How to make Soap without using Lye
More and more people are becoming aware and wary of the chemical content of our everyday products. People turn to organically grown or raised food sources to avoid chemicals like pesticides. They try to buy organic fabrics for their clothing, and they also want to make sure that their hygiene products are as natural as possible.
Because of the chemical and corrosive nature of lye, you may not want to worry about it or handle it at all when you are starting your soap-making hobby at home. But to be honest about it, there is technically no way to get soap without the chemical lye. So what happens with these milk and pour soap making kits is that they have already used lye and oil to make soap, and they have converted it into a soap base with a solvent so that you can melt it and add your ingredients such as fragrances or colorings to customize it to your liking.
But don’t worry, soap that has been made and converted properly will no longer contain lye and is safe to handle and use. So if you’ve gone to one of your local craft stores or bought a melt and pour soap-making base from town or online, you don’t have to worry about lye. So once you melt your new soap base from your melt and pour soap-making kit, what do you want to put in to customize it.
Fragrance
It is common to find an oil or a fragrance to put in it to help give it a unique aroma and smell. So you will want to either go with a fragrance or essential oil to achieve this effect. The difference between a fragrance and essential oil is that essential oil is natural, and it is oil made of herbs that you find in nature, such as orange peel, lemongrass, peppermint, or spearmint, or lavender.
Colors
But with fragrances, you can get many more options, such as coffee or chocolate, but they are not natural and are found in nature. So you’ll have to decide which way you want to go, more options with fragrances or more natural with essential oils. And you can also go natural with fewer options for colorings. Or you can get some artificial colors, which will be easier but less natural for coloring your homemade soap. If you want natural coloring, you can go with colorings such as alkanet root powder or indigo to naturally color your soap.
The reason you may have wanted to make soap at home in the first place was to make it natural and safe, so for better skin nourishment for you and your family. Some people do it just as a fun hobby, but most people do it to make healthier soap. Some people even do it to make soap for specific skin conditions, such as acne.
So if you want to watch over every little ingredient and know exactly, what you are doing with your so, you will want to learn to make soap from scratch and win your specific technique for doing this. It can be a challenge learning each step, but I’m sure you will find the result extremely rewarding, and you will also be able to make memorable gifts out of soap to give to family and friends, and you may even make your soap bars and shapes for profit someday if you wish.
You may have the thought of one day making your soap from scratch once you have learned a little more about how to safely handle lye and how you will develop your soap-making technique to customize your soap your way. Making your soap from scratch can be much more rewarding once you know what you are doing, especially since you will know every ingredient going into the soap that is caring for your skin and your family.
Handling lye is not a huge problem as long as you understand how to handle it carefully, such as using rubber safety gloves, wearing goggles, and being careful not to spill it or breathe in the fumes while you store it with your pure distilled water base. And once you have properly made soap by combining your lye base with your chosen oils and you have reached a trace with your soap, you won’t have to worry about the lye chemical anymore.
Remember that if you don’t make the perfect soap your first time, you will learn from your mistakes and do much better next time. I’m sure you will come to enjoy soap-making and making gifts for your family and friends once you get the basics down.
