Homemade soap isn't what it used to be. Wondering whether or not it was going to melt your skin off because of too much lye? Well, those days are long past because making soap today is a much more exacting process than it was just a few short decades ago.
In early times, soap lye was produced from straining water through wood ash. The problem with this process was there was absolutely no way to determine the strength of the lye. So when it came time to mix the lye with the oils that make up soap, it was equally impossible to determine how much oil was needed to correctly saponify the oils.
Sometimes, when the lye created by wood ash was unknowingly strong, and an underestimated amount of oil was mixed, it would produce a soap that would literally burn your skin or at least make it very red and itchy! Conversely, when a mild lye was mixed with too much oil, a soap was created that didn't do a very good job of cleaning and was thrown out to be used as laundry detergent. In either case, not knowing the strength of the lye made soap making a guessing game.
Today, all of that has changed!
Lye, (or, sodium hydroxide) is manufactured to be an exact science. Every spoonful of lye used to manufacture soap today has been manufactured to an exact standard. Thus, we are able to know exactly how strong the lye is which allows us to perfectly mix the correct amount of oils with the lye to produce a mild, effective, healthy soap.
When we make soap, being able to correctly mix proper amounts of oils and lye, causes ALL of the lye to saponify into the oils and because the proper amounts have been measured, there is therefore no remaining lye left in the soap! A molecular transformation takes place that changes the nature of lye from a caustic substance to a substance the you can literally swallow with no ill affects. It's the process known as "saponification".
Truth be told, almost ALL soap bars today, including all the nationally known brands, use lye, (properly saponified of course) to make soap! That's right, almost ALL soap today is made from lye.
Here now lies the problem with commercial soap bars and why they are so terrible for your skin. When lye and oils saponify, a natural occurrence takes place. Glycerin is created...wonderful...natural...healthy ...glycerin is created. Glycerin is an extremely necessary component of healthy, elastic skin. Glycerin naturally moisturizes the skin and keeps its healthy glow and feel. Everyone (men included) want their skin to feel soft, smooth and moist. Glycerin is what provides us that wonderful feeling. It's the feeling we seek when we bathe our bodies in hand and body lotion after showers and shaving.
But guess what?!? The commercial soap manufactures know this also. During their manufacturing process, they extract the glycerin from the soap and replace it with detergents and chemicals. They then process the glycerin into other products like hand and body lotion, creams, balms, and other moisturizers. That's right, they remove it from their soaps just so they can sell you an additional product that contains what you should have had in the bar of soap you bathed with in the first place! Now that your out of your bath or shower, you must apply their additional product to make your skin feel soft or risk dry, tight skin usually within 30 minutes after bathing...pretty sneaky huh?!?
At Southern Heart Soaps, Lotions, and Potions, we leave the soap alone after saponification, leaving that wonderful skin-loving glycerin in the soap to moisturize your skin.
www.southernheartsoaps.com
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