Soapmaking

Making Handcrafted Soap
I carefully measure and mix each ingredient by hand, and cure the soap in 10 - 20 pound batches. The soap cures in an insulated mold for 24 hours, during which time it begins to harden. I then remove the soap from the mold and cut it into bars. I let the bars cure for another four weeks, during which time, most of the water evaporates and the saponification process completes. Finally, I label each bar.

Many people ask me about sodium hydroxide or lye. Soapmaking is a chemical reaction that bonds liquid oils into a solid. The solid is soap. Lye is the catalyst for the chemical reaction. While lye is a caustic compound, the good news is that the lye is used up in the chemical reaction, so that the final soap does not actually contain any lye. All soaps, including commercial soaps are made with lye.

For more information on the soapmaking process, check out the following links...

The Soapmaker's Companion - Great resourse for soapmaking

FDA - Articles about soap