non lye soaps

[elisma]

does anyone know off soap recipes that do not contain lye? i saw some bars here in vancouver and am curious to know how it is done. i am also very open to suggestions of soap making.

[RileysMom]

It is my understanding that *all* soaps use lye. You can buy soap bases and start from there so that you don't have to deal with the lye yourself. But chemically speaking, all soaps start with oils and lye....

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that's what I read in my soap making books....

[tara]

RileysMom is right... some people list lye in the ingredients, some don't, but you can't make soap without it...

Unless you don't start from scratch! You might want to consider melt-and-pour soap if you don't want to do the lye thing. I have lots of fun with m&p... And, you can do some pretty cool stuff with it.

[elisma]

i also thought that all soaps used lye, until i went into a store in vancouver and they sold soap that specifically said "not containing lye". i thought that was impossible. when i asked the sales woman she said that the person who makes it won't tell her how it is done. i guess i could try and contact her and see if she will leak the info. to me
talk to you soon

[Chanley]

Once it has saponified, it is technically not lye unless it has not been superfatted then it may still be caustic and nobody sells soap for skin that is not superfatted. Some laundry soaps are not cause you dont want the extra oils in your fabrics and the lye REALLY cuts stains out.

Dont be fooled. If it does not have lye, it is detergent which can be very harsh and is made of chemicals. No lye, no soap. Hardfast rule of soapmaking.

This person is marketing thier soap falsely and preying on others ignorance of soapmaking. Sad Sad Sad.

Lye is not that bad but I can understand WHY some would rather not use it. IF that is the case, you can buy soap ready made and rebatch it. OR go with melt and pour.

[JessicaS]

Totally agree with Chanley 100%!! That person is full of it or selling a less than desirable product. I don't know why someone would sell something in their shop if they didn't know what it was anyways..that is kind of silly.

I would be like "um no, you'll tell me whats in it or I ain't selling jack for you"

ouch..my Oklahoma is showing

[jjquilter]

From the chemist

All right. Here's your chemistry lesson for today, since it seems that some of you are a little hazy about how soapmaking works.

In order to make soap, you need a fatty acid (think oil) and a base (think lye, or sodium hydroxide). What happens is, when you combine the oil with the base, the hydroxide part of the base removes a proton from the fatty acid, turning the mixture into a salt (sodium salt) of your fatty acid (which is the soap) and water. So, you end up with a negatively charged oil that is attached to a positively charged sodium ion -- this combination readily dissolves in water to make your soap. The reason why soap works at dissolving things so well is that it has an oily end (to mix with greases/oils) and a charged end to mix with water. Make sense? Ask me more questions if you don't understand -- it sounds like there's some general confusion in the crowd.

Anyway, in theory, you can use ANY base to make soap, as long as it is strong enough to pull the proton off of the oil you are using. So, it's very possible to use another base other than lye to make soap. It's just a different base.

Don't be fooled! EVERYTHING IS A CHEMICAL!!!

[elisma]

I tried to make a batch of soap, carefully measured and weighed. It was mothers day and my dh and I spent more than half the day trying to get it to trace, we were an hour and a half late for mothers day dinner @ his parents house, (and we were doing the cooking). It never traced and it is still sitting on my patio waiting to be properly disposed of. Oh well, trial and error right!!! :
Hope everyone had a carnivaloius mothers day

[JessicaS]

jjquilter, a good many of us who answered the posts *do* make soap so we understand the process pretty well.

While you *can* use potassium hydroxide to make soap the results are not the same. Potassium hydroxide is often used in making liquid soap. Heck, you can use borax to make soap but like Chanley said that is more a detergent than soap and is generally only used as emusifiers in lotions and creams.

To get a good quality bar of soap that conditions and cleans the skin you need lye.

elisma, what oils did you use? Some oils take a very long time to trace. Olive oil on its own can often take a very long time. I would check it again before chucking it.

There are a couple other things...what kind of scale did you use? Many soapers use very sensitive digital scales to get the right measurements, it is possible you do not have enough lye in it. Another possibility is the lye was no good and that can cause the soap not to trace.