Beer Sweater Soap

A friend brews his own beer and is always super generous with sharing it. This winter he made a delicious dark Coffee Porter featuring a local coffee shop's (Pablo's) "Two-Stroke Smoke". OhEmGee... It was so so good. I did not want to part with any for soap, but he suggested I try it and I did want to try a beer soap again after last time.

SUCCESS!!!!

Thank goodness I didn't end up wasting it! I temped fate a little by using Bramble Berry's Cedar and Saffron again too haha. I only used 1oz fragrance which is described on the Bramble Berry Fragrance calculator as a little over "light". It smells plenty strong to me in the finished soap. This scent sticks well and lasts forever, so no more than light is needed. I didn't have much of a pattern in mind, more concerned with it not overheating and weeping sad tears of fragrance oil. I went for a wide fragranced layer on the bottom, uncolored. Then a thin whiter layer then a blue layer. Coloring brown soap blue was a gamble, but it actually made a dark teal-ish color that lightened up to a really nice blue. My pictures aren't fantastic, but better than nothing. Right? RIGHT?!

Blue Vibrance Mica from Nurture Soaps.

I got a little silk happy... But it actually did all dissolve!

Lye and silk all dissolved, waiting for it to cool down a bit.

I made a nice peanut butter brown when combined with the oils, kaolin and brought to emulsification.

Something I did differently and didn't realize how good it was until later, was to add the fragrance to the base (at a very thin trace) and let it sit for a while. While it sat it got chunky and grainy like last time, BUT I was able to stick blend it smooth again before pouring and it stayed that way! Ah ha!

White layer poured and smoothed.

Blue layer poured and smoothed. It looked a little unfinished so I decided to drag a skewer through it.

I did tight S curves in one direction then across it in the opposite.*

It sort of looked like a knitted sweater to me in the end so I named it Beer Sweater Soap. "Beer Sweater" is also a term for when you have a few beers and don't feel the cold as much. I thought it was appropriate with a funny twist :)

*I learned later that the swirling motion I used is the same used for the Taiwan Swirl! This is the technique featured in this month's Soap Challenge Club. Though I did not enter this time, I might try it regardless!