soap lye???

[R-ice]

hi, i've gone through what is it 63 pages in this soap forum. I don't seem to see the answer to my question, and I have used search nothing really comes up. I would like ot know if having Lye in the soap is good or bad before I go about buying some shaving soap. I have seen some threads that say their soap is lye free, and some others say you can't make soap without lye so its always in there. And what i've read about lye is prettttyyyy scary.. unless I'm wrong so i'm asking is lye good or bad?

[Mama Bear]

You cannot have soap without lye.. if you do.. it is not really soap and it probably isn't good for you.

Real soap is made with lye in a water solution that is mixed with oils. When they lye and the oils are merged they begin a process called saponification... there is a lot of heat generated by the process and at the end of the saponification process, there is no lye left in the soap.. if this was a good recipe. When you bake a cake you use sugar, flour and butter.... when your cake is done... it is not sugar, flour or butter anymore, it is cake. However with soap it even goes a step further.. the lye simply doesn't exist any longer.

The goal is to have a bit more oil than lye so when the process takes place, what is left is something that will moisturize. When Grandma made soap like this there weren't measurements for this process and often a lye heavy soap was created... this is a soap that did not have all of the lye saponified.. and it would burn like the dickens...

These days all of the lye gets saponified due to better recipes and knowledge... the extra oil left over in the soap is referred to as superfat. 5% superfat is typically standard, but I like soaps that go even higher than that.. the more oil, the softer the bar, and the more moisturizing it is. This is a rule of thumb for bath soaps tho, shaving soaps should stay at about 5% because the more oil the less lather also... so 5% works out great for shaving soap.

This is how natural soap is made... this is the best soap there is. So, no you can't make soap without lye.. however.. there is no lye actually left in the soap that you are using as it has become.... well.. soap.

[rabidpotatochip]

Is lye good or bad? Yes, it is.

It is possible to have lye-free soaps, they're made with glycerin which is a byproduct of making soap from lye (ha, irony!). In large-scale productions the glycerin is removed from the soap and put into the higher end stuff like lotions. What you'll find is that smaller companies don't remove the glycerin from their soaps making them softer on the skin. You can, of course, make soap using pure glycerin and this is definitely a good thing™.

Lye reacts with whatever fat you give it in a process called "saponification", I apologize if I spelled that wrong. It basically converts the fat into soap. You can use any kind of fat such as olive oil, bacon fat, leftovers from liposuction, etc. If you're not careful with the stuff in its pure form it'll harm you pretty badly. Aside from the fumes being toxic you can also get it in your eyes and go blind. Anyway, usually the lye will react with the fat to the point that it is almost completely gone, to the point of being harmless at least.

That's pretty much all I've got for now. Hope it helps.

Edit: I guess that technically it's not possible to get the base ingredients without lye. You learn something every day I guess.

[Randy]

As I understand it (my wife makes soap at home with lye) the whole lye phobia was due to the inability of early lye makers (who used wood ash to make lye) to control the strength of the lye, hence, soap makers were unable to accurately judge how much to use in any given batch and therefore some lye may have been left over after the saponification process, making for some raunchy soap . Nowdays, lye is produced commercially and is easy to use and quite safe if you use your head (and a little safety equipment). As stated above, quality soaps will have no lye left after the process is complete.

- R

[Randy]

leftovers from liposuction

Awesome! I'm torn on whether to tell that one to my wife or not, could go the wrong way...

- R

[Mama Bear]

Awesome! I'm torn on whether to tell that one to my wife or not, could go the wrong way...

- R

Any fat can be used... oil is fat in a liquid state... they did the liposuction fats in the movie fight club..

Rent and watch the movie.... do not say anything to your wife or you might be sleeping on the couch for the next decade.. lol

[rabidpotatochip]

Any fat can be used... oil is fat in a liquid state... they did the liposuction fats in the movie fight club..

Rent and watch the movie.... do not say anything to your wife or you might be sleeping on the couch for the next decade.. lol

I think if he really went through with it the couch would be considered an upgrade.

[R-ice]

Thank you to all, now I understand it. It was unclear when I was reading other stuff online to find the best stuff for my face lol .. when I get around to it, I am definately ordering from you moma bear.

[ltlsuz]

Even your pre-made glycerin soap bases have lye or I should say that it has been used in the process. The problem being is that some of these bases do not list their ingredients, so that the person making the soap does not realise that it has been used in the process. Therefore, they think it has not been used in their soap. But rest assure by the time you get the whole/completed finished product, it is perfectly safe.
Susie

[lathermaker]

this is not true. a glycerin soap base is NOT made with lye because it isn't a true soap.

soap bases are what's known as a syndet bar or a chemical based bar made using a foaming agent like sodium laurel sulfatate (slsa).

look at any commercially made soap in the drugstore or grocery. you will never see the word soap mentioned. it would be against the truth in labeling law.

[sol92258]

this is not true. a glycerin soap base is NOT made with lye because it isn't a true soap.

soap bases are what's known as a syndet bar or a chemical based bar made using a foaming agent like sodium laurel sulfatate (slsa).

look at any commercially made soap in the drugstore or grocery. you will never see the word soap mentioned. it would be against the truth in labeling law.

wow...I was just reading about that stuff today - here's one link, it's #2 on the list down
http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/pu...ke_and_Mirrors
quite scary

[sol92258]

hmmm, that's really not "puke"up there in that link, so don't be grossed out, you can look down in the status bar and see the full URL
After I posted that I saw the link truncated, so it looks like pu.....ke and mirrors!
of course, after reading it, you may want to

[mecha_buddha]

Yeah, mass produced soaps are a little scary. I have been buying Dr. Bronners liquid soap for a few years and I really like it.