"Come what may, and love it!......Yet in spite of discouragement and adversity, those who are happiest seem to have a way of learning from difficult times, becoming stronger, wiser, and happier as a result." ~ Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

December 5, 2010

I don't want to LIE, there is LYE.

This is about my soap. I don't want there to be confusion.

Saponification is the chemical reaction that occurs when fats or oils (fatty acids) come into contact with lye (a base.) Saponification literally means "soap making" from the root word, "sapo", which is Latin for soap. The by-products of the saponification reaction are glycerin and soap. (about.com)

With that said, I did use lye to make the soap (all REAL soap is made using lye) but most will list a "saponified oil" in the ingredients instead of lye. I'll tell you why.  Oils and fats have what is called a “saponification value”, which is the amount of lye needed to completely neutralize them into soap with no lye left over.  My soap is "superfatted" by 5% (which means I will always have a little more fat than lye) which means all the lye will always be completely neutralize plus some. The end product contains no lye because it chemically reacted and turned into soap.

So, no lie, I did use lye. If you wanna make soap you have to. 
You do have to make sure you check all your recipes in a lye calculator so that you will have enough of each ingredients to neutralize the lye.

Anyway, there's a little soap education for you. I feel better now.


1 comment:

Sherrie said...

When the world is coming to an end and all the craziness happens, I'm going to come and visit you! Mostly because I'm OCD and I wash my hands A LOT!