Is HM lye soap 'green'?

[cab54]

I make hm lye soap from olive oil, coconut oil, etc. I don't do the glycerin melt-and pour soap. I like my soaps and wondeed if they are considered 'green'? As in ecologically non-harmful and body-non-harmful.

I have purchased soaps from organic and natural companies that I knew were lye soaps, so I considered them 'better than regular store bought', but now I'm thinking maybe not. I use organic oils in my soaps whenever possible. And as many other natural igredients as I can.

[nvmommyx6]

As far as I know they are, and I know they are healthier for the skin as well! When I saw the post I thought, "my soaps always come out a yellowish color"!!!! I was thinking green as in color!
We have many sensative skinned people in our house and all of our skins have been better off since we have been making our own home made Lye soaps!

[freyadog]

Sure could use some easy soap recipes if possible. Have my wood ash from last winter and can make my own lye if need be.

[MoonMommy]

Can you post a recipe. I would LOVE to try making my own soap.

[cab54]

Oh, I'm sorry guys, my recipes are at home! We are at our cabin (where I bring soap from home here).

I use recipes from Melinda Coss' handmade soap book. (I was just asking because it never dawned on me it could be unsafe. ) I have looked for MC's recipes online, but NOOO, cause she wants you to buy her book!

I have NO idea how to make it without a recipe. At all. My favorite is her Dream Castile, made with olive oil and goats' milk.

I don't know--is it legal to post recipes from someone's book online? If it is, then when I get home (late Oct.) I will be glad to post recipes I've tried that worked out fine. She also has a Egg-lemon shampoo bar, but I wouldn't use it on long or dry hair. Mine is short, so it does fine in a pinch. I don't think I've tried anything from her book that hasn't worked.

It is hard to get lye nowadays---they sell it at Snowdrift Farms.com, and I believe at Essential7's site. As you may have heard, people w/Meth labs use it, so it's been taken off most shelves--or--you can only get so much. I used to be able to (when I first started making soap) walk into a grocery and pick up some Red Devil lye. No more. I don't know how to make lye from ashes.

[JerryG]

Meth cookers use lye?? That is news to me and I'm astonished! I know case workers / police, but that's totally new to me.

Didn't people use to make their own lye?

[cottageliving]

Freyadog,
I have books by and about the two 'Delaney Sisters' that each lived to be more than 100 yrs old:
There is a soap recipe in their "Book of Everyday Wisdom".

You can also find soap recipes and how to make lye from wood ash in the "Foxfire" series of books -- don't recall which volume since I check those out from the library. Did not realize until reading those books that there are some woods whose ash you do NOT want to use to make lye....

If you have not already read the Foxfire series, you would LOVE them. (I learned of them through FV of course.)

Jen

[cab54]

JerryG--yes, meth makers use lye. I don't know HOW , but apparently they need a lot of it--buy it in bulk. So IF you can find a store that has lye, they will limit how much you can have. I have no such stores in my area. So----I order online. Actually haven't even ordered any yet. I still have some Red Devil lye, but it's getting low. I have been researching who has it online for future use.

cottageliving---I have always been afraid of that type of thing---wondering whether you have to use a certain kind of tree wood, or whatev. I guess that's why I never delved into how to make it from ash. Sigh--there's so much to learn in life.......

BTW--In reading online, I've read in a few places that lye and the oils chemically change to saponify (make soap) and are not lye anymore. I knew that already, but that doesn't answer my question about whether it is safe for the environment or your skin. "Organic and natural", is what I mean, I guess.

[orlivin1225]

Sure could use some easy soap recipes if possible. Have my wood ash from last winter and can make my own lye if need be.

Okay... I'm realizing how 'citified' I really am... I'm trying to figure out what you would do with wood ash that would have anything to do with soap... Can you fill me in on this?

[qtkitty]

You can still get lye at Lowes.. its in the plumbing section and its drain cleaner.. the ingredient sodium hydroxide.

freyadog~ from what i hear its a lot harder to control wood ash lye then buying it in crystal or powder because of the variation in concentration.


If you want to make some really cheap soap .. try using Tallow... it makes a nice hard bar which actually doesn't smell rank... you can call and ask your butcher ( foodlion was where i have gotten it ) to save the beef fat.. take off all the meat you can off the fat .. trust me they always leave a good bit on there because they are in a hurry.. i got Oh maybe 15 lb last time i did this and got a good lb of meat off and used it for dinner *giggles*.. chop it up into a large pot and pour in some water boil it up and squish up the fats it will eventually end up a giant gross soup.. scrape all the white foam and goop off the top. Let the fat soup cool then put into the fridge the remaining peices will fall out and all the fat will rise to the top. For really clean fat that will make less animally smelling soap repeat the process once more with clean water. ( 50/50 tallow lard works good too )

Or Soybean Oil .. which most has cotton seed oil in it as well if you buy homoginized ( crisco ) It works and makes a nice bar.


Lye Calculator

http://thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php


My trick was adding a table spoon or so of sugar to the water i added the lye too.. this caused a great amount of soft rich lather. You can also use pectin to get a nice lather as well, found that out when i made strawberry soaps using real strawberries.

[freyadog]

Okay... I'm realizing how 'citified' I really am... I'm trying to figure out what you would do with wood ash that would have anything to do with soap... Can you fill me in on this?

pour water through the ashes and siphon off the liquid=lye