem in the dog world, people becoming breeders before they are really ready and giving all breeders a bad name.

 

[adoptapitbull]

If you have all your business requirements set up, why not try selling to farmer's markets first? This way you'll get people's responses, some sales experience, and maybe a customer base. I'd be afraid of the winery first because they are an established business who might have super high expectations and maybe they think you've been doing this forever.

I'd just not do anything without all your business, tax, liability stuff taken care of first!

 

[carebear]

Making soap is just the beginning. Knowing your soap is something much bigger. I'm not telling you that you cannot do it, but I myself wouldn't sell a product if I don't know anything about it's stability, about the packaging, about how consistently I can make it. Stability testing REQUIRES time.

If I were to sell an untested product; an unproven one, I would think it only ethical to make this clear to a customer, especially a business whose reputation is on the lone with yours. But that's me.

And yea, all the business stuff too, like insurance, local regulations, tax stuff, etc.

 

[busymakinsoap!]

I think your wine soap sounds wonderful. You have inspired me to want to try it.

I wish you all the best with the winery.

Things are a little different here in regards to selling, so I cant really comment.

Theres always new stuff to learn, but thats the case with every thing we do, we get better at it the more we do it, but thats not to say we wernt great at it in the first place! And some people are just naturals.

Good Luck

 

[cthylla]

Would it be possible to make the soap as normal but with a water discount...and then use the wine to color a small part of the soap and use it for a swirl? You'd avoid the horrid smell that way...

I don't have the experience to predict what would happen as it cured... with part of it having more liquid than the other...

Is it possible to "reduce" wine to make it thicker? I am a red wine junkie, and would happily bathe in it. I have a "cheap red wine" lipgloss that I adore.