Ethanol (95 %, 190 proof)
Transparent soap.
Opens the calculator’s starter recipe with this additive in it. No source gives a dose to fill in, so enter your own. The batch opens as hot process, because it usually goes in after the cook.
What it is
Ethanol of 190 proof, 95 % alcohol, is the main solvent in transparent soapmaking, added once the soap has sat in the pot for a couple of hours.
Failor, Making Transparent Soap primary source
How much
- 34.6–38 % of the oils for transparent soap (from a published recipe) Failor, Making Transparent Soap primary source
- 28–40.2 % of the oils for transparent soap (from a published recipe) Simmons & Appleton primary source
- 51.3–61.5 % of the oils for transparent soap (from a published recipe) Grosso, The Everything Soapmaking Book, 3rd ed. primary source
No dose to fill in: enter your own.
When and how
- Usually: after the cook.
- Also used: at light trace.
- Stir it in as it is.
Failor, Making Transparent Soap primary source, Grosso, The Everything Soapmaking Book, 3rd ed. primary source
What it does to the recipe
- It changes neither the lye nor the water: it is only weight in the bar.
Failor, Making Transparent Soap primary source
Worth knowing
- Caution: Ethanol is very flammable: keep it and the pot away from open flames. Failor, Making Transparent Soap primary source, Grosso, The Everything Soapmaking Book, 3rd ed. primary source
- No source gives a dose for cold-process soap: the doses here are for other kinds of soap.
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 3.99 g
- 1 tbsp ≈ 12 g
- 1 cup ≈ 192 g
Canada Revenue Agency primary source
INCI name
Alcohol
- CAS number
- 64-17-5
- EC number
- 200-578-6
Recipes that use it
Guides that discuss it
Sources
Catherine Failor, Making Transparent Soap (Storey, 2000): "Alcohol is the primary solvent used in transparent soapmaking. After the initial batch of soap has been mixed and left to sit in the pot for a couple of hours, alcohol is added"; 190-proof ethanol; basic recipes with 28, 29 and 30 oz of ethanol for 81, 79 and 79 oz of oils (34.6–38 %); isopropyl alcohol for "a 25 to 35 percent substitution"; "Ethanol is very flammable"; "Alcohol must be kept away from open flames".
Alicia Grosso, The Everything Soapmaking Book, 3rd edition (Adams Media, 2013). Chapter 8, hot process: recipes on a "2-pound batch recipe of your choice" that each "YIELDS 3 POUNDS", the addition stirred "into the neutral soap" after the cook: "3 tablespoons baking soda" and "2 tablespoons lemon zest" (Lemon/Baking Soda Kitchen Soap), "2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal", "1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers", "1 tablespoon mint, dried and ground", "1 tablespoon dried yarrow"; "You can add liquid glycerin to hot-process soap to get it to flow more easily from the mold. Use 1 tablespoon for each pound of oils in the batch." Chapter 9, transparent soap: 19.5 oz of oils with "10 ounces (plus 2 ounces more if needed for clarity) 90 percent ethanol (190 proof vodka)" (190 proof is 95 %) and "5 ounces sugar"; "Alcohol fumes are highly flammable." Chapter 11, Lavender Oat Float: "1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers" for "1 pound casting soap".
W. H. Simmons and H. A. Appleton, The Handbook of Soap Manufacture (Scott, Greenwood & Son, London, 1908), pp. 57–58, transparent soaps: for 112 lb of fats, "Twenty-three lb. of pure glycerine" and "the alcohol, which would be 45 lb. in this example"; with castor oil, 168 lb of oils and "the glycerine (25 lb.)" or "47 lb. of alcohol"; "the 'sugar solution' is prepared by dissolving 50 lb. cane sugar in 50 lb. water"; "If the sample be firm but opaque, more sugar solution is required". The alcohol’s strength is not given.
Canada Revenue Agency, Canadian Alcoholometric Laboratory Table 1996 (from the OIML formula), worked example: "Density-in-air = 0.8102 ... Temperature = 20 C ... % Vol = 95.03".