Real Handmade Soap
Real handmade Soap
In the last few years, there has been an avalanche of so-called “handmade soap” in the marketplace. Unfortunately many of the offerings are not real, handmade soap from scratch. Often these bars are simply “Melt & Pour” bases that have been melted down, dyed and scented. These bars are usually transparent they can also be opaque.
To make matters worse, the consumer is often misled by advertising hype, from the salesperson or from text on a website, that these bars are gentle on the skin because they “contain no lye”.
If the vendor declares that they are selling a true soap but that they did not use lye, it only means that they are selling you a product that they produced by simply melting down a pre-made commercial base. They most definitely did not make the bar from scratch.
Lye, or sodium hydroxide, is the catalyst that causes saponification — the chemical reaction that turns fats and oils into soap and glycerin — but the sodium hydroxide does not remain in the bar because it has reacted with the oils and fats to be chemically changed into soap and glycerin.
With so much misinformation in the marketplace, how can you be certain that you’re actually buying skin-loving handmade soap from scratch? The best way is to question your potential vendor. I can guarantee that a real handmade soap from scratch soapmaker will be more then happy to describe their process to you. Here a few possible questions to get you started:
1. Did you make this bar completely from scratch?
2. Did you make this bar completely from scratch or did you use a commercial Melt & Pour base to produce your product?
3. Can you describe the saponification process to me?
If your vendor starts exclaiming that they “used no lye” then run the other way.
You are not getting a real handmade soap from scratch. Although the bar they are vending may be pretty or smell nicely, you will probably find that for skin care, you will prefer a real “handmade from scratch” bar of handmade soap.