That's a Lye...

based product.

Here is my soap still in the mold turned upside down. It takes about three days for it to cure. I used lavender oil and lavender botanicals.  The unmolded product isn't glamorous. You'll see it at the end.

 Making soap the true old-fashioned way using lye is nothing to be sneezed at or toyed with.  Inhaling the fumes can be dangerous and spilling it on your skin can burn.  This isn’t that melt and pour soap you find at Hobby Lobby and Michael’s. This is the real deal.

Directions(left) Soap kit consisted of a plastic mold with lid, tooth picks

for stirring in oils and botanicals and a cloth towel to keep the heat in

once it's ready to cure. 

The owner of Left Hand Soap company   located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama   has a wealth of knowledge about soap making. She’s been in business for over 20 years. The business name comes from her being a southpaw and being the only one in her family who is. 

She watched her grandmother make soap and decided that was what she wanted to do. Most soaps in the past were made using some type of animal tallow. Most often pork or beef.  Unfortunately, Hitler had soap made from humans in the concentration  camps.  

The owner of Left Hand Soap Company uses natural ingredients purchased from local businesses.

ONE-oils, TWO-pitcher used to pour the emulsified soap

into molds, THREE-glass measuring cup containing lye and distilled

water mixture,  4-prepared molds for any remaining soap liquid

The most important thing I learned was ; Do not to pour a substance into lye. Pour the lye slowly into the substance in an open air place. In this case the substance (fat)  was a mixture of coconut oil, castor oil and olive oil. The lye had been mixed with distilled water and prepped before the class. Hence no need to be outside to do this.

The assistant is emulsifying the mixture of oils and lye mixture until it 

has traced.

I found it funny that purchasing the lye in large quantities requires her to have a permit or certification. Why? Lye is used in making an illegal drug (meth).

Essential oils 

Botanicals to stir into soap mixture

We were given a box to put our towel wrapped soap into. It takes 3 days

for the soap to cure. On the right is a sample of the soap Left Hand Soap

Company makes. I tried it and it is an exfoliating soap. 

Soap without all of the preservatives, colorings and fakeness is not that attractive. 

Looks like insects stuck in wax. They're lavender buds. That indentation

comes from taking the lid off of the mold.

Click the links for more information on making soap and what words such as trace and saponification mean.

This was an interesting experience but I'll continue  to buy ready made soap.

That's it ***