St. Patrick’s Day celebrations often include a dash of beer — but not usually in soap form.
UF chemistry senior Katrina Benzrihem’s soap making business, Lather and Suds Soaps, offered a 25-percent discount for the holiday on a new soap. Called The Drunken Irishman, it includes basil and a half-ounce of malt beer.
“It’s more of a masculine soap,” she said. “I thought a lot of women buy my soaps, so this is actually a tobacco bay leaf scent. It’s a bit musky.”
Benzrihem, 21, said she first thought of soap-making a year ago when UF’s Mad Scientists Club was brainstorming fundraisers.
Her soaps run from $2 to $4, with the average being $3 for a 3-ounce soap.
She said her knowledge of chemistry has helped her with her creative processes. After all, soap is made through simple chemical reactions.
“You have to be creative when you mess up, but the best part is you can’t really waste it,” she said. “You melt it back down, and you start all over.”
Genevieve Comeau, a 20-year-old UF entomology junior and president of the Mad Scientists Club, said she’s impressed with what Benzrihem has produced.
“I think they’re really well done,” she said. “Art and science go well together.”
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 3/18/2014 under the headline "Malt beer gets sudsy in student-created St. Paddy’s Day soap"]
