Liquids Other than Water for Making Soap

Add a Unique Touch to Your Soap Recipes

Yes, you can use liquids other than water to make the lye solution for your soap. Perhaps the most popular alternative liquid is goat’s milk which makes a lovely, creamy, moisturizing soap. Soap makers also use coconut milk and even buttermilk. You can use milks, as well as coffee, green tea, wine, and even beer. BUT you need to be extra careful.

Different liquids Other than Water can react to the lye differently than plain water. Also note, the lye will often change the liquid into a foul-smelling, brown soup, however, the smell doesn’t remain in the final soap.

For making a lye solution with tea, coffee, wine or beer (basically any clear liquid) follow the steps below.

1. Follow the general directions for Making Lye including all of the safety guidelines.
2. Place your lye pitcher inside of a roasting pan or in the sink to mix it. That way, if it does bubble over, the lye solution won’t go onto the counter or floor.
3. Make sure that your liquid is chilled before mixing the lye into it. (This isn’t a bad idea even if just using plain water.) Warm green tea and lye are a bad combination.
4. Work in an area that has very good ventilation. The fumes from the Liquids Other than Water mixture will be heavy and foul smelling.
5. If you’re working with a carbonated beverage, like beer, make sure that it is completely flat. Leave it out on the counter for several days, stirring often. Remember, absolutely, completely flat.
6. If you’re using a liquid that contains alcohol and/or a high sugar content, you may want to do a small-batch test first. Sometimes the alcohol and/or sugar content can do odd things in the soap batch. At the very least, it’s going to make the gel stage VERY hot! Don’t insulate these batches – they’ll cook quite well on their own.
7. Work very slowly, especially if this is the first time you’ve used this particular liquid in your soap. Add the lye slowly. Stir slowly.
8. Take notes! Especially note how strong the coffee or tea was.

Past that, the procedure works pretty much the same as mixing lye with plain water.

Enjoy the experimentation!