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Lye Soap – Making it, Buying it and Defining itAre you interested in learning all about homemade soap, including the art of lye soap making, the best place to buy it, and how it is defined? Well, you’ve come to the right place!
So the basics… Lye Soap DefinedWhat exactly is lye soap? In reality, it’s any soap that is made with sodium hydroxide, also known as lye. That’s pretty obvious, right? Unfortunately, it’s really not that simple.Throughout the years, an alternate definition has developed for soap made from lye that needs explaining but first allow me to reveal the true and unaltered definition: If you spent any time making your own soaps, or learning about soap making, you probably know that almost all handmade natural soaps are made with lye. Lye is an essential component in the soap making reaction because its hydroxide ion combines with the oil or fat to form the soap. The only exception to pure lye soap would be the occasional liquid soap that is made with potassium hydroxide. So does this mean that all homemade natural bar soap (non liquid) is lye soap? Basically, yes. Now that we understand the true definition, let’s take a look at an incorrect second definition: Some people mistakenly refer to soap made from lye and caustic and harsh soap interchangeably. They don’t understand how lye, which is an extremely harmful chemical, can be used to make soothing and mild natural soaps. After all, for non soap makers, lye is known most for its drain cleaning abilities! If you had high school chemistry, you may remember that when you mix a base with an acid, you form a neutral. This is exactly what happens in the soap making reaction. The base (lye) mixes with the acid (oil or fat) to form a neutral (the soap). Furthermore, before the soap making process was perfected, soap was often extremely irritating because the amount of lye needed to react with the oil was overestimated. This caused lye pockets to form within the soap that burned the skin. Although lye soap making today avoids this negative trait, some people still think it is harsh because of the horrible memories of “grandma’s homemade soap”. Reality, however, is quite the contrary… the main benefit of lye soap, and the reason people love it so much, is actually because of its soothing properties, courtesy of the glycerin that forms during the oil and lye reaction. Glycerin is (unfortunately) removed from commercial soaps and sold as a byproduct because of corporate concerns to pass last quarter’s profits. Most homemade soap makers don’t care too much about quarterly profit increases, but are more concerned about producing a superior product… So they keep the glycerin in the soap. Return from Lye Soap – Making it, Buying it, and Defining it to How to Make Soap Return to the soap-making-resource.com home page.
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