Homemade soap

Making a lye soap in your home is so easy! All you need to do is mix some fat with a caustic agent (using H2O as the catalyst) and Voila! You have the soap. The chemical process occurring between fat and lye is known as 'saponification' amongst professionals in the field.

You wont have to look far to find the right ingredients for your soap, just a trip to the local grocery store will be enough. if you are looking to make a simple soap just get the right amount of lye, water some sort of fat and vegetable oil and you are all set. If you are looking to make something slightly more splendid add a little coloring dye and a few drops of your favorite aromatic oil.

A number of people use distilled or even rainwater in their soap but perfectly normal tap water too works just fine. Lye is just NaOH (sodium hydroxide) and will be available in your local chemist shop. NaOH is a pretty strong alkali so make sure you are careful while handling it. Take some time to go through the directions that your lye packet comes provided with and follow each instruction religiously.

Once you have your lye and water all set for use simply mix them. Be careful about the proportion and ensure that you don't pour the water on the lye, pour the lye on the water instead. For best results use some iced water, or even water that is half frozen and need a little thawing in order to be mixed. Once the both are poured into each other stir carefully. A number of reactions can result out of the combination so you need to keep yourself alert. Often the lye is found to heat the water to such an extent that it begins to boil. If this is what happens in your case simply stop your stirring and wait for the bubbling to stop and for the mixture to cool down and come to normal temperature.

Almost any sort of oil can be used for soap making. Whether it is plant oil or animal fat or even coconut or olive oil everything will work well for soap making. Using coconut oil in your soap will yield a luxurious rich lather. Similarly olive oil will produce soft, silken bubbles. In case you are planning to use animal fat ensure that it's absolutely clean and neither stale nor salty. Also look to see if it has any solid granules as these alone can make your soap a disaster. If you want to make a slightly denser homemade soap, choose lard or even tallow.

Once your lye, water and oil mixture begins to thicken trickle in your coloring agent and a few drops of your perfume. How much of those you choose to add will depend simply on your personal taste. If you want a strong smell, add a little extra perfume but if you are looking for a mild aroma just add a few drops. Once the addition has been made pour in the concoction into soap molds and allow them to dry for about four days check to see if they have hardened adequately before using them. Enjoy your bath with the homemade soap!