Homemade Soap

It is impossible to control what’s in the products we use when they are all made outside our home.  I need basic gentle unscented products, for all the bath products we use in the home–otherwise the boys end up with skin irritation.  Any artificial scent or coloring could aggravate this.   But manufacturing companies are always adding random things in their products for one reason or another–usually to decrease manufacturing costs or increase “perceived value” (Sounds a lot like the food industry as well)

With determination to completely control the ingredients in our family’s soap I started studying practical home chemistry and the useful chemical reaction of saponification. I checked out some books from the library, bought some supplies and made some homemade soap.

I made these bars with three types of fat:  olive oil which makes a very moisturizing bar, coconut oil which make nice big soap bubbles, and lard which makes a nice firm white bar.  After a one month cure period the chemical reaction is complete, which means that though the soap is made with lye–it no longer contains lye.  It contains a little extra oil from “superfatting” the recipe, a lot of soap (obviously right?) and glycerol (glycerin).  I was interested to learn that commercial soap-makers remove the glycerol to sell it or use it in other products.  My glycerol is still in my soap to moisturize freely.

I’m excited to have a product for my family to use that is exactly what I want–with nothing that I don’t want.