A Soap Makers Guide To Dress For Success!

If you take a hard look at a soap makers fashion, you might mistake them for an illegal drug manufacturer (think Breaking Bad!)  But in actuality, they are dressed for success!  They are dressed to make the best darn soap they can make!  Our attire gives us soap makers a sense of pride and protection as we produce our product. To have a better understanding of our "uniforms," I think a case study is appropriate here.  Let's examine this picture... It is of me (duh!)... Notice my 'essential dress for success.'

 Let face it, splatter happens in soap making.  Whether it be from your lye mixture, or your oils, a soap maker can get splattered at anytime. And boy do I know you need to be protected!  Hence the get-up in the picture above.

1) Face Shield: It is important to have something cover your eyes (a pair of glasses will do just fine!)  However, I use a face shield because I have gotten lye mixture on my face. By accident, I wiped my face with my gloved hand and to my surprise, there was lye solution on it. The face shield may be overboard for some, but it's a way to remind myself not to touch my face!

2) Gloves: These obviously protect your hands from the sodium hydroxide when adding it the your liquid or when you add your lye liquid to your oils.  They are also crucial when pouring your soap into their molds!  Oftentimes you will have to scrape out remaining soap (getting every last bit!) from your mixing container. These gloves will protect your hands from getting oily or burned.

3) Lab Coat: Protects your clothes. I have two different kinds. The first is my standard cloth lab coat. I don't recommend this.  Any splatter goes through the material.  And the wrists often get in the way, getting saponified oils on it.  Eventually the oils soak through the lab cloth and comes in contact with your skin.  The next thing you know, you are feeling a tingling, itching sensation and you know you have come in contact with your lye solution.  So, I suggest a disposable lab coat (I've been using the same one for the past year and it holds up to a machine washing, so who knows why they are considered disposable.)  The coat is made from a non-tearable paper and lined with plastic.  The wrists are elastic, so your coat wrists can't "hang" and get oils on it.  IT'S AWESOME!!!!

4) Closed Toed Shoes:  So the picture doesn't show this, but PLEASE wear closed toed shoes.  I've learned this the hard way in one of my 'cocky' moments.  Thinking I've been doing this for a while and that I was being careful enough, I stupidly wore flip flops while making soap.  The toe of my flip flop got caught underneath itself which caused me to trip.  While saving the lye mixture I was holding, some of it splattered out of it's container and landed on my other, uncovered foot.  Lesson learned!

These are just a few ways soap makers dress for success.  How do you do it?

True or False Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Beer Soap?

We get a lot of questions about beer soap.  Test your knowledge to see how much you know about Handbrewed Soap's Beer Soap! Answer True or False to each question.  Then check your answers below!  Good luck and have fun!

1) I will smell like beer if I use beer soap.
2) If I get pulled over while driving for intoxicated driving, I can blame it on the beer soap.
3) Beer adds lather the the bar.
4) Beer used in the soap is the wort.
5) If I suck on the soap, I can get drunk.
6) Handbrewed Soaps is made by a wife and husband team that love to homebrew.


Answers:

1) I will smell like beer if I use beer soap.   False.  The alcohol burns away in the soap making process.  Therefore, there is no alcoholic smell the soap will give you.  (If you are experiencing an alcoholic smell, you might want to remember what you drank last night as it may be coming out in your pores!)  Fragrance Oils and Essentials oils are added to compliment the type of beer used in the soap!

2) If I get pulled over for intoxicated driving, I can blame it on the beer soap. False.  All I can say is that if you blame it on the soap, you will most likely be getting into more trouble....

 3) Beer adds lather to the bar.  True.  Beer (along with the coconut oil) used in the soap adds to the lather.  Handbrewed Soaps have a great lather.

4)  Beer used in the soap is actually the wort.  False.  We ACTUALLY use beer in our soap!  I know many are concerned that we are wasting a good beer.  I promise you that in relationship to how much we brew, it's very little.  We also add our spent grains as an exfoliant in some of our bars!

5) If I suck on the soap, I can get drunk. False.  As stated in number one, the alcohol burns away in the soap making process.  The best you would get is a clean mouth.

6) Handbrewed Soaps is made by a wife and husband team that loves to homebrew. True.  We married our passions together, his for homebrewing and mine for making soap.  Homebrewing has a special place in our hearts as it is a time when friends and family come together to create and share in beer! Read more here to learn about why we homebrew.

So, how did you do?

How to Travel with Your Favorite Handmade Soap

Are you going on a road trip or traveling this summer?  Well we sure are, and the biggest thing I struggle with is keeping my skin happy! Depending on the environment, my skin can be dry one minute and oily the next. That's why it's important to me that I bring my soap (Handbrewed Soaps) with me. But I'll be honest, REAL soap doesn't always travel that well because it needs to dry out between uses or it will turn into a soggy mess. To keep that from happening, I like to cut my soap into small chunks (like a pat of butter) for single uses. I transport them in a sandwich baggy. When I'm ready to wash -up, I take one pat of soap out of the baggy, use it, and then dispose of it after a single use. My skin is happy, and so am I as I don't have a soap mess to worry about!!  What traveling tips do you have?

From Grains to Soap Part Two: Making Cold Processed Soap

Freshly Cut Oatmeal Stout Beer Soap

At Handbrewed Soaps, we believe that brewing beer and soap are both a science and an art.  Just like a science experiment, you must follow some basic rules in order to produce the desired outcome or product—in our case, beer and soap.  And, as with art, individual interpretation, experimentation, and improvisation are encouraged and expected.  While many brewers feel that they have found the “best way” to brew beer, there are so many variables in the brewing process, that there’s a good chance that a homebrewer in your own neighborhood is doing something radically different or just subtly unique enough that you could apply to your own brewing process to make more interesting or flavorful beers… and soaps!   At Handbrewed Soaps, we have developed our own unique style of brewing and soap-making by reading, researching, and hanging out with fellow homebrewers and soapmakers.  We hope that you enjoy the methods, tips, and tricks that we use in our brewing and soapmaking process!

If you are new to brewing beer or soap, and want to learn more about the basics of either (or both!), we highly recommend How to Brew  by John Palmer and The Soapmaker’s Companion by Susan Miller Cavitch.  Of course there are hundreds, if not thousands, of resources online to help you get started and support you every step along the way.  Below is an overview of how Brew Master Eric Swihart brews the beer, and how Soap Lady Alyson Swihart transforms the beer into soap.  Don’t worry, we don’t use all of the beer to make soap-- we drink a lot of it too!!!

Enjoy a tasty cold beverage and Make Some Soap!

At this point (please refer to Part One in this series, Making Homebrewed Beer) we take the beer for our cold processed soap, as we do not want it carbonated. Cold process soap is the act of mixing a few oils (olive oil, coconut oil, and sustainable palm oil in our case) to an alkali (Sodium Hydroxide: aka Lye).  When oils and sodium hydroxide are mixed together, it goes through a chemical process called saponification ultimately creating what we know as a bar of soap.  Due to this chemical process, it is important for the soap maker to take safety precautions (wearing gloves, eye protection, and being in a well ventilated area).  Through the chemical process, no lye remains and a great bar of soap is made!  

Preparing Lye Solution

Step One:  Prepare your Lye solution, which includes a liquid and sodium hydroxide. For our liquid, we use our homebrewed beer (again making sure the carbonation is completely out of it or it will volcano.) The ratio of liquid to Sodium Hydroxide depends on your recipe.  Always remember to pour the Lye into the liquid, not the other way around!  This solution will reach almost boiling point so make sure to be careful with it!  Wait for it to cool to under 130 degrees, I prefer 110 degrees.

Step Two:  Select your oils and melt them! Once they are is a 10-degree range of your lye (that is under 130 degrees,) start mixing your oils with a hand mixer and add your lye!

Mix, Mix, Mix

Step Three:  Mix, Mix, Mix!  Once you’ve noticed the soap thickening add any essential oils and exfoliants.  You are going to keep mixing until everything has ‘traced.’  Trace is when your soap has emulsified and looks like pudding.  You can check for trace by pulling your hand mixer out of your soap and if it leaves “trails” on top, it’s traced!

Pour into Molds

Step Four:  Pour the soap into your molds, and then cover with a towel to keep it warm.  Your soap will continue to saponify.  Leave in the molds for 24- 48 hour, after which you can cut.  But you will have to wait another 4-6 weeks before using, as the soap needs to cure.  During the curing process, excess moisture evaporates from the bars, leaving a harder, longer-lasting soap!

What the F*&$? Cleaning up one of the Biggest Oil Spills in Handbrewed Soap History

Have you ever had your worst fear come to life?  I always think of that scene in the movie, "Witches of Eastwick," where the character played by Cher wakes up to find herself in a bed of snakes. Though it wasn't snakes, I woke to every soap maker's nightmare: An oil spill the size of the Exxon-Valdez (ratio equivalent of course!)

This picture doesn't give the spill justice.

The oil covered 90% of my 12 X 16 foot studio.  It went under the shelves, soaked into boxes that were on the floor, and soaked into the wood of most of my cabinets.   It was all my fault.  I used new oil heaters that were a little different than my previous ones.  My old ones were in Fahrenheit.  These new ones were in Celsius.  Slight detail.  I'm not going to harp on how pissed at myself I was. As they say, "There's no need to cry over spilt oil!" I had to concentrate on the clean up.  Surprisingly enough, an oil clean up in a soap studio is very similar to an oil spill say.... in the ocean!

Step 1:  Contain the oil with towels so that it doesn't spread any further.

Step 2: Leave the oil alone until it hardens. 

Step 3: Scrape up the oil from the floor using a trowel and put into a bucket to dispose of it properly.

Step 4: Use HOT soapy water to wash the floor.

Step 5: Once the floor is dry, use your favorite grease remover cleaner to wash the floors again.

Step 6: Repeat step 4.

Four hours later, my floors were pretty good at this point.  As for everything else, I either had to dispose of or wash in hot soapy water.

Lesson learned. Make sure you know what temperature you are working with!  I hope this story helps if this nightmare ever happens to you!!!

Myth or Fact: Soap Cures Late Night Leg Cramps

Four nights ago, I was reminded why I love being pregnant.  I woke up with a subtle pain in my foot and noticed, as if it had a mind of it's own, my foot began to flex.  Gradually a pain formed in my calf.  I thought, "If I massage it, it'll go away."  Wrong... it only got worse.  For 5 minutes, I sat in bed with this horrible pain that would contract and release, as if my leg was giving birth.  That was when I got Eric, my husband, involved.  He was awoken by me punching him, yelling,"Wake up!  I think I'm going to die, it hurts so bad!!!"  Well he jumped out of bed thinking this was it...  we were going the have a baby.  His panic turned to irritation as he learned it was just a leg cramp.  Being the awesome guy he is though, he played along, massaging my leg, making suggestions to stretch it, and eventually (25 minutes later) everything went back to normal and I could fall asleep! He's such a team player!

Ahhhh, being pregnant, I just love it!

So apparently, leg cramps affect many pregnant women.  There are many reasons to why this happens: lack of hydration or magnesium,  carrying extra weight, etc.  And there are many cures: stretching, drinking water, adding salt to foods.  Then two people (my mom and a friend) suggested sleeping with a bar of soap at the the bottom of your bed....What? Sleep with a bar of soap at the bottom of your bed?  I'm in!!!

This myth has been around for decades.  There is no scientific reason this would work, and many scientist say that if you do it and the leg cramps go away, it's due to the placebo effect.  But, one advocate, Joe Graedon, in his article, Why Does Soap Soothe Night Leg Cramps?, says that:

"The quantity of perfume transmitted to the skin may be small, but it appears to be enough to dilate blood vessels and prevent cramps. We know, of course, that the small, mobile molecules in the fragrances of soap diffuse through its gel to the surface and evaporate. We know because we can smell them. And when you score an old bar of soap, you can smell it all over again, just as strongly as when you first took it from its paper wrapper."

So who do I listen to then?  A scientist or my mom?  Well my mom of course.  So for the past three nights, one of my bars of soap has had the pleasure of sleeping with me.  First I scored the soap so that the fragrance was stronger, and then I put it under the bottom sheet.  And let me tell you people, the leg cramps have gone away......  that's what I'm talking about!  But then again, I have been drinking way more water, stretching, and have joined a gym... Either way, I'll do whatever it takes for my legs not to "give birth" again!!!

What have you found that works for nighttime leg cramps?

Behind the Scenes: The Building of the Handbrewed Soaps Studio

             Sometimes there needs to be a separation between soap and family. Last Fall, my awesome Father came up with a brilliant idea.  This idea was spurred by the fact that he couldn’t distinguish where my kitchen and living room began and where my soaping ventures ended.  Everything was mixed together.  “Hey Alyson, have you ever though of getting a soap studio?”           

The Blank Slate

                 Of course I had, but our business was not making enough money to pay Bay Area rent.  Though we had an extra bedroom, our family was expanding, and we needed it for a bedroom! Instantly, we both looked out into the backyard, which at the time was filled with weeds (aka a blank slate to build and grow things on!)    To make a REALLLY long story short, by the following Fall, I had my soap studio, empty, but a studio!  We went with Casita Shed of Castro Valley,CA to construct the studio. If you look at their prices, it beats the price on any Home Depot / Lowe’s shed by square footage and the labor was included in the cost.  The fact that it went up in two days was AWESOME. I recommend them to anyone who has the ability to add one to their backyard!  It was so affordable, that we built two…  his and her studios… now everyone’s happy!  I highly recommend this Bay Area Company.  We had a great experience!         

The solution that keeps our family from hurting each other!  lol

Adventures in Liquid Soap: My Clear Liquid Soap Clouded

I made some pretty rad liquid soap the other day!!!  It came out clear!  I loved the thickness of it.  Not to thick, and not to watery.  It was perfect (according to me!) But a couple days later I noticed clouding!  A ghost-like appearance formed (like a whisp...think of the Disney movie BRAVE, but white, not blue) and eventually the whole jar clouded.  NOOOOOOO! I have sequestered the soap (a recommendation not only from Fallor's Book, but I joined a liquid soapmakers group on Facebook and that was a recommendation as well. ) And as I waited, I continued to consult with the Facebook group. (By the way, it never cleared up... it stayed cloudy.) I learned 3 major reasons liquid soap clouds.
1) Cooking: You didn't cook your paste long enough.  I did the clarity test and it was fine.  I had also separated my soap into three jars and two of the three clouded.
2) Sanitation:  There is bacteria or something yucky growing in your soap.  Well, I sanitized my jars as well as boiled my distilled water before I added it to my paste.  So I didn't think it was that, since it clouded so quickly after I made the soap!
3) Fragrance / Essential Oil:  These oils are added at the cooling phase after you add the boiling distilled water, and as I learned from this group, all FO/EO act differently.  Some may cloud the soap instantly or days after.  Looking at my three jars of soap, all containing the same "clear" liquid soap, the only difference between them was, they all contain different fragrances!  So I think I found the culprit!  I added Brambleberry's Oatmeal Stout FO and all is good.  The second contains a Honey Ale FO and it clouded... As well as the Tobacco Bay FO.

So now what?  The soap is completely fine to use, but I REALLY want clear soap.  Two suggestions I've read are:  1) Mix your FO/EO with a 1:1 ratio with Polysorbate -20. or ethyl alcohol and then 2) add this concoctions while your soap is still hot, but cooling!!!

I'll try this and let you know!  And as always, I'm always open to suggestions!!!

Liquid Soap: Dilution Ratios

(Note:  This post is not a tutorial on liquid soap.  If you are interested in that, please see Humblebee and Me for a great tutorial or 'Making Natural Liquid Soaps' by Catherine Failor.  This post is my notes on the Dilution Ratios of Liquid Soap.  Your comments are greatly appreciated! )

My adventures in soaping have expanded into liquid soap!  I've used Catherine Failor's book as a resources, reading it from cover to cover multiple times (a must have if you are making liquid soap!).  However, I found it confusing when it can to the dilution section.  So...  in order to understand her ratios,  I took my 6 lb. batch of soap and broke it up into six one lb. batches.  Then I used her dilution chart and experimented with 3- one lb. batches.
In batch one, I diluted the paste by 35%, batch #2 by 30%, and batch #3 by 25%. I choose these percentages because I used soft oils and according to the book, the oils are more soluble.  The second reason is that it's always easier to add water than to take it away.  To have watery liquid soap, would be a whole new ball game! So I took lots of notes per batch to understand how the dilution process worked.
Results:  Batch #1:  My soap did not dilute. So I had to add more water.
Batch #2:  My soap was a little more diluted, but I still had to add more water.
Batch #3:  Much better!  There were chucks of soap in the crock pot that stubbornly wouldn't go away (the crock pot might not be hot enough) so I took a stick blender to it.  The soap clumps went away, the soap turned cloudy, but it quickly went away and I was left with clear soap.  I did add more water!
Conclusion:  For the soft oils I used, my recommendation is start off with a 25% dilution ratio.  By the time I added more water to batch 1 and 2, I was at 20%. So,  I found that a 25% ratio makes great shampoo or body gel while the 20% makes a great hand soap!

What have you discovered with your liquid soap?

Meet the Team behind Handbrewed Soaps

Handbrewed Soaps is a family operation! As we have expanded, we've enlisted more family members and friends to help! As they say, to raise a business, it takes a village!

Beer Brewmaster: Eric Swihart

The talent behind the homebrewed beer.  When he's not brewing, you can find him teaching middle school band and orchestra here in Oakland!   Eric enjoys the outdoors, playing with his kids, and playing in his band Fast and Vengfully. He is also the mastermind behind many of our slogans, video ideas, and other Handbrewed Soaps shenanigans!

Soap Brewmaster: Alyson Swihart

That's me!  I'm the soap maker!! When I'm not making soap or any soap related activity, you can find me hiking, hangin' with the kids, or gardening.

Assistant Brewer: Fred Noel

That's my dad!  He's the brains behind the expansion.  He's always into making things bigger.  For example: he's the dad that when you say you want a dog as a child, he thinks Mastiff or Great Dane when you ment Yorkie. Or as a child you want to decorate the outside of the house for Christmas, he's the Dad that makes a bigger than life size wooden Santa Claus to stand on your lawn, when you were thinking maybe just some lights on the porch? So, he's built bigger soap molds, a soap studio, and now helps make soap as I get bigger in my pregnancy. 

Soap wrapper extraordinaire/ Daytime child overseer: Donna Noel 

That's my Mom!  Without her, soap production would slow WAY down! She watches the kids when soap needs to be made! And she's the person that wraps the majority of the soap! She is such a master of soap wrapping, that she goes into a zen like state reciting the mantra, "Peel, Wrap, Stick."

Soap testers: My kids

They are the ones who are first to wash their hands with a newly made batch of soap! They are also marketing managers as I often find video on my ipad that they have made talking about Handbrewed Soaps: See recent video.

Promotion Guru's: Friends, Family, You!

These are the people that have answered the call when we needed help with running a booth at a festival, needing homebrew because we have run out, mentioned us on social media, walked into stores and have talked to retail owners about our products both here in California and out of state.  Most importantly, it's the users of Handbrewed Soaps that enjoy and give feedback to what we do!! Thanks for all you do!

Making Soap While Pregnant

Yep...  you just found out you're pregnant and you make soap for a living.  Now what?  Well, I've been there.  Actually, I am there!  We just found out we are having our third.  Immediately, upon hearing the news, life changed... especially in the soap making department.  So this is what I learned through the first 6 months of pregnancy and soaping.

Cue Top Gun Soundtrack

1) Use protection: (That's what we should have done not to get pregnant!) That's not what I mean!  Just make sure you wear a gas mask, gloves, and glasses when mixing your liquid and lye.  It's important now more than ever.  We don't what you or the baby to have respiratory problems.  Better yet, have someone do this step for you.  I taught my dad to do it.

2) Lift with your legs:  In the first 8 weeks of pregnancy, lifting your oils (if they are in buckets) may not be a problem, but as the pregnancy continues, your back with hurt just because you are caring extra weight.  I use a back brace and lift with my legs. However, now I need someone to help... so I have my dad to help!

3) Push everything back on the counter by a minimum of 5 inches:  Your belly is growing and you may forget.  As a result, your belly may knock over your exfoliants, fragrances or anything that is sitting near the edge of your counter.  This happens to me ALL the time, so push everything back on the counter.

Get sleep wherever you can!

4) Rest:  Your body is working overtime.  The scents of fragrances/ essential oils may make you feel sick to your stomach.  Your joints (especially your hips) may spasm.  Listen to your body and stop when you need too.  Take a break.  If you have a deadline, explain to your stockists or customers that you are working a little slower, they'll understand.  Most importantly...  ask for help and forgive yourself for not accomplishing what you intended to too.  Your health and the babies are the most important.

And if you have asked for help during these 10 months, by the time the baby comes, you've trained someone in soap making so that you can concentrate on the baby and the marketing end of your business!!!  It's a win win for everyone!

What tips do you have for making soap while pregnant?

Soap Equipment Upgrade: New Mixer

For the past three years I have been mixing my oils and lye with a stick blender.  Recently, part of the attachment piece that secures the attachment to the motor broke.  Of course this happened while I was getting my mixture to trace.  Luckily, as long as I put pressure on the motor to keep the attachment from falling off, I successfully made a batch of soap, but I knew I had to buy another.  Needing a new
one desperately, I went out to Bed Bath and Beyond (with my 20% coupon) and bought a new one that afternoon!  Problem solved.

Fast forward to the next week...  I asked my soaping assistant (my awesome retired dad, who always thinks of how to do things better!) to come over and help me make soap. (Side note: Did I tell you I'm pregnant with with our third?  Yep, I am. So I've had to modify my process of soap making a bit...it's called, call your retired father to help. More on that later!)  What did he notice about the process? Quite a few things! The problem that needed the most attention though, was that I twerked my back (insert bad Miley Cyrus joke here) in a weird position when I mix my oils, which in the long run, pregnant or not, is not good.  His solutions:  new mixer from soapequipment.com.

He actually surprised me with it.  He came over for our next soap making playdate with a drill and this rubber blade, called the Willow Way Soap Pot Whipper. At first, I didn't think it was going to work.  It was to big for the amount of oil I was mixing, but I gave it a try and it worked fine.  The one difference I noticed was that though I could control the speed of the blade more, at a certain point, the speed would cause the bucket to spin.  So I had to slow the blade down which doubled the time for the oils to trace.  Working with beer, this is great because the alcohol accelerates it, but using water or other liquids, takes a VERY long time for trace to occur.  Which then brings in the back problem issue thrown in with a wrist ache.

The next dad solution... building or buying a contraption that 1) secures the bucket (allowing me to have lighting fast mixing capabilities) and 2) holds the drill for you so there is no bodily pain to your wrists or back.  I didn't think this was possible, but my dad found one...  really expensive...  but then he found one on Craigslist....  life is good!  I'll let you know how this works...

Our New Packaging: From Cigar Labels to Boxes

Our first label

I just calculated how much time it takes me to wrap my soap. From design, to print, to cutting, to wrapping for 60 bars of soap… three hours!  Clearly, I am not very efficient in the area.  Our first label was vellum paper with my logo and ingredients on the label.   It was secured with double sided tape.  The tape wouldn’t hold the label past three weeks.  

Our second label

So the next version was created.  This time, it was printed on Kraft paper and secured with an ingredient sticker.  It gave the soap the look I wanted, but… if it was a hot day and my soaps started to sweat, it would affect the cigar band with wet spots.  Plus, I was cutting labels and stickers out myself which took HOURS!

The Box! 

So now, I’m on to boxes.  It took me awhile to streamline the packaging, but I’m happy with the design.  It tell’s our story, and answers the question I get the most…  Will I smell like beer?  These boxes have cut hours off my wrapping process!  So what do you think of our new boxes? How you have streamline processes in your business to make life easier for yourself?