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From one beginner to another: Start out simple. My first batch was a 100% coconut oil soap with 20% superfat. It has two ingredients: Coconut oil and lye. I didn't use any fragrance (still don't) because they make everything more complicated and more likely to go wrong. My first soaping...

Ooooh, we don't just do pretzels and rolls. We also have Laugencroissants, Laugenstangen, Laugenkonfekt, Laugenkranz, Laugenburger, Laugenecken... We're a bit crazy for everything that has lye on it, but who could blame us. It's delicious!

Yeah, make sure to get the good food-grade lye for your lotion. :-P

Well, there's word of mouth and then there are official safety data sheets like this one: http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9924998 The idea of vinegar neutralizing the lye isn't directly wrong, but it's a too complicated solution to a simple problem. If someone is on fire, you could...

That's what I learned as well. Don't know where that vinegar idea originated, I've never seen it in any MSDS.

Same here. It's like when I'm in bed and I hear a mosquito, every other second I think it has just landed on my skin even though it's probably just sitting on the wall, waiting for me to finally stop flailing my arms and fall asleep. What I've learned is that Lye loses a lot of its danger if...

I'm digging out this old thread because there's one thing I'm interested in and I have never really figured it out: If you get a little splash of lye on your (uncovered) arm, face or anywhere else without noticing - does it hurt? Is there any way to notice it without looking for discoloration...

Some people just want to see if they like it without doing hours of research first and I think there's nothing wrong with that. For years, I have always wondered what making soap would be like and kind of wanted to try it. I think if I had known someone who could show me how it's done, I would...

Wow, that's the exact recipe I made two days ago. I'll definitely see how it turns out. I didn't let it gel though, maybe I'll do that next time (although plain white soap looks much better ungelled, imo).

What oils/fats would be good to make the soap last as long as possible? This is me in the shower, so I will use a lot of soap. While I absolutely don't mind at home (the more I use, the more I can make), when I'm camping I would like my bar to last for a while.

Always interesting to learn a new German loanword. One thing I just remembered: When I've been swimming in the sea, I need to have a shower afterwards or my skin will start itching and burning. Are salt bars still a good idea (since I rinse them off immediately)?

That's one thing I haven't looked into at all yet. I will definitely try that!

Hi everyone, I'm making small batches at the moment to try and find out which recipe works best for me and my skin type. I tend to have dry skin in the winter but this may also be due to daily showers. So far I have made these three recipes: 100% CO 20% SF 50% lard 30% OO 15% CO 5% castor...

Soap has different properties depending on what kind of cation is used. Sodium makes a hard, solid soap, potassium is softer or even liquid. When you make soap with calcium or magnesium instead of sodium or potassium, it's useless because it's almost insoluble in water and doesn't clean or...

I want to thank you as well. Regardless of the outcome of this thread, I have learned a lot from your posts and I will continue to do so.

Didn't see the latest response before posting, editing my post right now.

DeeAnna, I know that it's tough to explain things to a newbie and I really appreciate your effort. English is my second language, so sometimes I have a little trouble explaining myself. Just believe me that I'm not in this for the sake of discussion, but because I genuinely don't understand your...

If you dissolve 80 mg of NaOH in one liter of water, you also end up with pH 11.3. Nothing but free lye. In your opinion, what would it do to your skin if you used the same amounts that you use with soap? I agree that free lye is harmful when it's concentrated in some spots (like crystals or...

No argument there. But I'm sure you agree that the same soap has a higher pH before complete saponification - and all I'm saying is that it's the higher pH that is harmful or dangerous to the skin. This is more or less the part I'm disagreeing with: My point is, if you have a pure stearic...

I don't think anyone is disagreeing with that. At least I'm not. My point was that it doesn't matter whether the soap has a high pH because of excess lye or because the soap itself is basic. We know that different fatty acids can cause different pH levels in the finished soap. So if you make a...