How to Make Natural Soap Without Lye

Many people hesitate to make homemade soap, simply because they are scared to use the caustic chemical lye that it contains. If you want to make homemade soap, but are leary about using this dangerous chemcial, you are in luck. It is still possible for you to make a homemade natural soap, without the use of lye.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Soap molds
• Melt and Pour soap
• Soap coloring
• Soap fragrence
• Soap additives

1. While it is possible to make homemade natural soap without the use of lye, there is only one way to do it. The melt and pour method. A trip to any craft store will offer you a large selection of melt and pour soap bases that can be used with the greatest of ease, and without the need for you to add the lye chemical.

2. Your first step will be to choose the melt and pour base that you would prefer to use. There are a large selection of choices, including clear soap bases, colored or white soap bases and soap bases made from various ingredients including glycerine, shea and goats milk.

3. Once you have decided what type of soap base to use, you will have to determine what you want to do with the soap. You will find that you have a large selection of colorants and fragrences to add to your natural soap, so you can customize it to be exactly what you want it to be. You can also use additives such as dried fruit peels, salts and minerals for exfoliants, or flower petals and such for decoration.

4. Using melt and pour soap is easy. Most soap bases are made so that you can easily cut or break off individual blocks, so that you can choose how much soap you will melt. Break the desired number of blocks off, and place them in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave. Melt your soap, and your ready to begin. It's that simple!

5. Once you have melted your melt and pour soap base, you will then add any additives to it that you desire. Pour into your soap molds, and allow to set. You now have natural homemade soap that you can enjoy for yourself, or even give aways as gifts to friends and family. And you have it all, without having to deal with using dangerous and caustic lye!

Tips & Warnings

• When adding color and fragrance, remember, less is more! It is easy to add more color and fragrance to get your desired results, but if you add too much at first, you can't take it away.
• To make fun soap for children, place a small toy into the soap before setting.

[LisaSmegal]

on 2/15/2009 You are righ sissharri. All soap does contain lye. However, the above article that I wrote provided information to readers on how to make homemade soap without them having to actually handle the lye chemical, by using the melt and pour method. This particular title was a requested article from eHow, and as you should know, you cannot change the title of a requested article. I would say thank you for reading and commenting on my article, but it is apparent that you did not read what I had written. Otherwise, you would have realized that my article provided information on how to make homemade soap in a way that merely removed the actual handling of lye. :)

[sissharri]

on 2/15/2009 Actually all soaps contain sodium hydroxide (Lye). Soap making is a science. Soap is Salt. An acid and a base come in contact and react with one another causing the process of saponification. The soap bases that can be purchased from art

[angeladent]

on 1/10/2009 Great article, thanks for sharing, 5* and recomended