Making soap without lye

[DelilahMoon]

Can someone pleae help me...I am a beginner and I am looking to make organic soaps. I don't want to use lye and would like to know if anyone can point in the direction of instruction recipes or anything at all about this? Thank you in advance

 

[Barb]

no lye no soap. all soap starts out with lye as as one of the ingredients either sodium hydroxide for bar soaps or potassium hydroxide for liquid soaps.

that said, you have a couple of options if you don't want to make soap from scratch and having to handle or store lye.

first find a supplier or another soap maker that will make the basic soap for you with organic oils, unscented so you don't have to handle or store the lye. you would then shredd ( or you may find it alread shredded in the form of soap noodles ) the soap and re-batch it, ( re-melt it ) where at that stage you can add any additional botanicals, or essential oils and any extra oils and remold the soap.

or use melt n pour. clear glycerin soap bases that you do the same thing to, chunk it up, melt it down and add botanicals and scent. since i'm not all that familar with melt n pour not sure how true organic you can get this.

http://www.millersoap.com good place to get started.

 

[Cattleyabubbles]

Lye=alkali

Oils=fats

alkali+fats=saponification=soap

Lye+Oils=Soap

Take the Lye out of the equation you can't make soap!

Ok I take all that back! Doing a Google search I can across this on how early colonist made soap. If you can find someone that makes Pearlash it's a weaker alkali than Lye (NAOH) and that can be use to make soap. But I don't know how the quality of the soap will turn out.

P.S. click on the words this andPearlash in the above paragraph it'll take u to the websites that I found doing a Google search forWhat other alkalis can you use to make soap?

Hope that helps.

 

[carebear]

it's still lye. lye is actually a generic name for caustic. the lye we use for soap bars is sodium hydroxide (NaOH). the lye used for liquid soap is potassium hydroxide (KOH).

Potash (apparently aka Pearlash) is what is made by running water through wood ashes. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-potash.htm. It's basically potassium carbonate. I'm not sure of the chemistry, but some form of potash is basically a lye substance.

No caustic (lye) = no soap.

Your alternative is pre-made soap or a detergent product.
Both are fine, just different.

I think you would like to work with Melt & Pour soap. MP soap can be either soap or detergent too. The best brands are Stephenson and SFIC. You can google them for suppliers and ingredients. The stuff in the craft store is icky, but fun and easy to get.

 

[Cattleyabubbles]

Potash and Pearlash are two different chemical compounds! Pearlash the lye is somehow evaporated. Pearlash is lesser impure form of potassium carbonate.

 

[carebear]

gotcha, potash is further refined to produce pearlash - they are both essentially potassium carbonate:

"Other terms for potassium carbonate:

* Carbonate of potash
* Dipotassium carbonate
* Dipotassium salt
* Pearl ash
* Potash
* Salt of tartar
* Salt of wormwood"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_carbonate

 

[Tabitha]

You can purchase organic melt & pour soap base. It's not the same thing but might be an alternate route for you.

 

[surf girl]

I don't know that K2CO3 would be any more fun to work with than NaOH or KOH anyhow. If you check out the MSDS http://www.ronasgroup.com/Potassium-Carbonate.asp , it rates contact irritation as "severe", notes that it can cause respiratory distress, and advises goggles etc for handling.

Delilah, one of my hippy-groovy friends was all aghast when I told her I was making soap. "You're not using LYE are you?" I think sometimes people have the idea that there is soap made with lye, and then there is some kind of gentle earthy soap that isn't. All soap is going to require some kind of strong alkali to make it. The alkali goes away - the sodium or potassium part joins with part of the fat/oil, and becomes a salt; the OH part joins with another part of the fat/oil, and becomes glycerin. There is none of that nasty old lye left in the final product.

 

[DelilahMoon]

Thank you all very much You have helped me tremendously and i guess it looks like I will have to use lye. Nothing against it I just thought there might be a way to do it without it. Thanks

 

[Greenman]

DelilahMoon - Lye can be frightning and a little dangerous, but nothing compares to soap you craft yourself. Once you start using handmade soap you will never want to use a stoe bougth detergent bar again.

Just make sure you read alot about soap making , and check your recipies witha lye calculator and you will be fine, in a proper made bar of soap the lye has all been used in the saponifacation process.

Roy

 

[Cattleyabubbles]

DelilahMoon long as you observe safety precautions in handling Lye, as with any other hazard chemical, you should be fine.