Why use Rubbing Alcohol in Making Handmade Skincare?

Many have asked why is rubbing alcohol used in most of Soaplab's recipes.

well it depends on which recipes you see.

Soap Making Recipes:

If you see it during the soap making process than its because these rubbing alcohol is sprayed to the surface of the soap after the soap is poured into the mold.

The reason for doing this is because when pouring the soap into mold; at times bubbles will form on the surface of the soap. So spraying rubbing alcohol will break the 'surface tension' of these bubbles and finally 'break' it.

Is there any alcohol left on the soap

no. Most of the time the rubbing alcohol will evaporate off with no residue left on your final product.

Can i change the alcohol to something else like witch hazel?

No. we've tried and it didn't work. sorry:-(

Can i not use rubbing alcohol in soap-making?

yes you can. if you don't spray it on the surface; the bubbles wont break and you will have a bubbly bumpy surface when soap hardens.

It will not disturb the quality of the soap but it will not look aesthetically pretty. Its ok if you were using for own use but for selling; i would say spray the alcohol:-)

Other recipes

In other recipes we use rubbing alcohol for sterilisation. Sterilisation means we are 'cleaning' the equipments by killing off any bacteria or moulds or spores that are possibly on the equipment.

Can i not use rubbing alcohol for sterilisation

sure. but you still need to sterilise your equipments and workspace.
If you could equipments are not heat sensitive (non plastic items) you can sterilise it just like how you would sterilise baby bottles

What happens of i don't sterilise.

If you don't sterilise; there are high chances that your product will not have a long shelf life. by sterilising you are increasing the shelf life of product by 3- 6 months ( also depends wether you put preservatives or not)

shelf life is dependent on few factors and ive written a post about how to determine and prolong expiry dates here.

if you want to read more about preservation, please click here.

Hope this clarifies some of your doubts about making handmade skincare. if you have any further questions; please don't hesitate to leave a comment below.

Thank you;
love' Nisha