need lye-free soap recipe

[cheeriotwins]

does anyone have one?

thanks in advance!

[Leta]

Um, I don't think think one exists.

Based on my admittedly tiny knowledge of chemistry, I think that lye+fat= soap the way oxygen+hydrogen= water.

[Sadystar]

You could use soapwort (Saponaria) root. You´d have to google up some recipes - don´t know if you could make traditional bar soap out of it.

[3bees~1flower]

no lye, no soap! soap cannot be made without lye...leta is correct...it takes lye and oil/fat to make soap.

what were you needing to do?

you could buy melt and pour soap, but that's still made with some lye, but is primarily surfactants/detergents.

or you could buy premade, unscented handmade soap and rebatch it. pm if you are interested in this option.

[Naturalyst]

If you want to make your soap from scratch, you will need to work with lye. There is no other way to convert fats to soap. When you get the proportions correct, there is no residual lye in the final product because it is converted in the process.

But, if you don't want to work with lye, you can buy a cold process soap base and add whatever else you want - oatmeal, essential oils, etc. - to make your final product. Here's one source for both a shea butter enriched base and a castile base: http://store.mosoap.com/shreddedsoap.html. And, here's a link for an eBay seller's listing for a pound of goat's milk base ($2.50/lb): http://cgi.ebay.com/1-lbs-REAL-Goat-...QQcmdZViewItem. You'll note that this seller sells larger quantities too - up to 50 lbs per lot - goat's milk base, coconut milk base, and soy milk base. I've bought supplies from both of these sources and found them to be good.

Just don't buy a "melt and pour" base - M & Ps are full of nasty and unnecessary chemicals - defeating the whole purpose of making your own product.

[JessicaS]

The most natural soaps are made with lye.

There is no lye in the finished product and lye soaps are perfectly safe.

Lye most commonly used in soap is sodium hydroxide, you can make soap with potassium hydroxide but it is no less caustic and is still lye.

You can't really make soap without lye, there is NO such thing, there are "soaps" that are made with surfacants but those are a poor substitute for actual soap and are technically "detergents" and not soap at all.

Like another poster mentioned, if you wish to just *craft* soap and don't wish to deal with lye you can find soap already made that you can mill and then melt down and mess with.

Several soap companies have melt and pour (which has harsh ingredients) or you can find cold process soap bases which would be better, and you can grate that down and melt it to make fun natural soaps and add your own ingredients.

www.brambleberry.com has both M&P and cold processed soap bases

[cheeriotwins]

wow! thanks for all the responses!

the concesus (sp?) is that no lye, no soap...which is what i always thought too. the only type of soap i've ever made is made with lye. anyways,

i was asking for two reasons:

1. lye has been removed from all of the shelves around me (too dangerous)....i can only get it on ebay.

2. i talked with a soapmaker at a fair who said that she doesn't use lye in her soaps because it is to harsh. she told me that she developed her own recipes for lye-free soaps.

my daughter has extremely sensative skin so i thought i'd try and track down a lye-free recipe...oh well,

thanks very much everyone...

[Naturalyst]

Originally Posted by cheeriotwins

... my daughter has extremely sensative skin so i thought i'd try and track down a lye-free recipe ...

As long as the soap is superfatted (hyperfatted), your safe. (You mentioned that you've made soap before - so, I assume you are familiar with the term. The following explanation is for anyone not familiar with soapmaking.) In other words, if the soapmaker knowingly adds more fat than the added lye can possibly convert to soap, so that some of the fat remains unconverted in the end product, you are assured of a mild and moisturizing soap.

Offhand, I recall that the shea butter base from www.mosoap.com is hyperfatted by 6%. It's rich.

For reasons of sensitivity, I too am careful about soap. I've bought good finished soaps from a couple of reputable eBay sellers - very mild, unscented, goat's milk soaps. You can buy loaves or bars. PM and I'll respond if you want seller names.

[3bees~1flower]

2. i talked with a soapmaker at a fair who said that she doesn't use lye in her soaps because it is to harsh. she told me that she developed her own recipes for lye-free soaps.

huh...??

[cheeriotwins]

Originally Posted by Naturalyst

And, here's a link for an eBay seller's listing for a pound of goat's milk base ($2.50/lb): [URL]http://cgi.ebay.com/1-lbs-REAL-Goat-Milk-soap-Base-for-remilling-sale. You'll note that this seller sells larger quantities too - up to 50 lbs per lot - goat's milk base, coconut milk base, and soy milk base. I've bought supplies from both of these sources and found them to be good.

Just don't buy a "melt and pour" base - M & Ps are full of nasty and unnecessary chemicals - defeating the whole purpose of making your own product.

thanks so much! just bought a pound to play around with. seller assured me it was superfatted and excellent for sesative skin. thanks again, everyone. i learned alot!

[onlyAngil]

Originally Posted by Leta

Um, I don't think think one exists.

Based on my admittedly tiny knowledge of chemistry, I think that lye+fat= soap the way oxygen+hydrogen= water.

<~~~~ :P

[velcromom]

Originally Posted by cheeriotwins

2. i talked with a soapmaker at a fair who said that she doesn't use lye in her soaps because it is to harsh. she told me that she developed her own recipes for lye-free soaps.

oops somebody's tellin lies....


It's so frustrating to those of us trying to educate when people like that lie to their customers!!! One day she'll tell that story to a chemist and get called on it. You never know who will show up at your booth, I've had some interesting conversations with customers!!

[margob73]

A girlfriend just told me she makes liquid soap with potassium hydroxide instead of sodium hydroxide. Both are caustic but both react to become close to pH neutral. I just got a good deal on lye from certified-lye.com. I paid $30 for five lbs. including shipping and it came in about 2-3 days.

[velcromom]

I haven't personally tested handmade liquid soap from potassium hydroxide, but I can tell you that if the pH of handmade bar soap was reduced to near neutral, it would disintegrate into a blob of goo. The normal, correct pH for handmade bar soap is 9 - 10.