I've seen a few aftershaves that have grain alcohol listed as an ingredient. Is this the same as say moonshine?? Are there any advantages of it over isopropyl alcohol? I'm thinking of making my own AS using it but not sure what and where to buy the correct kind. Any help would be appreciated.
Grain Alcohol?
- Thread starter Cut Throat
- Start date
Probably Everclear or Golden Grain.
Like withoutink suggested, it is most likely Everclear or a derivative. Short of perfumer's alcohol (which is ridiculously expensive), Everclear is the most effective, highest proof alcohol safe for use on the face. There are numerous threads that discuss the inherent dangers of using isopropyl alcohol on your face, so I'll let you search for them. In short: it's for industrial use and has industrial chemicals added to it. It's ok on your body skin, but I would never put it on my face.
I make my own aftershave and use everclear because it is cheap (not as cheap as isopropyl), relatively scentless (isopropyl has a foul scent), and high percentage. It also lacks the terrifying ingredients isopropyl does. Good luck to you on your journey, and feel free to PM me if you have any questions about making aftershaves. I'd be more than willing to help!
Michael
I make my own aftershave and use everclear because it is cheap (not as cheap as isopropyl), relatively scentless (isopropyl has a foul scent), and high percentage. It also lacks the terrifying ingredients isopropyl does. Good luck to you on your journey, and feel free to PM me if you have any questions about making aftershaves. I'd be more than willing to help!
Michael
Do not toss down a shot of grain alcohol. It will suck the water out of all the tissue it encounters. If you choose to drink some make sure you dilute it. 100 proof booze is 50% grain alcohol. Benzene is often used to get the alcohol percentage above 95%. (Distilling won't do the trick.) Benzene is a carcinogen.
Tossing down a shot is said to create a severe burning sensation and a nasty aftertaste. In college, histology class, we'd toss some tissue into 190 proof, 95% grain alcohol, and watch the soft pliable tissue flatten and crinkle until it looked like a corn flake. This is how our prof convinced us not to have some fun with the stuff.
Pick up the stuff in a packaged liquor store. This will ensure its safety in terms of benzene. I would not want that stuff on my face.
Tossing down a shot is said to create a severe burning sensation and a nasty aftertaste. In college, histology class, we'd toss some tissue into 190 proof, 95% grain alcohol, and watch the soft pliable tissue flatten and crinkle until it looked like a corn flake. This is how our prof convinced us not to have some fun with the stuff.
Pick up the stuff in a packaged liquor store. This will ensure its safety in terms of benzene. I would not want that stuff on my face.
As stated, isopropyl has crazy chemicals added to it so people don't drink it to get a buzz.
Grain alcohol simply means it is distilled from a grain of some sort. In the case of 'shine aka corn whiskey, you can figure out which one that comes from.
Regarding benzene, in the '70s we thought nothing of using that as a reagent and/or solvent in my organic chemistry lab. Little did we know...
Yes the good ole days, when the mercury from a broken thermometer only required a towel to clean up, after playing with it and watching it ball up on the floor. We didn't need no stinking hazmat.
When seatbelts were for wusses.
When beer was opened with a can opener tnat we called a church key.
When men were men and sheep.... oh nevermind.
I recently made a batch with rum and vodka. The low alcohol content made it too wet on the face. It had no drying properties. I added some isopropyl and it helped. Wish I had used grain alcohol instead.
Take this in the spirit it is given. I have not tried making an aftershave.
Essential oils, the stuff that smells so good, needs a high alcohol by volume percentage to stay in solution. 60% alcohol by volume seems to be the median percentage point.
Throwing more alcohol, even a super high proof alcohol, into an already wet solution will probably not provide a good result because the amount you have to add to get the alcohol percentage up is going to seriously dilute the overall solution.
My sister the chemist helped me with this one. She said perfume chemistry requires exact measurements and extremely high quality control across the entire production process. And I quote "perfume making isn't for math phobes or creative types".
Essential oils, the stuff that smells so good, needs a high alcohol by volume percentage to stay in solution. 60% alcohol by volume seems to be the median percentage point.
Throwing more alcohol, even a super high proof alcohol, into an already wet solution will probably not provide a good result because the amount you have to add to get the alcohol percentage up is going to seriously dilute the overall solution.
My sister the chemist helped me with this one. She said perfume chemistry requires exact measurements and extremely high quality control across the entire production process. And I quote "perfume making isn't for math phobes or creative types".
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I use Everclear
- Thread starter
- #11
I'm going to pick up a bottle of Everclear.
Good choice. That's what I use too.
Just to clear up a little confusion, isopropyl alcohol is not denatured. It is poisonous in its natural state, but it's safe as a rubbing compound because it isn't absorbed rapidly through your skin. It evaporates first.
Let's review some words most folks know. First the gas, then the alcohol.
Methane, methanol, one radical group. (Methyl alcohol, wood alcohol)
Ethane, ethanol, two radical groups. (Ethyl alcohol, liquor, corn squeeze)
Propane, propanol, three radical groups. (Isopropyl alcohol)
Butane, butanol, four radical groups. (butyl alcohol, race car fuel, rocket fuel)
Most people never see ethane because it's refined out of most natural gas and sold separately to chemical plants as an ingredient in lots of stuff.
Butane is in cigarette lighters because it compresses into liquid easily since it's the biggest molocule.
Ethyl alcohol is the only safe one to consume.
The OMG expensive perfumers alcohol is ethyl alcohol with bitters in it to make it taste bad, discouraging people from drinking it. Why, you might ask. Because there's no liquor tax paid on it. This tax goes back so far that President George Washington sent in troops to quell the "Whisky Rebellion" in the early days of the country. (Assuming you live in the USA. I realize folks outside the USA may not immediately get the reference.
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Awesome post, very informative. I only have one point to add.
Isopropyl alcohol sold in the US absolutely is denatured especially if it's marketed as rubbing alcohol. Yes it is poisonous by itself, but that doesn't stop morons from drinking it. The denaturant is to help prevent consumption by making it extremely unpalatable, not to make it poisonous.
Isopropyl alcohol sold in the US absolutely is denatured especially if it's marketed as rubbing alcohol. Yes it is poisonous by itself, but that doesn't stop morons from drinking it. The denaturant is to help prevent consumption by making it extremely unpalatable, not to make it poisonous.
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Yes the good ole days, when the mercury from a broken thermometer only required a towel to clean up, after playing with it and watching it ball up on the floor. We didn't need no stinking hazmat. When seatbelts were for wusses. When beer was opened with a can opener tnat we called a church key. When men were men and sheep.... oh nevermind.
We must be close to the same age because I can relate to almost everything in your post. But what's that about men and sheep? ROTFLMAO!
Thanks for the chemistry refresher. I remembered what meth- eth- prop- and but- signified but I still learned a few things. What's left me over the years was how chemical groups (like -oh) interact with aldehydes, ketones, esters, you name it.
Do you happen to know what type of chemical compound essential oils and menthol are and does menthol chemically transform fragrances in any fashion? I'm asking because of the ongoing debate about the old vs. new Fine aftershaves.
Do you happen to know what type of chemical compound essential oils and menthol are and does menthol chemically transform fragrances in any fashion? I'm asking because of the ongoing debate about the old vs. new Fine aftershaves.
You're asking that part about 25 years too late. While I work in oil and gas, I'm an instrumentation guy, not a chemist. Much of that has evaporated like a volatile over the years.
i cant seem to find everclear here in NY so i have to make do with Vodka. Yes my AS is cloudy because the Alcohol % is too low but it works for me so long as i shake it before use.
You might try to find "Clear Springs" brand, but I think 190 proof is prohibited in NY. It is in a number of states.
I've never seen it, but I've heard that Everclear has a 151 proof variety to get past the prohibition.
Same for me but longer here. I had my inorganic in 1974-75, organic in 1975-76 and biochemistry in 1978-79.
Abuit the same time frames for me, too. But I actually did a little bit of stuff with it for a few years there, so it stuck for a while. But as I moved more and more into the automation world, and less and less in the molecular interactions it faded into the night. My P-chem is still rock solid, but I do pressure/volume/temperature all the time.
Funny how brains work. We lay down familiar patterns, and then get comfy. I had to put together a system a few years ago that extracted animal fat from slaughterhouse waste water for bio-diesel feedstock, and I got a crash course reintroduction to saponification and esterification all over. It was actually a blast to do, and I had high hopes for helping take it mainstream. But animal fats aren't all that great, so it wasn't really economically viable as a commercial process. As soon as the tax subsidies went away it stopped making sense.
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