Lye Soap Recipe

Homemade soaps are not just easy to make but are excellent for your skin as well. Lye soaps actually are any average cold processed soap which essentially contains ingredients like lye, water, and oils. The fragrance, soaps and other anti bacterial ingredients are added for commercial reasons. In fact, before the appearance of all those fancy soaps in the market, our grandma would use lye and other natural soaps for bathing, to clean the laundry, scrub the floor and remove the stains. This soap was made of hog fat and lye which is much too harsh for using on the skin today. However, lye soaps made of lard and lye have wonderful cleansing properties and is quite effective in curing dandruff, psoriasis, itchy skin, acne, eczema, bed bugs, poison oak and mosquito bites. Here are some easy lye soap recipes for making homemade soaps.

Basic Lye Soap Recipe

Lye Soap Ingredients

• 2 cans of lye crystals
• 3½ pints of cold water
• 6½ lbs. cooking fat or lard
• Lavender oils
• Purple food color or pigment

For making the lye soap, you will need:

• Glass bowls
• Wooden spoons
• Soap molds
• Wax paper
• Safety glasses
• Rubber gloves
• Glass cooking thermometers

How to Make

Put on the safety goggles, gloves, apron and face mask. Lye is a caustic chemical that can cause severe damage when it comes in contact with the skin. Add the lye crystals to the water which is placed in a glass bowl. Make sure the water does not splash around. Now using a wooden spoon stir in the crystals till they dissolve completely in water. Keep this mixture aside.

Once your lye mixture is ready, you now have to melt the lard. Take a pot and add the lard to it. Heat it till the fat has melted into liquid. Leave it aside to cool. Make sure that the room you are working in is well ventilated and you have the safety gear in place. Once both the mixtures have cooled down, carefully pour in the lye mixture into the lard. Do not splash or spill. Add two to three drops of lavender essential oils for the fragrance and a bit of the coloring for the pigmentation. Stir in the mixture with the wooden spoon until you observe a visible line being left behind by the spoon. This is an indication that your homemade lye soap mixture is now ready.

Now prepare the soap molds by thoroughly greasing it and placing a wax paper atop it. Pour in the mixture into the molds and place a piece of wax paper on top of the mixture. Cover it with a towel and leave it to cool overnight. Once the mixture is cooled, remove the wax from the mold and cut it into the shapes that you like . Store the lye soap bars in a cool dry place for them to harden and become mild enough for daily use.

Homemade Lye Soap Recipe

Lye Soap Ingredients

• 18 ounces of lard
• 10 ounces of coconut oil
• 8 ounces of olive oi
• 3 ounces of canola oil
• 14 ounces of water
• 8 ounces of lye

How to Make

Once you know how to make a basic version of the lye soap, you can now add some nourishing, moisturizing ingredients to it. For making this essential oils lye soap, add the lye crystals to water and stir in. Set aside and heat the vessel for melting the lard. You can heat the vessel on a stove or in a microwave. When the fat has melted, allow it to cool to room temperature. Gently add the lye and water mixture to the liquid lard. Add the coconut oil, olive oil and canola oil to make the soap a healthy one for the skin. Stir it with a wooden spoon until it traces. Pour the mixture into glass molds and allow it to set. Once it is cooled, remove from the molds and cut out the bars of soaps. Store it till the soap is hard and cured enough for use.

Homemade lye soaps can be quite time-consuming to make and require a great deal of patience. However, with time you can master this soap making technique and make up great soaps for sensitive skin and these can serve as a great gift for friends as well.