How to make your own soap using only natural ingredients without sodium hydroxide. Is it possible at all?
How To Make Your Own Soap Using Only Natural Ingredients Without Sodium Hydroxide. Is It Possible At All?
November 21, 2009 By 4 Comments
You should know that wood ash produces lye.
Lye is also known as NaOH, sodium hydroxide, or caustic soda,
To actually answer your question, soap is made with oils (veggie or animal) and lye. Lye is what causes the chemical reaction that makes soap, so it’s very much needed when making natural, homemade soap.
There is a soapmaking process called soap “casting” or melt and pour soap. It’s a block of soap base, you melt it, pour it in a mold, add colors and fragrances if you like and pop it out of the mold after it hardens. You don’t touch lye, but it’s not real soapmaking and you have little control over the ingredients.
If you are going to do soap casting, please visit this site: http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/Sto… That is a link to the melt and pour soap base page of http://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com. People will tell you to visit a craft store, but the blocks of soap base they sell are SERIOUSLY over priced and very, very cheap. I’ve been using Wholesale Supplies Plus for years for my fragrances. The natural soap bases they have are very good quality (the shea butter base is my favorite). They also sell soap molds, colors, and fragrances (Beneath the Stars is my number one selling fragrance). Give them a try.
You can make lye water from wood ash, make potash from that, then make soap by mixing it with fat or oil.
Sodium hydroxide or lye is what turns the oils in soap into soap, so no its not possible to make it without sodium hydroxide.
http://www.avalonsoapworks.blogspot.com
http://www.avalonsoapworks.com