Lye soap has been used for thousands of years and was virtually the only type of soap used until the twentieth century. Lye soap is 100% natural, safe for skin and hair, sewer- and septic-safe, and environmentally friendly.

How is lye soap made?

Very simply, lye soap is formed when fats/oils are blended with a liquid lye solution. Together, the two substances actually react together chemically so that an entirely new substance is form – soap. The chemical reaction is called saponification.

The fats/oils used can come from vegetables or animals. In the past, rendered lard (the fat from pigs) was the most commonly used fat in soap making, though tallow (the fat from cows) was also used. Both of these animals fats still make excellent soap today.

With the modern ability to extract oil from a wide variety of plants, it’s become more common to have soap made from vegetable oils. Most of our lye soaps at A Homemade Heritage are made from only vegetable oils. Any soaps made with lard or tallow are clearly labeled in their product descriptions.

Some vegetable oils that are commonly used to make soap include:

• Olive Oil – If you’ve ever heard of Castile soap,
  it is made from primarily olive oil and originates
  from the Castile region of Spain.
• Coconut Oil
• Cocoa Butter
• Palm Oil
• Avocado Oil
• Safflower Oil
• Shea Butter

The fats/oils used determine the characteristics of the soap made – the amount of lather, conditioning properties, and the hardness of the bar, for example. At A Homemade Heritage, our lye soaps are made from a carefully selected blend of vegetable oils to produce a hard bar that won’t melt in your shower, lathers well, and is mild and moisturizing to skin.

Isn’t lye a dangerous chemical?

Lye is a natural substance that is highly alkaline. It can be derived from hardwood ashes (which is where our ancestors got it for making their soap!) or manufactured commercially. However it’s produced, it’s a completely natural product. Lye’s chemical name is sodium hydroxide, and it’s sometimes called caustic soda.

You may have heard that lye is dangerous or even that lye soap is dangerous. The truth is that pure lye can cause burns on the skin or blindness. We take precautions when making our soap to ensure that no one gets burned by the lye.

Once the lye combines with the fats/oils, however, the chemical reaction begins and the entire mixture saponifies – in the end, there are no lye molecules left in the soap. They’ve all been changed into soap molecules. (Isn’t it amazing how our ancestors discovered that fat and a caustic liquid could be combined to create something so beneficial as soap? I love that!)

The entire saponification process does take time, though. Our soap is solid and cut into bars 24 hours after it’s made. We then allow the bars to cure for a minimum of four weeks. This curing time allows the saponification process to fully complete before we ship any soap to our customers. During this time, any remaining lye molecules “mellow” and complete their conversion into soap molecules.

If you’ve ever heard of someone using lye soap that was harsh or drying to their skin, they were more than likely using the soap too soon. After the curing time is finished, lye soap is quite mild and not the least bit dangerous. If you have any questions at all, please email us!

What about store-bought soap? Is it the same thing?

Actually, no! Almost every bar of cleanser you find on a store shelf is a detergent, not a soap. During the first half of the twentieth century, scientists discovered how to make synthetic cleaning agents, called detergents. Because these were easier to mass produce, they could be sold more cheaply and took over the market on cleansers.

Today, laundry cleaning products are labeled detergents, but manufacturers use the word soap or “cleansing bar” for body cleansers because that’s what consumers prefer. Imagine going to the store and picking up a bar of “body detergent.” You wouldn’t do it, would you? But that’s exactly what you’re buying with many mass-produced “soap” products.