No Lye, I've Been Reading

I am in research mode at the moment. The lack of lye has slowed my soapmaking process considerably so I am left with my books and a cup of tea. It's raining and raining here, so no better time to read and re-read the soap books. They are actually very interesting and I have read 90% of them. Of course if you have no interest in making soap, you might find the chemistry behind soap dreadfully boring. Just like if you have no interest in sewing, reading my beloved Ottobre Magazines would be equally boring.

So here are a few interesting facts I've learned about soap. The big scary word in soapmaking is saponification. The definition is: a process by which triglycerides (oils or fats) are reacted with sodium hydroxide (lye) to produce glycerol (AKA glycerin) and a fatty acid "soap". Soap works by trapping dirt and allowing water to wash it away. It is both hydrophilic and hydrophobic meaning it will dissolve in both water and oil which allows it to clean. It dates back to at least 600 BC and was likely discovered by accident. Lye was originally produced by running water through wood ashes. Sacrificing animals in a fire would have combined just the right ingredients to make naturally occurring soap when it rained. Because of the inconsistent nature of lye, the soaps made in the recent past were notoriously unpredictable. I'm sure we have all heard the jokes about Grandma's lye soap that would take your skin off. Today the lye is predictable and the measurements precise enough to make wonderful soaps, not that I have been able to try it yet.

So why do we use sodium laureth sulfate in most of our cleaning products? Blame it on the war! Fats were in short supply back in World War I in Germany so an alternative had to be found for soap. Enter some synthetic cleaners that were cheaper and did the job. Add a few whiteners and water softeners (more chemicals) and you had a cheaper cleaning product that preserved precious fats. The US jumped on board and converted airplane fuel factories into detergent production and the use of detergents became widely acceptable by the 1940's. They are also made from petroleum byproducts. Again, I am not a scientist but there is a raging debate over whether they are carcinogenic or not. The problem is that some of these detergents clean too well. They remove the oil that protects our skin and leaves us dry and scaly.

Another tidbit, just as the peanut oil is removed from mainstream peanut butters, replaced with cheaper oils, and sold for more money elsewhere, glycerin is removed from mass produced soaps decreasing the moisturizing properties inherent in natural soap. Did you know that glycerin is hygroscopic meaning that it attracts water?

Now that I've taught you all a bit of history, some big words, and a little chemistry to boot, don't you want to take the soapmaking plunge with me?