Teach Soap

I have never made beer soap. I thought it might be fun to do as I'm starting to think about future Christmas presents. Does it actually make a difference in the final product, or is it one of those things you add b/c it sounds good?

I just made a batch with beer, but it's still curing so I don't know first hand if it's supposed to be better. It was a salt bar, and I read that the beer will help increase the suds (an issue in salt bars). And yeah, I think part of it is that you can say "this soap has beer in it" which makes it a novel soap to gift to men and beer drinkers.

Remember to boil down the beer. I started with a 12 oz can (that's how much is in a can, right?) and boiled it until it was about 6 oz, which was what I needed for my 2lb mold. If you don't boil out the alcohol bad things can happen. Also, it smells HORRIBLE when you mix in the lye. Bad. Beyond bad. But the smell goes away quickly once you've mixed it with the oils.

Beer has natural sugars, which makes the soap more bubbly.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I have never needed to color my beer bars. I get a lovely brown which is perfect for my FO and the "beer" look.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!

Lol, I'll need to try a better beer next time. I've only done it the one time, and the only beer we had in our entire beer fridge was a single, lonely Miller Light. Not the best beer, but it worked for what I was using it for. It didn't really color, much- I used some Blue Green Mica, and the result was a not completely unpleasant blue/green/gray that totally works for a salt bar.