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How Soap is made? Soap is simply made, chemically, an acid (the fats and oils) and a base (a solution of sodium hydroxide also called Lye, and water) react to produce soap and glycerin. This process is called saponification. The mixture changes from a separate mixture of lye in water solution and the fats and oils to a thicker mixture we call soap. The resulting "Soap" molecule consists of Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen atoms. This molecule has a distinct head and tail, the head is attracted attracted to water and the tail is attracted to dirt and oil. The molecules of soap will surround a particle of oil and lift it from a surface holding it in suspension to be flushed away by the water. With "cold process" most of the reaction happens in the first couple days, but during the curing process (about 4 weeks) the remainder of the saponification process completes and most of the water evaporates out as the bars dry and harden. Using "hot process" the bars are ready to use within 24 hours but will harden as they dry for about 2 weeks. You cannot make bar soap at home without lye or a base. It's a fallacy to think you can make soap without Lye (or some other caustic base substance to turn the fat molecules into soap compounds). Correctly made and cured homemade soap is milder than anything you can buy... even those fancy clear glycerin bars. Don't let the lye thing put you off. many will attempt to hide the fact that they are using lye by listing the ingredients as saponified oils. No matter how you look at this, this is oils combined with lye. Others would claim to use the more natural wood ash, this is a source of Lye also called Potash and in concentrated form will dissolve a feather (method used to test for right concentration for soap making) |
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