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Lye soap?

Lye is a regular ingredient in soaps in general, but can be quite harsh on the skin, even cause burns if not mixed properly.
 
Theres a small town in my locality called lye. It's a right ruff place. Has loads of traffic and is a centre for crime. Sounds like the same thing.
 
You can’t make soap without lye.

Lye+oil = soap.

Pick up a bar of soap (commercially made or not) and look at the ingredients. If they say sodium _____ate, or Potassium _______ate, that is lye soap. For example: tallow + Sodium hydroxide (lye) = sodium tallowate. Or to put it another way...tallow soap.

Any “soap” that doesn’t contain lye isn’t really soap. It almost always contains polypylene glycol. This is not really soap, but instead is a petroleum based cleanser.

Embrace it!
 
I wouldn't want to use grandmas lye soap. It was harsh to say the least. One pass and the dirt came off- two passes the skin came off but you ended up clean and sterile.
 
Well, has anyone used the old fashioned kind? Like grandma used to make
Many of the cherished soaps on B&B use the same basic ingredients. Because these are specifically made for shaving they tend to have a different ratio of the base ingredients (types of fats and lye) as well added "fluff" like extra oils, shea butter, etc. Soaps just for washing don't necessarily need any of those extras.

I've used a soap made from water, lye, olive oil, and a bit of salt. It was probably the gentlest soap I've ever used, but without any oils for scent it smelled like Play-Doh. Also, being an olive oil soap it refused to lather up properly, even with the salt (which is supposed to help). Now I use a liquid Castile soap, which is primarily made with olive and coconut oils. Olive for being gentle, coconut for the ease of lather.

Think of soap making like baking. A professional who makes cakes for a living should be able to make darn good cakes. A regular person at home could also make a darn good cake from scratch--but it's also possible for their creation to be mediocre or even terrible, depending on ingredients, skill level, recipe used, etc.

Unfortunately, we can't tell you if the homemade soap you are looking at was made properly or not. I find it extremely unlikely that the soap was made so badly that it's dangerous, but if the fat/oil-to-lye ratio was off slightly (too much lye for the amount of fats/oils) the pH could be sufficiently alkaline to cause skin irritation.
 

KeenDogg

Slays On Fleek - For Rizz
I've used it. A guy I know, his wife makes it. You have to let the lye go through a process after its made. Otherwise, it will can burn you, I believe. Good soap, doesn't explode with lather though.

Cheers!

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You have to let the lye go through a process after its made. Otherwise, it will can burn you, I believe.
That's the "curing" time. Chemical reactions (which is what the soap-making process is) always go faster when there are larger quantities of the ingredients involved, because the right molecules are more likely to "find" each other. As the reaction nears completion, it becomes harder and harder for the unreacted molecules to bump into each other. This is why most of the lye is consumed within minutes but it can take days (or possibly weeks?) for the last of it to react. Having a little surplus fat helps, otherwise the last few molecules might never react with each other.
 

KeenDogg

Slays On Fleek - For Rizz
That's the "curing" time. Chemical reactions (which is what the soap-making process is) always go faster when there are larger quantities of the ingredients involved, because the right molecules are more likely to "find" each other. As the reaction nears completion, it becomes harder and harder for the unreacted molecules to bump into each other. This is why most of the lye is consumed within minutes but it can take days (or possibly weeks?) for the last of it to react. Having a little surplus fat helps, otherwise the last few molecules might never react with each other.
Yes! Thank you for explaining what I couldn't remember!

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Homemade soap can vary. What my parents grew up with was harsh, and they panned the idea of someone giving the school some homemade soap. But that soap wasn't harsh at all. Most likely, the homemade soap my parents knew had excess sodium hydroxide. Today's soap makers tend to add more fat than lye to be on the safe side, but know that this is a handcrafted product that can vary between maker and maybe even batches.

There's also a difference between hot and cold process. That can have a huge bearing on curing time.

Have seen period soap making books that point out that different mixtures of fats and lyes can produce different lathering characteristics for different purposes. Have never tried making a shaving lather out of any regular soap other than Ivory, and while it could be done, it wasn't the best shaving lather in the world. Is modern homemade lye soap that way? Don't know.
 
I love lye soap. I always buy my lye soap at one spot from one local maker. It’s my ideal shower soap. Nothing feels cleaner to me than lye soap.
 
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