How to make soap without lye.

Greetings. I wanna find out how I could make soap without lye which is damaging to the skin and other parts of the body. I've known yucca, aloe and others do that, but how I get soap outta them? I never made homemade soap before, but like to. If you have anything for me, please let me know. Thanks.

Hi Blake!
So, a little background, first. I'm a natural redhead, and have many dermal allergies and sensitivities. After too many years of breaking out in allergic dermatitis from soaps and detergents, I decided to start making my own, and found myself asking this exact question. I was determined to find the answer to lye, and equally determined to avoid it, at all costs. What I actually learned is that, without lye, in one form or another (Sodium chloride or Sodium hydroxide), there is no soap. The good news is that, like with many other chemicals, lye goes through a complete chemical change, in the process of becoming soap, so that when the soap is finished, the lye is used up, and gone - if that is the goal, and the correct steps are taken to ensure it. For example, when a pet pees on the floor, we're advised to clean it up with vinegar, because the ammonia in the urine is a base, and is chemically altered by the vinegar, which is an acid, and it kills the ammonia scent.

Similarly, when fats are combined with lye, the fats are saponified, the lye is chemically altered, heat is released, and what's left, is soap. The key, in both the ammonia/vinegar and lye/fat process, is in the quantities of each. It takes a certain ratio of each substance to attain the desired effect. A couple drops of vinegar in that piddle-puddle isn't going to neutralize all of the ammonia - I tend to prefer to err on the side of generosity, and a quarter cup of urine is going to want half a cup of vinegar, in my book. In the case of saponifying fat with lye, the balance requires a bit more precision, largely dependent upon which fats are being used. Different fats saponify with different amounts of lye. If only the exact amount of fat is used, to neutralize the lye, the soap can be drying (this is why some soaps are so very effective as household cleaners), but, if a little extra fat is used, beyond what is needed to neutralize the lye, the result is a moisturizing soap. This second process - more fat than is needed for the change to occur - is called 'super-fatting'. The more a soap is 'super-fatted', the more moisturizing it is.

I now make all my own soaps, because I love being able to formulate them, myself, using herbs, fats, essential oils, that I want, for whichever of my purposes each batch is intended. I make a lovely but simple  household soap with coconut oil, and a '0%superfat' that cuts through grease like nobody's business, a 7% superfatted goat milk moisturizing facial cleanser bar, a 6% superfatted shampoo & body bar, and (particularly for travel) I make a 6% superfatted head-to-toe bar. It took me some time to figure out my formulas, and I was nervous, when I first began, that my numbers would be off, or my method would be wonky. So, I searched for information on how to determine the correct balances, for me.

By far, the easiest way I've found to reach that balance, to ensure there is no lye left, but the fat is all transformed, is an online lye calculator. One simply shares a recipe of fats, and the super-fat percentage desired, and the calculator spits out the correct amount of lye and water to reach that level of super-fatting.

I will happily expound, if you'd like. But, no lye = no soap, unless one uses some plant matter, usually dried or fresh. Once the plant matter is saponified with water, it will usually go bad, within a few days.

If the soap is made right, there is no lye left.  Hot process soap making is easier to get this right, but most soap now is cold processed which requires very careful measuring and precise ingredients,  so I often find artisan soaps have too much alkaline left in them for my skin, not to mention my sensitivity to fillers.

You can make a soap equivalent from soap nuts and water, this is really mild on my skin.  It was more work than I like with a short shelf life,  so I put the soapnut shells in a cotton bag and used it like bar soap that needs extra water.

Horse chestnut can be used,  but this bothered my skin so I didn't experiment much with it.

I found the same things to be true, for me. I used to use soapnuts for my laundry, but hated the results for my hair and skin. I use hot process for most of my soaps, because it's easier and much faster, requiring no extended curing time, but the facial bar, I do as a cold process, to get a lovely, creamy-colored bar.

Carla Burke wrote:Hi Blake!
So, a little background, first. I'm a natural redhead, and have many dermal allergies and sensitivities. After too many years of breaking out in allergic dermatitis from soaps and detergents, I decided to start making my own, and found myself asking this exact question. I was determined to find the answer to lye, and equally determined to avoid it, at all costs. What I actually learned is that, without lye, in one form or another (Sodium chloride or Sodium hydroxide), there is no soap. The good news is that, like with many other chemicals, lye goes through a complete chemical change, in the process of becoming soap, so that when the soap is finished, the lye is used up, and gone - if that is the goal, and the correct steps are taken to ensure it. For example, when a pet pees on the floor, we're advised to clean it up with vinegar, because the ammonia in the urine is a base, and is chemically altered by the vinegar, which is an acid, and it kills the ammonia scent.

Similarly, when fats are combined with lye, the fats are saponified, the lye is chemically altered, heat is released, and what's left, is soap. The key, in both the ammonia/vinegar and lye/fat process, is in the quantities of each. It takes a certain ratio of each substance to attain the desired effect. A couple drops of vinegar in that piddle-puddle isn't going to neutralize all of the ammonia - I tend to prefer to err on the side of generosity, and a quarter cup of urine is going to want half a cup of vinegar, in my book. In the case of saponifying fat with lye, the balance requires a bit more precision, largely dependent upon which fats are being used. Different fats saponify with different amounts of lye. If only the exact amount of fat is used, to neutralize the lye, the soap can be drying (this is why some soaps are so very effective as household cleaners), but, if a little extra fat is used, beyond what is needed to neutralize the lye, the result is a moisturizing soap. This second process - more fat than is needed for the change to occur - is called 'super-fatting'. The more a soap is 'super-fatted', the more moisturizing it is.

I now make all my own soaps, because I love being able to formulate them, myself, using herbs, fats, essential oils, that I want, for whichever of my purposes each batch is intended. I make a lovely but simple  household soap with coconut oil, and a '0%superfat' that cuts through grease like nobody's business, a 7% superfatted goat milk moisturizing facial cleanser bar, a 6% superfatted shampoo & body bar, and (particularly for travel) I make a 6% superfatted head-to-toe bar. It took me some time to figure out my formulas, and I was nervous, when I first began, that my numbers would be off, or my method would be wonky. So, I searched for information on how to determine the correct balances, for me.

By far, the easiest way I've found to reach that balance, to ensure there is no lye left, but the fat is all transformed, is an online lye calculator. One simply shares a recipe of fats, and the super-fat percentage desired, and the calculator spits out the correct amount of lye and water to reach that level of super-fatting.

I will happily expound, if you'd like. But, no lye = no soap, unless one uses some plant matter, usually dried or fresh. Once the plant matter is saponified with water, it will usually go bad, within a few days.

I'm a person that believes there just isn't enough time to learn everything I would like to learn.  I believe that "self-sufficiency" is largely a myth for a person or couple to achieve.  I believe that self-sufficiency is attainable by a community.  All that said, the idea of soap making is one I am interested in, but don't currently have the time for, so if you make soap to sell, I would be interested

You all heard of buffaloberry or soapberry ( shepherdia candesus )? I believe the berries are used as soap and is it true today?

Blake Lenoir wrote: You all heard of buffaloberry or soapberry ( shepherdia candesus )? I believe the berries are used as soap and is it true today?

Soapberries & soapnuts are two names for the same plant - Sapindus, in Latin. That happens a lot, using common names.

WOW! Thank you Carla for your response to Blake...I learned so much from it!

John Duffy wrote:WOW! Thank you Carla for your response to Blake...I learned so much from it!

Glad to help, John.