We had a table at a local farm market. A gentleman picked up one of our soaps. He seemed interested. Then he asked, “Do you have any soap made without lye?”
We chuckled and said, “There is no soap made without lye. It would not be soap.”
We proceeded to explain that lye (sodium hydroxide, NaOH), an alkali, is a necessary ingredient in soap because when it combines with fats or vegetable oils, a chemical reaction visibly begins right before our eyes. This reaction is called saponification. The oils transform into a creamy batter-like consistency and will eventually harden into soap when the saponification process is complete. We cure the soap for 6 weeks after which the lye has been neutralized and no longer exists. It has chemically changed into soap and glycerin. What is called “soap” (as opposed to detergent) gently cleanses skin without stripping natural oils.
If you have ever heard of “soap without lye,” it is usually “melt and pour soap” that was originally produced with, guess what? Lye. A common ingredient in melt and pour soap, for example, like sodium cocoate, is actually coconut oil mixed with lye.
Even some handmade soap labels list “saponified oils” of coconut, olive, or whatever oil of choice, and, most likely, only a soapmaker or a chemist would know that to saponify an oil, lye must be added. In our minds, however, a saponified oil is not an ingredient. It is the resulting product.
At KiShuri, we label our soaps up front with lye as an ingredient because we have to add it to the oils in the soapmaking process, or there would be no soap. The finished soap, may also have botanicals, like calendula, rose petals or chamomile, clays with specific skin-loving properties and essential oils for scent to enhance the skin-cleansing experience. We do not ever use micas as colorants, only plant ingredients.
He asked us, “Do you have any soaps made without lye?”
We answered, frankly, “No.”
He bought some SOAP!
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AWAKEN, GROW, LIVE and RELAX with clean, conscious, handmade soap by KiShuri—a simple personal luxury. There is no soap like handmade.